Happy Sunday, Everyone!
I hope you’re all enjoying the start of July (and happy belated 4th to all of you in the US). The start of July marks the official half-way mark of 2025 – which means Q4 (and BFCM) is already on the horizon. And while BFCM is (typically) considered a retail/eCommerce moment, the reality is that Q4 is make-or-break for many more industries:
- Banking + Fintech - most people make banking/investment/financial decisions around or immediately after the winter holidays, for a “clean break” going into the new year.
- Senior Living / Senior Care - the holidays are often the time when adult children (and, increasingly, adult grand-children) spend the most time with their aging relatives – which often shatters any illusions about mom/dad/grandma/grandpa’s ability to live independently. The result? Millions of families will make the decision to explore senior care options from Thanksgiving through early January 2026.
- Hospitality & Travel - Hotels, resorts, ski destinations, airlines and cruises often rely heavily on Q4 holiday travel and end-of-year vacations to hit annual revenue targets.
- Tax Planning & Financial Advisory - Wealth managers, tax advisors, and financial planners see Q4 spikes as clients finalize tax strategies, charitable giving, and end-of-year investments.
- Nonprofits & Charities - The plurality of nonprofits receive upwards 30-50% of their annual donations in Q4, particularly from “Giving Tuesday” through the end of the year. This isn’t just the holiday spirit at work, either: most donors must make contributions by December 31 in order to receive a deduction for the donation on their 2025 tax return.
- Automotive Dealerships - Year-end clearance events, manufacturer incentives and quota attainment make Q4 crucial for dealerships and auto groups.
- Enterprise Software & SaaS - Fiscal year-end budgets drive large Q4 deal closes, renewals, and expansions as buyers spend remaining budgets or lock in discounts for 2026.
- Insurance (Especially Health Insurance) - Open enrollment for health insurance (ACA marketplaces, Medicare Advantage, employer plans) happens almost entirely in Q4 – miss out, and you’re locked out for 12 more months.
- Alcohol & Beverage Producers/Distributors - Holiday parties, events, and celebrations drive significant volume in spirits, beer, wine and distributor sales.
- Event & Entertainment Ticketing - Concerts, sports, holiday shows and New Year’s Eve events drive strong Q4 revenue, especially for venues and promoters.
- Utilities & Energy Providers (Commercial Contracts) - Most energy suppliers finalize large commercial contracts or renewals on an annual (vs. a fiscal) calendar – making Q4 a make-or-break period.
- Real Estate - While spring/summer are prime “moving” seasons for many residential buyers, some markets see Q4 urgency for tax planning, 1031 exchanges and/or to take advantage of the newly-enacted 100% bonus depreciation (flips, industrial, commercial).
- Education & Training Providers - Corporate training budgets are often use-it-or-lose-it – meaning that anything left come November gets spent down aggressively in Q4. As a result, training + certification providers see end-of-year spikes for various programs/sessions/workshops.
So, while BFCM + retail gets most of the attention, the reality is that the majority of industries rely on a strong Q4 to reach or exceed their year-end targets. For most brands this year, reaching (let alone exceeding) those Q4 targets will be more difficult than it has been in recent years, due to combination of factors:
- Cooling Consumer Spending: Spending saw a slight drop in Q2, particularly in discretionary areas like apparel and autos. With GDP growth slowing in the first half of 2025, consumers are growing more cautious amid a softer labor market. Consumers are increasingly holding out for better deals, which means promotional campaigns will need to work harder (read: be more attractive OR more compelling) in order to be effective.
- Persistently Low Sentiment: Despite easing inflation, consumer sentiment remains well below pre-pandemic norms. Shoppers are prioritizing essentials, and a growing sense of “promo fatigue” means they expect brands to respect their inboxes. Low-trust messaging will fail. This holds true for non-retail industries, too – consumers and organizations alike are watching their wallets more than ever, which means the value perception of your offer must be that much higher in order to motivate action.
