When I was in college, one of my favorite professors listed all the assignments for the entire semester in our syllabus, a big change from high school where we were drip-fed our homework.
I finished them all early, organized my pages into a binder, and handed it in. I had the rest of the semester to focus on in-class materials and take-home projects from other courses.
It remains one of my favorite memories from college, because it was so satisfying to wrap something up and mark it done.
Unfortunately work is not like that, and the assignments never end. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get the same dopamine hit (and free up some time) by doing a few things early.
Here’s what I did in Q1 to help situate some of my clients for success for the rest of the year.
Q1 Checklist to prep for the year
While the to-do list never really ends, Q1 is your window to build a foundation that will make the rest of the year smoother, more strategic, and more sustainable. Here’s a practical checklist of what to prioritize and how to actually get it done.
Finalize Your Marketing Budget
Before you dive into tactics, review last year’s budget and finalize your upcoming marketing budget. It’s the foundation for everything else; your campaigns, team, tools, and experiments will all live and die in your marketing budget.
Without a clear budget, it’s easy to overcommit or invest in efforts that don’t align with your goals. It’s also helpful to reference whenever you get a call from finance asking what a new expense is!
Start by reviewing last year’s spend and performance.
- What had the highest returns? (Carry these over to the new budget)
- What expenses can you remove? (Items with little payoff)
- What do you want to try this year? (Set aside budget for it early)
Use those insights to allocate your funds more strategically this year. If you didn’t track ROI closely in the past, this is your opportunity to set up better systems, like tagging campaign sources, tracking conversions by channel, or using attribution tools.
Once you have a clear picture of what’s worth continuing, break your budget into core categories: content creation, paid advertising, software/tools, team (in-house or freelance), and experimentation. Give yourself some flexible funds (10–20%) to use later in the year as new opportunities or unexpected needs come up.
It’s also important to align your budget with your business goals. For example, if you’re focused on long-term growth, invest in SEO, evergreen content, and email marketing infrastructure. If you need short-term wins, paid acquisition or partnerships might take priority.
This is going to be a living, breathing document that evolves with every new expense, spend, and initiative.
Find my free budget tracking template in my template library.
Review Last Year’s Experiments
Take a critical look at last year’s marketing experiments. Did you test a new platform, change your email cadence, run paid campaigns, or try a different content format? Learn from those efforts before planning what’s next.
Start by compiling everything you’d consider an “experiment,” not just major initiatives. Think: new CTAs, subject line tests, different ad creative, video formats, influencer partnerships, or landing page layouts. Gather whatever performance data you can. This might be click-through rates, conversion rates, engagement metrics, ROI, or qualitative insights like team effort or user feedback.
Next, evaluate these experiments through two lenses: outcome and learning. Even if something didn’t perform as hoped, ask what it taught you. For example, maybe your short-form video series didn’t drive leads, but it surfaced a few surprising topics your audience resonated with. That’s still useful intel you can build on.
Then, categorize your findings into three buckets:
- Repeat – What performed well and deserves to be systematized or scaled?
- Explore – What showed promise but needs refinement, more data, or a new approach?
- Sunset – What clearly didn’t work, wasn’t worth the effort, or doesn’t align with your goals anymore?
This process isn’t just about optimizing for performance, it’s about avoiding wasted effort. Too often, teams default to repeating campaigns out of habit, not because they’re the best use of time or budget. By pausing to reflect on what you should repeat (and what you should let go), you create space for smarter, more intentional growth in the year ahead.
Last year was one of the first years I really went all-in on growth experiments. You can read about what happened here;
Running Growth Experiments at MyFBAPrep: The Noodle Approach
Plan New Growth Experiments
Once you’ve reviewed last year’s experiments, the next step is deciding what to test next and how to do it strategically. The goal of experimentation in marketing isn’t just novelty or creativity, but structured learning. Done right, experiments help you uncover better ways to reach your audience, convert leads, or streamline your workflows.
