Your 2027 Marketing Plan Should Be Taking Shape Now
September might feel early to start talking about 2027.
But leave marketing planning until December and it tends to become one of two things: a rushed list of activities, or a slightly updated version of whatever you did this year.
Neither is much of a plan.
For Managing Partners and MDs, finding time to think about marketing is rarely easy. Client work, people and day-to-day decisions understandably come first. But you don’t need a three-day strategy session or a 40-page document to start planning for next year. You just need to start asking the right questions now.
Start by Looking Back at 2026
Before deciding what to do in 2027, take an honest look at 2026.
Not simply “Did we hit our targets?” Go a little deeper. Where did your best enquiries come from? Which marketing activities actually created conversations? What content attracted attention from the right people? Which events, partnerships or campaigns led somewhere useful?
Then look at what didn’t work.
You spent months posting on a platform that generated very little. Maybe an event produced plenty of business cards but no meaningful opportunities. Or marketing simply became inconsistent whenever the business got busy.
Knowing what not to carry into 2027 is just as useful as knowing what worked.
Ask What the Business Actually Needs
The next question isn’t “What should we post next year?” It’s “What does the business need marketing to help achieve?”
Perhaps you want to enter a new market, attract larger clients, grow a particular service, improve awareness in a sector or generate more opportunities from existing relationships. Those are very different objectives, and they require different marketing. Without that direction, it is easy to end up with plenty of activity but little connection to where the business is actually going.
The One-Page Plan: Six Questions
Start with one page and answer six questions:
Where are we trying to get to? Choose the two or three business priorities marketing needs to support.
Who do we need to reach? Be specific about the clients, sectors or markets that matter most.
What do we want to be known for? Identify the expertise, services or ideas you want people to associate with your business.
How will we stand out? Research what your competitors are saying and doing, so you can find a genuine point of difference rather than echoing the same messages.
How will we reach them? Choose the channels and activities that genuinely make sense for your audience.
How will we know it’s working? Decide what you will measure, whether that’s quality enquiries, opportunities, website activity, event conversations or something else meaningful to the business.
That’s enough to give everyone involved in marketing a shared direction. The detail can come later.
Why Planning Now Pays Off
The value of planning now isn’t simply having a document ready for 1 January. It gives you time to make better decisions. You can identify gaps, agree priorities, prepare campaigns, allocate budgets and decide who needs to do what before the year begins. Most importantly, it means January starts with action rather than another meeting about what the plan should be.
So before 2026 disappears into year-end deadlines, take an hour and ask what the business needs from marketing next year.
You may find your 2027 plan is much simpler than you expected. September isn’t too early after all. It might just be the hour that makes all of next year easier.
Turn a busy year into a simple plan for the next one
At EWO, we help professional services firms and manufacturers do exactly this: take the noise of a busy year and shape it into a clear, one-page plan you can actually act on. If you’d rather start January with momentum instead of another meeting about the plan, now is the hour to talk. Let’s map out your 2027 marketing before the year-end rush arrives.