Happy Sunday, Everyone!
We are t-minus 23 days until the end of 2024 – BFCM is over, the Holiday season is in full swing, and last-minute 2025 planning is (frantically) underway. While most marketers are dialed in on maximizing the next ~13 days until the holiday shipping cutoff, now is the time savvy marketers are thinking a bit further out - into Q5.
If you’re not familiar with Q5, it’s the magical ~25 day period from the Holiday shipping cutoff (~December 21 this year) through the 10th(ish) of January 2025. For these few days - particularly those from December 22 - December 26/27 - the price of advertising becomes disconnected from the underlying value of those ads, largely due to either a pesky logical hurdle (for B2C marketers) and/or a perceived limitation (for B2B marketers). During this period, most brands pull down their ads en masse or in entirety, while consumers spend more time than ever on digital devices. (note: if you don’t believe me, just look at how much time everyone at your Holiday Party is spending on their phone).
The reality is that the underlying assumptions that lead advertisers to turn off (or turn down) their advertising don’t really hold up: consumers still want stuff (and they now have gift cards, items to return and/or cold, hard cash). B2B marketers are frantically trying to pull together end-of-year reports, 2025 strategic plans and/or make last-minute adjustments to already-approved budgets. Virtually all of us are looking to use the precious few days remaining in the year to plan the changes we want to make (most of us won’t make those changes) in the year to come. Everyone is online + in-market during this time.
Translation: you have a captive audience, cheap ads and a deadline approaching as fast as the bell is dropping in Rockefeller center. If you’re a marketer, reading that should make your heart increase three sizes and your smile go from ear-to-ear.
So, what’s the right approach to Q5?
I think it comes down to three things:
Thing #1: Actively Build Relationships + Add Value
Most of the brands that do advertise aggressively during Q5 view it solely as a revenue period (and, to be fair, a decently effective eCommerce brand should be able to do a 1.5x average month during this period) – but the truly savvy brands approach Q5 as both a revenue period AND a relationship-building period.
The on-the-ground reality for most brands is the following: (1) BFCM + Holiday resulted in a significant influx of net-new customers; (2) the cost of acquisition for those customers (both marketing + offer) was likely higher than it has been in previous years and (3) there’s likely not been much in the way to long-term relationship building to convert those “promo” customers into “premium” customers (if you’re wondering how to do that, check out this issue).
This starts with actually getting to know your new customers (surveys, polls, quizzes, forms, sales calls…whatever it takes). Most brands assume that new customers are a monolithic bloc - resulting in a one-size-fits-none approach. Dare to be different. Invest the time + resources necessary to understand the customers you’ve added, so you can maximize your chances of transforming them into brand advocates/loyalists. Focus on understanding what brought them into your brand, the goals they’re trying to achieve, the challenges they face, etc.
Based on what you’ve uncovered, create (or recycle) educational and brand-centric content (not the promotional stuff!) to these users. Your focus should be on value-add, informational/how-to content – your goal should not be to sell them more out of the gate, but rather to help them get the most from what they’ve already bought. This is a prime time to leverage customer testimonials, reviews, community how-to content, UGC and creator content. If your surveys/data collection reveals that your net-new customers/buyers have questions/concerns/goals/challenges/objectives for which you do not have content, make some and make it fast. Velocity is value – speed is the name of the game.
If possible, pair various pieces of content with appropriate and relevant information requests – a health + fitness brand might provide a resource on 16 ways to integrate their (widget) into your workout, with a link to “get a customized workout for you” quiz. That quiz can then focus on the user’s goals (lose weight, improve muscle mass, improve sleep, feel healthier, etc.) and preferred training styles (weights, running, sports, etc.) (among other things). Armed with this information, the brand might then recommend pairing the widget with (thing #1) and (thing #2).
Similarly, a home goods/cooking brand might ask questions about the user’s taste preferences, favorite cuisines, cooking frequency, and level of experience in the kitchen – then recommend both recipes to make using the new thing along with other gadgets/gizmos that would make this process easier.