- Surging Debt & BNPL Dependence: Credit card debit is climbing and Buy Now, Pay Later isn’t just a trend anymore - it’s a standard part of the purchase journey for many ecommerce sites. This trend is larger than most brands want to admit – what started with sneakers and gadgets is now standard in the grocery aisle. But here’s the kicker: credit bureaus are finally paying attention. This fall, FICO is rolling BNPL into credit scores. From a practical standpoint, that means ~30.5M GenZ consumers are about to get a crash course in how short-term habits can have long-term consequences, right before the biggest shopping season of the year. What could go wrong?
- Uneven Demographic Impact: Higher-income consumers remain relatively stable, but middle-income and Gen Z audiences are pulling back. Younger groups, carrying heavier debt, are making fewer, more intentional purchases. They respond to genuine value and creator validation more than flashy price cuts alone - which means brands need to be thinking much, much bigger than just a discount.
- Margin Focus: It isn’t just consumers that are pulling back and tightening budgets - corporations are doing the same. The first half of the year has already resulted in hundreds of major companies announcing workforce reductions - from Meta and Microsoft to Adidas, Blue Origin and Google. For most of these organizations, cost-cutting efforts aren’t limited to headcount; vendor relationships, SaaS contracts, supplier agreements, financial arrangements and more are under the microscope. If you want to successfully sell-in to companies large or small at a period where those companies are watching every dollar, you need to show outsized value that addresses a burning pain point. The days of “pilots” and “we’re going to just try it out…” have gone the way of ZIRP (little more than a fond memory).
- Lower Predictability: There’s no two ways about it - the current US administration is far less predictable than the previous one. We’ve already felt the impacts of its volatility in Q2 with the (short-lived) global trade war. The reality of uncertain trade + financial policy is that it’s more difficult for businesses to make investments (like inventory purchases, capital improvements, R&D, staffing, expansions, etc.) when those businesses have no idea what the fiscal/trade policy will be in 3/6/9/12 months.
The Q4 Playbook: From July Through The Holidays
We’ve established that Q4 isn’t just “the holidays” or “BFCM.” For most brands and industries, it is the last, best chance to hit the number or reach the goal. It’s when budgets get spent down, decisions get made, deals get signed and the threshold between a good year and a great year is crossed. But here’s what too many people miss:
Q4 success doesn’t happen in Q4; the foundation for it is laid in July, August and September.
Execution follows preparation. If you want to finish strong, now is the time to lay the foundation. This playbook is your blueprint to do just that – not just for retail and eCommerce, but for banking, fintech, SaaS, hospitality, automotive, insurance, senior care, financial services, training providers, nonprofits, and more.
I’ve broken it down into four key phases, each with strategic insights and tactical recommendations to maximize results.
Phase 1: Preparation, Foundation Building & Audience Growth
Timeline: Now (July) - September
Your highest-probability-to-convert leads/prospects are people who have already interacted with your brand in some capacity - whether that’s an existing customer, a prospect that never took the final step, or an email list subscriber who lurks but never commits. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling software, financial services, cars, South African safaris, bourbon-barrel collectibles or Ridge wallets, re-engaging both high-potential shoppers and your existing customers BEFORE you ask for the sale is priority #1. No one enjoys being on the receiving end of the commercial equivalent of a “you up?” text - so leverage this time (when most brands aren’t doing much) to get the conversation going again.
For consumer brands, segment past buyers by product type, average order value and recency, then create personalized reactivation campaigns that go beyond generic discounts. In fact, given the current climate, I’d avoid discounts entirely. Instead, focus on non-traditional offers that resonate with your audience on a deeper, more personal/emotional level. If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out this issue with 13 BFCM Offers That’ll Make Your CFO Smile.
For senior living, reactivation could mean sharing a series of informative videos directly addressing key abandonment reasons (i.e. finances, not wanting to “send Mom/Dad to a nursing home”, etc.), inviting prior tour guests to an event with a well-known speaker (one community we work with used Matt Paxton, the former host of Hoarders for a small event series and turned it into dozens of move-ins) or a community engagement event that showcases all of the activities and amenities at your community.
