If you can only do three marketing things, do these
No time, no budget, no idea where to begin? These three free basics do more for a local business than everything else combined.
· 2 min read
Marketing advice is endless, and most of it assumes you have a team. If you are running the business yourself and can spare a few hours this month, skip the long lists. Do these three things, in this order, and you will be ahead of most of your competitors.
1. Own your Google Business Profile
When people nearby search for what you sell, Google shows a map and a short list of businesses. Getting on that list, with correct hours, real photos and a way to call you, is the highest-value hour you can spend on marketing. It is free.
What "done" looks like: your profile is claimed and verified, every field is filled in, your hours are right, and you have at least ten real photos.
2. Ask for reviews every week
Reviews are the proof that makes a stranger choose you. They also help you show up more often in local searches. You do not need hundreds. You need a steady trickle of recent ones.
What "done" looks like: you have your review link saved on your phone, and you ask five happy customers a week, in person or by text, right after you have done good work for them.
3. Stay in touch with the customers you already have
It costs far less effort to bring a past customer back than to find a new one. Yet most small businesses never contact a customer again after the sale. Collect email addresses (with permission) and send one short, useful email a month.
What "done" looks like: you have an email service set up, a signup form at the counter and on your website, and a date on the calendar for your first email.
Why these three
They share three qualities that matter when time and money are short:
- They are free. The only cost is your time.
- They build on themselves. A review you earn today keeps working for years. An email subscriber can buy from you again and again.
- They reach people who are already looking, or who already know you. That is much easier than interrupting strangers.
What can wait
You can safely put these off until the three basics are running:
- Paid ads
- Being on every social platform
- A website redesign
- A logo refresh
- Video
None of them are bad. They simply pay off more once the foundation is in place.
Do this today
Block ninety minutes on your calendar this week and label it "Google profile." That is step one, and it is the only thing you need to think about until it is done.