The 30-minute monthly marketing checklist

Marketing rarely fails because an owner did the wrong thing. It fails because nothing happened for three months. Busy seasons hit, the Facebook page goes quiet, the hours on Google are wrong, and a bad review sits unanswered.

The cure is a short routine. Put thirty minutes on your calendar for the first of every month and work down this list.

Google (10 minutes)

• Search for your business. Are the hours, phone number and address correct?
• Reply to every review you have not answered.
• Add three new photos to your Google Business Profile.
• Post one update: an offer, an event or a recent job.

Reviews (5 minutes)

• Count the reviews you received last month. Write the number down.
• Text your review link to five happy customers from the past few weeks.

Social media (5 minutes)

• Look at last month's posts. Which one got the most comments? Plan one more like it.
• Check that your page's hours, phone number and website link are current.
• Make sure no customer message is sitting unanswered.

Email (5 minutes)

• Send your monthly email, or schedule the day you will write it.
• Check that your signup form still works by signing up yourself.

Website (5 minutes)

• Open your site on your phone. Does it load, and does the main button work?
• Is anything out of date: old prices, a past event, last season's special?

Keep score with three numbers

You do not need a dashboard. Once a month, write these in a notebook or a spreadsheet:

1. New Google reviews this month.
2. Calls or messages that came from Google or social media. (Ask new customers "How did you hear about us?" and tally the answers.)
3. Email subscribers in total.

After a few months you will see which efforts are moving those numbers, and that tells you where your limited time should go.

If you only have ten minutes

Do the Google section. For a local business, an accurate, active Google profile with fresh reviews does more than anything else on this list.

Do this today

Create a repeating calendar event for the first of each month called "Marketing: 30 minutes" and paste this checklist into the notes.