5 Marketing Moves to Make This September
5 Marketing Moves to Make in September That Save Your Holiday Season
Every September, we sit down with business owners who are already deep into Q4, and the first thing we ask isn't "how's it going?" It's "show us the plan."
More often than not, there isn't one on paper.
Here's the math we walk them through. Thanksgiving lands on November 26, Black Friday on the 27th, Small Business Saturday on the 28th, and Cyber Monday closes it out on the 30th. That's the entire holiday window, four days carrying a wildly disproportionate share of the quarter.
Last season, U.S. shoppers spent $257.8 billion online over November and December, up 6.8% from the year before, and forecasters expect this year to land higher still. More spending, but also more brands bidding on the same placements, landing in the same inboxes, competing for the same finite attention.
So here's the test we give every client. If we asked you to describe your Q4 marketing plan in one sentence, could you?
If the answer is no, these are the five things we fix first.
1. Start With Last Year's Data, Not a Blank Calendar
Most owners build their Q4 calendar from scratch every year, which means throwing away the only reliable intelligence they have: what actually worked last time.
Before we plan a single post, we pull the previous Q4 (if available): top-performing organic posts, highest-opening emails, best-converting ad creative, and the specific days revenue actually spiked.
Almost every time, at least one finding contradicts what the owner assumed. The email everyone thought was a throwaway outperformed the big campaign. The sale peaked on a Tuesday nobody was watching.
That audit is what turns a calendar from a guess into a plan and it's why the deadline matters.
2. Decide Your Channel Mix Before the Auction Gets Crowded
You'll hear that Q4 ad costs explode and you have to buy early to beat the surge. The real picture is more useful than that.
Within a single quarter, costs climb. Meta CPMs tend to run around $9 in October and roughly $12 at peak. But year over year, platforms are diverging sharply rather than all inflating together. Through the 2025 Cyber Five, Meta and YouTube CPMs were actually down from the previous year, while Instagram placements rose 9–16% and Reddit rose 14%.
So the reason to decide in September isn't to lock in a cheaper price. It's that November is the worst possible time to be figuring out which channel your money belongs in. Set the number and the split now, keep a defined slice unallocated, and move that slice toward whatever's actually performing once the data comes in.
3. Make Sure You're Findable by AI, Not Just Google
This is the newest item on our September checklist, and the one most owners haven't touched.
The numbers here are genuinely striking. Traffic to retail sites from AI platforms grew 693% year over year across last November and December. Those visitors converted 31% better than traffic from other sources, 54% better on Thanksgiving itself, bounced 33% less, and spent 45% more time on site.
Now the honest part, because it changes what you should do about it: the base is still small. AI referrals are a fast-growing sliver of total traffic, not a channel that will carry your quarter. Treat it as a cheap fix with a rising payoff, not an emergency.
And it genuinely is cheap. Type your business into ChatGPT or Gemini right now. If what comes back is vague, dated, or wrong, that's a copy problem you can solve in an afternoon: your website, menu, and services pages need to plainly state what you offer, who it's for, and where you are. Adobe's own research found most retail sites still aren't structured in a way these tools can read cleanly, which means the bar to clear is lower than you'd expect.
4. Build a Cadence, Not a Content Dump
A steady, predictable rhythm outperforms a panic burst in the two weeks before Christmas, and not just for your audience's attention span.
Mailbox providers read sudden volume spikes as a spam signal. Going quiet through October and then firing five sends in one week is exactly the pattern that lands your Black Friday email in Promotions or worse.
The brands that get delivered in late November are the ones that were already sending in early October.
5. Save Room for the Human Stuff
The Q4 content that performs best for our clients usually isn't a discount code.
It's a thank-you to the regulars. A behind-the-scenes look at the team gearing up for the season. A local partnership with nothing to sell. When every competitor is shouting a percentage off, the brand that sounds like a person is the one that gets remembered in January, and January is when repeat purchases either happen or don't.
Let's Start the Conversation
There's still enough runway to build a Q4 plan you're proud of. There isn't enough to wing it. If you want a second set of eyes on your calendar, your budget, or a straight answer on whether your plan actually holds up. that's exactly the kind of conversation we like to have over brunch.
Let's start the conversation. Email info@sundaybrunchagency.com
