4 ways for marketers to build momentum for 2027 – right now

How can you plan your marketing months in advance when things change weekly or even daily?

With economic uncertainty and tech disruption changing customer behavior in real time, it might be tempting to just hit pause to see how things play out. But in our view, waiting usually means missed opportunities, which can leave you playing catch-up. Instead, we recommend four smart ways to start building momentum for 2027 now.

1. Crank up your customer research
When times change, so do priorities. Before committing to next year’s big messaging campaigns, check in with your audience to see what they care most about today. By devoting a modest percentage of your Q4 budget to qualitative and quantitative customer discovery, you’ll either get concrete evidence to back up your investments, or proof you should change course.

In particular, understanding the new non-linear customer journey is time well-spent. Internet users now discover brands and products through an average of 5.8 different sources.¹ What are their content and channel preferences? What is their online behavior? How can you best reach them? Now is the time to find out.

2. Build a nimble budget with room to pivot
Rigid annual plans can feel like a strait jacket, leaving you ill-prepared to grab hold of opportunity. In our experience, companies often carry forward initiatives just because they always have – call it marketing by habit. But challenging old assumptions and cutting dead weight can free up budget for important new bets.

While keeping your proven channels adequately funded, it’s smart to set aside, say, 15–20% of your budget for promising detours – ideas with big potential, even some outright experiments.

Be sure you’re ready to quickly reallocate resources to tools or tactics that suddenly gain traction. With average budgets nearly flat year over year according to Gartner,² it’s likely your marketing pie isn’t growing, so maximizing it becomes even more important.

3. Maintain a steady brand presence
When economic unease settles in, brands often get conservative and stay quiet in the market. But that’s actually the risky thing to do. As we discussed in a previous Marketing Myths blog, brands that increased marketing spend during difficult economic times saw a 17% increase in incremental sales compared to those that pulled back.

In particular, it’s vital to protect your upper-funnel and brand-positioning spend. Filling the void left by competitors sitting on the sidelines can help you win market share. In addition, reminding customers you’re a grounded, reliable partner in good times and bad can be a very effective strategy. Consider employing helpful, high-trust content such as clear thought leadership, customer success stories and transparent industry insights.

4. Adapt your content for the new AI landscape
Increasingly, the buying journey today begins with AI. With zero-click searches, customers can find what they want without going near your site, which is fundamentally reshaping brand discovery and engagement. Meanwhile, AI agents are gaining a foothold, too. In fact, 74% of consumers say they’d delegate routine tasks such as deal negotiation to an AI agent provided it acts strictly on instruction.³

So what does all this mean for you as a marketer? For one thing, you’ve got to focus on getting your brands and products to appear inside AI-generated responses. Start by auditing how your brand, products and solutions are cited across AI answer engines. Then optimize your content to become the authority these engines choose to answer user queries.

The same basic principle holds true with AI agents. While people tend to go with their heart, agents are impressed only by logic and proof. So you’ve got to adapt your content to make sure it can attract both your human buyers and the AI working on their behalf.

Winning 2027 starts in Q4 2026
By committing to staying close to buyers, budgeting flexibly, investing in your brand, and preparing for AI, you can ensure your company gets out ahead of today’s economic and technological shifts. To learn how our marketing agency can help with all these priorities, contact us today.

¹ DataReportal, Digital 2025: How People Discover New Brands, February 2025
² Gartner, 2026 CMO Spend Survey
³ Accenture, Talk to my AI agent: The new rules of brand value, June 3, 2026