.png)
52 Fixes Small Businesses Can Try in 2026 (From a Small Business Marketing Agency)
- Zacharias Wray
- Jan 16
- 46 min read
Updated: Jan 21
If your small business is struggling to grow, congratulations!
Ok, so maybe it doesn't exactly feel like a celebratory moment, but you've hit an important milestone in the entrepreneurial journey. YOU, are ready to learn more about one of our favorite topics in the whole world...marketing.
See, ten years ago, most small businesses could get by with a website, a Facebook page, and maybe some low-budget Google ads. Five years ago, that started to change as social platforms tightened reach and customers began spending more time on their phones.
This led to a significant emphasis being placed on paid social media advertising, mobile-optimized websites, influencer campaigns, and even marketing automation tools. Business owners started hearing words like “algorithms” and “funnels,” often provided (from well-intended marketing professionals) without much explanation, which only added to the confusion.
Since that time a LOT has changed. Tiktok became a household name during the pandemic, ChatGPT and other competitors have made the word 'AI' become so popular that Google Trends dedicated an entire panel to breaking down the research about it.
Because of these developments, the questions our team fields as marketing and consulting agency working primarily with local and regional businesses across Ohio and the Midwest sound...let's just say VERY DIFFERENT than the questions we were fielding back in 2016.
We frequently get asked things like, "How do we use AI to grow our business?", "Should we be on TikTok?", "Is SEO still relevant in 2026?", and "Why didn’t our ads bring in the results we expected?".
That’s why we created this guide: 52 fixes small businesses can try in 2026. When we're onboarding a new client, these are some of the simplest, easiest to fix marketing issues we look to correct first. For you, the reader, it's one practical fix each week you can use to improve your marketing before you ever think about hiring an agency.
Small Business Marketing Strategy Is Built on the Little Things
A big part of our day-to-day work is connecting small marketing tactics to big-picture strategy. So hear us when we say this: no amount of tactics can replace a good marketing strategy, but even the best strategy in the world can be completely undermined by small execution mistakes.
If terms like marketing strategy and marketing tactics are new to you, click below for a simple definition. If not, keep reading.
What is the Difference Between Marketing Strategy and Marketing Tactics?
Marketing strategy is the plan behind your marketing. It defines who you’re trying to reach, what problem you solve for them, and how you want to show up in their mind.
Example: A local home services company decides their strategy is to become the most trusted option for busy homeowners in their area who value reliability over price.
Marketing tactics are the individual actions you take to carry out that plan. These are the tools and activities you use day to day.
Example: That same business runs Google ads in specific zip codes, updates their website messaging to highlight trust and reliability, and posts customer reviews on social media.
In short, strategy sets the direction, and tactics are how you move forward. When tactics don’t support the strategy (or are executed poorly) even a good plan can fall apart.
We see this constantly. Businesses can have clear goals and a solid plan, yet still feel stuck because small execution issues keep getting in the way. Nothing is obviously “broken,” but things don’t quite line up, and over time that friction starts to show up in the results.
Common indicators of this are phrases like: “We’re spending money, but it’s hard to tell what’s helping.”, “I thought we’d see more results by now.”, or I’m not sure what the problem is, but our website feels invisible.”
If you’ve said one of those phrases before (or something close), this probably isn’t the first marketing or self-help article you’ve read. Instead of offering generic advice - or asking ChatGPT for “52 ideas” that your competitors are likely researching too - we decided to write down 52 of the simple things we actually fix. And yes, some of them are so simple you might think, “Come on… really?”
This guide is built around one fix per week for 2026. Some weeks you’ll make a small adjustment. Other weeks you’ll realize you’re already doing things well and simply check it off. Our goal is that by fixing one thing at a time, and occasionally giving yourself credit where it’s due, you end 2026 in a much better place than where you started.
So, without further ado, here’s the first fix we almost always address.
52 Marketing Fixes to Try in 2026
These fixes are organized in a specific order for a reason. We start with foundational issues that affect every other marketing decision, then move outward into visibility, traffic, conversion, and long-term systems. You don’t need to tackle all 52 at once, and you don’t need to read them in one sitting. This is meant to be practical, not overwhelming. Some fixes will apply immediately, and others will simply confirm you’re already on the right track. Taken one at a time, they create momentum.
FOUNDATION: BUSINESS & CLARITY (1-8)
Some of these fixes may feel basic, and that’s by design. If you’re early on, start here. If these are already in place, use the quick links above to skip ahead.
Define Your Target Audience (Clearly)
Many small businesses can explain what they do, but struggle to explain who it’s for. When the target audience is unclear, marketing decisions start to feel scattered. When this happens, the website tries to appeal to too many people, the content lacks focus, and the advertising becomes harder to justify because your message never quite connects with the right customers.
This doesn’t mean you need a complicated marketing plan or a perfect persona document on day one. What matters first is clarity. You should be able to describe, in plain language, who your business is best suited to serve and why those people choose you.
If you’re a small business owner just getting started, defining your target audience gives your marketing strategy something solid to build on. It helps you attract customers who are actually looking for your product or service, rather than trying to convince everyone at once.
When that foundation is in place, every other marketing effort becomes easier to evaluate and improve. If you want a practical starting point, our friends at SEMrush have a straightforward buyer persona template you can review and adapt to your business, even if you don’t plan to fill out every section.
Write Down Your Value Proposition
There’s a well-known line often attributed to author and entrepreneur Seth Godin:
“If you market to everyone, you market to no one.”
It sounds harsh, but it captures a real pattern we see over and over. When a business tries to keep its marketing broad enough to appeal to everyone, the message usually ends up resonating with very few people.
Here’s a simple exercise you can do in under 15 minutes.
Start by pulling up a short list of your existing customers. This could be recent sales, repeat customers, or even people who regularly refer others to you. Pick five to ten names. Then, try your best to answer a few basic questions about them.
Why do you think this customer decided to reach out to you when they did?
What do you think is probably the main problem they were trying to solve?
Why do you think they chose you instead of another option or doing nothing at all?
What do you think they probably value most about working with you?
What do you think is probably the one thing several of these customers have in common beyond age or location?
Once you’ve done that, write a single sentence describing the type of customer you want your marketing to speak to first. Not everyone. Not every possible buyer. Just the type of customer you understand best right now.
That sentence doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to exist so your marketing has a clear direction instead of trying to appeal to everyone at once.
Map the Customer Journey
Many small businesses market as if every visitor is ready to buy right away. In reality, most potential customers move through a process. They notice a problem, become aware of options, compare choices, and only then decide to take action. Even if you don’t realize it, you’ve been moved through a customer journey like this before.
How do we know? Think about this scenario:
It’s 11 p.m. You’re watching the final season of Stranger Things on Netflix’s ad-supported plan, because at some point Netflix decided charging you monthly wasn’t quite enough. 🙄 A Chipotle ad comes on, featuring a new menu item...maybe a smoked brisket burrito bowl. You’re already hungry and it looks good, but it’s late. The store is closed, delivery isn’t happening, so you make a sandwich and move on without much of a second thought.
A few days later, you’re scrolling TikTok and one of your favorite 'food review' creators posts a review of that same item. It looks good again, but you just ate lunch and food is the last thing on your mind. You scroll past after a few seconds.
