Setting Your Business Up for Success in 2026: A Marketing Checklist

1. Look back before you plan forward

Before you mess with anything, get honest about what already happened.

Ask yourself:

• What worked well enough that I would do it again
• What felt heavy or chaotic every single time
• Where did my best clients actually come from
• What did I do that I never want to do again

Checklist:

• Write down your top 3 marketing “wins” from 2025
• Write down 3 things that drained you or flopped
• Circle the one win you want to double down on next year
• Circle one drain you will not repeat in 2026

This does not need to be a formal report. You just need clear signals about what is worth your time.

2. Map your real busy and slow seasons

Most small business owners can tell you exactly when things get wild and when things go quiet. Use that. Do not fight it.

Checklist:

• Mark your busy months on a calendar for 2026
• Mark your historically slow months
• Decide which month will be your “marketing setup” month each quarter
• Decide now that you will not try to overhaul your marketing in your peak busy months

Your goal is simple. Use your slow and steady months to:

• Plan content
• Prep promotions
• Update your website and offers

So that in busy season you are serving clients, not scrambling to post

3. Clean up your offers

If your offers are fuzzy, your marketing will be fuzzy. People cannot buy what they do not understand.

Checklist:

• List every offer you currently have (services, packages, products)
• Put a star next to the ones people actually bought in 2025
• Put a question mark next to anything nobody touched or that you hated delivering
• Decide what you are keeping, what you are simplifying, and what you are retiring

Then ask:

• Can I explain each main offer in one or two sentences
• Is it clear who each offer is for
• Is it clear how someone buys or books it

Marketing is much easier when you are not dragging five old offers that no longer fit.

4. Trace your customer path

Marketing is not “post more.” It is “make it easier for the right people to move from stranger to client.”

Think about one real client you liked this year and trace their path:

• How did they first find you
• Where did they check you out next
• How did they reach out
• How did they pay
• Did they come back

Checklist:

• Write down the top 2 ways people currently discover you
• Write down how they usually contact you
• Write down how they usually pay or book
• Circle the step where people tend to stall or ghost

That stalled step is where your 2026 marketing needs the most love.

5. Choose your main channels on purpose

You do not need to be everywhere. You need to show up consistently where your people actually are.

Checklist:

• Pick 1 primary channel where you will show up regularly
  (for example: Instagram, Facebook, email, or your local network)
• Pick 1 support channel that backs it up
  (for example: email list, Google Business Profile, or a second social platform)
• Decide what “consistent” really means for you
  (for example: 2 posts a week and 1 email every other week)

Write it like a rule for 2026:

• “My main channel is ______.”
• “My support channel is ______.”
• “My baseline for consistency is ______.”

If your plan already makes you tired, shrink it until it feels doable.

6. Set simple content themes

You do not need a complex content calendar. You need a few themes you can rotate without thinking too hard.

Think in buckets like:

• Educate: show what you know
• Relate: show you understand your people
• Proof: show your work and results
• Sell: tell people how to work with you

Checklist:

• Pick 3–4 content themes you want to be known for in 2026
• Write 3 ideas under each theme
• Highlight anything you can reuse in multiple formats
  (post, email, live, blog, reel)

The goal is to be consistent, not clever every day. If you can talk about the same topics from different angles, your marketing will feel easier and more focused.

7. Decide how you will measure progress

“More followers” is not a useful goal. Neither is “go viral.”
You want to track things that actually connect to a healthier business.

Checklist:

• Pick 1 lead metric, such as:
  • Number of inquiries per month
  • Number of discovery calls booked
• Pick 1 money metric, such as:
  • Number of invoices sent
  • Average monthly revenue
• Pick 1 retention metric, such as:
  • Number of repeat clients
  • Number of referrals

Set gentle targets, not rigid rules. For example:

• “In Q1 I would like to see at least 5 inquiries a month and 2 repeat clients.”

This gives your marketing a clear job: support those numbers.

8. Decide what you will stop doing

It is easy to keep adding tasks to your marketing list. The harder and more important work is deciding what to stop.

Checklist:

• List 3 marketing tasks you hate and secretly avoid
• Ask “does this actually bring clients or money” about each one
• Circle anything that does not earn its keep

For each circled item, decide:

• Will I stop doing this
• Will I do it less often
• Will I hand this off to someone else

You cannot add new things in 2026 if you never take anything off your plate.

9. Decide where you need help

You do not have to turn into a full marketing department. You just need to be honest about what you cannot or do not want to own anymore.

Possible help zones:

• Strategy and planning
• Content creation
• Social media management
• Ads
• Website and SEO
• Systems and automation

Checklist:

• Put a star next to the marketing tasks only you can do
  (for example: final decisions, high level direction, your face on camera)
• Put a minus sign next to tasks you could hand off
  (for example: posting, emails, graphics, editing, reporting)
• Decide if you need:
  • Coaching or strategy support
  • Done-with-you planning
  • Done-for-you retainer help

You do not have to commit to a full year on day one, but you do need to be clear with yourself about where you are running out of time and brainpower.

10. Build a simple quarterly check-in

A plan is only useful if you actually check it against reality.

Set up a light structure for 2026:

Checklist:

• Pick one check-in date at the end of each quarter
• On that date, ask:
  • What is working that I can lean into?
  • What is not working that I can release?
  • Do my goals and capacity still match?
• Adjust your channels, offers, or content themes as needed

This keeps you from throwing the whole plan away at the first rough month or clinging to tactics that are no longer a fit.

Bringing it all together