Growing a local business online: the 90-day plan
Growing online is a sequence, not a scramble. Month one: fix the foundations, a complete Google Business Profile, a website that converts, and details consistent everywhere. Month two: build visibility, reviews after every job, weekly photos, presence in local groups. Month three: tune conversion and double down on whatever measurably produced enquiries. A few disciplined hours a week beats sporadic bursts of everything.
Days 1 to 30: foundations
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile: categories, service areas, hours, twenty real photos.
- Get the website right or get one: what you do, where, proof, prices, effortless contact. If your current site fails the five-second test, this is the month to sort it.
- Make name, address and phone identical across site, profile, Facebook and key directories.
- Start the two-number habit: visitors and enquiries, recorded monthly.
Days 31 to 60: visibility
- Install the review habit: ask at every job completion, send the direct link same day, reply to everything.
- Post one real job photo a week to the profile and your social page.
- Join the local Facebook groups where your customers ask for recommendations; be helpfully present, not salesy.
- Email past customers once: a genuine update or seasonal reminder. It will book work within the week for most trades.
Days 61 to 90: conversion and momentum
- Read your two numbers. Visitors low: push reviews, profile activity and local content harder. Enquiries low despite visitors: fix the page, using our lead generation checklist.
- Time your replies: everything answered within the hour in working time.
- Double down on the single channel that produced measurable enquiries; drop what produced none.
- Only now consider small paid tests, £5 to £10 a day locally, measured purely on cost per enquiry.
The whole plan fits in three to four hours a week. The businesses that pull ahead locally are rarely doing clever things; they are doing ordinary things every week while competitors do them twice a year.
Frequently asked questions
How long before online marketing brings in work?
Profile and review improvements often produce calls within weeks. Website and content gains build over two to four months. The 90-day shape exists because the compounding channels need consistent weeks, not intense weekends.
What if I only have one hour a week?
Do three things: ask every customer for a review, post one job photo, reply fast to enquiries and reviews. That single hour, kept up, outperforms most paid marketing at this scale.
Do I need to be on TikTok and Instagram?
Only where your customers actually look for your kind of service. For most local trades and services, Google (profile, reviews, website) plus Facebook groups is where money changes hands. Visual businesses, food, beauty, crafts, gain more from Instagram. Choose one extra channel at most and do it properly.
When should I hire marketing help?
When a channel is proven and you want more of it than your hours allow, or when the two numbers have plateaued despite consistent effort. Hire against outcomes (enquiries) and keep ownership of every account: your profile, your website, your ad accounts.
The short version
- Month one foundations, month two visibility, month three conversion and doubling down.
- Track two numbers monthly: visitors and enquiries.
- Three to four consistent hours a week beats sporadic bursts.
- Paid channels come last and live or die on cost per enquiry.
Rather skip all this?
Month one usually stalls on the website. Ours removes the stall: brief on Monday, finished site within seven days, £50 a month with every future change included. Foundations done, on to month two.
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