A few videos later, there’s another Chipotle ad encouraging you to download their app for rewards. You already have it, so you keep scrolling, but you do think, "wow, this is everywhere".
The next afternoon around 4:30, a push notification comes through. Buy one, get one half off burrito bowls. You’re cooking dinner, so you don’t see it until later, and by then you’ve already eaten.
Over the next week, you notice the brand pop up here and there. You’re not consciously paying attention anymore, but it feels familiar now.
Then a friend calls and says, “Want to grab lunch?”Sure. Where?“I don’t know…Chipotle? I’ve got a coupon and I’ve been wanting to try that new brisket thing.”
You go, you eat, you have a good time. On your receipt, there’s an offer for free chips on your next visit if you fill out a short survey.
What’s interesting is that, at every step, you were aware you were being advertised to. What most people don’t do is connect all of those moments into a single experience. They feel separate in real time. To customers, it’s just a show, a scroll, a notification, a conversation, or an ad. To marketers, it’s one step closer to their intended goal.
That difference in perspective matters. One of the simplest ways to understand how marketers think about that path is the A.I.D.A. model: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.
Something first earns attention. Then it builds interest. Over time, that interest turns into desire. Eventually, the action happens, often when the timing finally makes sense. And, once that action occurs, an extra 'post-action' step (like a loyalty rewards program, follow-up email, etc...) can turn one-time buyers into loyal brand supporters.
When you start thinking this way, marketing stops feeling random. Instead of asking why one post, ad, or campaign didn’t work, you start looking at how each step supports the next, and whether you’re meeting people where they actually are, not where you wish they were.
So, if you haven’t done this yet, sit down and map out how each channel you’re using functions today, then compare that to the role you actually want it to play. Be honest about what’s happening now, not what you hoped would happen when you set it up.
When you think in terms of purpose instead, things shift. Each channel can do one job well rather than struggling to do everything. Awareness can live in one place, consideration in another, and action somewhere else. Over time, that alignment reduces friction and makes your marketing feel more manageable.
Do Basic Market Research
Market research doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. For most small businesses, it’s less about running surveys and more about paying attention to what’s already happening around you. You’re probably sitting on useful insight right now without realizing it.
Here are a few low-effort ways to start:
Read recent reviews in your industry, including competitors’, and note what people praise or complain about
Pay attention to and document the questions customers ask before they buy or reach out
Look at emails, contact forms, or DMs and notice repeated wording or concerns
Browse forums, Reddit threads, or Facebook groups where your customers talk openly
Review sales calls or intake notes and highlight objections that come up more than once
Unlike most people think, you don’t need perfect data. You do, however, need to identity customer patterns, and those patterns should shape your messaging far more than internal opinions or guesses ever will.
Set Realistic Expectations for Your Industry
Some industries are simply more crowded than others. If you’re a local photographer, personal trainer, or realtor, you’re competing in a space where there are a lot of capable people offering similar services in the same area. That means you’ll likely have to put in more consistent effort to rise above the noise. Not because you’re doing something wrong, but because attention is harder to earn in crowded fields. That’s just reality.
On the other hand, if you’re at the larger end of the small business spectrum, you might see strong engagement, solid conversion rates, and steady demand, yet still feel like things have plateaued. In many cases, that’s not a marketing failure. It’s a market cap. In a defined geographic area, there are only so many people who need what you offer and are willing to pay for it.
Accepting that isn’t scarcity thinking. Some companies actually burn customer goodwill by chasing unlimited growth in a finite market. They over-promote, push too hard, or stretch their messaging beyond what the audience wants.
When you hit that ceiling, the signal isn’t to squeeze harder. It’s to expand thoughtfully. That might mean adding a new product, exploring new ideas, reaching a new audience, or opening a new location.
The fix: Have a rough understanding of what your market cap might be and how close you are to reaching it. Are you serving 20% of the available demand in your area? 60%? You don’t need exact numbers. A reasonable estimate gives you a useful reference point for deciding when to refine what you offer versus when it’s time to expand.
On step 5 and already feeling overwhelmed?
If you want a second set of eyes on your marketing and operations, we’re happy to talk it through during a low-pressure, 100% free consultation. Book an appointment with our Cleveland, Ohio marketing team today!
Make Sure the Business Structure Supports Marketing
We can’t tell you how many small businesses operate on a wing and a prayer when it comes to accounting, taxes, IT, legal questions, or basic operations. It’s understandable. When you’re focused on serving customers and keeping revenue coming in, the behind-the-scenes stuff is easy to postpone.
The problem is that an improper business setup rarely causes small issues. When it finally catches up, it’s usually expensive, stressful, and disruptive. At the same time, good professional help isn’t cheap, which is a very real barrier for many small businesses. That tension is exactly why these issues get postponed for so long.
A practical step you can take today is to organize what you already have. Make sure your core documents live in one place, whether that’s Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft’s workspace tools, and that you can easily find things like contracts, tax filings, logins, and insurance information. From there, do a bit of research on what your specific business structure requires. Are you supposed to be taking a salary? Are there forms you should already be filing? Do you have the right insurance in place?
If there’s something that’s been sitting in the back of your mind, the thing you keep telling yourself you’ll “get to eventually,” this is your sign to look into it today. Marketing works best when the business underneath it isn’t quietly holding it back.
Shift the “Set It and Forget It” Mindset
While many of the marketing fixes in this article are practical, this one leans a bit more philosophical.
Also, it’s 100% in our best interest to say this, so it’s fair to acknowledge it upfront: marketing tends to work better when it’s treated as an ongoing effort, not a one-time setup.
But this isn’t just a convenient opinion on our end.
One of the clearest pieces of evidence comes from Nielsen’s long-term marketing research, which analyzes performance across industries and economic conditions. Their findings show that businesses investing consistently in long-term marketing drive significantly stronger future sales and are more resilient over time, while brands that pause or treat marketing as episodic see declines that are costly and slow to recover.
Our own experience has taught us that marketing doesn’t work best when it's treated like a project with a finish line. Platforms change, audiences shift, competitors adjust, and what worked six months ago can gradually lose effectiveness without obvious warning signs. When marketing is treated as a one-time launch, small issues compound until progress stalls. When you expect marketing to evolve instead of run on autopilot, your marketing effort becomes more resilient and far easier to improve over time.
Understand What a New Customer Is Worth
When you’re running a small business, you hear about a lot of different things you’re supposed to be tracking.
Website traffic. Click-through rates. Engagement. Conversion rates. Cost per lead. Cost per click.
Most of these lists sound reasonable. Some are useful.
What’s interesting is that one of the simplest and most helpful metrics is often missing from those conversations: what a customer is actually worth to your business over time. The metric that calculates this, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), is a simple way to answer that question.
A basic way to estimate it looks like this:
CLV = average purchase value × number of purchases per year × average customer lifespan (in years)
For example, if a customer spends $500 per year and typically stays with you for three years, that customer is roughly worth $1,500 over time.
Once you have even a rough estimate (this number doesn't have to be exact, just close), marketing decisions get clearer. You can better judge whether an ad is actually expensive or just feels expensive. You can tell the difference between a slow month and a strategy that isn’t working. You can evaluate channels based on long-term return, not just immediate results.
This is why CLV matters even for very small businesses.
CLV makes the risk of spending money on marketing understandable. And that alone makes marketing easier to approach, test, and improve over time.
