A Q4 Tune-Up You Can Run This Week

October is the perfect “pit stop” between back-to-school chaos and holiday crush. A quick, focused communications audit helps you finish the year strong—and set 2026 up right! Here’s a simple 90-minute framework you (or your team) can run immediately.

Why this works

You don’t need a month-long study to spot high-leverage fixes. In 90 minutes, you can align messages, prune underperforming channels, and pick three moves that actually move the needle before year-end.

Agenda (90 minutes total)

1) Audience & Message Check (20 min)

  • Top 3 audiences right now: (e.g., customers, prospects, partners).

  • Core promise per audience (one sentence each): “We help ___ do ___ so they can ___.”

  • Proof snapshots: 3–5 recent wins, stats, or stories that validate the promise.

  • Drift test: Compare the promise on your homepage, LinkedIn, and sales deck. Is it the same story? If not, flag the gaps.

Output: A one-page Message Snapshot you can paste into briefs, sales decks, and PR pitches.

2) Content Gap Sprint (20 min)

Audit the last 60–90 days of posts, emails, and articles. Tag each as Teach, Prove, Invite, or Celebrate.

  • Teach: How-tos, frameworks, POV.

  • Prove: Case studies, testimonials, data drops.

  • Invite: Calls to action—book, demo, download, apply.

  • Celebrate: People, customers, culture, milestones.

Look for:

  • Overweight “Teach,” underweight “Prove” (common B2B problem).

  • Missing Invite (audience isn’t sure what to do next).

  • “Celebrate” with no context (nice, but why it matters?).

Output: 3 content gaps you can fill in the next two weeks.

3) Reputation & Risk Scan (10 min)

  • Search yourself: Page 1 results + recent reviews/mentions.

  • List top 3 FAQs/concerns you’re hearing from customers or reporters.

  • Draft one 3-sentence response per concern (plain language, link to proof).

Output: A mini response bank for sales and social—your future self will thank you.

4) Decide Your Q4 “Rule of Three” (15 min)

Pick one priority in each lane:

  1. Message: e.g., “Unify homepage, LinkedIn banner, and email welcome around our one-sentence promise.”

  2. Channel: e.g., “Double-down on LinkedIn (3 posts/week), park Twitter/X through Dec.”

  3. Content: e.g., “Ship two proof pieces: a 400-word case study and a 6-slide mini-deck.”

Write the owner, deadline, and success metric for each. If it doesn’t fit on a sticky note, it’s too big.

Quick Wins You Can Ship This Week

  • Homepage hero rewrite: One promise + one proof + one clear CTA.

  • LinkedIn refresh: New banner with your promise; pin a proof post.

  • Email welcome tweak: Add a one-sentence value promise and a “start here” link.

  • Case study mini-format: Problem → Plan → Proof → Payoff (150–250 words).

  • PR angle sharpen: Turn your best proof into a point-of-view pitch (“What everyone gets wrong about ___ and what our data shows.”)

Lightweight Templates (copy/paste)

One-Sentence Promise:
“We help [audience] do [valuable action] so they can [business outcome]—without [pain you remove].”

3-Sentence Proof Story:
“In Q3, [customer] needed [goal]. We [what you did], resulting in [quant result or quote]. That’s why [audience] chooses us for [category].”

Mini Pitch (email/LI DM):
“Noticed you’re tackling [topic]. We just helped [peer/customer] achieve [result]—happy to share the 3 steps (and the one to skip). Worth a 15-minute walk-through?”

How to Keep Momentum Through December

  • Cadence guardrails: 1 weekly flagship post, 1 proof item/month, 1 invite/month.

  • 90-minute Friday huddle: Score channels, pick one improvement, commit publicly.

  • Archive learnings: What worked, what didn’t, what to scale in 2026.

We like to keep the blog light, but sometimes we all just need a check list. Hopefully this helps get you on track for 2026!