E47: The Ultimate 2026 Marketing Playbook for Local Service Businesses
If you’re a local service business owner spinning your wheels and wondering why your marketing isn’t bringing in leads, I get it. I’ve seen it a thousand times.
In this episode of Marketing Domination, I walk you through the complete 2026 marketing strategy for local service businesses, showing you exactly how to build, fill, and optimize your sales funnel so you can finally stand out online and grow your business.
I break down the foundation you need first: your vision, mission, core values, and brand, so everything else you do actually works.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a step-by-step system to dominate your local market, capture more leads, and convert them into loyal customers.
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P.S. When you are ready, here are a few ways I can help…
Get Your FREE Marketing Domination Checklist: https://www.seangarner.co/
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Schedule A Call to Build, Fill, and Optimize Your Sales Funnel For More Leads: https://www.seangarner.co/
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Sean Garner is a marketing consultant and Certified StoryBrand guide dedicated to helping small business owners grow and dominate their industries. He created the Marketing Domination podcast to teach people how to combine storytelling with strategic marketing to help businesses connect with customers and stand out online.
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MARKETING DOMINATION PODCAST
Introduction
Sean Garner [0:00]: "Okay, this is going to be the complete 2026 marketing strategy for local service business owners. Here are some thumbnail images."
Sean Garner [0:27]: "Yeah, because we just have a lot of regular images for me. Okay, sync the audio."
Sean Garner [0:37]: "Okay, here we go."
Sean Garner [0:45]: "If you’re a local service business owner who’s spinning your wheels and frustrated that your marketing just doesn’t seem to work—and by work, I mean it’s making you money and bringing in leads—if it’s not doing that, it’s not working. This video is going to give you the complete step-by-step checklist of everything you need to do to make sure you have a complete marketing strategy for 2026. One that helps your business grow, stand out online, and truly dominate your market. Grab a cup of coffee and your notepad, because we’re going to give you everything you need to stand out online. Welcome to Marketing Domination."
Build, Fill, Optimize the Sales Funnel
Sean Garner [2:14]: "The first thing I want you to understand when creating this overall marketing strategy is the big picture of what we’re doing. We’re laying the groundwork to build a complete marketing system for local service business owners so you can stand out online and dominate your market. I want you to understand, at a high level, what it really takes to grow your business. At our agency, Sean Garner Consulting, we use a simple framework: build the sales funnel, fill the sales funnel, then optimize the sales funnel. Your entire marketing strategy revolves around this concept. You’ve probably heard the term ‘sales funnel’ before, but most people don’t truly understand it. When we talk about building a sales funnel, we’re talking about the entire relationship journey with your potential customers—from not knowing who you are, to becoming lifelong, raving fans. This is not a landing page, a website style, or a software tool. It’s a complete relationship-building process. That foundation has to be built before we move into phase two, which is filling the sales funnel. One of the most common mistakes I see local service business owners make is not that they’re doing the wrong things, but that they’re doing the right things in the wrong order. They try to fill an incomplete funnel without having the foundation in place. As a result, they waste time, effort, and money on paid ads, social content, and networking before their marketing system is ready."
Sean Garner [4:15]: "Things start slipping through the cracks because there isn’t a solid foundation. After we build it, we fill it with different content and marketing strategies. Then we move into the third phase of marketing domination, which is optimization. In today’s world, there are so many data and analytics tools available. We always tell our clients that we don’t make marketing or business decisions based on personal preference or emotion—we make them based on data. Those tools help us optimize the entire marketing and sales funnel. I want you to have a high-level understanding of what we’re doing so your business can grow and stand out online in 2026. As we go step by step through each of these items, keep that strategy in the back of your mind. What I don’t want is for you to think, ‘I already have a website,’ or ‘We’ve already tried PPC.’ Take a breath. These things work. A great website works. SEO works. PPC works—but only if they’re executed properly and all the other pieces are in place. Even if you think you have some of these things handled, take a hard look. You might not be executing them at the level required, or there may be missing elements. I like to compare this to fitness. Working out, supplementing, eating well, hydrating, and doing mobility work all matter. If you only do one of those, you might improve a little, but to reach your goals, you need all of them working together. Marketing is the same way. Without all the foundational elements in place, you’ll keep spinning your wheels and wondering why it’s not working."