Website & Technical Health (9-18)
Once the foundation is clear, the next step is making sure your website and technical setup aren’t quietly working against you.
Make Sure Your Site Is Indexed in Google Search Console
If we had a nickel for every time we asked a client for access to their Google Search Console and they replied with “what’s that,” we’d have enough to take the team out for coffee.
Jokes aside, this is one of the most common and most costly gaps we see with small and mid-sized businesses.
A business invests time and money into a website, publishes content, and even talks about SEO, only to discover later that Google isn’t properly indexing the site at all.
Google Search Console is the tool that shows you how Google actually sees your website. If your site hasn’t been verified there, you’re largely guessing. You won’t know which pages are indexed, which are being ignored, or whether technical issues are quietly holding your site back.
This is why we consider Search Console foundational.
With Google Search Console, you can:
See which pages Google has indexed (and which it hasn’t)
Identify crawl errors and indexing issues
Understand what search queries your site is appearing for
Submit pages for indexing after updates
Get alerts when something breaks or degrades search visibility
Without Google Search Console:
You don’t know if your content is eligible to rank
You can’t tell whether traffic issues are content-related or technical
SEO decisions are based on assumptions instead of signals
Problems often go unnoticed until they’ve already compounded
Before worrying about rankings, content volume, or traffic growth, it’s worth confirming that your site is actually being seen. If pages aren’t indexed correctly, the rest of your SEO strategy can’t do its job.
We’ll talk more about the broader benefits of Google and Google Workspace in future posts, but this is one tool that deserves its own slot. It’s simple to set up, free to use, and foundational to any SEO effort.
Update the Copyright and Policies at the Bottom of Your Site
The footer of a website doesn’t get much attention, but search engines and users both notice when it’s neglected.
An outdated copyright year, missing privacy policy, or unclear accessibility information doesn’t usually break a site outright. Instead, it quietly signals that parts of the site may not be actively maintained.
For visitors, these details are trust markers. They answer basic questions about how information is handled, whether the business is paying attention to compliance, and whether the site reflects current standards. When those signals are missing or outdated, confidence erodes, even if everything else looks polished.
Search engines look at these signals differently. They aren’t ranking factors in isolation, but they help establish legitimacy and completeness. As expectations around privacy, accessibility, and data handling continue to evolve, sites that ignore these basics can fall behind without a clear warning.
At a minimum, most businesses should make sure:
The copyright year reflects the current year
A privacy policy is visible and accessible
Terms of service or use are available where appropriate
Accessibility information is easy to find, especially if the site serves the public
These updates don’t replace good content or strong SEO, but they support it. They help signal that a site is current, credible, and built with users in mind.
It’s a small check that’s easy to overlook, but it plays a quiet role in trust, compliance, and long-term visibility.
Force HTTPS Across Your Website
Have you ever visited a website and received a warning that says, “This site may not be secure”?
That message is what appears when a website is not properly using HTTPS. HTTPS is the secure version of a website, and both browsers and search engines now expect it to be fully in place. When it is not, visitors are warned before they ever see your content, and search engines may view the site as less trustworthy.
What makes this tricky is that the problem often shows up quietly. A site might technically have HTTPS, but some pages still load over HTTP. Redirects are not fully enforced. Older links still point to the unsecured version.
To a business owner, everything looks fine, but behind the scenes the site is sending mixed signals. Forcing HTTPS ensures every version of your site routes through the secure one. It protects visitor data, improves trust, and removes a basic technical issue that can limit search visibility.
This is one of those fixes that does not feel exciting, but it removes friction. Once it is handled, you do not have to think about it again, and your marketing efforts are not held back by a preventable technical problem.
Optimize Your Website for Mobile
Good advertising is built around the customer and their experience with your brand. In 2026, that experience is usually happening on a mobile device.
For many businesses, the website still creates friction at that first touchpoint. The site technically works on a phone, but it does not feel good to use. Text feels tight. Navigation takes effort. Pages load slower than they should. Those small moments add up, and people leave before they understand what you offer.
Optimizing for mobile means making the experience feel effortless. Someone should be able to read, scroll, and take action without thinking about how the site works.
Search engines like Google and Bing also reward this kind of experience. Mobile usability is considered a direct ranking factor, and sites that frustrate mobile users tend to struggle with visibility as a result.
The long and short of it is, when mobile experience is prioritized, your advertising works harder. Traffic has a better chance of turning into engagement, and engagement has a better chance of turning into real business.
Keep Your Website Software and Plugins Up to Date
Websites are not static. Behind the scenes, most sites rely on themes, plugins, and software that need regular updates to stay secure and functional. This is especially true for websites built on flexible, plugin-driven platforms like WordPress.
Because these systems run quietly in the background, it is easy for updates to get ignored. Everything APPEARS to be working, so there is no immediate pressure to touch anything.
The problem is that skipped updates rarely stay harmless. Outdated software can drag down site performance, leading to slower load times and clunkier interactions. At the same time, it creates security gaps that attackers actively look for, especially on widely used platforms like WordPress.
What makes this especially risky is that speed and security issues often go unnoticed until something breaks. Pages start loading slower and forms stop working entirely. In worse cases, a site is compromised without any obvious warning signs beforehand.
Enabling 'auto-updates' and/or regularly performing manual updates is essential to keeping the site fast, stable, and protected so your marketing and advertising are not built on a weak foundation.
Balance the Amount of Text on Your Pages
We're starting off by saying, we have fixed this issue a lot. Websites tend to fall into one of two extremes. Either there is so much text on the page that no one reads it, or there is so little that search engines cannot figure out what the page is supposed to be about.
Both problems usually come from good intentions. Some sites load pages with information to answer every possible question. Others strip content down too far in an effort to look clean or modern. In both cases, the result is the same. The message gets lost.
The goal is balance.
A strong page has enough content to clearly explain what you offer, address the questions people actually have, and point them toward a next step. It does not need to be long, and it does not need to cover everything. It just needs to be focused.
When that balance is in place, pages are easier for search engines to understand and easier for real people to engage with.
When we're diving into SEO strategy for a new client, we often look at their competitor's core pages (including service pages, category pages, and resource content). We analyze how much depth those pages have, what topics they address, and how clearly they answer search intent.
For our agency, tools like Semrush's On-Page SEO tools allow us to review those competing pages directly so content decisions are based on real competition, not assumptions.
If you're interested in a free trial, click the link above or the GIF below for more details!
Add Descriptive Alt Text to Your Images
Images play a bigger role in marketing than many businesses realize. Search engines can’t “see” images the way people do, so they rely on alt text to understand what an image represents and how it relates to the page.
Alt text also plays an important role in accessibility. Screen readers rely on it to describe images for users with visual impairments, which helps ensure your site is usable by a wider audience. Even beyond usability, accessibility improvements like proper alt text can also reduce legal risk. Many accessibility-related complaints and lawsuits stem from missing or poorly implemented basics that are easy to address upfront. Even though it seems like it’s a small detail, it quietly supports both usability and search engine optimization.
Something to keep in mind is that alt text doesn’t need to be clever, and it especially doesn't need to be stuffed with keywords (that's a rookie mistake). A short, clear description of what the image shows and why it is relevant is usually enough. When appropriate, a naturally incorporated keyword can provide additional context that benefits both accessibility and search visibility.
Handled consistently, this fix strengthens your site without changing how it looks or feels to visitors.
