5 Essential Marketing Moves Your Brand Can Make in December 2025
For many business owners, December feels like a chaotic sprint to the finish line, often dismissed as a time when everyone is on holiday. However, the last few weeks of the year are actually a high-value, high-impact period for marketing.
Businesses are not only trying to maximize holiday revenue, but they are also focused on strategic planning for the next year.
Here are the top five marketing strategies every business could do before the end of December to set the stage for a successful and organized new year.
1. Execute a “Look Back, Plan Forward” Content Strategy
December is the perfect time to pause daily content creation and invest in strategy and planning for the first quarter of the new year. This ensures continuity and avoids the dreaded “blank page” problem in January.
- Actionable Items:
- Review Top Performers: Identify your top 5 highest-performing social media posts and blog topics from the past year. Use these insights to determine which themes and formats you should replicate in Q1 2026.
- Fill the Content Calendar: Block out the themes and high-level ideas for your first month of content (January). This allows you to tackle the actual content creation during the quieter period between Christmas and New Year’s.
- Finalize External Resources: Sell a fixed-price “2026 Strategy Blueprint Session” or a “Content Pillar Workshop.” These services help owners who lack the time to do this strategic planning themselves and can be billed now.
2. Run a Hyper-Specific Holiday Gift Card Promotion
Don’t just sell gift cards; optimize your promotion for the two types of buyers who are active in December: the consumer and the corporate client.
- Target Consumer: Run a “BOGO” (Buy One, Get One) promotion, such as “Buy a $50 gift card, get a $10 bonus card for yourself.” This drives immediate cash flow and guarantees future business in a slow January.
- Target B2B/Corporate Clients: Market your gift cards as Corporate Thank You Gifts for employees or clients. Offer a bulk discount (e.g., 10% off when buying 10 or more) and provide a professional, printable receipt for their expense reports.
3. Clear the Digital Clutter with a “Website Optimization Check”
The holiday rush makes website maintenance and basic digital cleanup easy to forget. However, broken links and outdated information degrade your SEO and frustrate customers.
- Actionable Items:
- Website Health Check: Spend an hour reviewing your site’s core pages for errors and ensuring all forms and checkout processes are running smoothly.
- Update Hours: Immediately update your business hours on Google My Business, Facebook, and your website footer to reflect holiday closings (including the last two weeks of December).
- Refresh Your Best-Performing Content: Update the top 3-5 blog posts or pages that drove the most traffic this year. Add a short “Updated for 2026” note and link it to your January offerings.
4. Create a “Year-in-Review” Content Series
People are highly engaged with reflective, emotional, and authentic content at the year’s end. This is a chance to show gratitude and humanize your brand.
- The Focus: Build goodwill and social proof, not hard sales.
- Actionable Items:
- Highlight Customer Wins: Create a social media carousel or short blog post showcasing 3–5 customer success stories or testimonials from the past year. Tag the customers to maximize reach.
- Team Gratitude: Post a “Thank You” message from the founder/CEO acknowledging the team and the community for their support. This is excellent, high-engagement content for LinkedIn.
- Behind-the-Scenes Prep: Share a quick Reel or video of your team preparing for 2026 (e.g., brainstorming new products, planning the new office setup). This generates curiosity for January.
5. Strategically Plan Your January Launch Campaign
December is when businesses are making final decisions on where their 2026 budget will be spent. Your primary marketing goal should be to get your product or service into their planning cycle.
- Actionable Items:
- Create a Pre-Launch List: Designate your January offering (e.g., a new workshop, service tier, or platform update) and build a pre-registration landing page.
- Email Teaser: Send an email around December 15th promising a “Big Reveal” or “Solution to Your Biggest 2025 Problem” coming January 5th. This primes your audience during the quietest weeks.
- Align Message with Resolutions: Ensure your January campaign headlines align with themes like “Start Fresh,” “Boost Productivity,” or “Achieve Your 2026 Goals.”
By focusing on these five strategic areas, small businesses can turn the assumed “slow month” of December into a productive, profitable lead-up to the new year.
Connect With Us
Don’t face the new year alone. While you’re planning your content, make sure your business is positioned for maximum visibility and support. Connect with Altavva to learn more about marketing and planning strategies we can tailor to your brand.