Foundation Before Execution
Sean Garner [6:31]: "There may be small gaps in your marketing that aren’t properly shored up, and that’s why it’s not working. As we go through this, take a real reality check. Ask yourself if you’re actually doing these things at the highest level compared to your competition, because that’s exactly what your potential customers are doing. They’re comparing your business to your competitors and making decisions based on what they see. In the digital world, it’s not what’s happening in your head or inside your business—it’s what you allow potential customers to see online. That’s the foundation. Now let’s get into the complete marketing strategy you need for 2026 to build, fill, and optimize your sales funnel. The first foundational step is having a clear vision, mission statement, and core values. Even if you’re a solopreneur just getting started, you need this in place. I’ve gone from solo operations to large teams, and I can tell you that without these foundations, things won’t feel right as you grow. This is especially important when working with agencies, vendors, or team members. If you don’t know where you’re going, it’s impossible to know if you’ve arrived or to hold people accountable. Your team wants to help you succeed, but without a clear vision and mission—and personal core values—it’s hard to guide them. You’re not just creating a job; you’re building a business. Build it your way."
Sean Garner [8:33]: "Take the time to define your company’s vision, mission, and core values. What are you building, and who do you need to become to make it happen? I used to skip this part when I bought courses or training, but as your business grows, you realize how critical this foundation really is. We’ve covered this in previous podcast episodes, and it’s essential to get this right before moving forward, or you’ll end up spinning your wheels again. This is really step zero. Step one in marketing is building your sales funnel. As I’ve said, a sales funnel is the complete relationship journey—not a landing page or software. The foundation of that funnel is your brand. When we talk about branding, we mean both visuals and messaging. Visually, you need logos, colors, fonts, and a clear brand guide. When businesses don’t have this locked down, websites and designs often don’t feel right because designers are forced to guess or rely onstock assets. Lock down how you want your brand to look and feel. This is one area where personal preference matters, because it’s your brand and how you want it to be perceived."
Branding Essentials
Sean Garner [10:38]: "We work with a plumbing company called Half Moon Plumbing, and their colors are lime green and purple. Typically, when you think of home services, you think red, white, and blue—very traditional. They went the complete opposite direction because they wanted to stand out visually, and it works great for them. That approach won’t make sense for every company, but that’s the point. You need to lock down the visual aspect of your brand—your logo, colors, and fonts—so it’s intentional and aligned with who you are. The next part of your brand, in my opinion, is the most important, and that’s your messaging. This is the language you use in your marketing. I’m a certified StoryBrand guide and coach, so I’m a big believer in the StoryBrand messaging framework. It consists of seven key talking points that help you craft your brand message. I’ve covered this in depth on the podcast, including common mistakes, so you can go back and check those episodes out. At a high level, the StoryBrand framework uses the arc of a story. First, there’s a character—your customer. Every customer wants something, so we need to clearly define what they want. Second, the character has a problem. We need to identify that problem on three levels: the external problem they’re dealing with, the internal problem of how it makes them feel, and the philosophical problem—why it’s just not right that they have to deal with it."
Sean Garner [12:45]: "Next, the character meets a guide, and that’s you. In the story, your business is not the hero—the customer is. You position yourself as the guide by showing empathy and authority. Empathy means saying things like, ‘We understand what it’s like to deal with this,’ so customers feel seen and understood. Authority means proving you know what you’re doing through awards, facts, stats, case studies, and testimonials from people just like them. Then the guide gives the customer a plan. This should be a simple, clear three-step plan that explains how to work with you. After that, we call them to action. We need to be very clear and direct—schedule a call, book an appointment, request service. We don’t want vague calls to action."