Optimize Blog Category and Tag Pages
This one is a bit niche, and that’s intentional - we have a very specific scenario in mind. One thing many business owners are not aware of is that website platforms like Squarespace automatically generate category and tag pages that you have little to no control over, whether you want them or not.
Those pages exist simply because the platform creates them, and they often get indexed without anyone realizing it. When those pages are thin or not optimizable, they can introduce duplication and low-value content that weakens overall SEO signals, even if the rest of the site is well built.
You might also be surprised to learn that WordPress, which is one of the most widely used website platforms, does something similar. The difference is that these pages can be edited and optimized, but most site owners never think to. They sit there thin, unclear, and duplicative. Over time, that’s not just a missed opportunity, it can influence how Google evaluates the overall quality of your site.
Stop Keyword Stuffing
'Keyword stuffing' is the practice of repeating the same words or phrases on a page in an attempt to influence search rankings.
It usually shows up as awkward phrasing, unnecessary repetition, or sentences that feel written for a search engine instead of a person. Consider this example of 'keyword stuffing' on a website for a (fictional) local restaurant:
Welcome to the best Italian restaurant in Cleveland. Our Cleveland Italian restaurant serves authentic Italian food in Cleveland for customers looking for an Italian restaurant in Cleveland. If you are searching for an Italian restaurant near you in Cleveland, our Italian restaurant offers the best Italian dishes Cleveland has to offer.
Years ago, this approach actually worked. Early search engines relied heavily on keyword frequency to understand what a page was about, so repeating important phrases could push a page higher in results.
That started to change as search engines improved. Over the last decade, updates focused on context, intent, and content quality have made keyword stuffing not just ineffective, but harmful. What once helped rankings is now a clear negative signal.
Today, it is usually easy to spot. If a page feels unnatural to read, repeats the same phrase over and over, or sounds strange when read out loud, something is off. The better approach is not to avoid keywords, but to use them naturally and intentionally.
Write to answer real questions, explain concepts clearly, and support the reader’s next step. When the content is clear and helpful, keywords tend to show up where they belong without being forced.
Address Toxic Backlinks
Backlinks can help search visibility, but not all links are created equal. Over time, some businesses accumulate low-quality or spammy backlinks without realizing it. These can come from old SEO tactics, questionable directories, or services that promised quick results.
This is a real example of toxic backlinks that built up quietly over time before we stepped in and disavowed them. When toxic backlinks pile up, they can quietly work against your search engine optimization efforts. Rankings stall and it’s hard to understand why improvements elsewhere aren’t sticking.
The lesson here is that reviewing your backlink profile helps you understand where links are coming from and whether they’re actually helping. And in most cases, the best move is to clean things up and distance your site from links that don’t align with your business.
Healthy backlinks tend to come from relevant, credible sources over time. Removing harmful ones creates a cleaner foundation for future growth instead of carrying unnecessary baggage forward.
Have a bunch of backlinks that need disavowing? Utilize Google Search Console's Disavow Tool, or contact the RBGS team for help.
Content & Search Strategy (19-27)
Good content strategy is less about volume and more about clarity. These fixes focus on making sure your content actually earns visibility.
Make Sure Your Blog Is Active and Relevant
Have you ever noticed that most of your favorite websites have a blog? You might be trying to think of an exception right now, and sure, not **every** site has one. But the majority do, especially the ones that consistently show up when you search for something.
There is a simple reason for that. Blogs create more pages, more relevant content, and more opportunities to be discovered in search. Each post is another chance to answer a question, address a problem, or show up when someone is actively looking for information related to what you do.
The mistake many businesses make is thinking a blog has to be a constant stream of long, original essays, or worse, copy and pasted from ChatGPT. That is not the goal.
A more sustainable approach is content curation. Find a trending topic, video, question, or idea in your industry, add your quick perspective or takeaway, and publish it. Short, relevant, and timely beats long and generic every time.
When done this way, a blog stops feeling like a chore and starts functioning as a practical extension of your marketing. It builds visibility over time and gives people a reason to keep engaging with your business.
Take Keyword Research Seriously
Keyword research often gets treated as optional, especially once a website is live. Content gets written based on instinct, internal language, or what the business wants to talk about, rather than how people actually search.
When keyword research is skipped or undervalued, content can miss the mark without anyone realizing why. Pages may be well written, but they’re built around phrases no one is using. Over time, this leads to frustration when search engine optimization efforts don’t produce meaningful traffic.
Good keyword research doesn’t mean chasing trends or stuffing phrases everywhere. It means understanding the words and questions potential customers are already using when they look for a product or service like yours.
When keyword research guides your content decisions, your marketing strategy becomes more aligned with real demand, and your visibility grows in a way that’s easier to sustain.
Create Evergreen Content
One mistake small business owners make quite often is chasing whatever happens to be trending when planning social media or website content. In reality, not every piece of content needs to be timely. What matters is whether it supports your strategy.
Some of the most valuable content a business can publish is the kind that stays relevant long after it goes live. Instead of reacting to trends, it focuses on questions people keep asking, problems that do not go away, and decisions customers face year after year. This is what’s commonly referred to as evergreen content.
Evergreen content focuses on the questions people keep asking, the problems that do not go away, and the decisions customers face no matter what year it is. It does not need constant attention. It just needs to be useful.
Want an example? That 'evergreen content strategy' is the approach we are taking here with this blog article!
Build Your Content Around Your Audience, Not Yourself
Look, I understand that it’s only natural to write about topics you find interesting or are proud of. I personally find buyer psychology compelling, and while that can be valuable for the right audience, you, the reader, might find it less helpful or even boring.
Many small business owners know their field well and enjoy sharing insights from their own perspective. The issue is that what’s interesting internally does not always line up with what potential customers are searching for or trying to understand.
When content is driven by personal interests instead of audience needs, it feels disconnected, and engagement stays low. This results in lots of effort being put into your marketing, but the return on that effort never quite shows up.
To fix this, It helps to pay attention to the questions people ask before they buy, the concerns that come up in real conversations, and the language customers use to describe their problems. Those signals are far more useful than simply guessing what topics feel interesting to write about.
When your content reflects your audience’s priorities, it does more of the work for you. It attracts the right people, builds trust more naturally, and supports the rest of your marketing without forcing it.
Curate Content Instead of Only Creating It
A lot of small businesses feel pressure to constantly create new content. Every post, email, or update has to be original, which quickly becomes overwhelming and unsustainable.
Content curation is an often overlooked alternative. Curating means sharing useful articles, insights, or resources from other credible sources with clear attribution and adding your own perspective or context. When curation is missing entirely, marketing relies on constant creation, which often leads to burnout or long gaps in consistency.
When done thoughtfully, well curated content shows awareness of your industry and positions you as a helpful guide rather than someone who only promotes themselves. It allows you to provide value without asking for something in return every time you show up.
Pro tip: Look for content from adjacent industries, vendors, trade organizations, research firms, or creators who serve the same audience but do not directly compete with you. Industry newsletters, YouTube channels, LinkedIn creators, and trade publications are often great sources. If the content would genuinely help your customer, but does not take business away from you, it is usually a good candidate to curate.
Use Clear Hooks to Earn Attention
Most attempts at marketing fail before they ever have a chance to work because the content never earns attention in the first place. Often, it’s not the offer or the strategy that’s the problem. It’s the lack of a clear hook that speaks to the intended audience.