This really does work – one senior living operator we’ve worked with for years sees ~40% of their Q4 move-ins originate from prospects who first toured 6-18 months prior. That isn’t driven by new ads in November - it’s driven by a combination of the moment (i.e. those same adult children who fell off the move-in bus during the hectic summer + back-to-school season see mom/dad/grandma/grandpa again at Thanksgiving, realize s/he is doing worse than they remember, and resume the journey with renewed urgency), alongside consistent re-engagement through fall, seeded with value and empathy rather than urgency alone. It works doubly well because most senior living brands completely ignore cold leads from Q1/Q2, which gives this operator a massive advantage.
Successful re-engagement extends across industries - for SaaS businesses, it might be a targeted re-onboarding or adoption sequence unlocking hidden value for dormant users, reinforced by tailored outreach from customer success teams. Financial services firms can position educational sessions or portfolio reviews as exclusive early-access opportunities before year-end (with the carrot of potential tax optimization or locking in lower rates).
Whatever your industry, the formula to follow is (largely) the same: find the most pressing, painful, top-of-mind reasons why your prospects did not convert previously (yes, this will require some soul-searching and some surveys/phone calls), create insanely high-value content that directly addresses those thing(s) in the context of Q4, then aggressively distribute it - for free - to that audience. That’s it. It’s not rocket science, it’s just good, old-fashioned, thankless work that most brands (and most marketing teams) don’t want to do.
Here’s the reality: building high-intent lists and pipeline are equally critical. Q4 is closing season, but closings don’t happen without a pipeline. Q3 (now-September) is when you grow it.
- Consumer Brands: Run list growth campaigns offering real, genuine value to your potential customers - think: early access to limited releases, insider-only benefits, or exclusive experiences. A premium apparel brand I worked with saw a 72% higher signup conversion rate when their lead-gen creative focused on “Unlock exclusive early access to our Fall Collection” versus “Get 10% off your first order.” The harsh reality is that most people aren’t moved by a 10% discount (which is often 30%+ of your margin on that order), but ARE moved by something they consider more valuable, like early access, status, or concierge services.
- B2B & SaaS: Launch top-of-funnel campaigns aligned with Q4 business priorities. For example, an enterprise SaaS company targeting financial institutions could host a “2026 Budget Optimization” webinar series featuring existing high-profile clients, product teams and outside experts (i.e. financial advisors, investors, analysts). Follow that up with an email series to attendees with interactive tools (see how much you could save, etc.) and content (guides, case studies, pain point resolutions, etc.). You’ll quickly build a list of high-intent prospects primed for a next step (i.e. a demo, free audit, etc.
- Financial Advisors & Nonprofits: Build educational series focused on year-end tax benefits, donor matching opportunities, your accomplishments (in the context of your audience segment’s priorities) and strategic philanthropy to drive inbound consultation requests and deepen relationships.
Landing pages should make the intent clear immediately. Whether capturing phone numbers for SMS flows or segmenting new pipeline leads before Q4 hits, clarity and simplicity drive conversion. For consumer brands, SMS remains the highest-ROI channel for time-sensitive campaigns. For SaaS and B2B, multi-field forms capturing role, department, and timeline (without excessive friction) enable segmented follow-ups tailored to each buyer journey stage.
Authentic content and advocacy must also be built early. Consumer brands should activate UGC and creator gifting programs in July and August, not October. A clean beauty brand I work with sends PR gifting boxes in August to secure September reviews and October social posts, building credibility and remarketing audiences before BFCM ad blitzes. B2B and SaaS teams should film client testimonials, case study interviews, and executive POV videos now to navigate procurement and legal reviews in time for Q4 launches. For financial services and senior care, authentic family stories from last Q4 build powerful social proof across email flows, webinars, and landing pages.
Phase 2: Strategy & Asset Development
Timeline: August-September
Too many teams finalize Q4 offers way too late in the game (the worst ones in early November, but even brands who finalize their Q4 plans in mid/late September are well behind), leaving little time for asset buildout. The best brands lock their Q4 promotional calendars by mid-September and build offers backed by audience insights (yes, your offer needs to be appealing to both your CFO and your audience), viable unit economics and creative differentiation.
Move beyond blanket discounts
As you’re beginning to think about your Q4 offers, let’s start with the obvious: generic discounting crushes margin and conditions customers to wait for deals. It is a losing strategy for the vast majority of brands. It sounds easy and it often works - at least in the short-term. The hard-won lesson I’ve learned: the short-term gain is almost NEVER worth the long-term pain.
