New Year’s Marketing Plans are Usually Terrible (Here’s How to Not Screw Yours Up)

It’s that time of year again. December. Everyone’s getting all excited about “new year, new me” and businesses are doing the same thing with their marketing strategies. I’ve been working in digital marketing and web development for like 12 or 13 years now, mostly with small to medium businesses, and I gotta tell you—most New Year marketing plans are hot garbage.

Not because people are dumb or lazy. Just because they approach it all wrong. They get caught up in the excitement of a fresh start and they make these grand sweeping plans that sound amazing in January and are completely abandoned by March. I see it every single year.

The Problem with How Everyone Does This

Okay so here’s what typically happens. Business owner or marketing manager sits down in late December, maybe early January. They’re thinking “this is our year, we’re gonna crush it.” They open up a Google Doc or whatever and they start listing all these things they’re gonna do. Rebranding. New website. Daily social media posts. Weekly blog posts. Email newsletter. Paid ads. SEO. Video content. Podcast. And on and on.

It’s exhausting just reading the list.

Then February rolls around and they’ve done… maybe 10% of what they planned? The website redesign is stuck in committee. The blog has one post. Social media is sporadic at best. The paid ads ran for two weeks until someone questioned the budget. The podcast never even started because nobody wanted to actually record episodes.

And they feel like failures but really? The plan was just unrealistic from the start.

Start With What Actually Happened Last Year

Before you do anything—and I mean anything—you need to actually look at what worked last year. Not what you think worked. Not what you hope worked. What actually, measurably worked.

I do this exercise with businesses all the time and honestly it’s kind of painful for them because reality doesn’t always match perception. They’ll say something like “oh our Instagram is doing great” and then we look at the analytics and they got 50 likes on their best post and zero click-throughs to their website. That’s not great. That’s… that’s not even good. It’s barely okay.

But you know what? Sometimes they discover stuff that’s working that they didn’t even realize. Maybe that one blog post from April is still driving 30% of their organic traffic. Or their email open rates are actually above industry average. Or their Google My Business listing is getting way more views than they thought.

Look at your Google Analytics. Actually look at it, don’t just open it and then close it because it’s overwhelming. Check your traffic sources. See what pages people are actually visiting. How long are they staying? What’s your bounce rate? I know this stuff is boring but it matters. If 80% of your traffic is bouncing after 10 seconds, you’ve got a problem. Doesn’t matter how much traffic you’re getting if nobody sticks around.

Same thing with social media. Go into your actual analytics—not just the vanity metrics like follower count. Look at engagement rates. Click-through rates. Which posts performed well and which ones flopped. And be honest about it. That post you thought was brilliant that got 3 likes? It flopped. Sorry.

The SMART Goals Thing (Yeah I Know Everyone Says This)

Okay so everyone talks about SMART goals and usually I roll my eyes because it’s such a cliché at this point. But… it’s a cliché because it works. Kind of. If you actually do it properly, which most people don’t.

Here’s the thing. Most business goals I see are like “increase our online presence” or “get more customers” or “improve brand awareness.” These aren’t goals. These are vague wishes. They’re about as useful as “lose weight” or “be happier” as a New Year’s resolution. Like, okay, great, but how? How much? By when?

A real goal looks like: “Increase organic website traffic from 2,000 monthly visitors to 3,500 monthly visitors by June 30th.” That’s specific. You can measure it. You know if you hit it or not. There’s a deadline. It’s achievable—50% growth in six months is aggressive but doable with consistent effort.

But here’s where people mess this up. They set like 15 SMART goals. And then they have 15 different things they’re trying to track and measure and hit and it becomes this overwhelming spreadsheet of doom and nothing actually gets done because everything is a priority which means nothing is a priority.

Pick three. Maybe five max. That’s it. Focus on the three to five things that will actually move the needle for your business. For most small businesses that’s probably something like: increase organic traffic, grow email list, improve conversion rate. Boom. Done. You can add more goals once you hit these.

Local SEO is Probably Your Best Friend (Especially in Competitive Markets)

Look if you’re a local business—and by local I mean you serve customers in a specific geographic area, not just online—then local SEO should be like 60% of your digital marketing strategy. Maybe 70%. It’s that important.

And it’s kind of crazy how many businesses completely ignore this. I see companies spending thousands on Facebook ads trying to reach people nationwide when they only serve customers within a 20-mile radius. It’s like… why? That makes no sense. You’re wasting so much money.