The examples below are intentionally generic. They are meant to show patterns, not headlines you should copy and paste. The real work happens when these ideas are adapted to your specific audience, industry, and offer.
Here are a few simple hook formulas that work across ads, emails, blog intros, and social posts:
Call out a common frustration “If your website gets traffic but no leads, this is probably why.”
Ask a question your audience is already thinking about “Is SEO still worth it for small businesses in 2026?”
Name the mistake directly “Most small businesses waste money on ads before fixing this one thing.”
Contrast expectation vs reality “More content doesn’t always mean more leads.”
Lead with a specific outcome “How to get more qualified leads without increasing your ad spend.”
It’s also important to remember that strong hooks do not replace substance. Their job is to earn attention, not carry the entire message. And the more generic a hook is, the less traction it will get over time. Specificity is what turns a pattern into something that actually works.
If your content isn’t getting impressions or engagement, start by changing the hook. Test different angles, compare the results, and let the audience tell you what earns their attention.
Avoid “AI-Sounding” Copy
At this point, AI is everywhere. AI this, AI that... Most businesses either are using it for content or will be soon, and that’s probably unavoidable. And to be clear, we’re not even against using it. We’ve actually written about how to tell if your agency is using AI.
For us, responsible AI usage is less about the tool and more about the quality of the final product. With that in mind, there are a handful of dead giveaways that make us immediately lose interest when we see them. They’re patterns that show up when content is generated and published without enough human judgment behind it.
Here are five of the biggest 'tells' that ai was used to generate something:
Em dashes everywhere
“It’s not this, it’s that” framing
Lists where every item is essentially saying the same thing.
Weird or misplaced metaphors
Verbs and adjectives that feel off (words like “vibrant,” “tapestry,” or anything that sounds off for the tone of the piece.)
A good rule of thumb is that if something sounds off when you read it out loud, that’s usually a sign it needs more human refinement.
Tone Down Emojis and Formatting Crutches
Oh, one item we didn’t include on the list of AI tells above: excessive emojis. And that’s mostly because this problem shows up with or without AI being involved.
In fact, it has become enough of an issue that Google Business Profile will not approve posts that use too many emojis. (Good for them!)
To be clear, we like emojis. They add personality. They can help clarify tone. Used well, they make content feel more human. The issue is overuse, and whether they fit your brand voice and personality.
A simple gut check is this: once you start using emojis, ask yourself whether your content would look strange if you were still using the same emojis the same way six months from now. If the answer is yes, it is probably a sign to scale it back.
Where we do like emojis is in moderation, especially in lists. Simple icons like checkmarks or arrows can help break up longer social posts that would otherwise feel dense or boring, without turning the formatting into the main event.
The TL/DR: Clear writing tends to age better and travel further across marketing channels. So...maybe cut back on the smiley faces ☺️
Ask for Backlinks When You Earn Coverage
If your business hasn’t earned any local media yet, this might not be helpful for you specifically. That said, most small businesses at some point have done something “news-worthy,” even if it’s just a mention in the local paper.
Some low-hanging SEO and marketing fruit is simply requesting that whatever article or press release is being written includes a link back to your website. And if their webmaster knows what they’re doing, that link should be a standard do-follow link. Long term, this helps build your authority. News sites tend to carry more weight with search engines because they are established, trusted sources that consistently publish original, factual content.
So, if you've earned some media coverage, use it to your advantage, and ask for that healthy backlink!
LOCAL VISIBILITY & TRUST (28–34)
In local marketing, trust signals matter as much as rankings, and these tips help you strengthen both.
Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is often the front line of your organic visibility. In many cases, it is seen before anyone ever clicks through to your website, especially in local search results.
(If you are not familiar with it, your GBP is what appears in the map pack section of the search results and when someone searches on Google Maps.)
Google intentionally made this system fairly intuitive. Once your profile is created, it will appear when someone searches for your business by name. From there, Google provides a checklist of items to complete to follow basic best practices.
But once the profile is set up, the real work begins. Like anything else, Google ranks Business Profiles based on a combination of factors, including:
Relevance, or how closely your profile matches what someone is searching for
Distance, meaning how close your business is to the searcher or the area they specified
Prominence, which is influenced by reviews, ratings, and overall reputation
Profile activity and completeness, such as accurate information, recent updates, and engagement
For most small businesses, improvement comes from consistently handling a few simple things over time:
Encourage and collect 5-star reviews
Make sure your location is set correctly, since distance is a major ranking factor
Post updates at least monthly, weekly if possible
Add real photos of your business
List products or services if applicable
This is not everything that can be done, but these steps alone will put you in a much stronger position and often ahead of direct competitors. It is also not just about SEO; a big part of success is creating a profile that actually encourages people to click, call, or request directions.
A simple way to evaluate your profile is to view it from a customer’s perspective. If someone found your business through Maps alone, would they feel informed and comfortable reaching out? If not, you've got work to do!
Keep Your Business Information Consistent Everywhere
This is a quick tip, but when your business name, address, or phone number varies across platforms, it creates confusion. Customers usually notice first, often when they call and hear, “The number you have dialed is no longer in service.” Search engines notice this too.
This is called having good NAP citations, meaning your name, address, and phone number are consistent everywhere they appear online. That consistency reinforces legitimacy and improves local visibility without adding extra marketing effort.
If you are like us, the biggest source of inconsistency is often an old White Pages or Yelp listing that was set up years ago and never updated. A quick audit and cleanup of those legacy listings can prevent avoidable confusion and remove a quiet barrier to local search performance.
Respond to Reviews Thoughtfully (Yes, Even the Bad Ones)
It’s reasonable to wonder whether responding to negative reviews is worth the effort. In most areas of life, ignoring mean or unfair comments is usually the healthier move.
But in local marketing, that instinct doesn’t always translate. Reviews function as public conversations. When feedback goes unanswered, especially when it’s critical, Google might take that like you don't care about your customers concerns or needs. In fact, Google tracks response rate and response time on Business Profiles, and that activity contributes to how complete, active, and trustworthy a profile appears. A response doesn’t have to be defensive, overly detailed, or even contain an apology. It simply needs to show that the business is present and willing to engage with criticism.
For potential customers that haven't utilized your product or services yet, responses provide context. They help people see how issues are handled. A calm, respectful reply often does more to build trust than a perfect star rating with no interaction at all.
So while ignoring reviews may feel like taking the high road, thoughtful responses quietly support credibility, trust, and long-term performance in local search.
Create Earned Media Moments
We talked about earned media earlier in this article, but what if you have not done anything “news-worthy” yet? In the words of a wise old wizard from Star Wars, “Do, or do not, there is no try” As AI becomes more dominant, the average piece of content is going to get more generic. When everyone has access to the same tools, differentiation gets harder. That is exactly why in-person experiences and real human feedback matter more, not less. And that, is where local media journals and newspapers can help.
Local media still cares about things that happen in the real world and in your local community. So the next time you’re donating to the local school system, supporting a kids’ lunch program, hosting a free workshop, or doing something that genuinely benefits your community, consider letting your local paper know it’s happening, and you might get the sweet reward of an earned backlink!
Keep Your Branding Visually Consistent
This is one of those areas where every marketing firm (including Roaring Business) needs to better practice what they preach.