Instead, spend this time (now-September) thinking about smarter Q4 offers - ones that protect contribution margin while still motivating purchase. Here are some examples of smarter, balance sheet friendly alternatives applicable across industries:
- Free Gift With Purchase (FGWP) - Include a product with high perceived value but low COGS. For example, a skincare brand offering a free $50 booster serum costing only $10 to produce. The perceived value lifts conversion without steep discounting.
- Premium Shipping or Experience Upgrade - Offer free express shipping, priority handling, or premium gift wrapping. Customers see these as luxury perks with minimal operational costs compared to 20-30% off sitewide.
- Product or Service Upgrade - Surprise buyers by bumping them into a premium tier, larger plan, or special status. In SaaS, this might mean upgrading new subscribers to a higher plan for their first month. In senior living, it could mean complimentary upgraded apartment finishes for new move-ins before year-end.
- Golden Ticket - Award a major prize to one or two customers drawn at random. Examples might include free service for a year, a luxury vacation or an exclusive experience. A single prize drives buzz and lifts average order value far more efficiently than broad discounts, all while (1) saving you a BOATLOAD of money and (2) providing the foundation for future social + PR content (you can make a big deal of awarding the prize, capture multiple videos from the winner for use on social and likely get some local press from the entire thing.
- Limited-Edition Exclusive Product or Service - Drop a product, service package or experience only available for a few days or in small batches. Scarcity drives urgency and protects premium positioning.
- Support a Cause - Instead of discounting, pledge a portion of Q4 revenue to a relevant charity. Customers are more willing to spend at full price when it aligns with a cause they care about, whether rainforest preservation, local veterans’ programs or children’s hospitals. Yes, you’ll need to do some audience research to identify causes that are most likely to resonate, but again, the payoff is often substantial – planting a tree for each order costs about $1 (sometimes less), but is often worth 20x,
Non-discount “offers” to deploy
Discounts aren’t the only incentive. Here are two non-discount “offers” that deliver perceived value without margin erosion:
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Invite-Only Preview or Early Access - Reward loyal or high-value customers with exclusive first access to new services, products or limited spots. No discount needed at all - the value is the white-glove, VIP treatment.
- Senior living: Offer VIP tours or priority apartment selection to families who attend an end-of-year open house or place a deposit within a specified time period.
- Travel + Tourism: Provide loyalty members exclusive early booking windows for holiday packages or upgrades. The double-win? When the booking window goes live for the rest of your audience, inventory levels will be far lower – creating the perception of high demand + driving those on the fence to commit now or risk missing out.
- Professional services: Invite top clients to an exclusive year-end tax planning event with senior partners at a luxury locale – rent a castle (like Fermat did) or a suite at a NFL stadium. The only thing to remember is that the experience being offered should be something “wow-ing” and compelling to your target audience. The bigger the “wow” factor, the more competition you’ll have for attendance, and the more exclusive the event will become.
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Value-Add Content or Experience - Bundle in a service or consult that costs little to deliver but feels meaningful to your target audience:
- Tax advisory: Offer a free “2025 Tax Planning” session for clients who commit before November 30. This is particularly compelling today in light of the OBBBA passage – many clients will be wondering how the new tax law impacts them, and - let’s all be honest - no one enjoys webinars.
- Estate planning: Include a complimentary document review for a set number of current or potential clients who sign up by a certain date.
- Travel/tourism: Offer a personal consultation, a curated destination guide or an included photo session (i.e. via a partnership with a company like Flytographer) for premium bookings. You’ll likely be able to negotiate far better pricing than what an individual consumer could, and the relative cost of a photo session ($200 or so) likely pales in comparison to the cost of a larger discount.
Messaging strategy
Locking in your promotional strategy early unlocks efficient, focused messaging. Map your deals to each key date:
- Pre-BFCM VIP Drops (Oct. 15 – Nov 14): Early access for your highest-value customers to test offers and drive initial volume. I’m a huge proponent of giving your best customers the first (and best) deal as early as possible, simply because those customers have one bucket of money – so your goal should be to capture as much of it as possible BEFORE the competition even starts advertising.