Google Business Profile. That’s your starting point. If you haven’t claimed and optimized your Google Business Profile, stop reading this and go do that right now. I’m serious. It takes like 20 minutes and it’s free and it’s probably the single highest ROI thing you can do for local marketing.

Make sure all your info is correct—hours, phone number, address, website. Add photos. Good photos, not blurry iPhone pics from 2015. Get reviews. Actually ask your customers for reviews. Most businesses are too shy about this and it kills me because reviews are like gold for local SEO. Google loves reviews. Customers trust reviews. Everyone wins when you have reviews.

Also like, here’s a hot take: stop obsessing about Yelp. I know Yelp used to be important. Maybe it still is in some industries. But for most businesses? Google reviews matter way more. People search on Google, they see your Google reviews, they make a decision. They’re not going to Yelp anymore. Well, some people are, but most aren’t.

Then there’s your website content. You need to actually mention your location in your content. Not in a weird spammy way—”we are the best plumber in Seattle serving Seattle residents with Seattle plumbing services in Seattle”—but naturally. Talk about serving the local community. Mention local landmarks. Write about local events. This stuff helps.

Social Media is Probably Less Important Than You Think

Controversial opinion incoming: most small businesses waste way too much time on social media.

I know, I know. Every marketing guru says you need to be posting daily. You need to be on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (X? whatever we’re calling it), TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube… it’s exhausting. And you know what? It’s usually not worth it. Not for most businesses anyway.

Unless you’re selling directly to consumers with a visually appealing product, or you’re in an industry where social media is actually where your customers hang out, you’re probably better off focusing your energy elsewhere. Like on your website. Or email marketing. Or local SEO. Or paid ads if you have the budget.

Here’s what I typically see: businesses post sporadically on social media, they get minimal engagement, nobody clicks through to their website, and they can’t track any actual business results from it. But they keep doing it because they feel like they have to. Because “everyone’s on social media.”

But are your customers on social media looking for businesses like yours? Maybe. Maybe not. A B2B software company probably doesn’t need a TikTok account. A local HVAC company probably doesn’t need to be posting Instagram Reels three times a week. A fancy restaurant? Yeah, Instagram makes sense. But a tax accountant? Eh…

If you are going to do social media—and look, it can work for some businesses—then at least do it strategically. Pick one, maybe two platforms max. Post consistently but not obsessively. Actually engage with people instead of just broadcasting. And track your results. If you can’t see any actual business impact after three months, maybe social media isn’t your thing and that’s okay.

Email Marketing Still Works (People Just Do It Wrong)

Email marketing. Everyone’s like “email is dead, nobody reads emails anymore.” Wrong. So wrong. Email marketing has some of the highest ROI of any digital marketing channel. People absolutely read emails—they just don’t read boring, salesy, irrelevant emails.

The problem is most business emails suck. They’re either pure sales pitches—”buy our stuff, here’s 20% off, buy more stuff”—or they’re so boring and corporate that nobody cares. “Dear valued customer, we are pleased to announce…” like no. Stop. Nobody talks like that.

Good emails are conversational. They’re helpful. They provide actual value. Maybe that’s a useful tip related to your industry. Maybe it’s a case study showing how you solved a problem. Maybe it’s just a genuinely interesting story that happens to mention your business. But it’s not just “BUY STUFF” over and over.

And segmentation. Oh my god, please segment your email list. Don’t send the same email to everyone. Someone who just bought from you last week needs different content than someone who signed up for your newsletter six months ago and never bought anything. Someone in Seattle needs different content than someone in Miami if you’re talking about local events or weather-dependent products.

Most email platforms—Mailchimp, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, whatever—make segmentation pretty easy. You just have to actually do it. Which most businesses don’t because it takes time and effort. But it’s worth it. Segmented emails get way higher open rates and click rates.

About That Marketing Budget…

Let’s talk money. Because this is where a lot of New Year marketing plans completely fall apart. People make all these grand plans without actually figuring out how much it’s going to cost or where the money’s coming from.

A decent marketing budget for a small business is usually somewhere between 5-10% of revenue. That’s just a general guideline—some industries need more, some need less. But if you’re doing like 500K in annual revenue, you should probably be spending 25-50K on marketing. If that sounds like a lot, well… that’s what it costs to actually grow.

But here’s the thing. You don’t have to spend it all at once. And you don’t have to spend it on everything. This is where prioritization comes in. Figure out what’s actually going to give you the best return and focus your budget there.

