Q1 means one thing – everybody is setting their goals and intentions for the year ahead, and businesses should be doing the same. Whilst we all love an inspirational Pinterest board, now’s the time to think better for your business and put strategic, well-considered plans in place for this year’s marketing strategy.   

Whether it’s setting realistic KPIs per quarter or outlining a programme of bold campaigns, scheduling your activity ahead of time ensures each event and activity gets the budget, time and attention it deserves. Taking a step back and thinking, “what goals and targets do I want to achieve this year?” makes your marketing activity even more impactful. 

What do you want to achieve, and why?

The first step to achieving your marketing goals is to set them, so think about what you want you and your team to deliver this year, and why. For example, your goals may be to reach a certain number of followers on social media, or to work with a certain brand or journalist. Aligning this target now is the first step to making it happen.  

Perhaps the most important part of any marketing strategy is knowing why you want to deliver something, as this determines the value of any activity and whether it makes sense to deliver. To help define your why, consider the following: 

• What commercial goal is this aligning with? 

• What results am I looking to achieve with this activity? 

• What purpose will this serve?  

• Does this link with our other activity?  

• Who is this activity reaching, are they part of our target audience? Importantly, does it meet their needs? 

If you can answer all the above, it seems you’ve found your why.  

The power of a plan

Approaching your annual marketing strategy all at once might seem like a mammoth task, but getting an overview now will help coordinate and streamline your work in the year ahead. Now’s the time to plan in any major media moments or dream marketing collaborations and diarise the drumbeat news around this.  

For example, you may have a product launch expected in the Autumn that’ll require a programme of influencer collaborations, press releases, and a serious social strategy. To help keep the airwaves clear for your launch to have its moment, keep your calendar free of any conflicting news or activity. Keeping some free time around big moments helps avoid oversaturation and ensures you’ve got time to manage anything additional as it comes in (we all know it’s inevitable).  

Once your big events have been planned in, regular scheduled programming can commence. Keep a consistent pipeline of news planned throughout the year to keep your audience and the media hooked whilst you focus your energy on the big deliverables.  

This can be a good opportunity to plan in any annual events but ensure they align with your business’ voice and targets. Whilst they can be a good opportunity to boost engagement on social media, not every event works for every business. 

Think big and small

Setting your intentions can be a great way of kickstarting your year, but don’t get absorbed by the glitz and glamour of campaign season. Keep yourself grounded by setting small, achievable goals throughout the year to keep motivation and momentum high. 

Agree on a few key targets at a daily, weekly and monthly level to ensure all the steps are taken to achieve the big goals. This could be as small as pre-drafting one new social post each day or keeping up with your team in your fortnightly marketing meeting.  

Need any help along the way?

Now you’ve got your strategy, it’s time to put it into action. We’ve helped countless businesses achieve their marketing targets and then some.  

We’re a team of marketing masters and PR pros ready to kick your 2026 strategy into action. Your results will have never looked better. Trust us. 

Check out some of our success stories or get in touch here.