- Black Friday (Nov. 28): Launch primary offers with clear, direct messaging. Avoid ambiguity or the temptation to be clever - when everyone is trying to be heard, clarity wins.
- Weekend Campaign (Nov. 29–30): Reframe offers with urgency-driven messaging such as “Last chance to lock in our lowest price of the year.”
- Cyber Monday (Dec. 1): Position as the final opportunity to secure holiday deals, even if extending prior discounts. If you’re in retail, DO NOT make the mistake of perpetually extending the BFCM deals or discounts – it always backfires. You have a plan, stick to it.
- Final Push (Dec 2 - Dec 18): Offer a still-good, but-not-great deal, with messaging framed around the value of your product/service. This is the time when every other brand will likely be aggressively discounting, so shift to alternative (read: hard-to-compare) offers and messaging focused on the value your product/service provides (vs. the cost). While it’s tempting to lob in another hefty discount, the reality is that doing so will (1) undermine your previous messaging around a “best” offer and (2) actually decrease urgency, as consumers will wonder if this really is your best offer, or something better is yet to come.
Obviously, these dates may change for other industries (i.e. Enterprise SaaS), but the overall flow will not: lock down the core customers first, then roll out the primary offer for new customers/clients, and follow it up with several messages to drive urgency and close the deal.
Landing pages
Your homepage is almost never optimized for Q4 urgency. Dedicated landing pages consistently outperform generic pages, especially during peak decision windows when clarity, relevance, and friction reduction are paramount.
Yet, too many brands make the same mistake: running dozens of different ads and creatives to a single, somewhat generic landing page. It’s a terrible life choice for any brand that wants to maximize sales/leads/deals in Q4. Why?
- Misalignment kills conversion. Each creative asset is tailored to a specific hook, audience segment, or offer. If your landing page fails to immediately continue that narrative, cognitive dissonance sets in. The visitor questions whether they’re in the right place, resulting in bounces + drop-offs. The Lander needs to feel like the natural next step in the journey.
- You’re paying premium CPMs to underperform. Q4 advertising isn’t cheap (it’s actually the most expensive time of the year) - but that matters less when an ad’s message and landing page are perfectly aligned. Why? Because in those cases, conversion rates often increase by 50%, 100%, even 200%. That means cutting your effective acquisition costs in half.
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Smart brands build landing pages for each audience and creative.
This isn’t about building hundreds of pages for the sake of volume. It’s about intentional alignment:
- If your creative targets Gen X women seeking wrinkle reduction, the landing page headline, imagery, and testimonials should reflect that audience’s pain points, challenges, emotional state and desired end-state (they want to look the way they feel - vibrant, youthful, fresh, polished, confident).
- If your creative speaks to price-sensitive millennial men focused on hydration, your page must continue that promise and validate their unique concerns.
- For B2B SaaS, if your creative features an industry-specific use case (e.g. financial services), your landing page should expand that narrative with tailored proof points, security assurances, and deployment frameworks for that vertical.
Every Q4 landing page, regardless of industry, should include at a bare minimum:
- A clear, above-the-fold headline that immediately validates the promise of the ad. If your ad offers “Free Next-Day Shipping on Holiday Bundles,” the landing page headline should echo this directly.
- Fast-loading, mobile-first design. Over 75% of Q4 browsing and purchasing happens on mobile. Large hero images should be optimized for speed without sacrificing clarity. Every element of your lead process or checkout flow should be perfect on iPhone + Android. Make it easy for your audience to take the next step.
- Integrated social proof. Too many brands slap some testimonials in a throwaway module at the bottom of the lander. That’s lazy, uninspired and (usually) quite stupid. Instead: embed reviews, star ratings, and trust badges throughout the page to overcome hesitations as they occur in the decision journey.
- Urgency drivers. Countdown timers, real-time stock indicators, and sticky CTAs reinforce immediate action.
- Frictionless checkout or inquiry CTAs. Buttons should state exactly what happens next: “Reserve Your Tour Time,” “Book With Free Upgrade,” or “Start Free Trial.”