Inconsistent branding creates friction. When colors, fonts, or visual styles change from one platform to another, it becomes harder for people to recognize your business and feel confident they’re in the right place. Visual consistency doesn’t require a full redesign. It starts with a few clear decisions and the discipline to stick with them.
A practical first step is choosing a simple color palette and font pairing. Tools like Canva make this easy, because they've integrated sections where you create your business' color palette and style. It's simple and intuitive, so don't be scared of it! You've got this. (At the time of us writing this it's #motivationalmonday, what can we say 🤷🏼♂️)
Once you’ve picked a small set of colors and one or two fonts, treat them as defaults for all of your content. Your website, social profiles, Google Business Profile, and basic graphics should all feel like they belong to the same business. Minor variations are fine, but constant changes weaken recognition.
It also helps to resist the urge to tweak things frequently. Changing colors or styles every few months may feel creative, but it forces customers to relearn what your brand looks like. Familiarity builds trust over time.
Strong branding is about being recognizable. When your visuals stay consistent, your business becomes easier to remember and easier to trust, without requiring more marketing effort.
Consider Google Local Services Ads
Everyone knows what Google Ads are. Very few people, in our experience, know what Local Services Ads are. But if you are in the right industry, they can quickly become one of your best friends.
When they are available for your industry, Local Services Ads offer something traditional Google Ads do not. Prime placement in local search (given the fact that they're placed DIRECTLY in the Google Business Profile network), built-in trust through the Google Verified badge, and a pricing model based on real leads instead of clicks.
Instead of paying for traffic and hoping it converts, you only pay when a potential customer actually reaches out. That makes Local Services Ads especially effective for service-based businesses that rely on phone calls, form submissions, or direct inquiries. If you haven't heard of these before, take a few minutes to check them out, and utilize the free 'leads calculator tool' to see how many leads you could generate for your small business.
Reduce the Number of Social Platforms You Maintain
Once you start to understand how marketing really works, it can feel exciting… maybe even a bit too exciting. Suddenly you see all the possible platforms you could be on: TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, Reddit and that’s just the beginning. When you factor in places where you can run paid ads like Bing (Microsoft), Google, Yelp, and Spotify, plus email marketing platforms and more, it’s easy to feel like you need to be everywhere at once.
The practical lesson for your marketing is this: the most effective growth comes from platforms where you show up consistently, test what works, and optimize over time. That process can’t happen if your attention is divided across too many places. Posting everywhere might sound like broad coverage, but when your efforts are thin, nothing performs as well as it could.
A good rule of thumb is to only maintain as many platforms as you can commit to with consistency and quality.That means picking the few channels where your audience actually lives, focusing on great content there, and improving over time based on what you learn.
If you must have additional platforms that you rarely use, one smart tactic is to create a pinned post or graphic explaining where you are most active. For example:
We’re not very active here, but you can connect with us on:
Instagram: @yourhandle
TikTok: @yourhandle
LinkedIn: @yourhandle
Linktree: linktr.ee/yourprofile
This way people know how to reach you where you’re truly showing up. It keeps your brand accessible without diluting your energy across every possible social option.
PAID MEDIA & TRAFFIC CONTROL (35–39)
Paid media gives you control over visibility, timing, and scale. These principles help you spend intentionally instead of reactively.
Don’t Run Paid Ads Before the Basics Are Ready
A lot of small business owners have strong opinions about paid ads. Most people either see them as a “safe” way to generate leads on demand, or they see them as a gigantic waste of time and money. There’s usually no in-between, and that’s largely based on experience. If ads worked for them (or someone they know), they trust them. If they’ve been burned before, they assume paid ads just don’t work.
Whether you’ve run paid ads before or you’ve never tried them, you probably should try again, but only once the fundamentals are in place. Paid ads don’t create clarity, they amplify whatever already exists. If your website is confusing, your message is unclear, or your offer isn’t compelling, ads will simply push more people into that confusion faster.
Before you spend money again, make sure you:
Understand who your target audience is (and what platforms they’re on)
Understand basic messaging your audience responds to
Understand what you are offering, and how it differs from your competitors (value prop)
Nail the basics first, and paid ads become far easier to measure, improve, and scale.
Check Your Ad Targeting Carefully
While we’re on the subject of ads, make sure you’re using targeting properly. Every platform has its own quirks and nuances, and what “good targeting” looks like on Google is not the same as what “good targeting” looks like on LinkedIn, Meta, or anywhere else.
At a minimum, your ads should be targeted with basic demographics, psychographics, and location when it applies. The goal is relevance. When the right people see the right offer, performance tends to improve quickly.
Additionally, before you hit publish, double check the settings that quietly tank results. For example, in Google Ads we often see businesses target the right zip codes and audiences, but then set multiple conversion actions as “Primary.” That makes the algorithm optimize for several outcomes at the same time, and performance suffers because it is chasing everything equally. On LinkedIn Ads, a common issue is relying on auto-generated audiences (the ones that include people if they did X) where a small date range mistake or a bad data input can change who gets included and throw off the entire campaign. Our point? Treat targeting like the foundation of your campaign. If it’s off, everything built on top of it underperforms.
Offer Value Before You Promote
If you’ve been posting on Facebook consistently and you’re only getting 10–13 impressions, and if you’re lucky maybe one like, it’s worth checking how much you’re asking from your audience in each post.
A lot of business owners, leaders, and managers underestimate what an “ask” actually is. Many assume that as long as they’re not directly saying “buy my product,” they’re doing fine. But an ask is anything that requires effort, attention, or decision-making from someone. Asking them to visit your website is an ask. Asking them to comment is an ask. Asking them to follow is an ask. Even asking for their attention in the first place is an ask, even if you fully believe in the value of what you offer.
When you start visualizing attention and action as currencies, you stop spending them carelessly. You’ll lead with value more often, ask less often, and get better engagement because your audience feels like they’re receiving more than they’re being asked to give.
Space Out Social Posts Intentionally
Posting too often can overwhelm your audience. When content shows up constantly, it becomes easy to scroll past without really noticing it...kind of like a sponsored Instagram post you’ve seen ten times already.
Instead, intentionally space out each post so it gets a bit of identity and breathing room. For many small businesses, that means posting consistently but not daily. A good starting point is to choose a realistic number of posts per week and stick to it. You may have noticed a theme in our advice at this point: commit to something you can sustain without burning out.
Spacing your posts also creates a natural filter for quality. When you’re not pressured to post every day, you’re more likely to share updates that are actually useful, relevant, or interesting to your audience. You’ll have time to think through angles, experiment with formats, and even schedule your posts for the month with intention.
This approach shapes expectations too. When people learn that your posts tend to be thoughtful and spaced out, they pay more attention when something new appears.
Over time, your social media growth won’t feel like lucky bursts of virality. With patience and consistent quality, you’ll look back and be surprised at how much you’ve grown.
For guidance on how often you should post on each platform, search terms like “how often to post on [platform] in 2026” and look for results from reputable social media scheduling or analytics tools (e.g., Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Later, Buffer).
These sources regularly update their recommendations based on real engagement data and can help you tailor your posting cadence to each network.
Use a Content Strategy, Not Just Ideas
Random ideas lead to inconsistent messaging and unpredictable results. A strategy makes sure every piece of content has a purpose, so you’re not just posting to post.
