28 marketing ideas for your business

1. Describe yourself in the words people search45 min

Rewrite your Google Business Profile description and categories in the words a customer would type, not the words your industry uses. Add ten photos of real work. Most local enquiries are decided on that listing alone.

2. Log where every enquiry came from0 min extra

One extra column in a notebook or spreadsheet on every enquiry: how they found you. A month of that is the most valuable marketing data a small business can own, and it costs nothing but the pen.

3. Publish one piece of proof a week20 min

Pick one recent job and post what the problem was, what you did and what changed. Specific proof beats a list of services, because the reader recognises their own problem in yours.

4. Reply to every review you have30 min

Answer every review from the last three months in two friendly lines. Active listings rank higher locally, and your replies are read by everybody who is deciding whether to get in touch.

5. Ask at the moment they say thank you20 min

The moment to ask for a review or a referral is the moment a customer thanks you. Have the link saved on your phone and ask right then, not next week when the feeling has faded.

6. Follow up every enquiry that went quiet45 min

Contact every enquiry from the last two months that never replied, once, politely. Most small businesses never follow up at all, which means this is money already sitting in your inbox.

7. Read your log and cut one thing15 min

Look at your enquiry log. Do more of the route that's working and stop paying for whatever brought nothing. Cutting a dead channel is worth as much as finding a live one.

8. Name your quietest stretch exactly10 min

Look at last month and pick your single quietest window — a day, or a few hours. The whole week aims at that exact window, not at 'more business' in general.

9. Give people a reason that repeats20 min

Create one small recurring reason to come or book then: an off-peak rate, a fixed-price short session, a first-timers slot. Recurring beats one-off, because people learn the rhythm and plan around it.

10. Ask the people who already know you25 min

Tell your existing customers first — your list, your regulars, anyone you've worked for. Moving an existing customer to a different day is far cheaper than persuading a stranger to try you at all.

11. Find one partner with the same customers30 min

Approach a nearby non-competing business that serves the same people and swap: their customers get your quiet-window offer, yours get theirs. Two audiences, no spend, and it takes one conversation.

12. Sell the quiet window as the benefit20 min

Post the evening before: more time, no waiting, undivided attention. Every business has customers who would rather come when it's calm — they simply don't know when calm is.

13. Run it and ask every single person0 min extra

During the window, ask everyone what brought them in that day. Six real answers will tell you more than a month of guessing ever will.

14. Compare the same window, week to week10 min

Put this week's numbers against last week's for the same hours. Better? Keep it for a month. Flat? Change one thing — the offer, not the window — and run it again.

15. Write the one-liner and say it out loud20 min

Finish this: 'it's [what], for [who], and the reason you'll want it is [the one specific thing].' Then say it to someone outside your trade. If they don't get it, the launch isn't ready yet.

16. Tease a detail and a date15 min

Post one close-up or behind-the-scenes glimpse and a day. No name, no price. Curiosity does the heavy lifting and it costs you nothing at all.

17. Tell your customers a day early20 min

Give your regulars, your list and your team the news first, with a small first-mover perk. Launches travel through the people who feel like insiders, so make some.

18. Reveal it properly, everywhere at once30 min

Launch post: your best daylight photo, the one-liner, the price said plainly, one clear ask. Update your Google profile and every other listing the same hour so the story matches wherever people find you.

19. Show the first customer, not the product15 min

Post the first person using it, with permission, and what they said about it. One real customer is worth ten sentences of your own description.

20. Send the reminder everyone needs15 min

Post again a few days later for the people who scrolled past: different image, same sentence. Most sales come from the second telling, not the first.

21. Judge it on money and repeat use15 min

Count who bought, what it cost you to deliver, and whether anyone came back for it. Keep it, re-price it, or retire it — decided by those three numbers.

22. Claim every local listing tonight45 min

Be findable and identical everywhere locals look: Google, Apple Maps, Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor and any town directory. Same name, same photo, same hours. Inconsistency quietly costs you trust and search ranking.

23. Choose the one thing to be known for15 min

Pick the single thing you want your town to associate with you and commit to featuring it in most of what you post this month. Famous for one beats average at everything.

24. Tell the story only you can tell25 min

Post why you started, the thing that went wrong and taught you the job, the person who gave you your first chance. Local people follow people, and this is consistently the highest-reach post a small business makes.

25. Be useful where your town talks20 min

Find the two or three local groups or community feeds that matter and be useful in them: answer, recommend, congratulate. Never advertise. Useful neighbours get remembered and tagged.

26. Do one genuine collaboration30 min

Offer a nearby business a real collaboration: a combined offer, a shared giveaway, recommending each other properly. Their audience meets you with built-in trust, which is the cheapest reach in local marketing.

27. Make one thing worth photographing25 min

Create one thing people will point a phone at: a sign with a line they repeat, a wall, a piece of packaging. Then ask, on a small card, 'tag us — we repost our favourites.'

28. Set a drumbeat you can actually keep20 min

Three posts a week — one behind the scenes, one showing the work, one human — plus ten minutes a day replying to every comment, review and tag. Six weeks of rhythm changes what your town thinks of first.