If you’re planning to focus on:
- 4 audience segments
- 3 core creative concepts per segment
- 2 primary offers per concept
…that’s 24 combinations. Building 24 tailored landing pages may sound overwhelming, but it’s not. Modern CRO and page builder stacks (e.g. Unbounce, Instapage, Replo) enable scalable template duplication and easy module swapping. The performance lift often justifies the cost (resources, time, third-party consultants).
Running multiple creatives to a single page is a tax on your ROI. Smart brands build landing pages for each high-intent audience + creative combination because:
- Relevance drives conversion.
- Continuity builds trust.
- Personalization creates brand loyalty and long-term profitability.
The brands that win Q4 don’t just outspend competitors. They out-prepare, out-message, and out-convert them at every single click.
Phase 3: Test, Test & Test Again
Timeline: September - Early October
Brands that win Q4 are brilliant at the basics - which means their technical audits, customer experience reviews and automations are done by mid to late September. This ensures October is reserved for final Q/A, creative deployment, audience testing and offer rollout – not scrambling to fix broken systems or incomplete automations.
Email and SMS automations must be thoroughly validated. Confirm that your welcome flows, abandonment sequences, post-purchase touches and loyalty program triggers are live, consistent, and optimized for mobile. It is remarkable how often brands discover broken triggers, outdated messaging, incorrect offers (yes, it happens) or misaligned segmentation logic only after Q4 campaigns are already running…by which point, it’s too late and the damage is done.
Measurement systems are crucial, as if they fail, you’re flying blind at a critical moment. Instead of waiting around, validate each of your data collection points (GA4, Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insights, server-side events, and any specialized CRM or sector-specific analytics platforms). The easiest way to do this? Actually test your customer/client/lead experience. Make someone on the team fill out the forms or complete a checkout – then confirm the event fired correctly across each platform. Match up your CRM or source-of-truth records with GA4 - and if there’s a sizable gap (they likely won’t perfectly align), then you might have a problem.
Reporting dashboards should be built or refined before October begins. Whether you leverage Looker, Tableau, PowerBI, or in-house BI tools, your dashboards should give your team (+ your partners) at-a-glance visibility into daily spend pacing, ROAS, MER, CAC to LTV ratios, pipeline health (for B2B and SaaS), inventory levels and customer service queues. This allows proactive decision-making rather than reactive firefighting. Good dashboards make it easy for your team to make good decisions.
Check Your Creative, Flows & Messaging Twice
For consumer brands, ensure all flows – welcome, sale announcements, reminders, cart abandonment, and post-purchase upsells – are scheduled, branded, and aligned to your Q4 offers and segmentation strategies. Use this time to “stress test” each one, preferably with someone who is in the target audience AND is somewhat unfamiliar with the brand – a significant other, relative, friend, etc. You want to know if something doesn’t make sense, if context/needed information is missing, or if they have other questions you didn’t think about now, while you have time to adjust.
For B2B and SaaS, refine proposal follow-up sequences to reinforce the value your product/service/team provides, vs relying on generic “just checking in” emails. Ensure you have everything buttoned up – legal/compliance documents, onboarding flows, access docs, etc. Remember - you’re selling into a company at the very moment when they are busiest – which means you need to make this as easy as possible. The more you can do to have everything ready to go for them, the more they’ll see you as a partner who “gets it” and is “on top of everything.”
Stress Test Everything - Seriously
If it has a button, link, cart icon, whatever - someone on your team needs to click it on every major device + browser (chrome, firefox, safari, iPhone, Android) during this time. It may not sound like a big deal if the site doesn’t render perfectly on FireFox now (because you get about 10 visits a day from that god-forsaken browser), but when your Q4 paid media is cranking and your emails are rolling out, what was once 10 visitors might suddenly be 1,000 or more – and that seemingly minor issue is suddenly a very expensive problem.
I can’t emphasize it enough: everything - checkout experiences, donation portals, booking engines, inquiry forms and gated content - must be tested. Confirm that all payment integrations - BNPL, Shop Pay, PayPal, ACH and Apple Pay – are seamless and stable under high traffic.
It sounds crazy to say, but the little things really do matter. The brands that win have systems so good, so well-tested, that they fade into the background completely. The fact that everything “just works” means their team can focus 100% of their energy on moving the needle forward instead of troubleshooting.
