Small business marketing on a budget: what to do first, and what to skip

Small business marketing on a budget is mostly about order. The cheapest wins are nearly always the ones people skip because they are not exciting: replying quickly, asking for reviews, staying in touch with people who already paid you once. The expensive mistakes are usually made by spending on visibility before the basics are in place to turn that visibility into work.

Here is what to do, in the order that tends to give the most back for the least money.

The free things, ranked by return

Before spending a penny, work down this list. Each item costs time rather than money, and each one makes every later pound work harder.

• Answer every enquiry quickly. Calls, texts, emails, DMs, form submissions. An enquiry you already have is worth more than any new marketing. If you cannot answer during the day, set clear voicemail and auto-replies saying when you will get back.
• Complete your Google Business Profile. Categories, service areas, hours, photos, services and a proper description. It is free and it is where many local customers find you. Our Google Business Profile and Google Maps guides go through it step by step.
• Ask every happy customer for a review. A short text with the direct link, sent the same day, works better than asking later. Never offer anything in return for a review; incentivised reviews breach Google's policies and can breach UK consumer law.
• Ask for referrals. Satisfied customers are usually glad to recommend you if you ask plainly and make it easy. Business cards or a simple text they can forward help.
• Stay in touch with past customers. Service reminders, seasonal check-ins and a short email or message a few times a year bring back work that costs nothing to win.
• Build local relationships. Trades that refer to each other, venues and suppliers, estate agents and property managers, gyms and physios. One good partner can be worth more than a year of ads.
• Post regularly on one social platform. Real work, real people, useful answers, a couple of times a week.

What to do at each budget level

Once the free basics are running, here is roughly how to use money at different levels. Figures are typical market prices at the time of writing and vary by supplier and area.

Where a website fits

A website is not the first thing on the list, but it is usually the first thing worth paying for. Every other kind of marketing (Google searches, social posts, referrals, van signs, leaflets) ends with someone looking you up. What they find decides whether they ring you or the next name.

A good small business website does not need to be expensive, but it does need to do the job: say what you do and where, show real work, give price guidance, and make contact effortless on a phone. Our cost guides explain what is reasonable to pay; at Nerdsharks our own sites start at £299 setup and £99 a month, designed from scratch and written for your business.

What not to spend on

Budget marketing is as much about saying no as saying yes. These are the common ways small businesses lose money:

• Anyone guaranteeing first place on Google. Nobody can guarantee rankings, and cold calls promising it are a warning sign.
• Paid “premium” directory listings you have not checked for traffic. A free listing is often all you need; ask any directory what enquiries it will actually send.
• Pay-to-enter awards. Some “best business in the region” awards exist mainly to sell entry fees, dinner tickets and winner logos.
• Buying followers or likes. They do not buy anything, and they make your real engagement look worse.
• Glossy magazine or newspaper ads with no way to track results. If you do try print, use a unique phone number, offer code or web address so you can tell whether it worked.
• Paid ads before the basics. Ads sending people to a slow website with no reviews and an unanswered phone are paying to disappoint people.
• Long contracts. Be wary of any marketing service that locks you in for a year or more before you have seen results.

Measure what works, however roughly

You do not need fancy analytics to know what is working. Ask every new customer how they found you and write it down: a notebook, a spreadsheet, a column in your job app. After three months you will know whether Google, referrals, Facebook or the van is doing the work, and you can move time and money accordingly.

If you spend on anything measurable, such as ads, leaflets or a directory, give it its own phone number, link or code. Our guide to tracking where enquiries come from explains simple ways to do this.

A 90-day plan

If you want a plan to follow rather than a list, here is one that fits around a full working week.