A simple hack to get content ideas is to follow the Hero, Hub, Hygiene strategy:
But how do you actually find content ideas for each phase? There are a lot of methods, tools, and platforms, and everyone eventually finds what works best for them. But one easy starting point, especially for Hygiene content, is to use Google itself.
Alongside content curation (see Tip #19), check out:
Google Autocomplete (the suggestions that appear as you type)
“People Also Ask” (the questions Google shows in search results)
These two features basically show you what real people are already searching for, which means you can create content that meets existing demand instead of guessing what to post.
CONVERSION & FOLLOW-UP (40–44)
These steps help turn attention into action through better follow-up systems.
Respond to Leads Quickly
This one might be a personal vendetta, but nothing is more frustrating on our end as marketers than when a client opens a meeting by saying, “It’s been feeling kinda slow lately,” and then we check the dashboard and everything is up: impressions, clicks, calls, form fills, leads. Then we look one level deeper and ask them to check their form inbox, their email, or their missed calls… and sure enough, they haven’t been responding.
Look, we’re calling ourselves out here too. Response time is one of the few things you can control no matter what the market is doing. If you can’t personally reply fast, at least set up an automation on your website and social platforms so every inquiry gets an immediate response. Even a simple message like “We got this, we’ll follow up shortly” keeps momentum alive and reassures the lead they’re in the right place.
Bottom line: respond.
Make Sure Forms Actually Go Somewhere
This is common sense, but you can’t respond to a form submission if your website isn’t actually notifying you when it’s been filled out. If you’re a DIY web builder, it’s easy to assume the form “just works” and that you’ll automatically get an email. But that’s not always the case.
On top of that, if you’ve made self-updates over time, connections can break without you realizing it. Plugins update, settings change, email routing fails, spam filters block notifications, and suddenly your form becomes a black hole.
At a minimum, once a year, go through your site like a customer would. Click every button. Test every form. Make sure every submission goes somewhere you actually check.
A form that doesn’t deliver submissions is worse than no form at all. Missed messages quietly cost you leads and trust.
Every form should route clearly to a monitored inbox or system, and regular testing ensures no opportunity slips through unnoticed.
Track What Matters
Tracking everything creates noise and hides what actually drives results. Focusing on the right metrics keeps decisions clear and actionable. Meaningful data shows what’s working and what needs adjusting, and when you track what matters, marketing improves faster with less guesswork.
That begs the question: what actually matters? We suggest tracking four categories:
1 metric for each phase of the A.I.D.A. funnel (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action): This keeps your marketing balanced so you’re not only tracking leads while ignoring whether anyone is even discovering you in the first place.
Basic annual metrics: Things like customer lifetime value, ROI, and other big-picture numbers that show whether your marketing is profitable long-term.
“Vanity” metrics (tracked the right way): Monthly impressions, clicks, engagements, followers, etc. These don’t always equal revenue, but they do show momentum. We usually recommend measuring these year-over-year so you’re not reacting emotionally to normal month-to-month swings.
What you care about: Every business has unique goals. Maybe it’s booked calls, foot traffic, demo requests, donations, referrals, or email replies. If it matters to your business, it belongs on the dashboard.
The goal is to track smarter, so your next decision is obvious.
Clean Up Your Marketing Infrastructure
Messy systems slow growth and create avoidable mistakes. Broken links, outdated tools, and disconnected platforms quietly drain performance. Clean infrastructure makes every marketing effort work harder, and when your systems are organized and reliable, scaling becomes smoother and more predictable.
When we say “marketing infrastructure,” we mean the behind-the-scenes systems that keep everything running: your website dashboard (including plugin management, updates, and integrations), your Meta Business Portfolio, and basically any marketing dashboard you rely on. It also includes things like project management tools, your email inbox setup, and whether your files, logins, and permissions are actually organized or just scattered everywhere.
This week, dedicate one hour to a general cleanup. It may sound basic, but it makes a bigger difference than most people expect. We got inspired to include this tip because with one client, we discovered they had over eight business accounts just across Facebook and Instagram. They were split between two different Meta portfolios, each with different access and login credentials, plus two separate accounts that had their own unique logins and weren’t connected to anything. It was a mess, and it forced them to give access to agencies like ours at the individual account level, which was time-consuming, confusing, and completely unnecessary.
One extra “freebie tip” while you’re doing this: remove anyone who should no longer have access to your systems.
Common offenders include:
Social accounts
Website logins
Google Business Profiles
Internal software tools and platforms
Clean it up today so you don’t have a headache tomorrow.
Build a Feedback Loop With Your Audience
This tip is like an onion. It has layers. If you can’t answer in 10 seconds or less how someone can give feedback about your business and how you’re proactively collecting that feedback, then you’ve got some work to do.
We typically see feedback collection evolve in a natural progression:
A client has to email or call you to voice a complaint: This is reactive, not proactive, and it usually means you’re only hearing from people once they’re already frustrated.
You collect reviews on basic platforms: Usually Google, sometimes Facebook, maybe a few scattered places, but there’s no consistent follow-up system.
You do the above, plus automated feedback forms on your site: This is where you start building a real process instead of relying on chance.
You do all of these and proactively reach out for feedback: This could be email check-ins, post-project surveys, quick “how did we do?” messages, or a simple request for suggestions after a milestone.
Of course, everyone’s strategy looks different depending on the business, the volume of customers, and the type of service you provide. But if you follow that progression, you’ll build a feedback system that helps you improve faster, serve better, and grow with a lot less guesswork.
OWNED CHANNELS & SYSTEMS (45–48)
Owned channels give you stability that algorithms can’t take away. These systems focus on the workflows and tools that support consistent execution.
Take Email Marketing Seriously in 2026
Email often gets a bad rap because many people only think of it as newsletters that sit unopened. The reality is that in 2026, average open rates across industries are holding strong, showing that people do still read emails when the content feels relevant and valuable. At the same time, conversion rates from email often look modest on the surface, but that’s only because most brands aren’t using the automation capabilities that are now standard.
Yes, on average, open rates sit in the low-40 percent range, and click-to-conversion outcomes can feel underwhelming when compared to the hype around social media. But the key is using email in ways that play to its strengths: personalization, timing, and direct access to someone’s inbox. And we have never had the automation capability for email that we have today.
As a team, we’ve worked in platforms like Constant Contact, Beehiiv, Mailchimp, Subsplash and more, and the automation tools in most of these type of systems allow you to:
Trigger welcome sequences when someone joins your list
Automatically follow up after a specific action or inaction
Segment audiences so different people get different messages
Build nurture paths that guide someone from awareness to decision without manual effort
Especially if you are utilizing Mailchimp's Marketing Automation Tool, you have access to some WILD options. In fact...
Use Basic Email Automation
Most businesses think email automation has to be complicated to be worth it. It doesn’t. Even a few simple automations can create a better customer experience, increase follow-through, and save you hours of manual work every month.
Basic email automations can be as simple as:
A welcome email when someone joins your list
A thank-you email after someone fills out a form
A follow-up sequence after a consultation request
A birthday or anniversary email that keeps your brand relationship strong
A re-engagement email for people who haven’t opened in a while
A next-steps email after a purchase or appointment
Small automations like these build consistency behind the scenes, even when you’re busy doing everything else. How do we know? Well, when I worked as the Director of Communications and Donor Relations for a nonprofit in Elyria, Ohio, I was able to build a fully automated volunteer training system using email.
