Digital marketing

Most customers now look online before they buy, even from a local business. These guides cover the main digital channels for small businesses: search engines, local search and maps, email and SMS, and social media.

Guides in this section

• Search engine basics What Google's guidance says matters.
• Local search Business listings, consistency and reviews.
• Email marketing and the spam rules Consent, identification and unsubscribing.
• Social media marketing basics Platforms, content and the law.

Search

Google's helpful content guidance says its systems aim to prioritise helpful, reliable information created to benefit people. Its SEO Starter Guide says compelling, useful content will likely influence your website more than anything else. Clear titles, headings and site structure help too. Be wary of anyone promising guaranteed rankings.

Local search

Claim and complete your free business listings, keep your name, address, phone and hours consistent everywhere, and make your website clear about where you operate. Ask customers for genuine reviews; business.gov.au says that's fine, but fake reviews are illegal.

Email and SMS

ACMA says you need consent before sending marketing messages, and each message must identify you, include your contact details and make it easy to unsubscribe. Unsubscribes must be actioned within 5 working days. You're responsible even if a provider sends messages for you.

Social media

Choose one or two platforms where your customers are, plan your content and engage with people. The ACCC says the Australian Consumer Law applies to social media advertising in the same way as other advertising.

Measure what matters

Track measures that link to business results, such as enquiries, bookings and sales, rather than vanity numbers. Ask new customers how they found you.

Own your foundations

Platforms come and go, and change their rules. A clear website and an email list built with consent are channels you control.

Five things worth knowing

1. Start with your customers, not your channels.
2. Set goals you can measure, and review results regularly.
3. Every claim must be accurate and provable, online and offline.
4. Get consent before marketing emails and texts, and make unsubscribing easy.
5. Never fake or manipulate reviews, and disclose paid partnerships.

Your website comes first

Your website is the one place online that you fully control. Make sure it clearly says what you do, where you do it and how to contact you, loads quickly, works well on phones and has a page for each main product or service. Keep opening hours, prices and contact details up to date, include a privacy policy if you collect personal information, and make it easy for visitors to enquire, book or buy. Every other digital channel works better when it points to a clear, trustworthy website.

A simple marketing routine

Marketing works best as a steady habit rather than an occasional burst. A simple routine might look like this. Each week, reply to enquiries and reviews, post or send something useful, and note where new customers came from. Each month, check your key measures against your goals, update your business listings if anything has changed, and plan the next month's content. Each quarter, review your marketing plan: what worked, what didn't, what customers are saying and whether your goals still make sense. Each year, look again at your target market, your offer and your budget, and check that your website, privacy policy and marketing practices still reflect how you work.

Common mistakes to avoid

Some mistakes come up again and again. Trying to be on every channel at once spreads limited time too thin. Measuring followers and likes rather than enquiries and sales hides what's really working. Making claims you can't back up, or burying important conditions in fine print, risks breaching the Australian Consumer Law. Emailing people who never agreed to hear from you risks breaching the Spam Act and annoys potential customers. Buying or faking reviews is illegal and can badly damage trust. And stopping too soon, before an activity has had time to work, wastes the effort already spent.

Getting help

If you want help with your marketing, business.gov.au lists government support and advisory services for small businesses, and many state governments offer small business advice, workshops and mentoring. If you hire a marketing agency or freelancer, agree clearly on what they'll do, how results will be measured and who owns your accounts, website and customer data. Remember that you remain responsible for what is published or sent in your business's name, even when someone else does the work.

About these guides

Marketers is an independent information site about marketing a small business in Australia. We aren't a marketing agency, consultancy, regulator or law firm, and we don't rank or recommend agencies, software or platforms. Our guides are general information written in our own words, with official sources listed on every page. They're not legal advice.

How we keep these guides current

We review each guide against its sources and show the date it was last checked. Regulators update their guidance and platforms change their features often. If you notice something out of date, please tell us through our contact page, and we'll check and correct it.

Questions we hear often

Small business owners often ask whether they need a marketing plan, how to get found on Google, whether they can buy an email list, and whether they can offer discounts for reviews. In short: a simple plan helps; helpful content and accurate local listings matter most for search; you need consent from each person you email, so bought lists are risky; and review incentives must apply to positive and negative reviews alike and be disclosed. Our guides explain each answer, with links to the official sources.

Try the email marketing checker

Our free email marketing checker asks six quick questions based on ACMA's spam guidance. It runs entirely in your browser, and nothing you answer is sent anywhere.