The Complete Small Business
Marketing Course 2026

Most New Zealanders now start with a search or a scroll. Someone needs a plumber in Papakura, a café in Ponsonby, an accountant in Tauranga — they type it into Google or Maps, or they ask someone in a local Facebook group. Whether you show up in that moment is almost entirely a function of a few free profiles you either set up properly or didn't.

That's the good news and the uncomfortable news at once. The most powerful tools available to a small NZ business — Google Business Profile, a Facebook Page, an Instagram account, a YouTube channel, an email list — cost nothing to set up. What they cost is attention, consistently, for longer than feels comfortable.

Where this course fits

This is the broad foundation: the whole channel mix, in order of what usually pays off first for a small NZ business. Two companion courses go sideways from here, and they're both free:

Bookmark them for later: Social Media Course · AI for Small Business Course. Finish this one first — it's the map the other two sit on top of.

Where to start, honestly

The single most common failure I see isn't bad content. It's a business owner who opened six accounts in one weekend, posted three times on each, and quietly abandoned all of them by month two. Two channels, done properly, beats six done occasionally — every time, without exception.

Set the measurement up now, not later

Decide today what "working" means for you, in a number you can actually check. Not followers. Something like: enquiries per week, calls from your Google listing, quote requests, bookings, list signups. Write the current number down somewhere before you change anything, or in 90 days you'll have no idea whether any of this helped.

• Write down where your last 10 customers actually came from
• Pick the two channels that list points to — not the two you find most interesting
• Write down your current weekly enquiry count as a baseline
• Block 2 hours a week in your calendar, recurring, for marketing
• Commit to 90 days before you judge anything

Facebook Marketing MasterClass — see what great marketing looks like

If you do only one thing from this entire course, make it this. Your Google Business Profile is what appears in Maps and in the local pack at the top of search results — the box with the three businesses, the star ratings and the phone buttons. It's free, it takes about 30 minutes to set up properly, and for most local NZ businesses it produces more enquiries than every social platform combined.

It's also the most neglected. Go and look at your three closest competitors right now: you'll usually find at least one with no photos since 2021, no description, and three unanswered reviews.

Setup checklist

• Claim your listing at business.google.com and complete verification
• Set the most specific primary category that fits (not a vague one), then add secondaries
• Name, phone, website and address exactly as they appear everywhere else — identical, character for character
• Set your service area if you travel to customers rather than having a shopfront
• Upload at least 10 real photos — exterior, interior, team, work in progress, finished results
• Write the full description: what you do, who for, which suburbs, in plain language
• Opening hours including NZ public holidays and the Christmas shutdown
• Turn on messaging only if you will actually reply within a few hours
• Pre-answer your top 5 customer questions in the Q&A section yourself
• Add products or services with real prices or price ranges
• Post an update every week — an offer, a finished job, a seasonal note

Consistency across the web (your NAP)

Name, Address, Phone. Google cross-checks these across the internet, and mismatches quietly cost you visibility. "Unit 3/12 Great South Rd" on your website and "3/12 Great South Road" on Yellow is exactly the kind of inconsistency worth an hour of your time to fix. Check your website footer, Facebook Page, Yellow, Neighbourly, any trade directory, and old listings you've forgotten about.

Reviews — the mechanics that actually work

Reviews are the closing argument. Someone who found you on Maps and is deciding between you and two others will read them, and they'll read your replies just as carefully.

On bad reviews: reply once, briefly, publicly, without defensiveness. Thank them, acknowledge the specific issue, state what you're doing about it, and offer to take it offline. You're not writing for the angry reviewer — you're writing for the next 200 people who'll read that exchange. A calm reply under a harsh review has sold more jobs than most ad campaigns.

The friction problem — and two ways to kill it

Almost everyone who intends to leave you a review never does. Not because they don't like you — because on a phone, in a hurry, finding your listing takes six taps. Remove the six taps and your review rate transforms.

Print the QR code on your invoice, your receipt, a card in the bag, a sticker on the counter, the back of your business card. Under it, one line: "30 seconds — it genuinely helps a small local business."

Facebook remains the widest-reaching platform in New Zealand across age groups, and — more importantly for a local business — it's where suburb-level community life happens. Local buy/sell/swap groups, school groups, neighbourhood pages: that's the real asset, not your Page's follower count.

Page setup

• Create the Page at facebook.com/pages/create — a Page, never a personal profile for business
• Complete the About section fully, including service areas and hours
• Profile photo and cover image that read clearly at thumbnail size on a phone
• Add the action button that matches how you get work — Call, Book, Message or Learn More
• Pin a welcome post explaining what you do, who for, and how to get a quote
• Link your Instagram account so you can post to both at once
• Add at least two admins so you're never locked out of your own Page

Local groups — the underrated part

One genuinely helpful answer in a local community group will out-perform a month of Page posts. The rule is simple: be useful in public without pitching, and let people click your name. Answer the "can anyone recommend…" threads with substance. Follow each group's rules on self-promotion strictly — getting removed from a 12,000-member suburb group is an expensive own goal.