Start by identifying key questions or friction points in your marketing. For example:
- Are we getting plenty of traffic but not enough conversions?
- Do we know which channels bring in the most qualified leads?
- Is our content format or distribution outdated?
- Are we underutilizing new tools or platforms?
Turn those friction points into focused hypotheses. Let’s say your email open rates have been declining. Your hypothesis might be: “If we segment our list by behavior, we’ll increase open rates by 20% over 8 weeks.” Now you’ve framed a test with both a why and a what.
When choosing which experiments to prioritize, consider:
- Impact: Will this help solve a high-priority problem or unlock growth?
- Effort: How much time, money, or coordination will it require?
- Confidence: Based on what we already know, how likely is it to succeed?
You can even rank experiments on a simple 1–5 scale for each factor and calculate an average score. This helps you avoid overcommitting to exciting but low-leverage ideas—or ignoring low-effort, high-upside ones.
Next, define what success looks like. This is where most experiments fall apart—not because they fail, but because no one agreed on what “success” actually meant. Before you launch:
- Choose 1-2 primary metrics. For example, conversion rate, lead quality score, cost per lead, engagement rate.
- Set a success threshold. “We’ll consider this a success if it generates at least 30% more leads at the same or lower cost.”
- Define what would make it a failure or inconclusive. This helps you avoid endless tweaking and over-investing in something that just isn’t working.
Finally, give your experiment a fixed timeframe and checkpoint dates. Document what you’re testing, how you’re measuring it, and what you’ll do based on the outcome (double down, pivot, or archive).
Structured experiments turn your team from reactive to proactive and help you make smarter bets instead of just doing “what we’ve always done.”
Marketing Experiment Planning Template
Experiment Name: Give your experiment a clear, specific name (ex. “Q1 LinkedIn Carousel Test” or “Segmented Email Welcome Series”)
Hypothesis: What do you believe will happen, and why?
Example: “If we segment our newsletter list by signup source, open rates will improve by 20% because emails will feel more relevant.”
Goal / Success Criteria: What has to happen for this to be considered a win? Be specific and include metrics.
Example: “At least a 20% increase in open rates compared to the control group over 4 weeks.”
Primary Metric(s):
-
[ex. Open rate, CTR, conversion rate, cost per lead, engagement time]
Secondary Metric(s): (optional)
-
[ex. Unsubscribe rate, bounce rate, lead quality score]
Timeframe:
- Start date:
- End date:
- Check-in points: (midway or weekly)
Owner: Who’s responsible for tracking and reporting?
Tools / Channels Used: List any platforms, tools, or content formats (ex. HubSpot, Google Ads, Canva, Zapier, etc.)
Effort / Resourcing Estimate: How much time, budget, or collaboration is needed?
Next Steps If Successful: What happens if this works?
Example: Roll out across other channels, increase budget, repurpose in different formats
Next Steps If It Fails: What will you do if it doesn’t perform?
Example: Try a new segment, test a different format, shelve the idea for now
Experiment Matrix Example
This is an actual growth experiment summary matrix I created to help a client decide what to pursue.
Map Out Your Editorial Calendar
Content is one of your most valuable marketing assets, but only when it’s created and published with intention. In Q1, take the time to map out your editorial calendar so your team isn’t scrambling for ideas or writing in reactive mode all year.
Start by reviewing your business goals and product roadmap. Are you launching a new feature in Q2? Planning a rebrand? Targeting a new audience segment? Your content should align with and support those initiatives. Then, review your top-performing content from last year to identify which topics, formats, or channels resonated most with your audience.
Once you’ve aligned content to business goals and audience insights, outline your pillar topics (the key areas of expertise or themes you want your brand to be known for). These should reflect what your audience cares about and what your product or service solves. Think in quarters or months. For example:
- Q1: Customer retention
- Q2: Email automation
- Q3: Onboarding experience
- Q4: Team collaboration
Under each pillar, brainstorm subtopics and angles that can be developed into different formats: blog posts, emails, case studies, webinars, social posts, lead magnets, or short-form video. The goal is not to publish more—but to publish smarter, and repurpose strategically.
