George Affleck (Founder)

Marketing for small businesses since 2000: ads, websites and fast follow-up that bring in customers. Vancouver, BC

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

I’ve owned my own marketing agency for a long time.

My clients pay me to get them results.

But it’s a partnership. I love sharing wins.

The tools may change. But the marketing process stays pretty much the same.

Here’s what you need to do to succeed.

Copy and paste these simple questions and write (yes, write or type the answers down; no cheating):

1. What are you providing or selling, and who is your perfect customer? (Hint: it’s not everyone.). And how will what you do change their lives in a positive way?This is your brand and your unique selling proposition.

2. What proof do you have that it will change their lives or solve their problem? (Don’t worry about the size of the change.). But something needs to happen for your customer or why bother?

3. What are your customers saying about what you’ve created for them? If you are a start-up, you will need to do market research, which means giving away what you have to get proof and testimonials.

4. Where does your perfect customer live? This is so we can figure out how to reach them. So where is their home? Work? What media do they consume? Etc)

5. How much can you spend on marketing? (More than zero is best.) 7–10% of your operating budget is the norm.

6. What does success look like? How many new customers? More products sold? Engagement. This is called a KPI (key performance indicator). I also like to refer to it as the return on marketing investment, or you can even look at the return on ad spend.

7. What can we offer to get the ball rolling? Free trials, products, or services? Discounts?

8. Are you ready to grow? Can you deliver on what you promise?

9. How are you tracking success? Scale what’s working. Turn off what’s not working. Share the wins.
Tell your story. Build your brand.

10. Want to run it past me? Book a call with me here. Link in BIO

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Most small businesses bury their best sales tool at the bottom of a reviews page nobody scrolls to.

A stranger deciding whether to call you doesn't fully trust your website. You wrote it, of course it says you're great. But they do trust another customer who sounds like them.

So grab one real review you already have. Something specific beats something glowing. "Showed up on time and fixed it in an hour" does more than "amazing service." Now put that one line right next to your Book or Call button, on your website and on any ad landing page. Not three clicks away. Right where people decide.

You're not asking for anything new. You're just moving proof you already earned to the spot where it does the most work.

When we build landing pages for clients, this is one of the first moves. A real quote beside the button quietly beats another paragraph of us talking about ourselves.

Which of your reviews would you put next to the button?

#SmallBusiness #Marketing #BCBusiness #LocalBusiness #CustomerReviews

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Got a bad Google review? Call the customer and try to fix it. Report fake ones to Google. Otherwise reply calmly and briefly.

What scares customers isn't a bad review. It's a bad review with no response.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

That cheque you write every year for the kids' soccer team? Most owners file it under being nice. It is. But it might also be one of the most underused marketing moves you've got.

Here's the part almost nobody does. When you sponsor a local team, event, school or charity, ask them to add your business to the sponsors page on their website, with a link to yours. One email. Costs you nothing extra.

Why it matters: Google and the AI tools people now search with figure out who to trust partly by who else already trusts you. A link from a real local website that people respect, a league, a charity, your BIA, is a quiet vote that says this is a genuine business in this community. It helps you turn up when someone nearby searches for what you do.

So you get the goodwill and the visibility out of one cheque you were writing anyway.

Helping businesses get found online is a big part of what we do at Curve, and these local links are some of the cheapest wins going. Most owners are already paying for them and just never collect.

Who do you already sponsor that could add a link back to your site?

#SmallBusiness #LocalSEO #BCBusiness #SmallBusinessMarketing

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

A restaurant put the wrong name on our anniversary wine card. No excuses, they fixed it and made me a more loyal customer.

When something goes wrong, the response is what people remember. Respond like a human.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Nobody forgets the business that remembered them.

Here's a small thing almost no local business bothers with: write down one date that matters to each of your customers. A birthday. The anniversary of the job you did for them. The day they first became a customer.

When that day rolls around, send a short note. No offer, no pitch, no "book now." Just "thinking of you, hope the new kitchen is treating you well." Thirty seconds of being a human being.

It works because it's rare. Most of us only hear from a company when it wants something. The one that reaches out for no reason at all is the one you remember, and the one you recommend when your neighbour asks.

You can keep these dates on a spreadsheet, or let a system send them for you. The automation side of what we do (we call ours CedarCRM) fires the note off on the right day so you never miss one. But honestly, a sticky note and a calendar reminder are a fine place to start.

What's one date you could write down today?

#SmallBusiness #CustomerLoyalty #LocalBusiness #Marketing #BCBusiness

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Do this math before you buy another shared lead.

$50 a lead, close one in four: $200 a customer. Close one in ten: $500 a customer.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

@DevMarDe Agree. Re ChatGPT - do you mean as a place for them to be found?

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Local service business? For most, Google still wins. That's where people go when they're ready to buy.

Get your Google Business Profile right, get reviews, then think about search ads. Social builds trust. Google brings the buyers.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Ran the marketing for 3 political candidates this election. All 3 won.

What they had in common: good people willing to tell their personal stories.

Your story works in business too. I'm telling mine right now.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Quick thing most business owners have never touched: your spot on Apple Maps.

Everybody fusses over Google, and fair enough. But roughly half the phones in Canada are iPhones, and when someone asks Siri or taps Apple Maps for a plumber, a dentist, a clinic near them, Apple pulls from its own listing, not your Google one. If you've never claimed it, Apple is either guessing or showing nothing.

The fix takes about ten minutes. Go to https://t.co/iTqyZG53RT, sign in with an Apple ID, find your business and claim it, then check the basics are right: name, address, hours, phone, website link. It's free. No agency, no monthly anything.

That's it. One listing most of your competitors have also ignored, so it's easy points.

The map apps are quietly where a lot of local searches start now. When did you last check what Apple Maps says about your business?

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

The cheapest loyalty program ever invented is one text.

"Hey, I saw this and thought of you." Send it to three of your best customers. It does more than any discount.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

@Sharpmatik 💯 you are underestimating your margins by not having it built into your costs too.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Most small business owners don't have a marketing budget. That's a mistake.

Marketing is a cost of doing business, not something you do with what's left over. Set aside 7 to 10% of what it costs to run your business.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Stop pressing the boost button on Facebook.

Spend $5 with no idea what it led to and that's not an investment. Run ads properly, with a clear goal and tracking.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

@fordsmith And it makes me so sad when it happens. It feels more personal and I kick myself for not doing better.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

The customers you'll lose next are the ones who never complain.

Every Friday, call three customers you haven't talked to in a while. Fifteen minutes. It'll save you more than any ad will.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

Your competition does worse work than you and still beats you. Why?

They call back first. The business that responds first usually gets the job. Not the cheapest. The fastest.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

What is a new customer worth to you? Not the first sale. The whole relationship.

If you don't know that number, you can't know what you can afford to spend to win one.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

I started Curve in 2000. 25+ years later, the tools have all changed. Websites, Google, Facebook, now AI.
What hasn't changed: people buy from businesses they can find, trust, and that get back to them first.
Get found. Advertise. Follow up. That's still the job.

[George Affleck (Founder) @CurveComms]

You're asking for Google reviews at the wrong time.

Ask the moment the job is done and the customer says "this looks great." Have a QR code or a text ready. Feelings fade fast.