Organic reach for Pages is genuinely low now and will keep falling. Treat your Page as your credibility file — the thing people check before calling you — and treat groups, DMs and paid reach as where the actual distribution happens.

Facebook ads without wasting money

You don't need a big budget; you need a good post and tight targeting. Around $10–20 a day is enough to learn something meaningful for a local business. The single highest-return move: boost a post that already performed well organically. Ads amplify, they don't rescue. If a post did nothing for your free audience, paying to show it to strangers won't fix it.

• Target your suburb plus a realistic radius — not all of New Zealand
• Match the age range to your actual customers, not everyone 18–65
• One clear call to action per ad — call, message, or book
• Run it at least 5–7 days before judging it; don't panic on day one
• Test two versions of the image or hook, not five variables at once
• Track enquiries, not likes. Likes don't pay invoices

Facebook Marketing MasterClass — Full Course

Want the deeper version of this module? The free Social Media Course covers hooks, content systems and paid amplification properly.

Instagram is where a business gets to look like something. If what you sell is visual — food, hair, homes, renovations, fitness, product, anything with a before and after — this is where new customers will find you, and Reels are how they'll find you, because Reels are still shown heavily to people who don't follow you.

Profile optimisation

• Switch to a Professional Account (free, unlocks insights and scheduling)
• Username: your business name or your own name — searchable, no underscores-and-numbers soup
• Name field: put your service and city here, e.g. "Auckland Electrician" — it's searchable, the username field matters less
• A clear photo — a face outperforms a logo for a small business
• Bio: who you help, what you do, where, and one call to action
• One link, pointing somewhere useful — booking, quote form, or your site
• Story Highlights: About, Services, Pricing, Reviews, FAQs — covers designed to match
• Turn on quick replies for the three questions you answer every day

Reels — the format that reaches new people

Film vertical (9:16) on the rear camera, near a window. Your phone is genuinely good enough; light and audio are what separate amateur from professional, not the sensor. The first two seconds decide everything — start mid-action, mid-sentence, or with the result, and cut the introduction entirely. Nobody has ever stayed for "hi guys, welcome back".

Stories are the other half: lower stakes, higher intimacy. Behind the scenes, polls, questions, a quick face-to-camera answer. Stories are where your existing audience decides they like you enough to buy.

Follow Amit on Instagram: @amitsharmaofficial · Going deeper: the free Social Media Course. Want to write the captions in a quarter of the time? See the free AI for Small Business Course.

YouTube is the slow one, and that's exactly why it's worth doing. A video you upload this month can still be sending you enquiries in three years — social posts are dead in 48 hours. It's owned by Google, so videos surface in ordinary search results too, and most NZ small businesses simply aren't there. The competition for "how to fix a leaking gutter Auckland" is almost nobody.

Getting started

• Create your channel and pick a name people would actually search
• Banner at 2560×1440px, safe area centred — it crops hard on mobile
• Channel description with your service and location in the first 100 characters
• Add your website and social links in the About section
• Upload a short channel trailer — 60 seconds on who you help
• Create playlists by topic before you have many videos, not after

What to actually make

Answer the questions customers ask you on the phone. Literally those, one video each. "How much does X cost in Auckland?" "Do I need consent for this?" "What's the difference between X and Y?" Those videos get found by people who are already close to buying, which is worth vastly more than a viral video watched by nobody relevant.

Subscribe to Amit on YouTube: @AmitSharmanz

TikTok's distinguishing feature for a small business is that it will show your content to people who've never heard of you, from your very first post. On most platforms you have to build an audience before you get reach. Here, reach comes first. That makes it the fastest way to be discovered — and the fastest way to waste time if your customers aren't there.

The format

• Hook in the first 1.5 seconds — the result, the problem, or something visually odd
• 20–45 seconds is the workable range for most business content
• Talk like a person, not a brochure. Personality is the product here
• Captions burned in, always
• Three to five relevant hashtags, not thirty
• Reply to comments with a video — it's the cheapest reach on the platform
• Post consistently for 30 days before judging it. The algorithm needs a sample

The realistic warning

Views on TikTok are cheap and enquiries are not. It's entirely normal to get 40,000 views and zero calls if your video didn't make it clear what you do, where you are, and what to do next. Every video needs your location and your offer somewhere in it — on screen, in the caption, or said out loud. A viral video with no context is a hobby, not marketing.