Sean Garner [13:22]: "Avoid vague language like ‘learn more’ or ‘discover how we help.’ Be clear about the action you want people to take. We also include a transitional call to action, which is a lead generator for people who aren’t ready to buy yet. The final two parts of the brand message are failure and success. Failure explains what continues to happen if they don’t work with you. Success shows the transformation and the positive outcome after they do. Once we’ve built this, we have the foundation of your brand, and everything else in your marketing is built on top of it. If that sounds like a lot, that’s why at Sean Garner Consulting we do this for our clients. We can’t build an effective website, SEO campaign, sales funnel, or fractional CMO strategy until your brand is locked in. That means your visuals—logos, colors, fonts—and, more importantly, your messaging. Every word should pass through that brand filter. Just like you give visual brand guidelines to a designer, you give your brand script to copywriters, sales teams, and anyone communicating on behalf of your business. The first step is locking down the brand. Once that’s done, we move into the next part of the sales funnel: building your website. The only purpose of your website is two things—make you money and collect leads."
Website Strategy
Sean Garner [15:15]: "Too often, I see business owners wasting time, effort, and money building websites that are basically digital ‘look-at-me’ billboards. That’s not the point. The purpose of a website is to give people a place where they can quickly understand the problem you solve, how you make their life better, and then make it incredibly easy for them to either pay you, book a consultation, or opt in as a lead through a form or lead generator. We’ve done tons of trainings and podcast episodes on what your website needs, but I still want to walk you through a website wireframe so you can see how I think about structuring this. We have a complete free guide on our website called the Click the Client Website Template. It outlines the ten sections you need on your homepage, because your homepage is the most important part of your site. When people land there, this is how it should be structured. I’ll show you real-life examples of not only how the homepage should look, but how your entire website should be built. Remember, we’re building a sales funnel—it’s a complete process, not just a landing page or a piece of software."
Sean Garner [17:43]: "The first section is your header. You need to answer three questions in under five seconds or people will bounce: what do you do, how do you make my life better, and what do I need to do to get it? Visually, this usually includes a headline and subheadline, an image or video of happy customers using your service, your logo in the top left, and a clear primary call to action in the top right and again within the main content. This is the most important section of your website. If your site doesn’t check these boxes, you are losing money. The design can vary, but the structure stays the same. For example, a medical spa might ask, ‘How do you make my life better?’ with messaging like ‘Discover your natural beauty,’ then explain what they do and finish with a clear call to action like ‘Book an appointment.’ A plumbing website might look visually different, but it still answers the same core questions. Next, you want a section that showcases value. This isn’t about listing features—it’s about the benefits your customers experience after working with you. Think of each website section like Lego blocks. The header always goes first and the footer always goes last, but the middle sections can be rearranged. The key is making sure all of them exist. This is where you need to evaluate your current website. Don’t just ask, ‘Do I have a website?’ Ask, ‘Is it doing these things well?’ That’s why I recommend downloading the Click the Client Website Template from seangarner.co and doing a self-assessment. The next section is the stakes section. This is where you clearly show the problem your customers are dealing with and demonstrate empathy. Are you struggling with tooth pain or missing teeth? Are you tired of feeling self-conscious about your skin? Need a new roof and don’t know where to start? A broken garage door can throw off your whole day. These details matter. When customers see their specific problem reflected back to them, they think, ‘They get me.’ That’s how trust starts to build. After that comes your value proposition, where you begin outlining your services. Here, it’s critical to understand the difference between features and benefits."
Sean Garner [20:00]: "Features are the things you actually do. Benefits are how those things help the customer. When you list your services, you want to include the specific deliverables, but more importantly, explain why they matter. For example, if you’re a roofer, a feature might be a free 360-degree roof inspection. The benefit is knowing exactly what’s wrong with your roof and having confidence the job will be done right. We always want to lead with the benefit and then support it with the feature. The next section of your website is what we call the guide section. Like we talked about earlier with brand messaging, this is where you show empathy and authority. It doesn’t have to be a single section—it can be spread throughout the site—but you need content that shows you understand what customers are dealing with and that you’re the expert. This is where we embed Google reviews, add trust badges, awards, local chamber links, and testimonials. For example, you might highlight that you’re the highest-rated, most-reviewed garage door company in a specific city and show those reviews directly on the site. Testimonials should be specific. We don’t want vague feedback like ‘They were really nice.’ We want results-driven statements, like how fast a roof was repaired or how a specific problem was solved."
