Your 2025 Marketing Checklist: Everything to Refresh Before January

New year, fresh start, time to fix all the marketing stuff you've been putting off. You know the drill.

January is when people start paying attention again. They're searching for services, making plans, and actually ready to spend money. If your marketing is outdated or broken, you're missing out on the best month of the year for a lot of businesses.

I've put together everything Dubuque area businesses should check and update before January hits. Some of this takes 10 minutes. Some takes longer. But all of it matters if you want to start 2025 strong instead of scrambling to catch up.

Update Your Google Business Profile

This is the first place people see you when they search for businesses like yours in Dubuque. And most business owners haven't looked at their profile in months.

Log into your Google Business Profile. Check that your hours are correct, especially if you changed them for the holidays. Update your phone number if it changed. Add new photos—recent ones, not the same tired shots from 2019.

Got new services? Add them. Changed your service area? Update it. Have a special you're running in January? Create a post about it. This stuff takes 20 minutes and it's how most local customers find you.

And respond to your reviews. All of them. Even the old ones. People look at how you handle feedback. It matters.

Audit Your Website Content

Pull up your website right now. Read your homepage like you're a customer who's never heard of you. Does it make sense? Is the information current? Are there broken links or outdated references?

Check every page. Your About page probably says something like "celebrating 15 years in business" when you're actually celebrating 17 now. Your services page might list things you don't even offer anymore. Your blog's last post is from 2022.

Fix this stuff. Update dates, remove dead links, refresh old content. If you're advertising a "2024 promotion" in January 2025, that looks bad. People notice.

And check your contact forms. Fill one out yourself. Does it actually send you an email? I've seen businesses lose leads for months because their contact form broke and nobody noticed.

Refresh Your Local SEO

Local SEO isn't complicated, but it does need regular attention. Start by making sure your business name, address, and phone number are identical everywhere they appear online.

Check your website, your Google profile, your Facebook page, Yelp, any local directories you're listed on. If your address shows up as "123 Main St" in one place and "123 Main Street" in another, fix it. Google wants consistency.

Update your website's title tags and meta descriptions for 2025. Change "Best Plumber in Dubuque 2024" to "Best Plumber in Dubuque 2025." Small thing, but it signals your site is current.

Create some new content targeting local searches. Write a blog post about "What Dubuque Businesses Need in 2025" or "Serving the Tri-State Area Since..." Whatever makes sense for your business. Local content helps local rankings.

Clean Up Your Social Media

Look at your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn—wherever you have a presence. When's the last time you posted? If it's been months, people assume you're out of business.

You don't need to post every day. But you do need to look active. Aim for at least once a week. If that feels like too much, pick one platform and focus there instead of half-managing three.

Update your profile information. New cover photos, current bio, accurate hours and location. Remove old pinned posts that aren't relevant anymore.

And have a content plan for January. You don't need anything fancy. "New Year New Services" or "January Special" or "Meet Our Team" posts. Just something consistent so you're not scrambling for content every Monday morning.

Check Your Email Marketing Setup

Open your email marketing platform. When's the last time you sent something? If your most recent email says "Happy Summer," you've got work to do.

Clean your email list. Remove bounces and people who haven't opened anything in a year. A smaller engaged list is worth way more than a big dead list.

Update your email templates if they're still branded for 2024. Add current contact info, current offers, current everything.

Plan at least one email for early January. "New Year, New Services" or "What's Coming in 2025" or "Thank You to Our Customers." Something to reconnect with people who've gone cold over the holidays.

Review Your Analytics and Set New Goals

Log into Google Analytics. Look at your 2024 numbers. Which pages got the most traffic? Where did visitors come from? What content performed best?

Now think about 2025. What do you want to improve? More website traffic? More contact form submissions? Better rankings for specific keywords?

Set actual numbers. "Get more traffic" isn't a goal. "Increase website traffic by 25% in Q1" is a goal. "Get 10 more contact form submissions per month" is a goal.

Write these down somewhere you'll actually see them. Most business owners set goals in January and forget about them by February. Don't be that person.

Update Your Branding and Visuals

When's the last time you looked—really looked—at your logo, your colors, your photos? If your website still has that stock photo of a diverse group of people in suits shaking hands, it's time for new images.

You don't need a full rebrand. But you probably need fresh photos. Ideally of your actual team, your actual office, your actual products. Real photos build trust. Stock photos scream "I didn't try very hard."

For Dubuque businesses, show Dubuque. Photos that include local landmarks or recognizable locations connect with local customers. They see that and think "This is a local business that gets it."

Check that your branding is consistent across everything. Same logo, same colors, same tone on your website, social media, business cards, email signatures. Consistency looks professional.

Set Up Tracking and Conversion Monitoring

How do you know if your marketing works? You need to track things. Not just page views—actual conversions. Phone calls, form submissions, online purchases, whatever matters for your business.

Set up goal tracking in Google Analytics if you haven't already. This tells you which marketing channels actually bring in customers, not just traffic.

Use call tracking numbers if phone calls are important to your business. Use separate numbers for different marketing channels so you know which ads or pages drive calls.

Tag your URLs with UTM parameters if you're running ads or social media campaigns. This lets you see exactly which Facebook post or Google ad brought in leads.

Plan Your Content for Q1

You don't need a full year planned out. But you should have January through March roughly mapped. What blog posts will you write? What social media themes make sense? What email campaigns are you sending?

Think about seasonal opportunities. Tax season for accountants. Spring cleaning for home services. Wedding season for event businesses. What's relevant for you in Q1?

Create a simple content calendar. Doesn't need to be fancy. A spreadsheet works. Just something so you're not constantly asking "What should I post this week?"

And be realistic. If you can do one blog post a month and one social media post a week, plan for that. Don't plan to post daily if you've never managed that before.

Check Your Paid Advertising

If you're running Google Ads, Facebook ads, or any paid marketing, log in and look at your campaigns. Are they still relevant? Still working? Still targeting the right people?

Pause anything that's not performing. Update ad copy to remove 2024 references. Refresh your images if they're stale. Check that your landing pages still exist and load properly.

Review your budget. Did you run out of money halfway through last month because you forgot to check? Adjust your budget for January when search volume typically goes up.

And make sure your tracking pixels are still working. Facebook Pixel, Google conversion tracking, whatever you're using. These break sometimes and you don't notice until you've wasted weeks of ad spend.

Start This Week

Don't wait until January 1st. You'll be tired from the holidays and overwhelmed with everything else that piles up in early January. Do this stuff now while you have time to think.

Block out a few hours. Go through this checklist systematically. Fix what's broken, update what's outdated, plan what's next.

Not everything on this list will apply to your business. Pick what matters most. Focus there first. But don't skip the basics—Google Business Profile, website content, contact information. Those three things alone will put you ahead of most local businesses.

If this feels like too much to tackle on your own, that's fine. Most Dubuque business owners didn't get into business to become marketing experts. We help local businesses with this exact stuff—website updates, SEO, content planning, all of it. Reach out if you need help getting 2025 started right.