28 marketing ideas for your business
Written for owners, not marketers: every idea is specific, free or nearly free, and most take under 30 minutes. Grouped by what you are trying to make happen.
More customers this month
Describe yourself in the words people search
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.
About 45 min
Log where every enquiry came from
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.
About 0 min extra
Publish one piece of proof a week
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.
About 20 min
Reply to every review you have
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.
About 30 min
Ask at the moment they say thank you
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.
About 20 min
Follow up every enquiry that went quiet
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.
About 45 min
Read your log and cut one thing
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.
About 15 min
Fill my quiet days
Name your quietest stretch exactly
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.
About 10 min
Give people a reason that repeats
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.
About 20 min
Ask the people who already know you
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.
About 25 min
Find one partner with the same customers
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.
About 30 min
Sell the quiet window as the benefit
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.
About 20 min
Run it and ask every single person
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.
About 0 min extra
Compare the same window, week to week
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.
About 10 min
Want these as a day-by-day plan instead of a list? The free 7-day plan arranges them for your exact goal, no account needed.
Launch something new
Write the one-liner and say it out loud
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.
About 20 min
Tease a detail and a date
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.
About 15 min
Tell your customers a day early
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.
About 20 min
Reveal it properly, everywhere at once
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.
About 30 min
Show the first customer, not the product
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.
About 15 min
Send the reminder everyone needs
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.
About 15 min
Judge it on money and repeat use
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.
About 15 min
Get known locally
Claim every local listing tonight
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.
About 45 min
Choose the one thing to be known for
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.
About 15 min
Tell the story only you can tell
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.
About 25 min
Be useful where your town talks
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.
About 20 min
Do one genuine collaboration
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.
About 30 min
Make one thing worth photographing
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.'
About 25 min
Set a drumbeat you can actually keep
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.
About 20 min
Or stop doing this alone.
Kate, an AI CMO, and twelve specialists do all of the above for your business: the posts written, the pictures planned, the numbers read. 14-day trial, card to start, cancel before it ends to avoid a charge.