Follow Amit on TikTok: @amitsharmanz · The free Social Media Course goes much deeper on short-form video craft.

If you sell to other businesses, LinkedIn is worth more than the rest of social combined. If you sell to consumers, you can skip most of this module — read the profile section, ignore the rest, and spend the time on Modules 2 and 8 instead. Being honest about that will save you months.

New Zealand's professional world is small. On LinkedIn you're rarely more than two connections from anyone you want to reach, which makes warm referrals dramatically easier than cold outreach anywhere else.

Profile optimisation

• A professional headshot — plain background, natural light, no sunglasses
• Headline: who you help and how, not just your job title
• About: 2–3 short paragraphs, first person, and a way to contact you at the end
• Experience: results and outcomes, not duties
• Skills: 10+, with endorsements from people you've actually worked with
• Request recommendations from three clients — specific ones, about specific work
• Custom URL, and add it to your email signature

The habit that generates referrals

One substantial post a month, plus a few genuine comments a week on other people's posts. That's it. The post should be 600–800 words, take a real position on something in your industry, and end with a question. The comments matter more than people expect — thoughtful comments on the right posts put you in front of exactly the audience you want, without you needing any following at all.

Connect with Amit on LinkedIn: amitsharmanz

Everything else in this course is rented. Your Facebook reach, your Instagram followers, your Google ranking — all subject to a decision made by somebody else. Your email list is the only audience you own outright, and it's the one that reliably still works when a platform changes its algorithm overnight. It's also, consistently, the highest-return channel most small businesses have.

Getting started — free options

Most of the well-known providers have a free tier that comfortably covers a small NZ business's first few hundred contacts. Pick one with a decent free plan, a simple builder and automation you can grow into — then stop researching and start sending. The provider matters far less than the sending.

Building a list that's actually yours

• Offer something genuinely worth an email address — a guide, a checklist, a discount, early access
• Signup form on every page of your website, not just a contact page
• Ask in person at the counter, on the job, at the event
• Add a link to your email signature and your invoices
• Record where and when each contact opted in — you may need to prove it
• Never buy or scrape a list. It destroys deliverability and breaches NZ law

The NZ legal bit — worth two minutes

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 governs marketing emails and texts in New Zealand. In practice: you need consent, every message must clearly identify you and how to contact you, and every message needs a working unsubscribe that you honour promptly. Customer contact details you hold are also personal information under the Privacy Act 2020. Someone buying from you once is not automatic consent for a monthly newsletter — ask.

General information, not legal advice. The Department of Internal Affairs and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner both publish plain-English guidance for businesses.

What to send, and how often

Two details that do most of the work: write a subject line you'd open yourself (short, specific, no capitals shouting), and send from a person's name rather than a company. "Amit at…" gets opened. "Marketing Team" doesn't.

Writing the newsletter is the part people put off. The free AI for Small Business Course covers drafting these in a fraction of the time, in your own voice.

Everything above is useless if you close this page and carry on as before. So here's the whole thing compressed into four weeks and roughly two hours a week. Do it in order — each week depends on the one before.

Week 1 — Foundations

• Claim and fully complete your Google Business Profile (Module 2)
• Fix your NAP so name, address and phone match everywhere
• Create or update your Facebook Page
• Take 10 real photos — work, team, premises, results
• Ask 3 recent customers for a Google review, by text, with a direct link
• Write down your baseline enquiry count

Week 2 — First content

• Film one 60-second vertical intro video on your phone, near a window
• Post it to Facebook and Instagram (and TikTok if that's your audience)
• Set up your email tool and add a signup form to your website
• Send one email to the customers you already have permission to email
• Write down the 10 questions customers ask you most — this is your content plan
• Generate the visuals for your first week of posts

Week 3 — Build the rhythm

• Post 3× on Facebook using the Monday/Wednesday/Friday pattern
• Post 2 Instagram Stories and one Reel
• Reply to every comment, message and review — all of them
• Answer one question from your list as a short video
• Post your first Google Business update
• Write one LinkedIn post if you sell to businesses

Week 4 — Amplify and review

• Put $10–20/day behind the post that performed best organically
• Ask 3 more customers for reviews
• Film a second video — answer the next question on your list
• Check your Google Business insights: calls, direction requests, website clicks
• Compare enquiries this month against your Week 1 baseline
• Keep what worked. Drop what didn't. Don't keep a channel out of guilt

What good looks like at day 30

Not viral. Not a transformed business. You have a complete Google profile collecting reviews, one social channel you post to consistently, a small email list that's growing, and — crucially — a number you can compare to your baseline. That's the whole win at day 30. The compounding starts at month six.