How to Plan Your Marketing Focuses For The Year Ahead!
Nov 11, 2025
How to Plan Your Marketing Focuses For The Year Ahead!
You know that sinking feeling on January 2nd when everyone's posting about fresh starts, and you're scrambling to figure out what you're even promoting next week?
Here's the truth about business planning for coaches: waiting until January 1st is like showing up to the airport without a ticket. We start our planning on October 1st because reactive business owners stay stuck while proactive ones scale.
Why Most Coaches Fail at Business Planning
Most coaches launch random offers, post inconsistent content, and wonder why their revenue feels like a rollercoaster. The problem isn't lack of effort. It's lack of strategic planning.
When you wait until January to plan, you're already behind. Your ideal clients have made their Q1 decisions. Your competitors have their content calendars ready. And you're stuck playing catch up.
We see this pattern constantly with service-based professionals earning $50K to $150K yearly. They're talented, hardworking, and completely overwhelmed. One bad month away from panic mode, posting whatever feels right that day.
The Game Changing Power of Q4 Planning
Here's what changes when you start planning in October or November.
You actually enjoy the holidays. When you know exactly what you're promoting in Q1, you can log off guilt free. Your family gets the present version of you, not the stressed version checking your phone every five minutes.
Your messaging gets crystal clear. When Scott first started coaching, he'd pitch everything on sales calls... his course, his one on one, his book, his program. Potential clients would email us saying, "I don't know the best way to work with you."
The moment we focused on one primary offer per month, sales increased. Not because the offers got better, but because the message got clearer.
You stop burning out your audience. Strategic business planning for coaches means planning four major launches per year, roughly one per quarter, and filling the gaps with lead generation.
Our Simple 12 Sheet Planning Method
Want the planning method we use with multi-million dollar business owners and brand new entrepreneurs? It takes two hours and requires zero fancy software.
Grab 12 blank sheets of paper. Write one month at the top of each sheet.
Step 1: Mark Your Calendar Anchors
Go through each month and write down the non-negotiables. Holidays, vacations, significant events. We take substantial time off in November and December, so we write those dates down first.
January might include New Year's and goal setting topics. February has Valentine's Day. November has Thanksgiving. These are content opportunities and natural breaks in your promotional calendar.
Step 2: Track Your Business Metrics First
Before you can plan forward, you need to understand what's working now. This is where most business planning for coaches falls apart.
We track our KPIs monthly. Revenue per offer, email list growth, content engagement, sales call conversion rates. These numbers tell us what to do more of and what to stop doing.
Step 3: Choose Your Monthly Marketing Focus
One marketing focus per month. That's it.
Not five offers. Not "whatever feels right that day." One clear focus that drives all your content, conversations, and calls to action.
Some months, your focus is a major launch. Your new mastermind, your signature course, your high ticket offer. Plan four of these per year maximum.
Other months, your focus is lead generation. Promoting a specific lead magnet, growing your email list, driving podcast subscriptions.
When Scott was pitching everything, potential clients felt confused. The moment we said, "This month we're focusing on filling our group program," everything aligned. And we filled the program.
Clear focus creates clear results.
Step 4: Plan Your Four Quarterly Launches
Four major launches per year, roughly one per quarter. Opening doors to your mastermind. Launching your course. Filling your group program.
Space them strategically. Don't launch in December. Don't stack two major launches back to back.
Block out four months for major launches on your twelve sheets. Fill the gaps with lead generation, nurture content, and authority building.
The Framework in Action
Here's how it looks in our business:
January: Expert Foundations program. New year energy is high, people are ready to invest in systems.
February and March: Lead generation mode. We promote lead magnets, grow our email list, nurture relationships.
April: Major launch for Expert Content Society. We've spent two months building our list. Now we open doors with a focused campaign.
See the pattern? Build, nurture, launch.
Starting This in November
Good news... it's not too late.
You still have six to eight weeks before January 1st.
Start by getting clear on your numbers. What worked this year? What didn't? Look at actual data.
Next, grab those twelve sheets and start mapping. Get the big picture down first. Your four major launches. Your planned vacation time. Your monthly marketing focuses.
Then, plan your Q1 content in detail. January, February, March.
You don't need perfection. You need direction.
Common Planning Mistakes to Avoid
Planning without data. Basing your plan on what you wish would work instead of what actually works is strategic self-sabotage.
Over-planning the details. You need the big picture and Q1 details. That's it.
Launching too often. Space out your major launches. Give people time to digest before you ask them to buy again.
Your Q4 Planning Action Steps
Ready to stop waiting for January?
Block two hours on your calendar this week for planning. Treat it like a non-negotiable client meeting.
Gather your data. Pull your revenue numbers, email metrics, content analytics.
Grab twelve sheets of paper and write one month at the top of each. Fill in your calendar anchors, holidays, vacations.
Identify your four major launches for next year. Space these out strategically.
Fill in the gaps with monthly marketing focuses. Lead magnets, podcast growth, email list building.
Plan Q1 in detail. The more specific you get with Q1, the easier January becomes.
The Real Reason We Plan in October
Want to know the real reason we start business planning for coaches in October instead of January?
We want to actually live our lives.
We want to enjoy Thanksgiving without worrying about January launches. We want to take December off guilt-free. We want to start the new year executing a strategy instead of frantically creating one.
And honestly? We want the competitive advantage.
While other coaches are spending January figuring out their plans, we're already six weeks into execution. While they're scrambling to create content, ours is scheduled. While they're wondering what to promote, we're already generating leads.
That head start compounds throughout the year.
The coaches who plan ahead don't just have less stress. They have better results, more consistent revenue, and clearer growth trajectories. They become the obvious choice in their market because their messaging is tight, their offers are clear, and their presence is consistent.
Now that you've got your business plan mapped out, let's make sure your LinkedIn content is working just as strategically. If you've been putting time and energy into LinkedIn but not seeing the return, this is your chance to change that. Reserve your free spot today at The Expert's Edge Workshop: LinkedIn Content That Closes Deals and learn how to create content that drives real, measurable results.
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