Marketing and go-to-market · Local businesses and product brands

Marketing that is measured in customers, not impressions.

Positioning, launch plans, local search, paid campaigns and e-commerce growth, with tracking set up before the first dollar is spent. For local businesses that need a plan and someone to run it, and for product brands that need a go-to-market they can defend to a board.

Start with a 30-minute call See a local example

Services

What I do, by the kind of business you run.

Local businesses

Local search and Google Business Profile

Showing up when someone in your town searches for what you do is the highest-return marketing a local business can buy, and most of it is setup and consistency rather than spend.

Google Business Profile: categories, services, photos, posts, Q&A, and a review system that runs itself
Location and service pages on your site that match how people search
Citations and directory consistency, schema, and the technical items that decide map rankings
Monthly reporting on calls, direction requests and website actions from the profile

Local businesses

Search and social advertising

Small, tightly targeted campaigns on the exact terms customers use, landing on pages built to convert, tracked to the call or booking. Budgets that fit a small business and results reported as cost per lead.

Google Search campaigns on near-me and service terms, with negative keywords maintained
Meta and Instagram for visual businesses: spas, salons, restaurants, retail, events
Landing pages and offers built for the campaign, not the homepage
Conversion tracking on calls, forms, bookings and purchases before launch

E-commerce

E-commerce growth

From first sale to repeat customer. Catalog and merchandising, email capture and flows, reviews, ads and the analytics that show which products and channels actually make money.

Store conversion: product pages, checkout, shipping and offer structure
Email and SMS flows: welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, replenishment
Paid acquisition with product-level return tracking
Bridging online and in-store: driving appointments and foot traffic from the same campaigns

Product brands

Positioning, launch and go-to-market

For a product, a channel or a country: who it is for, why they should switch, what to say, where to say it and in what order. Written by someone who has launched products in 22 markets and built a 12-week launch plan for his own app.

Positioning and messaging, store and site copy, claims discipline
Launch sequencing with acquisition and install or sales targets by week
Channel marketing: distributor toolkits, retail programs, Amazon and marketplace launches
Creator and partner programs, press kits, organic and paid mix

Packages

Three ways to engage, priced in writing before anything is spent.

Setup work is a fixed price. Ongoing management is monthly with a 90-day initial term and a clear exit. Ad spend is always paid by you, directly to Google or Meta, in your own accounts.

Package 1

Local search setup

$1,500 · one location · 2 weeks

For: a local business with a decent website that is not showing up in the map results, or whose Google profile was set up in ten minutes years ago and never touched.

Outcome: the highest-return marketing a local business can buy, set up once and completely: a complete, verified profile that ranks for your services and a review system that keeps it climbing without you thinking about it.

Google Business Profile rebuilt: categories, services, attributes, photos, Q&A, products where relevant
Citations corrected across the directories that feed map rankings
Review request system: a link, a card and a text or email template your team actually uses
Tracking on profile calls, direction requests and website clicks
Written checklist for the monthly five-minute upkeep, and a 30-day report

Cap: one location. Additional locations $600 each.

Package 2

Local growth, monthly

$600 a month · plus your ad spend · 90-day initial term

For: a service business, clinic, spa or studio that wants the phone to ring from search and wants one person accountable for what each lead costs.

Outcome: a steady flow of calls and bookings from people in your area searching for what you do, at a cost per lead you can see every month and compare against what a customer is worth.

Google Search campaigns on near-me and service terms, negative keywords maintained weekly
Meta or Instagram campaigns for visual businesses, when the numbers support it
Landing pages kept matched to the offers running
Google Business Profile posts, photo updates and drafted review responses
Conversion tracking on calls, forms and bookings, and a one-page monthly report: spend, leads, cost per lead, what changes next month

Cap: up to 3 campaigns and $2,000 a month in ad spend. Above that, the fee is 15% of spend. Requires Package 1 or an equivalent profile already in place.

