How to Start Digital Marketing: 7 Steps for Business Owners
Updated: Oct 20
Search "how to start digital marketing" and most of page one answers someone else's question. Job sites explain how to get hired as a digital marketer. A payments company explains how to open a marketing agency. Software brands define every channel from SEO to affiliate marketing. Very little of it tells a business owner what to do first, so this guide answers that question, in order.
To start digital marketing for your business, work in this order: put every account in your own name, claim and complete your Google Business Profile, and ask real customers for reviews. Then make your website answer the questions buyers ask, start a customer email list, pick one social platform, and test paid ads last with a capped daily budget. The first four steps cost little or nothing, and most single-location businesses can finish them in about 8 to 15 hours spread over a few weeks. They come first because every later step, ads especially, sends people to your profile, your reviews, and your website. When those are ready, each dollar you spend later has somewhere good to land.
The Short Version
Verdict: get found and trusted before you try to get loud. A new or newly online local business wins its first digital customers from Google Maps, reviews, and a website that answers basic questions, and all three are free or inexpensive to set up. Put the accounts in your name so nobody can hold them hostage later. Ask every happy customer for a review, because 47% of consumers won't use a business with fewer than 20 of them. Add a customer email list and one social platform once the foundation is solid. Then test ads with a hard daily cap, and judge everything by calls, bookings, and one question at intake: "How did you hear about us?"
Key Takeaways
Quick answer: build the free foundation first (accounts, Google profile, reviews, website), add a customer list and one social channel, and spend on ads only when the foundation can turn clicks into calls.
Most small businesses haven't built the foundation yet. In BrightLocal's 2025 survey of 778 U.S. small business owners and managers, only 35% had a Google Business Profile and 40% had a dedicated website.
Reviews work like a gate. BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 U.S. adults found 68% will only use a business rated 4 stars or higher, and 47% won't use one with fewer than 20 reviews.
You can't buy a better spot on the map. Google says local results depend mainly on relevance, distance, and prominence, and that no one can pay for a better local ranking.
Ad spend can be capped from day one. Google Ads won't bill more than 30.4 times your average daily budget in a month, so a $10 daily budget tops out at $304.
The same basics feed AI answers. 45% of consumers now use AI tools like ChatGPT for local recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier, and Google says its AI search features need no special optimization.
What Does It Mean to Start Digital Marketing as a Business Owner?
Quick answer: for a business owner, starting digital marketing means making sure the people who already need what you sell can find you online, trust what they see, and contact you easily. It doesn't mean learning every channel, earning a certificate, or posting everywhere.
The phrase means three different things depending on who types it. Only one of them is what this guide covers.
If you're searching because you want to... | What you need | Covered here? |
Get more customers for a business you own or run | A starting order for your own marketing, with time and cost for each step | Yes |
Get a job in digital marketing | Courses, certifications, and a portfolio of practice projects | No |
Open a digital marketing agency | A niche, a business plan, pricing, and first customers of your own | No |
For a local business, digital marketing covers a handful of channels: your Google Business Profile (your listing on Google Search and Maps), your website and the search traffic it earns (SEO), online reviews, email to past and current customers, social media, and paid ads on Google, Facebook, and Instagram. In 2026 it also includes AI answers from tools like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews, which draw on the same profiles, reviews, and websites.
All of these work. They just don't all work at the start, and the order you add them in decides how much of your time and money turns into customers. Our guide to digital marketing for small business explains each channel in depth; this guide covers only the order to start them in.
The Starting Order: How to Start Digital Marketing in 7 Steps
Quick answer: own your accounts, set up your Google Business Profile, collect reviews, fix your website, start an email list, choose one social platform, and test ads last. Each step makes the next one work better, and each has a simple test that tells you it's done.
RedFork reports it has helped more than 800 businesses grow since 2014, and this is the sequence we plan new marketing around. We call it the Starting Order.
Step | What you do | Setup time | Cost to start | Done when |
1. Own your accounts | Put your domain, Google account, profile, website, and ad accounts under a login you control | About 1 hour | $0 beyond your domain | You can log in to every account as the owner |
2. Google Business Profile | Claim, verify, and fill in every section | 2 to 3 hours | $0 | Verified, complete, with at least 10 real photos |
3. Reviews | Ask every happy customer with a direct link, and reply to every review | About 1 hour, then minutes a day | $0 | Asking is routine and new reviews arrive every month |
4. Website | Make each main service page answer 5 buyer questions | 4 to 10 hours to fix, longer to build new | From $17 a month on a builder plan, plus your time or a designer | Your pages pass the 10-Second Phone Test |
5. Customer list | Collect emails with permission and send a welcome email | About 2 hours, then 1 to 2 hours a month | $0 to low on starter plans | Every new customer joins the list automatically |
6. One social platform | Post real work where your customers already are | About 1 hour a week | $0 | 12 weeks of steady posts |
7. Paid ads | One service, one area, one capped campaign | 2 to 3 hours, then 1 hour a week | Your budget; $10 a day caps at $304 a month | You know what a call or booking costs |
Step 1: Put Every Account in Your Own Name First
Every account you open starts collecting history on day one: reviews, ad performance, subscribers, and search data. If a freelancer, an agency, or a helpful relative sets those accounts up under their own login, that history can stay with them when the relationship ends. Ownership costs nothing to get right at the start and a lot to fix later.
