A lot of local businesses pay one company a monthly fee to “handle the marketing.” Maybe it was a fair deal when you signed, and maybe it wasn’t. Either way, somebody had to build the website, keep the listings up, answer the reviews and run the ads, and you didn’t have the time.
A few years on, the bill is usually the same or higher, and it can be hard to say what you get for it each month. Meanwhile, much of the work inside the package has gotten faster to do. Some providers pass that on. Some don’t, and a few were charging too much from the start. A plain look at the bill tells you which you have.
What’s usually in the package
Packages differ, but most are built from the same few pieces. Here’s each one, and what it takes today.
Website hosting and updates. Keeping the site online, secure and current. Hosting a small business site costs little now, and changes to a simple, well-built site take minutes. If a large share of the bill is for this, ask what you get beyond hosting.
Your Google listing and other listings. Keeping your hours, phone number, photos and links right on Google, Apple Maps, Facebook, Yelp and the rest. Most of the work is noticing when something drifts and fixing it, which is easy to check regularly. More on listings
Review replies. Answering reviews in your name. A tool can draft a reply in seconds, and reading and approving it takes you a few more. Sounding like you, and handling an unhappy customer with care, still needs a person.
Social media posts. Regular posts on Facebook or Instagram. Drafting posts from your own photos and news is quick now. Whether posting often brings in customers for your kind of business is a separate question, and a good one to ask.
Ads. Setting up and watching paid ads on Google or Facebook. Done well, this is skilled work. Ask how much of the bill is the ads themselves and how much is the fee for managing them, and what came of them last season.
A monthly report. A summary of visits, calls and clicks. Useful when someone reads it and changes something because of it. If the report is the main thing you receive, that’s worth noticing.
What to ask before you renew
You don’t need to be technical to ask these, and a good provider will be glad to answer them.
- How long does the contract run, and does it renew on its own?
- Who owns the domain name, the website and the ad accounts? Are they in my name?
- What was done last month, item by item?
- Which parts of the fee pay for your work, and which pass through to someone else, like ad spend or software?
- If I left, what would I take with me, and what would stop working?
When a package is worth keeping
If the work is done well, the price feels fair for what you get, and you’d rather not think about any of it, keep it. Having someone you trust handle this is worth paying for. Looking at the bill is about knowing what you pay for, and sometimes the answer is that it’s a good deal.
What we’d do
If you’d like a second opinion, we’ll go through the bill with you, line by line, and tell you plainly what we think is worth keeping and what could be done for less, whether that’s by us, by you or by the company you already use.