Marketing Checklist for 2025

The start of a new year is the perfect time to review, refresh, and refine your marketing strategy. A fresh perspective can help you stay ahead in the fast-paced digital world, ensuring your brand and business remain relevant and effective.

Every year, I use this checklist to audit my own and my clients' digital presences. If you’re easing back into work after the holidays, these quick-win tasks are a great way to get back into the swing of things before tackling bigger projects.

Here’s your ultimate 2025 marketing checklist to set the tone for a successful year ahead:

1. Update Your Email Marketing Footers

Ensure your email footers reflect the correct year. Additionally, check compliance with legal requirements, such as including business address details and an unsubscribe link. A simple oversight like an outdated date can make your brand look inattentive.

2. Review Instagram Highlights

Think of your Instagram Highlights as a mini-website sitting right on your profile—giving visitors an instant snapshot of who you are, what you do and why they should follow or work with you. They act as evergreen content, ensuring your key messages don’t disappear after 24 hours like regular stories.

Take a moment to audit and update your highlights. Make sure they are up-to-date and aligned with your current brand, offerings and messaging. Do they provide value, showcase your best content and have a visually consistent look?

Consider adding Highlights that truly engage and inform your audience, such as FAQs (frequently asked questions), testimonials, behind-the-scenes content and details on your products and services.

Remove outdated stories and add new ones that resonate. Aim to have stories in your highlights that are no more than one year old.

3. Commit to Content Consistency

Consistency is key to success in digital marketing. Create a rhythm or pattern for your content. Posting regularly builds trust and keeps you algorithm-friendly.

Start small, maybe once a week or a time frame you can commit to. Then as you post more often, it will become easier and you can increase the frequency.

4. Plan Smarter with the Ultimate Content Planner

To help you be consistent, give my Ultimate Content Planner a try. Packed with over 1,000 awareness days, seasonal hashtags and key events, it’s designed to help you stay ahead of the game and keep your content relevant, engaging, and timely. Whether you’re planning social media posts, blog content, or email campaigns, this planner gives you a steady stream of inspiration all year long.

By aligning your content with trending topics and seasonal moments, you’ll not only save time but also boost engagement—because timely content gets noticed. From fun social media days to industry-specific events, there’s something for every business.

Don’t waste time scrambling for ideas—download the Ultimate Content Planner now and start 2025 with a clear, strategic content plan.

5. Check Your Website for Broken Links

Ensure all internal and external links on your website work properly. Broken links can harm your SEO and frustrate users. Use tools like Google Search Console or online broken link checkers to simplify the process and ensure a seamless user experience.

6. Refresh Your Keyword Research

Revisit your keyword strategy to align with current trends and search queries. Consider using free or paid tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush for effective keyword research. This ensures your content reaches the right audience.

7. Audit Your Social Media Bios

Ensure your social media bios are updated with relevant keywords, current information, and a compelling call-to-action (CTA).

Don't forget to review and update the featured section on your LinkedIn profile and Facebook business pages. Make sure the content that appears here is still valid and what you want to showcase to visitors.

8. Create a Video Marketing Plan

Video remains a dominant form of content. Plan regular video posts, Reels, Tiktoks, YouTube Shorts or even live streams to engage your audience visually. Use subtitles to improve accessibility and boost engagement, making your content more inclusive.

Videos are better than any kind of image at helping to tell your story, sell your products or win new clients.

Over half the content we now see on Instagram is "suggested" by the algorithm so that means you need to make Reels to get noticed by new people.

9. Leverage AI Tools

Explore AI-powered tools for content creation, scheduling, and analytics. Consider user-friendly platforms like ChatGPT for generating content ideas, Leonardo.ai for images and check out the new Magic tools in Canva. They can save you time and improve precision in your campaigns.

10. Check Your Branding

Is your branding consistent across all platforms? Review your logo, colours, and typography to ensure a cohesive look.

11. Incorporate Awareness Days

Use Awareness Days to plan engaging and relevant campaigns. For example, consider promoting campaigns around International Women’s Day (8th March) for empowerment-focused brands, National Pet Day (11th April) for pet-related businesses, or Small Business Saturday (the first Saturday in December) to support local businesses. Highlight dates that resonate with your audience.

12. Update Your Customer Personas

Revisit and update your customer personas to ensure your marketing strategy is aligned with their current needs and behaviours.

13. Review Competitor Strategies

Analyse your competitors' marketing efforts to identify trends and opportunities you might have overlooked. Go to Insights on Meta Business Suite > Insights > Benchmarking to see how your Facebook page performs against your competitors.

Or try the Meta Ad Library to see what kind of Facebook Ads your competitors are running.

14. Analyse Last Year’s Data

Dive into 2024’s metrics. What worked well? What didn’t? Use these insights to refine your strategy for 2025.

15. Set SMART Goals

Outline Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals for the year. Clear objectives keep you focused and on track.

16. Upskill in Digital Marketing

Stay ahead with our in-person digital marketing training in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Book now: Digital Marketing Training.

17. Automate What You Can

Save time by automating repetitive tasks like email campaigns, social media scheduling and customer follow-ups. Use tools like Calendly, Zapier, Active Campaign or Mailchimp to streamline these processes effectively.

18. Update Your Content Calendar

Fill your calendar with planned posts, campaigns, and events. Use our content planner to stay organized.

19. Engage with Your Audience

Spend time replying to comments, messages, and reviews. Engaging directly with your audience builds loyalty. Set aside a dedicated time each day to respond to interactions consistently and efficiently.

20. Monitor Emerging Trends

Keep an eye on trends like voice search optimization, AI advancements and sustainability-focused marketing to stay ahead. For example, optimise your content for smart speakers by using natural language keywords and structured data. Additionally, create eco-friendly campaigns that highlight sustainability practices or products to resonate with environmentally conscious audiences.

Marketing success in 2025 hinges on preparation and adaptability. Use this checklist to stay on top of your game and ensure your marketing efforts deliver impactful results throughout the year.