Create a business Google account with an email address you control, ideally at your own domain.
Register your domain in the business's name and turn on auto-renew.
Make yourself the primary owner of your Google Business Profile, then add helpers as managers.
Open Google Ads, Meta Business (for Facebook and Instagram), Google Search Console, and Google Analytics under your account, and give others access instead of ownership.
Keep owner logins in a password manager that more than one trusted person can reach.
If someone else already set things up, ask them to make you the owner of each account now, while the relationship is good, rather than later when you need it.
Done when: you can log in to every marketing account as the owner without asking anyone for access.
Step 2: Claim and Complete Your Google Business Profile
For a local business, this free profile is often the first thing a customer sees, in Google Search, in Google Maps, and in the AI answers that draw on both. Google's help center says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results, and that those results depend mainly on relevance, distance, and prominence. Google is also blunt about shortcuts: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google" (Google Business Profile Help).
Search for your business on Google Maps. Claim the listing if it exists, or add it if it doesn't.
Start verification on day one, because it can take time to complete.
Choose the most specific primary category for your main service, and add secondary categories only if they're true.
Fill in hours (including holiday hours), services with short descriptions, phone, website, and a plain-language description of what you do and where.
Add real photos of your work, team, storefront, or vehicles. Skip stock images.
If customers don't come to you, hide your address and list the areas you serve. Google allows up to 20 service areas and recommends keeping the overall area within about 2 hours' drive of your base (Google Business Profile Help).
Once the profile is complete, our guide on how to rank in the Google Map Pack covers what moves a verified profile higher from there.
Done when: the profile is verified, every section is filled in, and it shows at least 10 real photos.
Step 3: Ask Every Happy Customer for a Review
Reviews are what Google calls prominence and what your customers call proof. BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, 47% won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 74% only care about reviews written in the last 3 months (BrightLocal, 2026). A new business needs a steady flow, not a one-time push.
The good news is that asking works. In the same survey, 28% of consumers said they always write a review when a business asks, up from 16% in 2025.
Copy the direct review link from your Google Business Profile.
Ask in person at the end of the job or visit, then send the link by text or email the same day.
Add the link to receipts, invoices, and your email signature.
Reply to every review, positive or negative, within a few days. BrightLocal found 89% of consumers expect owners to respond.
Ask every customer, not only the ones you expect to be happy, and never offer discounts or gifts in exchange. BrightLocal notes that review incentives break Google's and Yelp's guidelines, and that rewarding positive reviews can bring fines under the FTC's rule on fake and incentivized reviews.
Done when: asking is a routine step after every job, and new reviews arrive every month.
Step 4: Make Your Website Answer the 5 Questions Buyers Ask
After reading positive reviews, 54% of consumers visit the business's website next, according to the same BrightLocal survey. At the start, your website has one job: confirm what the reviews promised and make contacting you easy. That takes five answers, placed where a visitor on a phone sees them without digging.
What exactly do you do? One page per main service, named the way customers search for it.
Where do you do it? Your city, neighborhoods, or service area, in plain words.
What does it cost, or how does pricing work? A range, a starting price, or a clear explanation of how quotes work.
Why should I trust you? Reviews, photos of real work, licenses, and years in business.
How do I book or reach you? A tap-to-call phone number, a short form, or a booking link near the top of every page.
Then run what we call the 10-Second Phone Test. Hand your phone to someone who doesn't know your business, open your homepage, and ask them what you do, where, roughly what it costs, and how to book. If they can't answer all four within 10 seconds, fix the page before you spend a dollar sending traffic to it.
If you don't have a site yet, a website builder is the fastest start. RedFork reports it is Wix Certified and has built 500+ websites for small businesses, and Wix's Light plan starts at $17 a month billed annually. Whatever platform you choose, register it under the business account from Step 1.
Done when: a stranger holding a phone passes the 10-Second Phone Test on your homepage and on each main service page.
