Most owners would say they do not have a marketing team. Look again. You handle most of it, your receptionist asks happy customers for reviews, a web developer updates the site when you ask, and your partner answers Facebook messages on a Saturday. That is a team, even if nobody calls it one.
The trouble is that each of them works from a different picture. The developer fixes what you ask for, not what is costing you calls. This guide covers how to give everyone one list in one order, and how to hand the right job to the right person, or to us.
In this article
- 1. One list, in order, with you holding it
- 2. Matching each task to the person best placed to do it
- 3. Briefing a web developer or an agency
- 4. Handing a job to us, and keeping it all moving
One list, and you hold it
Your Marketbase roadmap gives you one to five things to do now, in the order that moves you most against your closest competition. Each one comes with a short checklist of tasks. That list is the brief for your whole team.
A Marketbase login belongs to one person. There is no way to invite staff into it, so the simplest setup is the one most small teams fall into anyway: you read the roadmap, decide who does each task, and tick it off when it is done. One person holding the list stops two people doing the same job and nobody doing the important one.
Keep the order. When the receptionist has a spare half hour, the right job is the next open task on the first priority, not whatever looks easiest further down.
Key point
You do not need to hire a marketing team. You already have one. It needs one list, in one order, with someone holding it.
Who does what
Most roadmap tasks fall into a few kinds of job, and each kind has a natural owner in a small business.
Google listing tasks, like hours, photos, categories and answering questions, suit whoever runs the business day to day. Add them as a manager on your Google listing rather than sharing your Google password. They can then update it from their own account, and you can remove them when they move on.
Review tasks belong to whoever sees customers at the end of a job or an appointment. A receptionist or a team member on the tools is better placed to ask than you are by text a week later. Agree a simple habit, like asking every customer at pick-up, and check in on it each week.
Website tasks, like page titles, headings and the short descriptions Google shows under your link, go to whoever has access to the site. Facebook tasks go to whoever runs the page. For both, give them access through the platform's own settings, never your personal login.
Tip
Send the words, not the idea. Where a roadmap task needs new text, like a description for your Google listing or a page title, the text is written for you, ready to paste. Copy it straight into your message to whoever is doing the job.
Briefing a web developer or an agency
"Can you improve our Google ranking" gets you an invoice and not much else. A useful brief names the task, the page and the words. Copy the website task from your roadmap, add the ready-to-paste text, and ask when it will be live.
Your free Marketbase report has its own web address, so you can send the link to anyone. It shows your developer or agency what customers see, what is working and what could move, without needing your login. That gives you both the same picture before the conversation starts.
Tick the task when the developer confirms the change is live. When we next check your market and you refresh your roadmap, you will see whether the change landed. A fix that did not take comes back flagged, so you can go back to them with something specific.
The same applies to anyone you pay for marketing. Your Market Rank and Health score come from us checking your whole market, not from the people doing the work. If you have been paying for months and neither has moved, that is a fair conversation to have.
A useful brief names the task, the page and the words.
Or hand it to us
Some jobs nobody on your team has the time or the access for. Every priority on your roadmap has a button to hand it to us. Press it and we get in touch to sort out the details. Sort it yourself, or we'll do it for you, priority by priority.
It suits the jobs that need access or know-how nobody on your team has. A website change when your developer has moved on is one. Claiming your business on directory sites one by one is another.
Picture this
An illustrative example: a physio clinic in Hamilton. The owner treats patients all day, the practice manager runs the front desk, and a freelancer looks after the website.
The owner reads the roadmap on a Monday. The practice manager, now a manager on the Google listing, adds the Saturday hours and photos. The freelancer gets two page titles, ready to paste.
Nobody has time for the third priority, so the owner hands it to us. Nobody worked harder. Everyone worked on the right thing.
Keeping it moving
Starting is easy. Keeping going is the hard part, especially when everyone is busy with their real jobs. Five minutes on a Monday with the roadmap open is enough: what got done, what is next, who has it.
When your roadmap says fresh data has arrived, press Refresh. It opens with what changed, including where you moved. Tell the person whose work moved it. Visible progress is what keeps people doing jobs that do not pay off the same day.
Get your team on one list
5 minutes today
- Write down everyone who touches your marketing, even informally
- Open your roadmap and read the first priority's tasks
30 minutes this week
- Give each task an owner, and add them as a manager on your Google listing if they need it
- Send your web developer the website tasks with the ready-to-paste text
Ongoing this month
- Hold a five-minute Monday check-in and tick what is done
- Refresh your roadmap when fresh data arrives, and share what moved
Start with the same picture
Find your business by name on Marketbase and your free report shows what is working, what could move and where you stand. Open your free 7 days and your roadmap turns it into one list, in order, ready to share out. Sort it yourself, or we'll do it for you.