Sean Garner [22:05]: "The next section is packaging and pricing. This one is optional, but the more clarity you provide, the better your results will be. If you offer service packages, this is where you can group them together. You don’t have to list prices, especially in industries like wellness clinics or medical spas, but showing structured packages or promotions helps set expectations. After that comes what I consider the second most important section on your website, right after the header: the plan section. This is your simple three-step process. For example, book an appointment, choose your service, regain your confidence. Or for a dental office: book an appointment, get a personalized treatment plan, enjoy a healthy smile. It sounds simple, but very few businesses do this. The goal is for customers to think, ‘That looks easy. I can do that.’ A clear header, strong calls to action, and a simple plan alone can dramatically increase leads. When you combine that with the full sales funnel, your marketing really becomes supercharged. The next section is the explanatory paragraph. This is where you include a longer block of text that ties everything together and supports SEO. We usually structure this so it’s easy to skim, often using a ‘read more’ accordion. People don’t read every word on a website, but you still need a place for this content to support search engines and reinforce your messaging."
Sean Garner [24:20]: "The next section your website needs is a lead magnet, or lead generator. This is the transitional call to action we talked about earlier. It’s an exchange of value that positions you as the guide, gives your potential customer a quick win, and helps them take the first step. It should have a clear, catchy title. For some businesses, this might even be something simple like a discount code. The goal is to capture their information if they’re not quite ready yet. The real magic happens in the follow-up after they opt in. Next, we have what I call the junk drawer. This is where everything else goes—your careers page, About Us, and other secondary links. These should live in the footer. We want the header to stay as clean as possible, with no unnecessary links that distract from the main goals: getting leads and making money. Extra links at the top only create confusion. That said, we still need a thoughtful website structure."
Sean Garner [26:34]: "Now that we’ve covered how your homepage should be wireframed, let’s talk about how to structure the rest of your site. You need a strong homepage built exactly how we discussed. You also need an About page. While your homepage shouldn’t focus on you, the About page is where you tell your story. This is especially important for visibility in AI tools and LLMs, because they rely on that information to understand your brand. Your customers may not care much about your story, but search engines and AI absolutely do. Next, you need a main services page that lists all of your services, along with individual sub-service pages for each specific offering. This structure is critical for SEO, or what I now call search-everywhere optimization. Wherever your customers are searching—Google, AI tools, or elsewhere—you want to show up. Sub-service pages give you content to optimize, internally link, and signal to search engines and AI that your business should be recommended for those services. We’ll talk more about this in the fill-the-funnel phase, but this is the foundation. If you serve specific locations, you should apply the same strategy to geography. For example, with Half Moon Plumbing, we created service pages and sub-service pages, then duplicated that structure for each city and suburb they serve. That means a location page like Broken Arrow, plus sub-service pages like Broken Arrow faucet repair or Broken Arrow gas line repair. By building out this structure, you dramatically increase your chances of showing up everywhere your customers are searching."
Sean Garner [28:53]: "By building out services, locations, and location-specific service pages, we create a ton of content and authority within our site map. This helps show Google that our website is highly knowledgeable about the topics we serve. I know this sounds like a lot, but this is what a truly effective website looks like. A lot of business owners say, ‘I have a website,’ but the real question is, do you actually have a website that checks all these boxes? One that says the right things, is properly structured, and has all the necessary pages built out? Most businesses don’t, and that’s why their website isn’t working."
Sean Garner [28:53]: "The next part of the sales funnel is your lead generator. I mentioned this earlier when we were talking about your website, but your business needs a lead generator. Very few people are going to land on your site and immediately reach out. They’re looking for someone to solve a problem, and if your website doesn’t quickly build trust and authority, they won’t book a call or request service. A lead generator allows you to capture their information so you can follow up. It also gives you a reason to promote your website. On social media, nobody wants to constantly hear ‘buy my stuff.’ But if you’re offering something valuable in exchange, like a free guide or checklist, it changes the conversation. For us, that’s our website wireframe template. Now it’s not just ‘visit our website,’ it’s ‘come get this free resource.’ A strong lead generator should do three things. First, it needs a clear, compelling title that explains the value without clickbait. Second, it should position you as the guide and make people think, ‘These people really know what they’re talking about.’"