Step 5: Start a Customer List You Own
Steps 2 to 4 help new people find you. A customer email list brings people back, and it's the one audience no platform can take away from you. For businesses with repeat or referral customers, a list of a few hundred past customers is enough to start.
Collect email addresses with permission at booking, checkout, or on invoices.
Set up an automated welcome email before anything else, so every new subscriber hears from you while your business is still fresh in their mind.
Send one useful email a month: a seasonal reminder, a practical tip, or a real offer.
Include a working unsubscribe link in every marketing email.
Done when: every new customer joins the list automatically, and one email goes out every month.
Step 6: Pick One Social Platform and Show Real Work
Social media builds familiarity and proof, and it works best when anyone who clicks through finds a complete profile, fresh reviews, and a clear website. That's why it comes after Steps 1 to 5, not before. It also matters for discovery: BrightLocal's 2026 survey found video platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok gaining ground as places people look for local recommendations.
Choose the platform your customers already use. Facebook suits many community and home service audiences, Instagram suits visual businesses such as salons, restaurants, and contractors, and LinkedIn suits B2B services.
Post 1 to 3 times a week: before-and-after photos, your team at work, answers to common questions, and customer stories shared with permission.
Share the same photos on your Google Business Profile.
Track which posts lead to messages, calls, or bookings, not just likes.
Done when: you've posted steadily for 12 weeks on one platform and know which kinds of posts bring inquiries.
Step 7: Test Paid Ads Last, With a Hard Daily Cap
Ads buy attention quickly, but every click lands on the foundation you built in Steps 1 to 4. With that foundation ready, a small test tells you what a customer costs you, which is the number that decides whether to spend more. RedFork reports it has created more than 5,000 digital ad posts for its Partners, and a first test is about learning that number, not about scale.
Start with one campaign for one main service in one area you serve.
Bid on searches that show buying intent, such as "water heater repair near me," rather than research searches, such as "how does a water heater work."
Set up call and form tracking before you spend, so every result is counted.
Choose an average daily budget you're comfortable learning with. A single day can run up to 2 times that amount, but Google won't bill more than 30.4 times your daily budget in a month (Google Ads Help).
Run the test for 4 to 8 weeks, then keep it, fix it, or stop it.
Done when: you know roughly what a call or booking costs from ads, and whether that's worth it for your average job.
Which Channel Deserves Extra Weight for Your Type of Business?
Quick answer: the Starting Order stays the same for every local business, but what you lean on after the foundation depends on how your customers buy. Urgent services lean on the map and search ads, appointment businesses on reviews and email, and high-ticket projects on detailed service pages.
Your business | How customers usually decide | Lean on after the foundation | Why |
Urgent service (plumbing, HVAC repair, locksmith, towing) | Search on a phone and call a credible result quickly | Google Business Profile, reviews, then search ads | People in a hurry pick from the map and the stars |
Appointment business (salon, dental, fitness, therapy) | Compare reviews, then book | Reviews, a booking link on your profile, email reminders | Rebooking and referrals drive most of the value |
Walk-in retail, restaurant, or cafe | Check hours, photos, and what's new | Profile photos and hours, Instagram or TikTok, reviews | Current, visual proof decides the visit |
High-ticket project (remodeling, landscaping, legal) | Research for weeks and compare several options | Service pages with price ranges and proof, reviews | Buyers read before they call |
B2B or professional service (IT, bookkeeping, commercial cleaning) | Referrals, then research on a short list of firms | Website, LinkedIn, email to past customers | Several people check you out before anyone calls |
How Much Does It Cost to Start Digital Marketing?
Quick answer: the foundation can cost $0 plus your time. Most new local businesses add a website plan (from $17 a month on Wix, billed annually) and, once Steps 1 to 4 are done, a capped ad test. Hiring help adds management fees on top of any ad spend.
The biggest cost at the start is time, and most owners are paying it themselves. In BrightLocal's 2025 SMB research, 54% of small business owners managed their marketing on their own, and cost held 36% back from investing in marketing channels (BrightLocal, 2025). That's a strong reason to start with the steps that cost only time.
Starting budget | What it covers | Good fit for |
$0 a month, plus 2 to 4 hours a week | Accounts, Google Business Profile, reviews, a free email plan, and one social platform | Pre-launch businesses and very tight months |
About $20 to $60 a month, plus time | Adds a website builder plan and, when your list outgrows the free tier, a paid email plan | Most new local businesses |
About $325 to $670 a month, plus time | Adds a capped ad test at $10 to $20 a day, which Google bills at no more than $304 to $608 a month | Businesses that have finished Steps 1 to 4 |
Ad spend plus management fees | An agency or freelancer handles setup, ads, and reporting | Owners with no time to spare |
What Should You Skip in Your First 90 Days?
