Maisie Lloyd
Maisie is the Digital Content Manager at Intelligency, handling all things creative for the agency. Her experience centres around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
Anticipating 2027 and the strategies you’ll move forward with is crucial in the last quarter of the business year. Leaving a strategy until January puts your business at a disadvantage. Rushing risks potential delays and missing timely strategic opportunities that set the pace for the first quarter of the year.
The areas of your marketing strategy you need to consider
- Pay-per-click (PPC)
- Paid media
- SEO
- Content creation
Each area of a solid marketing strategy lays the foundation for a successful year. Assessing all areas of your marketing allows for a cohesive plan that marries each aspect of your marketing roadmap.
Reviewing your performance in 2026
Reviewing performance begins by analysing your channel performance, covering everything from your website and social channels to ad management tools.
Establishing your marketing objectives and KPI’s
Defining the goals and metrics for success for your upcoming business year is fundamental to setting measurable benchmarks for your business. Not only does it give your strategy something to work towards, but it allows for better analysis across the four quarters in 2027.
The kind of objectives you set are largely informed by the attainment of the current year and the aspirations your business has for growth. Recognising patterns from your performance reviews allows you to set attainable objectives and KPI’s.
Some of the more important objectives to potentially set for your business cover things like raising brand awareness and increasing visibility, setting goals around customer retention and audience building, as well as goals for website and content performance, to name just a few.
Marketing objective Potential KPI
Increase brand awareness → Brand searches, reach
Generate more leads → Qualified enquiries, conversion rate
Improve customer retention → Retention rate, repeat purchases
Increase marketing ROI → Marketing-generated revenue, ROMI
Expand organic visibility → Organic traffic, keyword rankings
Anticipating customer behaviour changes along with your existing audience
Your audience’s expectations, interests and behaviours aren’t necessarily going to remain the same from one year to the next. Changes in purchasing habits, emerging trends and the way people interact with businesses online can all influence how effective your marketing activities are.
Looking ahead to 2027 means considering whether your existing approach still aligns with the people you’re trying to reach. Are your customers using different platforms to discover businesses? Have their expectations around service, communication or purchasing changed? These are all worthwhile considerations when planning your next marketing strategy.
It’s also important not to lose sight of your existing audience while looking to attract new customers. Understanding what keeps your current customers engaged, what encourages repeat business and where their needs may be changing helps you build a strategy that supports both acquisition and retention.
Auditing and analysing competitors
Understanding what your competitors are doing can help you identify opportunities that may otherwise go unnoticed. A competitor audit gives you a better understanding of how other businesses in your industry are positioning themselves, the channels they’re prioritising and the kind of messaging they’re using to reach their audiences.
Look at their website content, search visibility, social media activity and paid advertising. Are there areas where competitors are performing particularly well? Equally, are there gaps in their approach that your business could capitalise on?
The purpose isn’t to replicate what other businesses are doing. Instead, it’s about recognising where your own marketing can stand out, identifying potential opportunities and understanding how your business compares within its market.
Fleshing out a plan across all areas of marketing
With your objectives established and opportunities identified, the next step is to start putting your strategy into practice. This means bringing each area of your marketing together and outlining the activities that will help you work towards your goals.
Consider what needs to happen across PPC, paid media, SEO and content creation. This could mean planning campaigns around key dates, identifying opportunities to improve existing website content or allocating more budget to channels that have delivered stronger results.
You’ll also need to think about the practicalities of putting your strategy into action. Establishing budgets, assigning responsibilities and setting realistic deadlines will help make sure your plans are achievable, rather than simply a list of things you’d like to do.
Breaking your strategy down into quarterly plans can make it easier to manage and review. It gives you the opportunity to assess what’s working throughout the year, make adjustments where needed and keep your marketing activities aligned with your wider objectives.
Taking the time to prepare now means you’re not starting from scratch in January. Instead, you’ll have a clearer idea of what needs to be prioritised, where your resources should be focused and how each area of marketing will contribute to your goals for 2027.
