How to Kickstart Your 2025 Marketing Strategy After the January Rush

by Art Lindop

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

The January rush can be a whirlwind for brands, with post-holiday sales, New Year’s resolutions, and early Q1 campaigns dominating the calendar. But as the dust settles, February offers the perfect opportunity to step back, evaluate, and set a clear direction for your marketing strategy in 2025.

At Alphageek, we believe that early-year planning is about more than just keeping the momentum going—it’s about building a sustainable foundation for growth. Here’s how to kickstart your marketing strategy and ensure success throughout the year.

1. Reflect on Your 2024 Performance

Before looking ahead, take time to assess what worked (and what didn’t) in 2024. This reflection will help you identify areas to refine and capitalise on trends that drove results.

Key Steps for Reflection:

Analyse Campaign Metrics: Review key performance indicators (KPIs) such as ROAS, CTR, and CPA. Identify your most effective campaigns and channels.
Benchmark Against 2024: Benchmarking your 2025 targets with 2024 performance is essential. At Alphageek, we typically aim to improve YoY metrics by 10%. Use this benchmark as a foundation for your 2025 goals.
Gather Team Insights: Speak with your marketing team about challenges and successes from the past year. Their insights can reveal on-the-ground trends that data alone might miss.
Audit Customer Feedback: Explore reviews, survey results, and customer service interactions. Understanding your audience’s needs and pain points is essential for shaping future campaigns.

Pro Tip: When forecasting yearly spend, we recommend allocating 3-5% of yearly revenue as active spend. Distribute this spend strategically throughout the year, centring larger budgets around key periods of opportunity such as Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, and January Sales.

2. Revisit Your Brand Goals and KPIs

Your brand’s goals for 2025 should align with your broader business objectives. Whether it’s expanding into new markets, launching a new product line, or increasing customer retention, your marketing strategy should be laser-focused on these priorities.

Goal-Setting Strategies:

Prioritise Key Objectives: Identify the top three goals that will drive your brand’s growth in 2025, such as growing your email list, increasing repeat purchases, or launching a new product.
Evaluate Funnel Performance: Balance top-of-funnel metrics like impressions and engagement with conversion-focused KPIs such as ROAS and CLV.
Break It Down Quarterly: Segment goals by quarter to track progress and maintain focus throughout the year.

3. Refresh Your Creative Assets

Consumers are savvy, and they’ll quickly grow tired of seeing the same creatives over and over. A new year is the perfect time to refresh your visuals, copy, and ad formats to keep your audience engaged.

Creative Refresh Tips:

Leverage Seasonality: Use January’s themes of renewal and self-improvement to inspire your designs.
Optimise for Short-Form Video: Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts continue to dominate. Create videos that captivate in the first three seconds.
Build a Creative Pipeline: It’s not enough to refresh assets occasionally. Brands that consistently perform well YoY have a robust creative pipeline in place. This allows them to react quickly to creative opportunities and scale winning ads as they reveal themselves.
Test Variations: Split test different headlines, images, and CTAs to see what resonates most with your audience.

Pro Tip: Collaborate with influencers or creators to produce authentic, relatable content that aligns with your refreshed brand message.

4. Evaluate Your Paid Media Strategy

January’s ad spend often prioritises short-term gains, but February is the time to think long-term. Evaluate your Meta and Google campaigns to ensure they’re aligned with your 2025 goals.

Steps to Optimise Paid Media:

Audit Your Account Structure: Simplify campaigns to make use of AI-driven tools like Meta Advantage+ and Google Performance Max. These tools thrive on broad targeting and high-quality inputs.
Allocate Budgets Strategically: Shift budgets to focus on channels and campaigns that consistently deliver ROI. Testing new platforms early in the year can uncover untapped opportunities.
Incorporate Retargeting: Use data from January campaigns to retarget warm audiences and move them further down the funnel.
Focus on Cross-Platform Synergy: Ensure that Meta’s hunter role and Google’s gatherer role are working together to capture both discovery and intent-based traffic effectively.

5. Plan Seasonal Campaigns

It’s never too early to ensure you’ve got a robust plan in place for your brand’s key opportunities within the year. Seasonal campaigns are critical touchpoints, and preparing early ensures you’re ahead of the competition.

Steps to Plan Seasonal Success:

Craft Irresistible Offers: Build offers tailored to the season, ensuring your discounts or bundles are compelling enough to drive urgency.
Develop Comprehensive Plans: Include ad spend, copy/messaging, your offer, and associated creative assets in your strategy. A detailed plan ensures nothing is left to chance.
Engage Influencers Early: Reach out to influencers well in advance of key dates. Securing their involvement early guarantees alignment with your campaign timeline.
Test Messaging: Experiment with different headlines and tones to find the most effective way to communicate your seasonal value proposition.

6. Prioritise Customer Retention

Acquiring new customers is expensive, so focus on retaining the ones you gained during the January rush. Retention marketing strategies can drive significant ROI and build brand loyalty.

Retention Strategies:

Email Campaigns: Send personalised emails with product recommendations, exclusive discounts, or reminders about loyalty rewards. Retargeting through email remains one of the most cost-effective ways to re-engage past customers.
Retarget Existing Customers: Use Meta and Google ads to re-engage recent buyers with complementary product suggestions or early access to new launches.
Improve Customer Experience: Ensure seamless support, fast shipping, and transparent communication to keep customers coming back.

Retaining customers is not just about immediate repurchase—it’s about building lifetime value. If your acquisition efforts break even, additional purchases from these customers increase overall profitability.

7. Embrace Data-Driven Decision Making

In 2025, marketing success hinges on data. Use advanced tools and analytics platforms to monitor performance and make informed decisions.

Key Tools to Leverage:

Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Gain deeper insights into user behaviour across channels.
Wicked Reports: Use this third-party attribution tool for a clear picture of cross-platform performance.
Real-Time Dashboards: Implement live reporting systems to react quickly to performance trends. At Alphageek, we rely on a centralised live reporting dashboard to optimise campaigns in near real-time. During key periods, waiting weeks for analysis isn’t an option.

Final Thoughts: Start 2025 Strong

The post-January period is the perfect time to recalibrate your marketing strategy, set clear goals, and build a strong foundation for the year ahead. By reflecting on past performance, refreshing your creative, and embracing data-driven decision-making, you can ensure that 2025 is your brand’s best year yet.

Though many brands aim for an “always-on” approach to their marketing, the reality is that most success comes from capitalising on key cycles within the yearly calendar. Double down during high-opportunity periods and focus on nurturing your customer base during quieter times.

At Alphageek, we specialise in helping brands kickstart their marketing strategies with actionable insights and tailored solutions. Let’s work together to achieve your goals this year.

Ready to kickstart your 2025 marketing strategy? Get in touch with Alphageek today!