Relationship building isn’t only a B2C thing, either – Q5 should be prime time for B2B brands. Most B2B buyers (crazy as it seems) are often finalizing their numbers from the past year, going over strategic plans and using the end of year “down time” to do competitive analysis, look at bigger industry trends and get ahead of the inevitable beginning-of-year sprint. If you’re a B2B brand and you don’t have an email series queued up for Q5 to all of your non-converted/non-pending leads, you 100% should.
I guarantee a VP or Director or CXO who is frustrated with some aspect of their business will be VERY receptive to a proactive email on December 27th with solutions/ideas/information that can help alleviate that vexation. So, send the email. Link it to another progressive data capture mechanism (calculator, quiz, form, multiple-choice download, etc.) and start fishing. Odds are that your organization has generated hundreds to thousands of leads from July 1 - now. What better time to re-activate those dormant prospects than the moments when (1) no other brand is bothering and (2) when there’s no distractions to soothe the pain?
It’s a simple playbook: build relationships → offer value → capture additional information → leverage additional information to sell. Most brands that advertise in Q5 are hyper-transactional; you can stand out by going the other way.
It’s a simple playbook: build relationships → offer value → capture additional information → leverage additional information to sell. Most brands that advertise in Q5 are hyper-transactional. Consumers (B2B + B2C) are likely fatigued after 45+ days of intense digital bombardment, from an election to BFCM to Holiday. Adding genuine value via high-signal, low-noise communications is one way to break through and actually get the attention of both your current + prospective customers.
Thing #2: Focus on Future-State Enablement
Q5 - by its very definition - is a time of transition from one year to the next. This tends to come with unique emotional dynamics – most people (and by extension, most brands) view the new year as a clean slate and an opportunity to do things differently.
While most brands leave heavily into the “new year, new you” messaging, the real opportunity is in going deeper and getting more specific/actionable.
This starts with customer understanding. Armed with the data you’ve acquired (thanks to those surveys + customer insights work), focus your advertising efforts on specific enablement pathways. Your objective should be for potential customers/clients to go from feeling “[Outcome] is possible with [your product/service]” to “[Outcome is inevitable with [product/service] + [pathway].”
Possibility requires the potential customer to make it reality. That’s work. That’s difficult. People don’t like difficult (and they like it less at the end of the year). By combining your product/service with concrete, tangible action + accountability steps, pathways create the perception that all the prospective customer needs to do is get started and their desired future state (the result) will become reality. That’s exponentially more emotive, motivating and powerful than a possibility message – remember, Q5 is time-limited. You’re running headlong into the beginning of the year, so the result is what matters (and what you should be selling).
This is equally applicable to B2B and B2C – one of the most common objections among B2B decision-makers is that their team will not be able to maximize the resource/tool/thing acquired, and thus, the investment will be (all or partially) wasted. A well-designed, properly articulated pathway eliminates this objection – because now, it isn’t on their team. The decision-maker chooses your product or service, and you provide the concrete steps and the accountability to make it happen. Bolster this with testimonials from other decision-makers (ideally speaking to how you made it so easy, guided them to their desired future state, etc.) and you’re off to the races.
Each of your ads during Q5 should use this methodology + philosophy - don’t focus on the product/service; obsess about the result AND how you make it inevitable. You will likely have to develop different pathways for different common objectives (i.e. a fitness brand might develop one pathway for weight loss, another for muscle gain, and a third for feeling better/healthier, as each of these are likely to have different milestones, approaches, reinforcement mechanisms and motivators).
Obsess about the future state. Make it reality for your potential customers. Profit.
Thing #3: Get a Head Start on Diversification
If you’re planning on trying new things in 2025 (and most brands are) – why are you waiting for the calendar to turn in order to do it? Most brands that I’ve worked with have been reluctant to experiment during this period, preferring to kick-off new platforms in January. The problem with that is threefold: (1) nothing EVER happens during the first 5-10 days of January, (2) that’s when everyone else is also doing it and (3) the first and second points create a “bias for action” with the new platform/tactic/shiny thing – everyone wants it to work, so everyone obsessively watches it and wants to tweak it.
