What is a marketing plan for a small business?
A marketing plan for a small business is a short written answer to four questions: which customers you want more of, where they find businesses like yours, what you will spend in time and money, and which numbers show that it works. For a salon, a clinic, a craftsman or a shop it fits on one page. It is not a list of small business marketing ideas to try at random, but an order of work that answers one question: how to get more customers from the time and money you have.
The order matters more than the channels. It is tempting to start with ads or a new Instagram routine. Start instead with what you already have: the Business Profile, the phone and the website. A paid click is wasted if the customer meets an empty profile or an unanswered phone.
The 90 day marketing plan for small business, week by week
The plan has three phases: foundations, routines, then one paid test. Each phase builds on the one before, so resist skipping ahead.
| Week | Focus | What to do | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Measure | Ask every new customer how they found you; note calls, bookings and enquiries; read your Business Profile performance | 1 to 2 |
| 2 | Foundations | Complete your Google Business Profile, fix the website basics, set up tracking | 3 to 4 |
| 3 | Reviews | Start a review routine: ask every customer, with a link or QR code | 1 |
| 4 | Replies | Measure your answer time, set up instant replies and a text for missed calls | 2 |
| 5 | Automatic messages | Reminders, thank you and rebooking messages, within the rules | 2 |
| 6 | Content | Answer the five questions customers ask most, on your website and profile | 2 to 3 |
| 7 | Plan the test | Pick one channel, one offer, one area and a fixed budget | 2 |
| 8 | Launch | Start the ads and check that every enquiry is tracked | 2 |
| 9 to 10 | Read | Check the numbers weekly and make one change per week at most | 1 |
| 11 | Optimise | Stop what does not bring enquiries and move the money to what does | 1 |
| 12 | Decide | Keep, adjust or switch channel, and write the plan for the next 90 days | 1 to 2 |
Weeks 1 to 2: foundations
Measure where customers come from today. For two weeks, ask every new customer one question: “How did you find us?” Write the answer in a sheet next to the date and the service. Then sign in at business.google.com, open Performance and note calls, website clicks, directions and bookings. If your website runs Google Analytics 4, add UTM tags to the links in your Instagram bio and emails, so the visits show up by name under Acquisition, Traffic acquisition.
Link with UTM tags for your Instagram bio
https://www.example.com/booking?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bio
Google Business Profile. Google Business Profile is the listing that shows your business in Google Search and Maps, with address, opening hours, phone number, photos and reviews. Google ranks local results by relevance, distance and prominence, and says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up. You cannot pay for a better local ranking. Our Google Business Profile guide goes through every field.
Website basics. Each main service needs its own page with a price or price range, the area you cover, photos of real work, and a phone number and booking button at the top. See landing pages that bring enquiries, or building a website with AI if you have no site yet. If you use a booking marketplace, check your contract for fees per booking and on online payments, and consider your own booking page with Vipps for regular clients.
Tracking. In Google Analytics 4, mark the actions that matter as key events (Admin, Data display, Events, then the star icon): a booking, a form, a click on the phone number. It is often missing. In our own automated check of 604 websites of beauty salons, clinics and dental practices in Norway (30 September to 15 October 2026), 359 (59%) had neither a Meta pixel nor a Google Ads tag in the homepage code or its Google Tag Manager container. Tags that load only after cookie consent or only on other pages may be missed, so the real share can be somewhat lower. The tracking guide explains what this means for ads.
Weeks 3 to 6: reviews, replies, messages and content
A review routine. Ask every customer, not only the happy ones, and make it easy. In your Business Profile, open Read reviews, then Get more reviews, to copy the link or save the QR code. Google forbids offering discounts or gifts for reviews and asking selectively for positive ones. More in how to get more Google reviews.
Review request, in person or as a message
Thank you for coming in today, {name}. If you have a minute, a short review on Google helps other people find us: {link}. Good or bad, we read every one.
Answer speed. Every enquiry should get an answer the same day, ideally within the hour. In research published in Harvard Business Review in 2011, firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as those that tried an hour later. In the researchers' audit of 2 241 US companies, the average response time among those that answered within 30 days was 42 hours. Set up instant replies with your booking link and a text after missed calls, and if the volume is high, an AI assistant. See AI replies for salons and what an AI agent can do for a small business.
Automatic messages. A reminder before the appointment, a thank you with the review link and a rebooking message when the next visit is due save you hours of manual texting. Offers and campaigns by SMS or email are marketing, and in Norway marketing to private individuals by electronic message needs their prior consent (markedsføringsloven § 15). The exception is existing customers who gave you their address when they bought from you, for your own similar products and with an easy way to opt out. See automatic messages for salons.
Content that answers questions. Write down the five questions customers ask most: price, how long it takes, parking, what to bring, whether you cover their area. Answer each one on your website and, where it fits, in your Business Profile. Clear, factual answers help people decide, and they are the kind of text search engines and AI assistants can quote. See how to get found on Google and SEO, GEO, AEO and AIO explained.