Quick answer: skip anything that spreads a few hours a week across too many channels, or that promises results Google says can't be bought. Being everywhere, buying followers, guaranteed rankings, a blog before service pages, boosted posts with no goal, and paid AI visibility add-ons can all wait.
Skip for now | Why it waits | When it makes sense |
Posting daily on 4 or 5 platforms | Spreads a few hours a week too thin to do any platform well | After one platform has 12 steady weeks behind it |
Buying followers or likes | Accounts that will never buy from you add nothing to sales | Never |
Paying for a "guaranteed" map ranking | Google says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking | Never |
A blog before your service pages | Service pages answer buying questions; blog posts answer research questions | Once each main service has its own page |
Boosting posts with no goal | Pays for views, not calls or bookings | When a post promotes a specific offer to a defined local audience |
Paid "AI search optimization" add-ons | Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode have no requirements beyond normal SEO basics | Rarely at this stage |
Paid SEO and social media tools | Free tools from Google and each platform cover a starting business | When you manage several locations or campaigns |
Your First 90 Days, Week by Week
Quick answer: spend weeks 1 to 4 on ownership, your Google profile, reviews, and your website; weeks 5 to 8 on email and one social platform; and weeks 9 to 12 on a small ad test and your first real numbers. Plan on 2 to 5 hours a week.
Weeks | Focus | Hours a week | What you'll have at the end |
1 to 2 | Steps 1 and 2: own your accounts, claim and complete your profile | 3 to 4 | Accounts in your name and a profile through, or waiting on, verification |
3 to 4 | Steps 3 and 4: start asking for reviews, fix your website | 3 to 5 | A review routine and pages that pass the 10-Second Phone Test |
5 to 8 | Steps 5 and 6: welcome email, monthly email, weekly posts | 2 to 3 | A growing list and a month of steady posts |
9 to 12 | Step 7 and measurement: one capped ad test and your first numbers | 2 to 3 | Your first cost per call or booking, and a baseline for everything else |
At day 90, keep what brought calls, fix what almost worked, and drop the rest. Then add one new thing at a time. Day 90 is also the right moment to put your plan in writing, because you'll have real numbers to build it on, and our guide on how to create a marketing plan walks you through it.
How Will You Know Your Digital Marketing Is Working?
Quick answer: count calls, form fills, bookings, direction requests, and new reviews, and ask every new customer how they heard about you. Free tools from Google cover almost everything a starting business needs to measure.
What to count | Where to find it | Cost |
Calls, website clicks, direction requests, and bookings from your profile | Google Business Profile performance | Free |
Searches that show your site, and clicks to it | Google Search Console | Free |
Website visits and form submissions | Google Analytics or your website builder's analytics | Free |
New reviews and your average rating | Your Google Business Profile | Free |
How new customers heard about you | One question on your intake, booking, or checkout form | Free |
Cost per call or booking from ads | Google Ads conversion tracking | Free to set up; you pay for clicks |
Watch trends month over month, not day to day. Early wins tend to show up in profile calls and direction requests before they show up in website traffic, so don't judge the first 90 days by visitor counts alone.
The intake question is the most underrated tool on the list. It costs nothing, and it catches the customers who saw you on Google, checked your reviews, and then called from memory.
What Changed for Businesses Starting Digital Marketing in 2026?
Quick answer: AI tools joined Google Search and Maps as a place people ask for local recommendations. The fix isn't a new tactic. It's the same foundation, kept accurate everywhere customers and AI tools look.
BrightLocal's 2026 survey found the share of consumers using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations rose from 6% to 45% in a year, making them the third most used source behind Google and Facebook. Google's share fell from 83% to 71%, and Apple Maps nearly doubled, from 14% to 27% (BrightLocal, 2026).
None of this calls for a special product. Google's guidance for site owners says there are "no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode," and that normal SEO fundamentals still apply (Google Search Central). For a starting business, that comes down to three habits:
Keep your business name, address or service area, phone, hours, and services identical on Google, your website, Facebook, Yelp, and Apple Maps (through Apple Business Connect).
Keep reviews coming in, since BrightLocal found review profiles remain a core trust signal for both customers and AI tools.
Write your website in plain sentences that say what you do, where, and for whom, so a person or a machine can repeat it accurately.
Should You Start Digital Marketing Yourself or Get Help?
Quick answer: do Steps 1 to 3 yourself no matter what, because they're about ownership and your relationships with customers. Consider help with the website, ads, and ongoing content when your time is worth more than the fees, or when 90 days of doing it yourself hasn't produced a steady rhythm.
