You have seen the checklists. "The ultimate local marketing checklist", 47 steps: claim your Google listing, post three times a week, get more reviews, start a blog. None of it is wrong. A plumber in Hamilton and a dentist in Auckland get the same list, and neither learns which step would get them the call.
In this article
- 1. Why the same list for everyone leaves you guessing
- 2. What changes when the advice starts from your own market
- 3. From "get more reviews" to knowing what to fix first
- 4. What to do this week instead of ticking boxes
Advice with no order
A checklist treats every task as equal. "Post on Instagram three times a week" sits beside "check the phone number on your Google listing is right". For an electrician in Tauranga whose work comes through Google Maps, the first barely matters and the second is urgent. The list cannot tell you that, because it was not written about your business.
So owners do one of two things. They try to do everything and run out of evenings, or they work on whatever worries them most. That is how a business on a 3.9 star rating spends a month on SEO, while a business on 4.8 loses sleep over one bad review.
Key point
Generic advice is not bad advice. It is advice with no order. The cost is not the hours spent on the wrong task. It is the right task left undone.
What changes when it starts from your market
What it takes to get the call depends on your trade and your town. A mobile dog groomer in Queenstown lives on the map, photos and reviews. A family lawyer in Wellington lives on a website that earns trust before the first phone call.
Marketbase starts from your market: every business in your trade in your city, already checked across Google, the map, reviews, websites, Facebook and the directories. There is nothing to set up and nothing to connect. Find your business by name and your free report shows what is working, what could move, and where you stand among the businesses a customer would weigh you against.
Your market also says how much each thing matters where you are. In a trade where most businesses have eight reviews, 20 is plenty. Where the leaders have 400, it is barely a start. A finding drawn from your own market comes with that yardstick built in.
From "get more reviews" to what to fix first
Every checklist says "get more reviews". It never says how many is enough where you are, or whether reviews are what is holding you back at all. Your own market answers both.
Picture this
A mechanic in Hamilton reads a blog that tells him to focus on Google reviews. He spends three months asking every customer and goes from 12 reviews to 28.
His free Marketbase report shows most workshops near him have more, but reviews are not his biggest gap. His Google listing has no opening hours and two photos, so on the map he looks shut next to workshops that show their hours, their bays and their team.
The reviews were not wasted. But for three months, the move that mattered most sat undone.
That is the difference between a list and a plan. A list says "do this". Marketbase tells you what to do first, shows you how, and does it for you if you want.
What fixing things in order looks like
Seven days' free access opens the roadmap: the handful of things to do now, in the order that moves you fastest, each with the how. Every step is set against your closest competition, the businesses a customer would weigh you against. Your place in your market is tracked every month, so you can see whether the work moved it.
You can work through it yourself on a Sunday night, or hand any fix to us. Either way the order is the same, because it comes from your market and not from a list written for everyone.
The cost is not the hours spent on the wrong task. It is the right task left undone.
Keep the checklist, if you like it, as a map of what exists. Just do not let it set the order.
Side by side
| Generic checklist | Marketbase | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it starts | What works for businesses in general | Your own market, the same trade in your city |
| What it tells you | Things to do | What we found about your business, and what it means for you |
| The order | None, every task looks equal | What to fix first, in order |
| The how | General tips | Step by step, for each finding |
| Who does it | You | You, or us if you would rather |
What to do this week
5 minutes today
- Search your main service and town on your phone and note who shows above you
- Open your own Google listing and check the phone, the hours and the website link
30 minutes this week
- Put the top three listings in that search beside yours: reviews, photos, description, hours
- Write down the one gap that is biggest
Ongoing this month
- Sort that gap before anything else on any checklist
- Then move to the next one, and leave the rest of the list alone until it matters
Where Marketbase comes in
A checklist is where most owners start, and it covers the basics. What it cannot do is look at your market and tell you which move gets you the call. Your free Marketbase report already has, so find your business by name and see what to fix first. Sort it yourself, or we'll do it for you.