Small businesses are rarely short of marketing ideas. What they lack is time, budget and a clear answer to one question: which two or three things will actually bring in customers this year? This service is my answer to that, sized for a sole trader or a small team with a modest monthly budget, and run by me rather than handed to a junior.
What goes wrong when a small budget is spread across every channel
The usual pattern is a little of everything. A few social posts a week, a Google Ads campaign someone set up two years ago, a newsletter that goes out when there is time, and a website nobody has looked at since launch. Each channel gets too little money or attention to work, and because nothing is measured properly, nobody can tell which part is paying its way.
A small budget does better concentrated. I would rather put everything into the one channel where your customers are already searching, make it work and prove it with numbers, then add a second channel once the first is paying for itself. It looks less busy at first, but it shows far sooner which spend is producing enquiries and which is not.
Who this suits, and who it does not
It suits UK businesses where the owner still answers the phone: trades, clinics, salons, independent shops, consultancies, local professional firms and new businesses in their first year or two. You want someone to decide what to do, do it, and explain the results in plain English each month.
It is not the right fit if you need a full team producing daily content across five platforms, or if you already have an in-house marketer who mainly needs a plan to follow. In that second case, a one-off digital marketing strategy and 90-day plan is better value than monthly management. And if your only goal is cheaper leads from paid channels at scale, my performance marketing service is built for that.
What the work covers
Every business gets the same foundations. After that, I choose the channels with you based on how your customers actually find businesses like yours.
Measurement first
Before spending a pound on ads, I make sure enquiries are counted. That means Google Analytics 4 set up with your calls, form submissions and bookings recorded as key events, and conversion tracking passed to any ad platform we use. Because your visitors are in the UK, analytics should only load after cookie consent, and I set it up that way.
Being found locally
For many local businesses, the Google Business Profile does more work than the website. I tidy the categories, services, photos and opening hours, set up a simple routine for asking happy customers for reviews, and check your name, address and phone number match across the main UK directories. If local search is where most of your work comes from, this sits alongside or inside my local SEO service.
One paid channel, run properly
If paid ads make sense, I usually start with one platform. For services people search for when they need them, such as an emergency plumber or a private physio, that is normally Google search ads. For things people buy on impulse or discover by browsing, such as a new restaurant or a beauty treatment, Facebook and Instagram ads aimed at nearby customers often work better. My comparison of Facebook Ads versus Google Ads sets out the reasoning in more detail.
The website’s job
I do not rebuild your website as a matter of course. I check that the pages your marketing points to load quickly on a phone, state clearly what you do and where, and make it easy to call or enquire. Small fixes to existing pages usually come first.
Following up with customers you already have
Past customers are the cheapest source of repeat work. Where it fits, I set up a light email routine to existing customers. Under PECR you can usually email people who bought from you about similar services, provided you gave them a chance to opt out when you collected their details and in every message since. New contacts need clear consent.
How I run it
- A 30-minute call. You tell me what you sell, who buys it, where enquiries come from now and what you can spend. I tell you honestly whether this service fits.
- A short review of what exists. Website, Google Business Profile, ad accounts, analytics and reviews. I write up what is working, what is broken and what I would leave alone.
- A one-page plan. The one or two channels to focus on, the monthly split between my fee and any ad spend, and what we will measure.
- Foundations before anything else. Tracking, profile clean-up and the fixes that stop enquiries being lost.
- Monthly running. I run the chosen channels, check the numbers each week, and send you a short report each month with what changed and what I plan next.
- A review every quarter. We decide together whether to carry on unchanged, add a channel or stop something that is not earning its place.
Problems I see most often on small UK business sites
- No working tracking at all, so the owner judges marketing by gut feel and the bank balance.
- A Google Ads account on default settings, showing ads across the whole country for a business that only covers a few postcodes.
- A Google Business Profile with the wrong category, a stale phone number or no reviews in the last year.
- A contact form that sends enquiries to an inbox nobody checks, or to spam.
- Social media treated as the main lead source when almost every real enquiry comes from search or word of mouth.
- Different business names, addresses or phone numbers across directories, which muddies local search.
Most of these are quick to fix, and fixing them often does more than any new campaign.
What you receive
- A written review of your current marketing and a one-page plan.
- Analytics and conversion tracking you can trust, with access kept in your name.
- Ongoing management of the agreed channels, done by me.
- A monthly report showing spend, enquiries and cost per lead by channel, in plain English.
- A quarterly review and a straight recommendation on what to change.
Every account, profile and login stays yours. If we stop working together, you keep everything.
What it costs
My fee is quoted in pounds sterling after a free audit or first call and agreed in writing before we start. Any advertising budget is paid by you directly to Google or Meta. Keeping the two separate means you can always see exactly where the money goes. For a sense of what clicks and leads typically cost in the UK, see my UK ad benchmarks for Google and Meta.
Next step
Book a free 30-minute call and tell me about your business. If you would rather start with something concrete, request a free SEO audit and I will send you the first things I would fix, whether or not you hire me.