Package 3

Growth plan and launch

From $4,500 · project · 4 to 6 weeks

For: an e-commerce brand that needs repeat customers, a product brand launching a product, a channel or a country, or a founder who needs a go-to-market plan written by someone who has executed one.

Outcome: a written plan you can defend to a partner, an investor or a board, with the positioning, the channel mix, the budget and week-by-week targets, and the setup done so the first dollar spent is measured.

Positioning and messaging, with the claims you can and cannot make
Channel plan and budget, sequenced over 90 days with targets by week
Setup: tracking, email flows, landing pages, campaign structure, marketplace or distributor materials as the plan requires
Two working sessions with your team and a written handoff

Ongoing management after the launch, when it makes sense, runs from $1,200 a month for e-commerce and product brands, scoped to the channel mix.

Payment terms: setup projects are 50% at kickoff and 50% on delivery, by check or bank transfer. Monthly management bills at the start of each month, with a 90-day initial term and 30 days' notice after that. Ad accounts, profiles and analytics are created in your name and stay with you.

Worked example

A Rock Hill spa: booking-intent leads at $14 to $17 on a $60 monthly budget.

Refined with Caroline is a beauty, skincare and wellness store attached to a Rock Hill spa. I built the store and then set up search campaigns on the terms local customers actually type: "facials near me," "esthetician near me," "makeup artist near me." At $2 a day per campaign, the ads produced click-through rates around three times the search norm and booking-intent clicks at $14 to $17 each, against services priced from $115 to $350. Total spend was capped at $60 a month.

The store went from first sale to recurring revenue in six months, and the same marketing now drives in-store bookings and purchases worth more than double the online sales. Targeting and landing pages produced the result; budget did not.

Read the case →

$2/dayper campaign, targeting near-me searches in Rock Hill

~3xthe typical search click-through rate on the top campaign

$14 to $17per booking-intent click, for services priced $115 to $350

2x+in-store revenue driven versus online, from the same marketing

Background

Relevant experience.

I started in marketing at a healthcare accreditation organization, owning strategy and execution for half the portfolio and launching the industry's first compounding pharmacy accreditation program at a moment when compounding safety was under national scrutiny, including the press strategy that positioned the organization as the authority. At Nutramax I built distributor marketing toolkits, co-op programs and sales training used across 22 markets, and launched Cosequin on Amazon in five countries. For Prepwell I wrote the positioning, the store listings, the press kit and a 12-week launch plan with weekly acquisition targets, then built the site and the app they point to.

Audit and plan

Where customers come from today, what it costs, what is broken. A written plan with a budget, a channel mix and a target cost per lead. Fixed price.

Setup

Tracking, profiles, landing pages, campaign structure, email flows. Everything measured before anything is spent.

Run and report

Monthly management with a one-page report: spend, leads, cost per lead, revenue where attributable, and what changes next month.

Questions

Common questions.

Do you run ads or just advise?

Both. For local businesses I typically set up and run Google search and Business Profile campaigns directly, with small budgets and tight targeting, and report on cost per lead. For larger brands I design the plan and either run it or manage the people who do.

What budget do local ads need to work?

Less than most owners expect. For a Rock Hill service business, focused search campaigns at $2 to $10 a day on near-me terms can produce booking clicks at a cost per lead well below the value of one customer. The work is in targeting and landing pages, not spend.

How do you measure results?

By what you actually care about: calls, bookings, form submissions, orders and foot traffic where it can be tracked. Analytics events and conversion tracking are set up before the first dollar is spent, and the monthly report shows cost per lead and revenue where it can be attributed.

Is this a retainer?

It can be, but it does not have to be. Local search setup is a fixed $1,500 project and growth plans start at $4,500. Ongoing campaign management is $600 a month plus your ad spend for local businesses, with a 90-day initial term and a clear exit. Packages are above.

Do I need a new website first?

Sometimes. If the site is slow, hard to use on a phone or has no way to track a lead, ads will underperform and I will say so before you spend. Often a landing page is enough to start. Web design and marketing are scoped together when it makes sense.