For most local businesses I work with, the priority usually looks something like: website (if it sucks), local SEO, Google Ads for high-intent keywords, email marketing platform, maybe some Facebook/Instagram ads if the audience is there. That’s basically it. You don’t need a fancy brand video campaign. You don’t need influencer partnerships. You don’t need a podcast production studio.

Start simple. Scale what works. Stop doing what doesn’t work even if it seems like you “should” be doing it.

The Part About Being Flexible (Which Everyone Ignores)

Okay so you make this great plan. You’ve got your SMART goals. You’ve allocated your budget. You know what channels you’re focusing on. Everything’s perfect.

Then reality happens.

Maybe that blog content strategy you planned isn’t working because it turns out nobody’s searching for those keywords. Or your Google Ads are way more expensive than you budgeted because competition increased. Or Instagram changed their algorithm again and your organic reach tanked. Or TikTok became relevant to your industry and you didn’t plan for that at all.

The businesses that do well are the ones that can adapt. They check their metrics monthly—or more often for paid ads—and they make adjustments. Something’s not working? Stop doing it. Try something else. Something’s working better than expected? Double down on it. Shift budget from the underperforming stuff to the winning stuff.

This sounds obvious but you’d be amazed how many businesses just stick to the plan no matter what the data says. It’s like they wrote this plan in January and now it’s October and they’re still following it even though literally nothing is working. That’s not discipline. That’s stubbornness. There’s a difference.

Also pay attention to what’s happening in your industry and in the broader marketing world. Not every trend matters, but some do. When Instagram Reels launched, a lot of businesses ignored it because they were focused on feed posts. The ones who jumped on Reels early got way better reach. Same thing happened with YouTube Shorts. Same thing will happen with whatever the next thing is.

You don’t have to chase every shiny object. But you do need to stay informed and be willing to pivot when it makes sense.

What This Actually Looks Like

Let me give you a realistic example of what a decent marketing plan looks like for a typical small business. Not some fortune 500 company with unlimited budget. Just a normal small business trying to grow.

Let’s say it’s a local service business. Maybe a law firm or an accounting firm or a marketing agency (hi, that’s me). They did about 400K in revenue last year. They want to grow to 500K this year. That’s 25% growth—ambitious but doable.

They look at last year’s data and realize most of their clients came from three sources: referrals, Google organic search, and Google Ads. Social media brought in basically nothing. Email had a decent open rate but not many conversions. Their website converted at about 2% of visitors filling out a contact form.

So their plan for the year: Focus on what’s already working. Improve website conversion rate from 2% to 3%—that’s 50% more leads from the same traffic. Increase organic traffic by 30% through consistent content creation and better local SEO. Optimize Google Ads to lower cost per lead by 20%. Build out a referral program to get 20% more referrals. Improve email follow-up sequences for leads who don’t convert immediately.

That’s it. Five focus areas. All based on what’s already working. No random new social media channels. No expensive rebrand. No podcast nobody asked for. Just systematically improving what’s proven to work.

Budget: 5% of target revenue is 25K. Website improvements: 3K. Content creation: 8K. Google Ads: 10K. Email platform and automation: 2K. Misc tools and software: 2K. That leaves them some buffer for opportunities that come up.

They check progress monthly. Adjust the Google Ads budget based on performance. Kill underperforming keywords. If the website conversion improvements aren’t working after two months, they try something else. If organic traffic is growing faster than expected, they put more into content.

By the end of the year they hit 480K in revenue. Not quite their 500K goal but way better than if they’d done nothing. And now they have way more data about what works for their business specifically.

Honestly Just Start

Look, perfect is the enemy of good. You can spend weeks crafting the perfect marketing plan with beautiful spreadsheets and detailed timelines and quarterly reviews and… or you could just start doing stuff.

Pick three things you’re going to focus on. Start doing them. Track the results. Adjust as needed. That’s basically it. Marketing isn’t rocket science—it’s just consistent effort in the right direction with regular course correction based on data.

Most businesses fail at marketing not because they had a bad strategy but because they didn’t execute. They had a great plan that sat in a Google Doc and never actually happened. Don’t be that business.

If you’re sitting here in December or January thinking “I need to get my marketing together this year” but you’re not sure where to start or what to prioritize or how to actually execute on any of this… well, that’s kind of what I do. I work with small businesses on their digital marketing strategy, WordPress sites, SEO, PPC management, all that fun stuff. Usually we start with an audit of what’s currently happening, figure out where the biggest opportunities are, and build a realistic plan that you can actually execute. Not some fantasy plan that looks great on paper but never happens. If you want to talk through what makes sense for your business specifically, reach out. Or don’t, and just wing it. Your call.