Now, put it all into a calendar. We use Asana and Trello, but a simple Google Sheet or Notion board works too. Include:
- Title or working topic
- Target publish date
- Assigned writer or owner
- Status (Idea, Drafting, Editing, Scheduled, Published)
- Target keyword or CTA
Keep the calendar flexible. Leave room for timely or opportunistic content, but having even 60–70% of the quarter planned will reduce decision fatigue and increase consistency.
Finally, check in with your team to review what’s working, redistribute tasks if needed, and update topics based on emerging trends or shifts in audience behavior.
A good editorial calendar keeps your team aligned, your messaging consistent, and your content tied to growth rather than guesswork.
Tip: Repurpose your content! One blog post can fueld your newsletter, social posts, and create a lead magnet.
How I Set up Marketing for an eCommerce Shipping and Fulfillment Company as Their Fractional CMO
Clarify Roles & Responsibilities
Q1 is also a good time to reassess everyone’s roles and responsibilities on the team.
- Review current roles and workflows. What’s working? What’s not?
- Ask each team member (or yourself): Are the right people doing the right things?
- Identify training needs, hiring gaps, or areas to outsource.
Start by reviewing your current team structure and workflows. Are responsibilities clearly defined? Do people feel they own their projects, or are tasks falling through the cracks? Sometimes, roles evolve as the business grows or shifts focus, and what worked last year might no longer be the best setup.
You should have already done a lot of this during your team reviews, but if you haven’t, schedule some 1:1s with your team to ask:
- What parts of your role do you really enjoy?
- What areas are unclear or troublesome?
- Where do you feel stuck and need more support?
These conversations often surface hidden challenges and opportunities.
Update or create a simple roles and responsibilities document or org chart. You can use a RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) to clarify who’s involved at each stage of key marketing activities. This prevents duplicated efforts and ensures accountability.
If you identify skill gaps or shifting priorities, plan for training sessions, workshops, or hiring contractors to fill those needs early in the year. The goal is to set your team up for smooth execution and continuous growth, not firefighting.
Re-Read Your End-of-Year Performance Reviews
Q4 is an insane time for most of my clients, so even if we get EoY performance reviews done, they often go ignored. Or we spend 30 minutes talking about them then jump to the next thing.
Q1 is a great time to go back and re-read everything, whether you’re a manager or otherwise. They are a goldmine of insights that often go underutilized, and can create a roadmap for growth if you take the time to reflect and act on them.
Look for recurring themes around strengths, challenges, and opportunities. For example, if multiple reviews mention a need to improve data analysis skills, that’s a clear signal to prioritize training or hire for that skill.
Use these insights to inform your Q1 priorities. Maybe you realize certain tasks should be delegated to free up more strategic time, or that you need to shift focus to areas where you’ve received positive feedback. Align your quarterly goals with these learnings to ensure you’re addressing real needs, not just chasing new shiny projects.
Tip: If you didn’t complete formal reviews, consider gathering informal feedback now. Ask colleagues or managers what they think you or your team could do differently or better. Honest reflection paired with feedback creates a feedback loop that drives continuous improvement.
Wrapping Up — Start Strong, Stay Ahead
In Q1, you want to build intentional habits and lay a strategic foundation that carries you through the year. Finalizing your budget, reflecting on past experiments, planning new tests, organizing your content, clarifying team roles, and learning from performance reviews might seem like big tasks, but they’re also some of the highest-leverage actions you can take early on.
Momentum is built by small, purposeful steps. Choose one or two of these areas to focus on this week, then keep the rhythm going. The more proactive and thoughtful you are now, the less reactive you’ll be later, which frees up space to create, innovate, and grow.