Free Marketing Actions That Make a Real Difference
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile. Free. Takes about one hour. Affects every local search result for your business. If you have not done this yet, it should be the first thing you do.
- Ask your 3 best customers for Google reviews. Free. Takes 5 minutes to send 3 text messages. Each review improves both your search visibility and your credibility with new customers.
- Take 10 good photos of your business. Photograph your storefront, your products, your team at work, a finished project, and your workspace. Upload them to your Google listing and social media profiles. Businesses with photos get dramatically more engagement than those without.
- Update your hours everywhere. Check Google, Facebook, Yelp, and any other platform where your business is listed. Make sure hours are current and identical. Wrong hours posted online cost businesses real customers every day.
- Post an update on Google Business Profile. You can post updates, offers, and events directly on your Google profile. It takes 3 minutes and signals to Google that your business is active and engaged. Even one post per month helps.
- Tell 5 people what you do. Not as a sales pitch — just in conversation. "I just started doing [service] for local businesses in the area." Word of mouth begins with actually speaking the words.
- Google yourself. Search your business name. See what comes up. If any information is wrong anywhere, fix it. If you do not show up at all, now you know exactly what to work on first.
Consistency beats budget: A business owner who does 3 free marketing actions every week for 3 months will see better results than someone who spends $500 on a one-time ad campaign. Marketing is a habit built over time, not a single event.