I would argue that there is no better time to diversify your media mix than Q5. If you believe that a new channel is going to be successful, then (by definition), a good chunk of your audience is already there now, and another chunk is migrating to it during this time (people don’t just change their fitness habits in January; this is a time when a lot of habits change/are in flux).
Why?
Reason #1: Cost Advantages
Most “experimental” platforms (like Reddit, X, Snap, Tiktok, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, etc.) see relatively little advertiser action during Q5, so ad costs fall through the floor. This creates a cost-effective testing window, where you can capitalize on CPMs that are 40%, 50% or even 75% less than peak. Remember - Q5 inventory is cheap because advertisers pause, not because eyeballs aren’t available. Your test budget will go further (by definition) if its deployed during this period vs. mid-January.
Reason #2: Accelerate Your Learning Curve
This is just simple math: if you launch on a new platform during Q5, you’ll build up 2-3 weeks’ of data (1-2 optimization cycles) BEFORE your competition even gets live on the platform. Pair that with cheaper CPMs (which they won’t be able to access launching mid-January), and you’re now running 3+ cycles ahead on everything from:
- Platform performance
- Creative Insights
- Audience Development
- Pixel/Tracking Maturation
- Data/Performance Benchmarking
- Learning platform-specific nuances
That advantage compounds - and it translates into either (a) superior performance during your Q1/Q2 moments (i.e. Valentine's Day, Spring Sale, Easter for B2C brands, or Q1 sales for B2B) OR (b) a faster + less expensive “no-go” call if the platform proves to be non-viable.
Reason #3: Competitive Differentiation
One of my principles is that it is easier to just be first. Your audience is either already on or migrating to your new platform. Your competition is holding off for a few weeks. You can be first - so take the opportunity. Share of voice is more attainable (and for less), differentiation is easier to achieve and learnings are cheaper. Sure, your competition will come into the market in January, but by that point, you’ll have already captured some of the low-hanging fruit.
Reason #4: Risk Management
Let’s be honest: testing a new platform is risky. It is even more risky when everyone is laser-focused on a new platform, waiting with bated breath for the slightest indication of success or failure. But if you launch the test on December 23rd, no-one is paying attention to it, which is probably the best thing for it. The temptation to tweak, adjust, pivot, try or otherwise mettle will be eclipsed by Santa Claus. As crazy as that sounds, this (plus the lower costs + lower competition) de-risks the test substantially.
Further de-risking the test are the facts that: (1) the business’ performance for the year is already baked – the test isn’t mission-critical to 2024’s numbers (at least, in the same way it would be for 2025); (2) the lower costs + accelerated learning curve allow you to get ahead of 2025 – if the test bombs, you can pivot your strategy and be up-and-running with a revamped strategy BEFORE the failed test derails your 2025 plans; and (3) there’s no expectations or pressure for the end of December – anything you do during this period is gravy.
As the digital pecking order gets re-shuffled with new platforms coming online, various pieces of data going away (hello Meta’s health data removal) and consumer behavior rapidly evolving (X + Reddit are back; Tiktok is (maybe) going away, YouTube shorts are legit), diversification is going to become your best friend. Use Q5 to get a head start.
At the end of the day, Q5 presents marketers with a staggering, untapped opportunity to run through the finish line of 2024 + get a running head-start into 2025. The biggest key to success is understanding the audience attitude shift between Q4 (discounts, value, gift-giving) and Q5 (reflection, change, transformation, transition), then tailoring your approach to meet your Q5 audiences where they are (relationship building, future-state focus + diversification).
If you haven’t thought about Q5 yet, there’s still time to do so. And if you’re already knee-deep in Q5 planning/execution, I hope some of the above ideas/tactics will help you take your plans to the next level.
Until next week,
Sam
PS. If you’re curious about what angles/offers tend to work in Q5, check out this issue from last year.
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