Weeks 7 to 12: one small ads test
Choose one channel where your customers already are: Google Ads if people search for your service when they need it, Instagram or Facebook ads if they choose by pictures. Give the test one offer, one area, a fixed budget and at least four weeks. In Google Ads, set the daily budget to the monthly amount divided by 30.4: Google may spend up to twice the daily budget on one day, but not more than 30.4 times it in a month. Google also says automated bidding typically needs one to two weeks to optimise, sometimes up to six, so judge the test after a month, not after three days.
Before you start, read 10 Google Ads mistakes that waste your budget or Instagram ads for salons and clinics.
Which marketing channels fit your business?
A local marketing plan depends on how your customers choose. Use the table as a starting point; your own numbers from weeks 1 and 2 decide.
| Business | Start with | Then test | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salon or beauty | Business Profile, Instagram, a booking link everywhere | Instagram ads to people nearby, rebooking messages | Clients choose by pictures and reviews, and come back regularly |
| Clinic | Business Profile, one page per treatment, reviews | Google Ads on treatment searches | People compare before they book, and Norwegian law requires marketing of health services to be responsible, sober and factual (helsepersonelloven § 13) |
| Craftsman | Business Profile, one page per service and area, a phone that gets answered | Google Ads on service plus town | People search when they have a problem, and one job is worth a lot: bids for “rørlegger oslo” run 69 to 251 kr per click |
| Shop | Business Profile with opening hours, Instagram or Facebook | Email or SMS to customers who agreed, local Meta ads | Repeat visits and offers matter most |
How to split a small marketing budget of time and money
A small marketing budget for a small business works when most of it goes to one thing at a time. Three examples with round numbers; they show the arithmetic, not results to expect.
Example 1: a salon in Lillestrøm with 3 hours a week and 3 000 kr a month. Weeks 1 to 6 cost only time: an hour on replies and reviews, an hour on Instagram posts, an hour on the Business Profile and the numbers. From week 7 the 3 000 kr go to one Instagram ads test for people nearby, about 100 kr a day. If the test brings 10 new clients, each costs 300 kr. Compare that with what a new client spends with you in a year.
Example 2: a plumber on Romerike with 2 hours a week and 8 000 kr a month. Google Ads on “rørlegger lillestrøm” and close searches, where our click price table (in Norwegian) shows bids of 29 to 105 kr. At about 67 kr per click, 8 000 kr buys around 120 clicks. If 5 to 10 percent get in touch, that is 6 to 12 enquiries, or about 670 to 1 330 kr per enquiry. If one enquiry in three becomes a job, each new customer costs about 2 000 to 4 000 kr. The daily budget would be 8 000 kr divided by 30.4, about 263 kr.
Example 3: a dental clinic on Romerike with 1 hour a week and no ad budget. Twenty minutes to answer reviews and ask for new ones, twenty minutes to add one answer to a common question on the website, twenty minutes to update the tracking sheet. After 12 weeks, the site has 12 new answers and the review routine runs every week.
Which numbers should you track?
Six numbers are enough. Write them down every week; the trend over several weeks matters more than any single week.
| Number | Where to find it | How to calculate |
|---|---|---|
| Calls | Phone log, Business Profile performance | Count per week, including missed calls |
| Bookings | Your booking system | New bookings per week |
| Enquiries | Forms, email, messages | Count per week, with the source the customer gave |
| Cost per new customer | Ad accounts and your sheet | Marketing spend divided by new customers |
| Reviews per month | Business Profile, Read reviews | New reviews this month |
| Share of returning clients | Booking system or customer list | Returning customers divided by all customers |
Tracking sheet template, one row per week
Week | Calls | Missed calls | Bookings | Enquiries | Where they came from | Ad spend (kr) | New customers | Cost per new customer (kr) | New reviews | Returning clients (%)
Common marketing mistakes small businesses make
- Doing everything at once. Five channels at the same time means none gets done properly, and you cannot see which one worked. One phase at a time.
- Boosting posts without a goal. Boosting a post because it got likes is not a plan. Decide first what the money should buy, such as messages, bookings or calls, and measure that number.
- No follow up. In the 2011 audit reported in Harvard Business Review, 23% of 2 241 US companies never answered a test enquiry at all. A customer who asked and heard nothing is likely to go elsewhere.
- Changing too often. Google advises giving Smart Bidding one to two conversion cycles to learn after a significant change. Change one thing, wait two weeks, then read the numbers.
When should you get help with marketing?
Do the foundations yourself if you have the time; they are mostly routines. Get help when a step needs technical setup, such as tracking, ads or a new website, or when you know what to do but it never happens. Whoever you hire, the accounts, the website and the domain should be in your company's name, and the price should be agreed in writing before work starts.
For reference, my own prices: a website for 5 000 to 10 000 kr depending on the number of pages, Google or Meta ads setup with conversion tracking for 14 000 kr with the ad budget paid directly to the platform, and SEO for 7 000 kr per month for at least three months.
What to do this week
- Start asking every new customer “How did you find us?”
- Open your Business Profile performance and write down last month's calls, website clicks and directions.
- Copy your review link and ask every customer this week for a review.
- Check how long the last ten enquiries waited for an answer.
- Write your 90 day plan on one page: the three phases, the budget and the six numbers.