Phase 4: Execution & Optimization
Timeline: October - December
Q4 is not a time for set-and-forget campaigns. Brands that win structure their execution strategy for precision, adaptability and velocity.
Shift the timing forward
Historically, brands have treated November as “go-live” - but now, smart brands begin executing campaigns in mid-to-late October, giving themselves multiple weeks to optimize, retarget and scale before competitors enter the fray. While we all like to think we’re smarter, the reality is that it’s easier to just be first.
For consumer brands and DTC, begin pre-sale activity in late September through October to drive list growth, VIP waitlists and warm your prospective audiences. Launch core promotional campaigns in late October or very early November. Offer-based ads, retargeting with proof points, and sequential storytelling should evolve weekly to minimize fatigue. Creatives should shift from benefit-led to offer-led to urgency-led as Q4 progresses. The final push in December – particularly the “Q5” period – remains an under-appreciated goldmine. Gift card redemptions, returns and self-gifting purchases can drive incremental revenue for brands positioned to capture them.
For B2B and SaaS, October is about warming prospects via thought leadership, demos, benefit illustrations, product updates and customer success/proof points. November is the closing window. December is (usually) the time when paperwork is finalized and decision-makers are on vacation, stressing about hitting their own numbers, or heads-down trying to tick the last items off their list before signing off for the holidays. Regardless of which one applies, they all lead to the same place: most B2B buyers aren’t buying in December – they’re either pushing the deal they agreed to in November across the finish line, or they’re pushing you off until January.
Your response should be to deploy deal acceleration programs such as executive sponsor calls, structured incentives, implementation credits and/or tailored onboarding experiences to break down barriers. Late November into early December should prioritize pipeline conversion – if you’ve done this right, you’ve spent the last 2-4 months building the value of your offering to your prospects - making this the time to pull through.
For nonprofits, ensure donation matching campaigns, strategic outreach and high-impact storytelling sequences peak in November. Frame consultations and services as urgent year-end actions to lock in commitments before holiday calendar chaos sets in.
Phase 5: Post-Q4
Timeline: End of December - January
Too many brands treat January as an operational cooldown period. Elite brands treat it as a strategic launchpad for the new year.
Conduct a disciplined post-mortem
Audit what worked and why. Identify which offers, channels, creative approaches and customer segments resulted in the desired outcomes (leads, deals, profit) – not just top-line revenue. Analyze what messaging frameworks resonated and which underperformed expectations. Share what you find across your organization – this is real-time, stress-tested marketing + messaging intelligence. If a surprising angle/offer/message resonated in Q4 2025, odds are it will still resonate in Q1 2026. Customers don’t change that fast.
Rapid Re-Engagement of Q4 Audiences
Waiting until February to re-engage Q4 prospects/buyers/customers is a wasted opportunity. Contact new customers within 30 days while goodwill, brand familiarity and purchasing proclivity remain high.
- For consumer brands, deploy replenishment offers, loyalty program invitations and personalized product recommendations to drive repeat purchase and improve LTV
- For B2B and SaaS, initiate structured onboarding, success check-ins and help/support conversations early to minimize churn risk and accelerate revenue realization. The #1 reason why most enterprise SaaS deals churn isn’t that the product doesn’t work or the executive sponsor doesn’t believe in it - it’s because the front-line employees are scared of it and don’t use it. The faster your customer success teams can help the “worker bees” make your tool indispensable, the more likely you’ll have a long-term customer.
- For professional services, schedule check-ins and 1-on-1 meetings to review progress. Clearly communicate next steps + action items.
Throughout this entire re-engagement process, make it a priority to capture testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content from Q4 buyers, clients and donors. These assets do more than build brand credibility - they accelerate future sales cycles, strengthen client/customer communications and serve as proof points for sales going forward. A direct client quote explaining exactly how your solution improved their business or life is more persuasive than any crafted marketing narrative.
That’s all for this week!
If you’ve made it this far, I’m working on a mailbag issue with questions from readers – so please, feel free to respond to this email with a question, request, etc. that you’d like to see covered in that issue.
Until next week,
Sam
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