Running a business is a busy endeavour. Often days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and before you know it, another year is over.
If you’ve managed to hit all your marketing goals this year, great! If, like most small businesses, some things have fallen by the wayside, don’t stress. With 2026 just around the corner, now is the perfect time to prepare for a clean slate and get your marketing plan sorted for the year ahead.
Start thinking ahead for 2026 now.
As a small business owner, it’s hard to compete with the marketing strategies and budgets of big brands – so it’s important to be selective.
Ahead of the new year, think about what you want to achieve with your marketing in 2026. Focus on a couple of areas that will help you meet your broader business objectives. For example, you might choose 1-2 of the following general objectives:
- Build awareness of your brand
- Generate new customer leads
- Grow your repeat customer base
- Tap into a new target market
- Increase sales
From here, all your marketing activities should tie back to your goals. For instance, if your primary goal is to build awareness of your brand, you might focus your efforts on growing your online presence and improving your search engine ranking through SEO.
Audit your website.
Your website can make or break your reputation (and your ability to rank in search engine results), so make sure it represents your brand well and provides a good user experience. Consider:
- Is it mobile-optimised?
- Is it easy to navigate?
- Does it look professional and modern?
- Does it contain all the essential information about your business?
- Are all your website pages accurate, up-to-date and valuable for visitors?
- Do any pages contain duplicate content?
Make a list of any areas that need improvement and steps you’ll take to fix them, like refreshing your content, updating your website design template or seeking professional help.
Get more customer reviews.
Getting and promoting customer reviews is critical if you want to build trust with customers online, outperform your competitors and drive sales.
In fact, according to a 2021 survey by Inside Retail and TrustPilot, 70% of online shoppers in Australia read reviews and 72% say they’re more likely to make a purchase decision based on a mix of reviews that are mostly positive.
Not only that, but reviews are also the second-most important ranking factor for local pack results (local business listings that appear in response to Google search queries for products or services).
With this in mind, focus on maximising reviews for your business in the new year by:
- Proactively asking customers. Whether via email or in-person, follow up after each transaction to ask for a review.
- Making it easy. Creating a short, shareable URL that links directly to your review page on Google, Yellow Pages Online or elsewhere.
- Offering an incentive. This could be by offering a discount on a future purchase or a small reward to say thanks for the customer’s time.
- Sharing reviews on your website & social media. When the reviews start rolling in, don’t forget to share them across your key online channels to let potential customers know your business is worth investing in.
RELATED: How to get and respond to online reviews for your small business.
Up your SEO game.
According to 61% of marketers, SEO is key to online success, and it’s easy to see why. SEO can reduce the cost of customer acquisition by over 80%, and a page that secures the top spot in Google search engine results gets 34% of the organic traffic for that query.
In other words, SEO is invaluable for cost-effectively building your online presence and bringing in new customers. For 2026, consider how you can improve your SEO strategy to support your marketing goals. Get started by familiarising yourself with these resources:
- Your SEO content checklist: where and how to optimise your content.
- eBook: A small business guide to technical SEO.
- How to integrate keywords into your content.
- What’s the best SEO strategy for small business?
Consider paid advertising.
While SEO can have a big impact on your business, it can take months for your efforts to pay off. If you want to jump right in early in the new year, consider whether a paid advertising campaign could help you get results quickly.
Paid advertising is especially beneficial if you plan to run a promotion or want to reach a specific market without waiting. According to Google, businesses earn $2 in revenue for every dollar spent on paid search ads, making it a cost-effective form of marketing.
RELATED: What kinds of customers can you target with SEM?
Get help from the experts.
Once you have a plan of action for your marketing in 2026, you’ll need all hands on deck to make it a reality. If you need support with strategy or execution anywhere along the way, Yellow Pages has a range of digital marketing services to help your business get ahead. Find out more here.
