What a local business actually needs
Start with the basics: help customers find the business, understand it, and remember it. Choose a practical first-month plan.
Need a word explained? Open the glossary →
Full lesson & technical details
Found on Google, trusted on social, reminded by email. Nothing else in month one.
Three jobs, in order
A local business lives on people within about ten minutes of it. Its marketing has three jobs:
- Be found. When someone nearby searches “yoga near me” or “cake pensacola,” the Google Business Profile (the map card with hours, photos, reviews) decides who shows up. It matters more than the website.
- Be trusted. The person who found them checks Instagram or Facebook to see if the place is real, busy and current. Six-month-old posts say “maybe closed.”
- Be remembered. The people who already came in are the cheapest customers to bring back. An email once a month does it.
Everything you sell in this track is one of those three. Ads, TikTok, a new website: not in month one. If the owner asks, the answer is “after these three are working.”
Found, trusted, remembered. Everything else waits.
What “done” looks like
| Job | Done means |
|---|---|
| Found | Profile 100% complete, correct categories, 10+ photos, posts in the last 7 days, every review replied to |
| Trusted | A post every 2–3 days for 30 days, on one platform, in their voice |
| Remembered | An email list that exists, one email sent, a second scheduled |
Why owners buy this
They know they should do it and they do not have time. Your pitch is not “marketing”; it is “I will make your Google listing complete and keep it alive, and send your customers one good email a month.” Plain, finite, worth $175.
The one thing to never say
“This will bring you more customers.” You do not control that. Say: “This makes sure the people already looking for you find you, and the ones who came in hear from you again.”
Worked example
Hi Dana, here is how I think about marketing for a studio like Stillwater, in plain terms.
There are three jobs. First, being found: when someone nearby searches “yoga near me”, your Google listing decides whether you show up, and right now it has great reviews but no posts in a year. Second, being trusted: the person who finds you checks Instagram to see if you are real and current. Third, being remembered: the 1,100 people on your email list already like you, and they have not heard from you in five months.
Ads and a new site come after those three are working. Which of the three feels weakest to you right now?
Instructions you can copy (prompts)
Copy the instructions, replace the words inside {braces} with your details, and paste them into your AI tool. Check and edit the answer.
Write a 120-word message to {owner name}, who owns {business} in {city}, explaining the three jobs of local marketing (be found on Google, be trusted on social, be remembered by email) in plain English, and why we do those before ads or a new website. No jargon. End with one question about which of the three they feel weakest on.
Run the card for Dana at Stillwater Yoga (Fort Walton Beach). Edit it until it sounds like a message you would actually send. Paste it below.
Done when: A 120-word plain-English message that names the three jobs and ends with one question.. Sign up to save your work to your account.
Quick knowledge check
3 questions, 60% passes. Checkpoints, the certification exam (three versions) and the reviewed final project are unlocked with a free account.
- A new client wants to start with TikTok ads. What do you recommend first?
- Which matters more for a local search like “cake pensacola”?
- What do you promise the owner?