Doing it yourself is normal, since more than half of small business owners run their own marketing. The real question is which hours are best spent by you and which are better handed off.
Do it yourself if... | Get help if... |
You have 2 to 4 reliable hours a week | Marketing keeps slipping to the bottom of the list |
You're comfortable writing about your services and taking photos | You need a website built or rebuilt properly |
Your budget is $0 to a few hundred dollars a month | You're ready to run ads and want them tracked from day one |
You want to learn which channels work before paying anyone | You've tried for 90 days and can't keep the routine going |
Whoever helps, the right agency or freelancer works inside accounts you own and explains what you're paying for in plain language. Budget fit matters just as much. Tim Rosado of Policy Highway said the RedFork team "worked hard to help me figure out the right solution with my budget."
If you're starting up or working with a tighter budget, RedFork's Express tier uses curated templates for branding and Wix websites, with marketing built around ads. Growing businesses that want fully custom branding and the full mix of social, email, SEO, content, ads, and design usually fit our Pro tier.
Starting in Orlando or Central Florida? 3 Local Adjustments
Quick answer: name the Central Florida cities you truly serve, plan for customers who speak a language other than English at home, and keep your hours current through storm season. Each takes minutes and makes the Starting Order work harder locally.
RedFork reports it has been based in Orlando since 2014. These are the three adjustments we'd make for any business starting digital marketing here.
Name your real service areas. Greater Orlando is a set of distinct cities. List the ones you serve, such as Winter Park, Kissimmee, Sanford, or Apopka, instead of the whole region, and stay within Google's limit of 20 service areas.
Plan for more than one language. 38.5% of Orange County residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, according to Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024 (U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts). If many of your customers prefer Spanish, add Spanish service descriptions to your website and reply to reviews in the language they were written in.
Update hours before and after storms. During hurricane season, use your profile's special hours to show closures and reopenings, and post a short update so customers and AI tools see current information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answer: start with free steps that cost only time, expect profile calls to move before website traffic, build a simple website alongside your Google profile, choose one social platform, and skip special AI tactics until the basics are done.
How do I start digital marketing for my business with no money?
Start with the steps that cost only time. Put your accounts in your own name, claim and complete your Google Business Profile, ask every happy customer for a review, and collect customer emails on a free plan. Then post steadily on one social platform you already use. Together these can take a local business from hard to find to credible without any spend, and they make later ad dollars work harder.
What is the first step in digital marketing for a small business?
Put your accounts in your own name, then claim your Google Business Profile. Ownership comes first because every account starts collecting reviews, data, and history the day it's created. The profile comes next because it's often the first thing local customers see in Google Search and Maps, and Google says complete, accurate profiles are more likely to appear in local results.
How long does digital marketing take to work for a small business?
Setting up the foundation takes a few weeks, and results build over months. Profile and review improvements often show up first as calls and direction requests, while website search traffic usually takes longer to grow. Paid ads can bring calls within days of launch, but plan on 4 to 8 weeks of testing before you judge them. Track calls and bookings, not likes.
Do I need a website, or is a Google Business Profile enough?
You can start with a profile alone, but most businesses need both. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 54% of consumers visit a business's website after reading positive reviews, so a missing or thin site loses people at the moment they're deciding. A simple site with one page per service, a price range, real proof, and a tap-to-call button is enough to begin.
Which social media platform should a small business start with?
Start with the one your customers already use and you can keep up with. Visual businesses such as salons, restaurants, and contractors often start on Instagram or Facebook, and B2B firms often start on LinkedIn. One platform posted to steadily for 12 weeks teaches you more than five platforms posted to now and then. Reuse the same photos on your Google Business Profile.
Do I need to do anything special to show up in ChatGPT or Google's AI answers?
Not at the start. Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode have no additional requirements beyond normal SEO best practices. The same foundation helps with other AI tools: an accurate Google Business Profile, recent reviews, a clear website, and consistent business details on the listings people and AI tools check, including Apple Maps, Facebook, and Yelp.
RedFork figures are company-reported, and time and cost ranges are planning estimates.
Find Out Which Step Your Business Is On
Quick answer: bring your Google Business Profile link and your website to a first call, and we'll tell you which step of the Starting Order you're on and what we'd do next.
If you're like many owners, you're somewhere in the middle: a profile that was never finished, a handful of reviews, a website that almost passes the phone test. That's a normal place to start from. We'll show you the next step whether you handle it yourself or hand it to our Designovators. Book a time with our sales team to get pricing and a plain-English plan.
Stay Small. Grow Big.
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