The 6-Month Marketing Reset: Rebuilding Strategy for ROI in Q3 & Q4

We’ve moved into the second half of the year, but that doesn’t mean slowing down and letting your efforts of Q1 and Q2 carry you the rest of the way. It means taking a step back and finding out if the marketing strategy you’ve used so far is still working. In a market that’s always evolving and targeting customers with changing demands, you can’t assume that your current marketing strategy is the most effective approach.

The marketing campaigns you launched in January were based on assumptions from last year, but we’re many, many months beyond that now. Your customers might have changed, your competition has definitely changed, and there’s bound to be a whole host of new marketing trends to pay attention to. This is why it’s time for a marketing strategy reset.

The Importance of a Mid-Year Marketing Strategy Reset

A marketing reset halfwaythrough the year isn’t a ‘nice thing to do’ for your business, it’s an essential step as you journey towards the end of the year.

Q1 and Q2 Provide New Data

You’ve had half of the year to gather data about your marketing efforts, customers, ROI, and successes, giving you an up-to-date insight into your business. You can use this to determine which content converted, how customers interacted across touchpoints, and which campaigns didn’t work as well as you had hoped. Without a marketing strategy reset, those insights won’t get used, and you’re probably still marketing based on data from last year. A reset means being able to put more effort into strategies that had an impact, and learning from those that didn’t.

Your Customers Have Evolved

Trust us, your customers have likely evolved since the start of the year, even in a fairly reliable industry. Economic shifts, industry trends, seasonality, and even cultural events can change buyer behaviour quickly, so you’re no longer marketing to the exact same people. The motivations your audience had in January to buy may not apply now, and their needs will probably shift again by Q4. A marketing strategy reset forces you to familiarise yourself with current buyer personas, value propositions, and customer journeys, and realign your messaging with that in mind.

You Can Still Influence Your Year End

Q4 is a crucial time for businesses in many industries, and you need to finish strong. Waiting until later in the year to rethink your marketing strategy is too late; there’s simply not enough time for any big changes to have a significant impact. With a mid-year marketing strategy reset, you have time to launch adjusted campaigns and optimise them, knowing that changes will have time to work. It also gives you enough time to test new marketing tools and techniques before the rush of Q4. If you make changes to your marketing strategy now, there’s time for everything to build momentum before you reach December.

Budget Allocation Needs a Refresh

You need to be measuring your marketing spend against ROI, especially as you enter the second half of the year and costs quickly add up. With a marketing strategy reset, you can identify and cut spending on any marketing campaigns that aren’t bringing in leads, decide what to put additional investment towards based on what’s working, and redirect funds towards year end opportunities, such as seasonal promos.

There’s No Better Time for a Marketing Strategy Reset

There’s no point in putting off doing a marketing strategy reset, as now is the ideal time to get the ball rolling. Not only is mid-year the ideal pit stop – you can look back and see how far you’ve come, but also look forward knowing you have time to go even further – but it’s also when you’re likely to have the time.

The Summer Slowdown Gives You Time to Reset

For a lot of businesses, things slow down in summer. With decision-makers on holiday, customers prioritising spending money on days out and travelling, and everyone outside soaking up the sun, sales often drop. This gives you more time to focus on a marketing reset, knowing you don’t already have too much on your plate. It’s a lot easier to throw yourself into performance reviews, create new marketing campaigns, change your messaging, and implement new tools when you don’t also have a mountain of other things to do.

Marketing Trends Are Fully Formed

At the start of the year, a lot of what you do is decided with guesswork, based on what you think might happen in 2025. But, by mid-year, the dust has settled and things are clearer. Now, you know which consumer trends are the most important and which marketing platforms and tactics have proven their worth, and you know which trends are long gone. You also know what your competitors are up to. This means you can make data-backed decisions, rather than chasing hype and making assumptions.

There’s Still Time Make an Impact

With a strong marketing reset now, you have five full months left to launch new campaigns, change your strategy, hit your annual KPIs and really make a difference. Marketing doesn’t lead to instant results; you have to give your campaigns time to work. By doing a full marketing reset now, there’s still time for your new approaches to take effect and boost ROI before 2026 creeps up.

What Goes Into a 6-Month Marketing Reset?

• Thoroughly Audit Q1 and Q2 – Don’t just look at surface-level metrics and hope something jumps out at you. A reset only works if you thoroughly look at all aspects of your marketing, including traffic and conversions, engagement and ROI by content type, lead quality, sales team feedback, engagement, and email marketing performance. Identify where your strengths are and what needs to be improved going forward.

• Decide What Success Looks Like for Q3 and Q4 – It’s important to set clear goals, with specific outcomes, for Q3 and Q4. Instead of focusing on how many people are visiting your website or how many times a social media post was shared, focus on what success actually looks like. Are you wanting sales to go up by 15%, or do you want to reduce the cost of acquiring customers by 10%? Do you want to convert double the amount of leads off the back of webinars, or do you want to retarget leads that have gone cold? Everyone needs to be on the same page about what marketing success really looks like.

• Optimise Your Mix of Marketing Approaches – Use data from Q1 and Q2 to adjust your mix of marketing techniques, tools, and channels. With knowledge of what worked well and what didn’t provide a strong ROI, you can rebalance things. This means looking at how much organic and paywall content you provide, how much of your marketing is done via email versus text messaging, how many virtual and in-person events you host, and how much of your search results are paid versus SEO-driven. Scale back where you need to, and scale up where ROI is clear.

• Rework Messaging with Current Buyers in Mind – You need to make sure your messaging still resonates with your target audience. Review your tone, offers, and positioning, and ensure you’re speaking to the real pain points that your buyers have right now. Your messaging needs to reflect the objections they’re currently voicing during the sales funnel, not objections that one or two customers had last year. Highlight what differentiates your business today, not what differentiated you last year.

• Leave Room to Make Changes – Q4 can be busy and chaotic, and there are changes happening everywhere. Your budgets might change, the market may shift, key members of your team could leave, and your competition could do something completely innovative, leaving you behind. Make sure that your marketing strategy allows for agility and your efforts are flexible enough to be tweaked at a moment’s notice.

There’s a lot that goes into a marketing strategy reset, but you don’t need to do it alone. With Profici, you have the guidance, expertise and insight needed to develop a marketing strategy that’s as impressive as you are.

Book a half-year marketing strategy session.