Volunteers would receive emails automatically, and based on the status of their training (which was tracked in a completely different platform), they would either get encouraged to finish what they started or receive the next steps to keep moving forward. The best part was that it wasn’t just a basic “send this, then send that” sequence. It was a branching workflow, meaning the next email or series of emails would only send after the volunteer completed the required step. If they didn’t complete it, the system would send a string of reminder emails before eventually exiting them as a non-engaged volunteer. As someone juggling what was basically five full-time jobs in one role, that automation was massive. It saved time, kept things organized, and helped volunteers move forward without me having to manually follow up all day. And the same kind of automation can be a game-changer for your business too. Try it.
Use Your Workspace Tools Effectively
This one sounds generic at first, and we get why. No, we’re not scraping the bottom of the barrel here. This fix is about making sure you actually understand and use the software tools you’ve already invested in, before paying for more.
Most teams barely scratch the surface of their tools. Our own team uses ClickUp daily, and we’re fully aware we’re not using every feature available to us. That’s normal. The key is recognizing it and periodically revisiting what your software can actually do.
If you don’t know what’s included in the tools you’re already paying for, you’ll often end up spending more money to solve problems your current stack could already handle. Awareness alone can save time, reduce costs, and simplify your workflow more than adding yet another platform ever will.
Choose the Right Software Stack
Do you even have the right tools? Not every platform is a good fit for every business. Before committing long-term, it’s worth vetting tools using review platforms like Capterra or G2, where you can see how real users describe strengths and limitations. Be especially cautious of “AI wrappers”… tools that are essentially a thin interface sitting on top of a generic AI model without much proprietary value. You can also browse marketplaces like AppSumo to discover useful tools you might not have encountered otherwise.
AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS & META-AWARENESS (49–52)
Strong agency relationships depend on clear expectations, shared context, and mutual awareness. These tips help give clarity on how to achieve this.
Understand Your Agency’s Role
This tip is obviously most relevant if you’re working with a marketing agency… but honestly, confusion like this causes problems in any working relationship. When responsibilities aren’t clearly defined, things fall through the cracks, expectations drift, and frustration builds on both sides.
One of the most common issues we see is assumption. A business owner assumes the agency is handling something because it feels adjacent to the work being done. “They manage our Google Business Profile, so I assumed they were posting on it regularly.” Or, “They’re running ads, so I thought they were also handling landing page updates.” In most cases, the agency is simply doing exactly what’s outlined in the scope of work… nothing more, nothing less.
That’s why it’s critical to actually review your contract and understand what is included, what is optional, and what is not being handled.
It also helps to understand the level of effort behind what is included. Many marketing tasks look simple from the outside but require planning, testing, monitoring, and ongoing adjustment behind the scenes.
The fix here is simple: clearly define ownership. Who owns strategy? Who owns execution? Who owns reporting, updates, approvals, and maintenance? When everyone knows their role, work moves faster, trust improves, and results become much easier to evaluate.
Read Your Marketing Contracts
Contracts are, without question, one of our least favorite parts of this work. We’d much rather focus on delivering quality, exceeding expectations, and building trust than pointing back to legal language. In a perfect world, that would be enough.
Unfortunately, experience has taught us otherwise.
We’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that contracts exist to protect both sides when expectations drift, memories fade, or situations change. That’s why we try to keep our agreements fair and reasonable: clear scopes, realistic timelines, transparent pricing, and straightforward payment schedules. Not every agency approaches contracts with that mindset.
There are a lot of clauses you could dig into, but one of the most important questions to answer is simple:
Who owns the work when the relationship ends?
This catches more businesses off guard than almost anything else. We’ve seen agencies advertise full websites for under $1,000, only for clients to discover later that they don’t actually own the site. They’re essentially renting it. If they leave, the site disappears or becomes inaccessible.
(For the record: we don’t do that.)
Ownership applies to more than just websites. It can affect ad accounts, domains, creative assets, email lists, and analytics access. If you don’t know what you retain when you’re done, you don’t fully understand the agreement.
Reading your contracts isn’t about mistrust. It’s about clarity. When expectations, ownership, and responsibilities are spelled out upfront, partnerships run smoother, conversations are easier, and there are far fewer unpleasant surprises down the road.
Learn How to Prompt AI Properly
It’s fair to ask the question: “Why would I hire an agency when tools like ChatGPT exist?” The short answer is that tools don’t replace judgment. And to be blunt, we can usually tell when AI is being used poorly. Most advertising professionals can. It shows up in generic phrasing, awkward rhythm, and copy that technically makes sense but doesn’t feel right.
Honestly? It makes us cringe a little…especially when we look back at some of our own early AI-assisted posts that missed the mark.
To understand why this happens, it helps to know what AI is actually doing. Language models don’t “think.” They predict. They scan patterns in their training data and calculate which word, phrase, or sentence is statistically most likely to follow the one before it. That’s it.
Which means the quality of the output is directly tied to the quality of the input.
Vague prompts lead to vague results. Generic instructions produce generic copy. When you give clear context, constraints, tone, audience, and purpose, the outputs get dramatically better. Prompting isn’t a technical skill so much as a thinking skill: knowing what you want, why you want it, and how it should sound.
And one last thing that shouldn’t need to be said, but does: always edit.
AI is a draft partner, not a final author. Copy-and-paste publishing is how content starts to sound interchangeable, forgettable, and off-brand. A quick human pass to adjust tone, remove clichés, and inject real perspective makes all the difference.
Used well, AI can speed up your workflow and help you think more clearly. Used carelessly, it does the opposite.
Recognize What You Don’t Know Yet
If you’ve made it this far… yes, you’ve earned a moment of honesty from us.
If you’ve actually implemented most of these fixes, you are far ahead of the curve. Truly. You’re already doing more than roughly 95% of the businesses we talk to. Take a second and acknowledge that progress.
But the natural question at this point is: what’s next?
Even in a guide this long, there are still important layers we haven’t touched. We haven’t walked through how to handle AI Overviews and rich results in search, or how to implement schema markup so your site can qualify for them. We didn’t get into CMS-led websites and dynamic page structures that scale without looking templated. We didn’t cover Google Merchant Center, advanced product feeds, or how to actually get full value out of a Google Workspace subscription (it does a lot more than host email). And we definitely didn’t tie all 52 of these fixes together into a single, cohesive growth system.
That’s not because those things don’t matter, it’s because this is where experience starts to matter more than checklists.
At this point, there are usually two types of readers.
Some of you are feeling energized. You’ve done a lot right, and you’re ready to tighten things up, go deeper, and build something more intentional.
Others are feeling overwhelmed. You skimmed parts of this and thought, “Wow… we’re behind.” If that’s you, let us say this plainly: it’s probably not the worst situation we’ve seen. Not even close. We fix these exact issues every week, and we’ve gotten very efficient at identifying what actually matters first.
If you’d like a second set of eyes, we’d be honored to help.
We offer a free, no-pressure consultation where we look at your marketing, your systems, and your goals, and help you understand what’s working, what’s holding you back, and what’s worth prioritizing next, whether you work with us or not.
👉 Book a free consultation with our team and let’s talk through where you are and where you want to go.
You’ve already taken the hardest step: paying attention.