The Overlooked Quarter: How to Drive Revenue and Retention in Q5

Q5 refers to the days between December 26 and mid-to-late January, and it’s one of the most overlooked, undervalued periods in marketing. While it isn’t a traditional 3 month quarter, it behaves like one, with unique consumer behaviors, challenges, and opportunities.

While many brands use this time to reset, strategic marketers see it as an opportunity to drive incremental revenue, strengthen retention, and test for the year ahead.

What Are the Benefits of Q5 Marketing? 

Q5 gives marketers a rare mix of high-intent and low competition, but only if you know how to use it.

Maximizing Post-Holiday Revenue

Shoppers don’t stop spending after December 25th — they just shift focus. Consumers are still checking their inboxes, browsing for deals, and ready to spend gift cards. Q5 is a prime window to drive redemptions, push clearance inventory, and capitalize on purchases tied to New Year goals.

Enhancing Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

Q4 often brings a surge of first-time customers who received your products as gifts rather than purchasing them for themselves. Q5 is your chance to turn that seasonal momentum into long-term growth. By launching timely post-purchase flows and messaging, brands can convert new audiences into loyal customers, strengthen retention, and boost lifetime value before January ends.

Gaining Competitive Advantage

While many brands pull back spend after the holidays, staying active in Q5 gives you a competitive edge. With lower auction pressure and quieter inboxes, your campaigns stand out more easily. That creates a cost-effective way to grow share of voice and outperform brands that are going quiet.

Data Collection and Future Planning

Q5 is a low-pressure environment to experiment. Use it to test messaging, creative, and audience segments in real time. The insights you gather can inform your Q1 strategy and set the stage for future campaigns.

Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Winning Q5 Marketing Strategy

The key to Q5 is planning before the holidays hit. Here’s where to focus:

• Budget Allocation: Set aside a portion of your Q4 budget for Q5. As CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) drop, you can stretch your dollars further and drive stronger ROAS (return on ad spend).
• Creative: Build Q5-specific assets. Think: gift card prompts, “new year” themes, clearance sales, and “treat yourself” language.
• Inventory: Determine what products didn’t move in Q4 and flag what’s likely to come back as returns. Build bundles, discounts, or limited-time offers to move those items fast without eroding margin. 

Step 1: Audit Q4 Performance and Segment Your Audiences

Start by reviewing Q4 campaign data to see what sold, how it sold, and who bought it. Look closely at your top-performing SKUs, acquisition sources that drove the most volume, and whether purchases were made as gifts or self-buys. 

Then, segment your audiences accordingly. Prioritize first-time buyers who came in during the holidays, likely gift recipients (you can often determine them through shipping addresses or gift notes), cart abandoners, and your highest-value customers.

This level of segmentation lets you build Q5 campaigns that are highly personalized across channels. 

Step 2: Set Measurable, Outcome-Based Goals

Your Q5 objectives should be clear, measurable, and directly tied to business outcomes.

Think: driving repeat purchases from new customers, increasing subscription or loyalty program sign-ups, and increasing average order value (AOV) through strategic post-holiday offers.

Ensure that every KPI (key performance indicator) directly supports either short-term revenue or long-term retention.

Step 3: Execute a Full-Funnel Channel Strategy

Paid Media

• Shift spend away from broad prospecting and focus on retargeting high-intent segments like gift card holders, cart abandoners, and recent purchasers.
• Use dynamic product ads (DPAs) to showcase clearance items or recommended add-ons based on holiday shopping behaviors. 
• Build lookalike audiences based on your highest-value Q4 buyers to capture new audiences.

Email & SMS

• Build automated flows for gift card holders, first-time buyers, and recent holiday customers. These are your highest-intent segments in Q5 and should be nurtured. 
• Use post-purchase emails to deliver product tips, personalized upsells, and reminders about loyalty rewards or points.
• Run A/B tests on subject lines that focus on resolution themes, gift card redemptions, and New Year messaging.

Influencer & UGC Marketing

• Re-engage high-performing Q4 influencers with briefs focused on self-care, home, wellness, or habit-building.
• Lean into post-holiday curiosity. As consumers consider what they still want to purchase for themselves, partner with influencers or feature user-generated content (UGC) showcasing “What I Got” or “Holiday Haul” content to inspire audiences to buy the products they didn’t receive.
• Secure usage rights for top-performing content so you can reuse it across paid and owned channels.

Affiliate Marketing

• Offer Q5-specific commission bonuses or tiered incentives to re-activate strong Q4 partners.
• Supply partners with updated banners, landing pages, and messaging centered on gift card redemptions and clearance sales.
• Promote bundles or post-holiday bundles that drive urgency and boost AOV.
  

Retail Media

• Focus spend on Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands across Amazon, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, and Instacart to promote clearance items, bundles, and restocked bestsellers.
• Retarget holiday shoppers and cart abandoners using retail media networks’ first-party data (both within their platforms and across off-site placements via DSPs) to re-engage high-intent audiences post-holiday.
• Update Storefronts with Q5-relevant categories like “Gift Card Picks” or “New Year Essentials.”
• Launch Flash Deals on TikTok Shop to move clearance inventory, or pair UGC with shoppable links to drive impulse buys.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Publish seasonal content hubs that address New Year aspirations like health and wellness, organization, financial planning, or personal development. 
• Don’t delete old holiday pages. Identify which holiday content performed well and can be transformed into evergreen content.
• Use analytics (Google Search Console, Google Analytics) to find what users searched for but didn’t find on your site during the holidays. Create new content to fill these gaps.

Step 4: Maximize Post-Purchase Engagement

Q5 is a prime time to deepen customer relationships and build long-term loyalty. Use product tutorials, surveys, and review prompts to keep customers engaged after purchase, and invite them to join your loyalty program when it feels most relevant. Look for natural follow-up points (for example: 10 days post delivery) to introduce complementary products or upgrades, and handle returns proactively to turn them into exchanges instead of lost revenue.

Step 5: Track, Learn, and Adapt in Real Time

Q5 moves fast, so your insights need to keep up. Monitor return rates, gift card redemptions, and repeat purchases closely. Keep a pulse on channel performance (example: ROAS, open rates, click-throughs, unsubscribes) and shift budget toward what’s working. The insights gained here can be used to optimize your Q1 approach. 

What to Look For: Q5 Marketing Trends

Here are the crucial marketing trends you’ll want to watch to stay competitive in the post-holiday period:

Community Building & UGC

Post-holiday, people want to show how they’re using what they bought or received. Expect brands to lean into influencer content and UGC across ads, emails, and landing pages to connect with audiences in a more relatable way.

Loyalty + Retention Campaigns Over Acquisition

Brands will prioritize recent customers and high-intent leads over cold acquisition. Expect loyalty perks, win-back flows, and surprise offers to show up earlier, not just after purchase, but during retargeting, remarketing, and lead nurturing.

AI-Driven Optimization

Q5 moves fast, but your campaign optimizations have to move faster. Expect more brands to lean on AI tools to quickly test and adapt creative variations, subject lines, SMS copy, PDP banners, and budget allocation in real time.

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With the right mix of planning, segmentation, and channel execution, Q5 can unlock high-margin revenue, deepen customer relationships, and set your brand up for a stronger Q1. 

Need a partner to help you build and execute a performance-ready Q5 strategy? WITHIN’s experts can help.

Let’s Chat

 

Author
Jackie Tom, Head of Integrated Media