What Marketing Does a New Small Business Actually Need First?

Four people called you this month and each of them said that their thing was the first thing. In just about every case, what marketing does a new business need first comes down to a profile, one page that converts, and one channel.

In this Guide

• Why the profile comes before the website
• What the first ten reviews actually do
• What one page has to contain
• What you do not need yet

What marketing does a new small business actually need first?

One Google Business Profile, one page that converts, one channel that’s set up well, because the profile gets people who are already looking, the page gets them, and the channel amplifies what works.

The profile is free, fast and targeted to existing demand. Marketing for a new small business is not a budget issue, it’s a sequencing issue.

What does the first ninety days look like?

Two weeks on the profile, two weeks on the first ten reviews, three to four weeks on one page, one week on measurement, then a full quarter on one channel.

The point is the gates. If you move to step two before step one, you buy a website that nobody visits.

If you’re wondering where to start with marketing, start with this table, and when you want anything done for you, check out the services behind each step to learn what the steps are, how long they take, and how much they cost.

Step one, the profile. Why does it come before the website?

A completed profile will place the business in front of people looking for what it offers within weeks, with no cost, whereas a website won’t reach anyone unless something sends traffic to it.

On a phone, the map results sit above the organic ones. The profile drives them, not the site, so a new business with no links can still appear there.

Completing it means a correct name, hours, categories, service area and photos. Check out Google’s guidelines for representing your business on how to name it, as including your service and city in the name may lead to suspension.

These first marketing steps new business owners overlook take only an afternoon, so claim and finish the profile before you put a dollar into anything else, even a website at all.

Why do the first ten reviews matter more than the next fifty?

A profile without any reviews is untested; a profile that has 10 recent reviews is a business, and that decides whether people call.

Your first customers were likely people you knew. That is word of mouth, not a strategy, but the easiest reviews you will get.

Ask in person at the end of the job, not by email days later. Say: “If you were happy, would you leave us a quick review? I can send the link now!”

Asking every customer the same thing, every single time, right after the job, is how you get the first ten reviews fast, without chasing strangers or paying others to write them for you.

Step two: one page that converts

One page saying what you do, for whom and where, provides proof, loads quickly on a phone and asks for one action beats an eight-page site.

The standard a first site is evaluated against is less effort than what most owners dread and more effort than what most templates require, as evidenced by Google’s helpful content guidelines. Test conversion yourself: give your phone to a stranger and ask what the business does and what to do next, then time it.

A first site that does one thing well, and does it quickly, feels like one page built to be called from, and the booking or call action is above the fold on a phone.

If you already have a page and get visits without calls, read about why visitors arrive and leave before you rebuild anything or pay for more visitors to your page.

Step three: how do I pick the one channel?

Choose the channel that has the demand: paid search if you need customers this month; local search if you can wait a quarter; social if the product is visual.

The long-term channel is local search. It’s not expensive, and it builds over time, which means earning the local searches over time, so it won’t fill next week’s calendar, but it will go a long way.

The quick channel is paid search. If owners need customers this month and can afford the clicks, they may be buying demand while the rest builds under a daily cap you set, and they can turn off the tap quickly.

Social fits a visual product that is discovered, not searched. It is 1 channel, 1 quarter, 1 measurement.

Why does local come before everything else?

A new business can only win, in its first year, the searches within a few miles of its location.

A plumber in Cypress or Houston is not competing against a plumber in New York. Explore businesses we start with in Texas for how this plays out for first-year owners in each local market.

What do you not need yet?

A calendar across four platforms, a blog twice a week, a rebrand, an app, email automation, a video day, national SEO and a CRM, none useful before the first three steps work.

Each is useful down the road, just not in this order.

What should the first year cost?

Less than most owners expect, because the profile and reviews cost a lot of time rather than money, and the real budget decision arrives at step five.

There are three types of new business marketing budget: free, one-off and monthly. Evaluate any offer by which of the five steps it falls into, and for price bands, see what the market charges per month before looking at multiple offers from various vendors, or signing anything at all.

What to hand over, and when?

Delegate work to someone who specializes in it, keep work that you have to do personally, and hand over nothing before you know it worked.

So you’ve got 4 vendors who’ve all pitched to you in the same month, and Google’s Do you need an SEO guidance says when to hire help and what you should be wary of.

If you’re considering hiring versus outsourcing the entire project, look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics page, which publishes salary data for marketing managers and gives you a fair comparison.

With step one, an owner should not require an agency; if someone is selling an agency, they are selling the wrong thing.

This order assumes searchers find you. A business-to-business seller, who relies on relationships, depends on introductions, while a product that no one searches for yet needs demand created first.

What Marketing Does a New Business Need First? The Order That Works

1. Claim and complete the profile.

2. Gather the first 10 reviews.

3. Create 1 page that converts.

4. Set up measurement.

5. Run one channel for a quarter.

The small business marketing priorities above are what we provide owners in their first year, as one partner instead of four vendors working to the same gates, from the profile to your one channel.

Order is more important than budget. If an owner does just step one right and none of the others, he will be further ahead in six months than someone who does all five poorly.

We are a digital marketing agency located at 13121 Louetta Rd, Cypress, TX. Pink Socials can help you work through the five steps in the right order.