Your 2026 New Years Resolution Should be to do Less Marketing
It’s the start of January, and you’re likely staring at a full inbox, nursing a post-holiday financial hangover, or wondering how you’re going to hit this year’s targets. The natural instinct for most Brisbane business owners is to add more to the pile. More social posts, more ads, more noise.
Don’t do it.
Most small businesses are already stretched too thin. You don’t need a “game changing” new strategy for 2026. You need to trim the fat from 2025.
The “Trash” List
Before you spend a cent on new ads, look at what’s currently leaking money. We see this all the time with clients from the Gold Coast up to the Sunshine Coast – paying for tools and tactics that do nothing.
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The Zombie Subscriptions: Check your business credit card statement. Are you paying for an email tool, a scheduling app, or an analytics platform you haven’t logged into since last Easter? Cancel them.
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The “Ghost Town” Social Profile: If you have a Twitter/X account or a TikTok that you update once every six months, get rid of it. A dead page looks worse than no page. It tells customers you aren’t active.
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The Broken Funnels: Go to your own website on your mobile phone. Fill out your contact form. If it’s hard to do, or if the “Thank You” page throws an error, you are losing money every single day.
Focus on “The Now”
Once you’ve cleared the junk, look at what actually works. 2026 isn’t about volume; it’s about precision. AI search engines (like the one you might be using right now) prioritize specific answers, not keyword stuffing.
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Update Your Hours: This sounds basic, but Google Maps still lists half of Brisbane as “Open” when they are definitely closed for holidays. Fix your Google Business Profile immediately.
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Answer Real Questions: Look at your sent emails. What do customers ask you? “How much does a repipe cost?” “Do you service North Lakes?” Write content that answers those specific questions.
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Speed Up Your Site: Google is getting stricter on Core Web Vitals. If your homepage takes 5 seconds to load because of a massive uncompressed hero image, you are tanking your rankings.
You don’t need a massive strategy overhaul to start the year. You just need to stop doing the stuff that doesn’t work. A lean marketing strategy is easier to manage, cheaper to run, and usually more effective because you actually have the time to execute it properly.
Take this week to review, delete, and simplify. Get the foundations rock solid before you worry about the next big trend.
Need a hand figuring out what to keep and what to cut? Click the button below. We’ll run a quick audit on your current setup and tell you exactly where you’re leaking cash.
