Operations
Part of Three ownership rules for running scale-ready local service marketing operations
A quality checklist for local service marketing that holds after launch
A monthly checklist for local service marketing quality: ownership, claims, consent, tracking, site visibility and safety, scored with a simple rubric.
What to take away
- Decide who signs off each campaign before you score it, because a checklist without an owner becomes a monthly argument.
- Score five areasownership, claims, consent, tracking and site safety. Anything below 3 out of 5 goes back for a fix.
- Keep the evidence with the score, such as the ad copy and consent record.
- Re-run the list after any change of supplier, platform or staff, not only at the start of a campaign.
Who owns each check
A checklist only works when a named person answers for each line. Write the owner next to the item before the campaign begins, not after something breaks. In a two-person firm that may be one person wearing three hats, which is fine if it is written down.
Who owns each check
Can one person own paid search, website and phone?
One owner, written down
Split owners, handover note required
Decide whether paid search, the website and the phone line sit with one owner or three, and write down the handover between them. Split ownership without a handover note is where most quality failures start.
Claims and consent
Every claim on a landing page needs a source you can show. If you say a job takes an hour, keep the job sheet that proves it.
Claims and consent checks
- Every landing page claim has a source
- Job sheet kept for time claims
- Phone number consent recorded
- Separate tick for newsletter reuse
- Wording matches data use
Consent records matter as much as the copy. Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 you have to be able to show what someone agreed to, and PECR — the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations — covers marketing calls, texts and emails. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the regulator that enforces both. A form collecting a phone number for a callback cannot be reused for a newsletter without a separate tick, so check that the wording matches what you do with the data.
Tracking that survives scrutiny
A lead count is only useful if you can explain where it came from. Test the phone number and the form on a desktop and a phone each month, then check the enquiry lands in the right inbox or CRM — HubSpot, Zoho or whatever you use — and that your call-tracking tool logs the call against the same lead. Record the date you last tested.
For paid search, set the conversion actions in Google Ads following the conversion tracking steps in Google Ads Help, because a mislabelled conversion inflates every report built on it. Note which conversion counts as an enquiry and which as a sale before you trust the numbers.
Site visibility and crawling
A local page that search engines cannot reach will not generate leads, however good the copy is. Check that your service pages sit in the XML sitemap, that robots.txt does not block them, and that they return a normal 200 response. Google Search Console shows whether Google has actually crawled and indexed each URL, under Page Indexing and URL Inspection.
Keep a log of page, date and result, so a page that drops out can be dated. Treat a line as a pass only when the page returns a 200 response and Google Search Console reports it as indexed.
Safety and legal basics
Marketing a trade does not remove the duty to run the work safely. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) sets out what a small employer must have in place: a risk assessment for the work, a written health and safety policy once you employ five or more people, employer's liability insurance, and accident reporting under RIDDOR.
An expired certificate or badge in an advert is a claim you cannot support. Check the registration number against the register that issues it — Gas Safe Register for gas work, and NICEIC, NAPIT or another Part P-registered scheme for electrical work — and log the expiry date next to it.
The scoring rubric
Score each area from 1 to 5, then add the five scores for a total out of 25. Anything under 15 means the campaign pauses until the weak area is fixed.
1 (failing)
- Ownership
- No named owner
- Claims
- No evidence held
- Consent
- Wording unclear
- Tracking
- Leads unverified
- Safety
- Certificates unchecked
3 (adequate)
- Ownership
- Owner named, no backup
- Claims
- Main claims sourced
- Consent
- Consent recorded
- Tracking
- Monthly test done
- Safety
- Certificates current
5 (strong)
- Ownership
- Owner and deputy, handover written
- Claims
- Every claim sourced and dated
- Consent
- Consent matched to use
- Tracking
- Tested monthly, log kept
- Safety
- Certificates current and dated
Run the rubric at the end of each month and keep the sheet. Three months of scores show whether quality is drifting before lead volume does.
If the score keeps coming back low in the same place, the problem is usually the process rather than the person — most often a missing handover between whoever quotes and whoever delivers. The wider operations and delivery guide explains how to rebuild that part of the workflow.
Common questions
How often should the checklist be run?
Monthly for tracking and site checks, and again after any change of supplier, platform or staff. A campaign unchanged for a year still needs its evidence refreshed.
What if one person owns everything?
That is common in small firms. Put the checks in a calendar so they land on a set date, and keep the evidence in one folder rather than an inbox.
Does a low score mean stopping the campaign?
Only the failing areas pause. A score of 1 on consent or safety should stop that activity immediately, while the rest can continue.
Where should the evidence live?
One shared folder per campaign, holding the ad copy, consent wording, crawl log and certificate dates. If an item cannot be found in two minutes, treat it as missing.