Sean Garner [30:52]: "The third thing a lead generator should do is give your potential customers a quick win or the first step in the process. For example, we’re a marketing agency, and after listening to this episode, you’ll understand that websites need to be structured a certain way. So we give people a website wireframe template. It has a clear, catchy title, it positions us as the guide by showing we know what we’re talking about, and it gives them the next step. Not everyone is going to want to take that and build their own website, which is why they eventually hire us to execute these strategies for them. That’s what we want in our marketing: something that captures leads when people aren’t quite ready to buy yet."
Lead Generators and Email Sequences
Sean Garner [33:08]: "But that’s not the real secret. The real secret is what happens after someone opts in. That’s where your sales email sequence comes in. Typically, this is a series of five or six emails that nurture the relationship and keep you top of mind. Think of it like a net that catches people who’ve entered your world and follows up automatically. I love automations, and we use a lot of AI tools in our agency, but you can’t rely on automation alone to do all the selling. These sequences should make sure no one slips through the cracks, but if you truly want to stand out and grow, you need to be human. When someone opts in, you should be reaching out personally—calling them, sending a message—because very few businesses actually do that. Many rely too heavily on automation. Sometimes growth requires doing things that aren’t scalable. Be human. If someone downloads a lead magnet from your website and you call them within 60 seconds, your chances of converting them skyrocket. They’re actively searching, you’re top of mind, and if they contacted multiple businesses, the one that calls back first usually wins the sale. So we build the lead generator, plug them into the sales sequence, and then move them into a nurture sequence. Email marketing still works. What doesn’t work is sending bad or spammy emails. Your emails should provide helpful tips that position you as the guide, not constantly ask people to buy. If email marketing isn’t working for you, ask yourself if every email is just a sales pitch. You need to earn the right to ask for the sale. After the initial sales sequence, your weekly nurture emails should deliver consistent value so that when someone is ready to buy, they think of you. If you do that well, every six weeks or so you can send a strong sales email to invite people to raise their hand and take the next step."
Digital Storefront and CRM
Sean Garner [35:02]: "Once we have that process in place, the next step is creating what we call your digital storefront. These are all the places where customers can see you online. That includes your Google Business Profile, which needs to be fully set up and optimized, especially for local businesses. We did an entire podcast episode on this, covering local citations and directories like Yelp, Apple Maps, and industry-specific profiles. Another part of your digital storefront is your social media profiles. Lock down all the usernames, even if you’re not active on every platform. Fill out the profile, upload your logo, complete the bio, and link to your website. If someone searches for your business and those profiles appear, they should instantly understand what you do, how you help, and what action to take—whether that’s calling you or booking an appointment. You might not want to use every platform right now, but you may in the future, and once we get into the fill phase of the funnel, we can automate and repurpose content across platforms."
Recap and Next Steps
Sean Garner [37:21]: "After that, the final piece of the sales funnel is your CRM. If you’re collecting customer information through forms and appointment requests, you can’t just let those sit in an email inbox. All customer data needs to live in one central place so your team can track conversations, add notes, and follow up properly. I see so many businesses where a form submission just goes to an email or maybe gets added to a spreadsheet once and then forgotten. Your customer data is one of your most valuable assets. Your email list and customer list are worth more than any social media following because you can reach them anytime. Use a CRM you’ll actually use—tool choice matters less than adoption. Quick recap of the sales funnel and phase one of the Marketing Domination framework: first, build the sales funnel. It starts with your brand—how it looks visually and how it sounds through your messaging. We use the StoryBrand framework to define those talking points. Second, build your website. It should be wireframed to collect leads and make you money. Make sure your sitemap is solid with a homepage, About page, main services page, sub-service pages, and location pages. This becomes critical in phase two when we fill the funnel. Third, create a lead generator with a clear title, that positions you as the guide, and gives prospects a quick win. Plug those leads into a short sales email sequence, then move them into a weekly nurture sequence that delivers value and earns the right to sell. Finally, make sure your entire digital storefront is built out, including your Google Business Profile, local directories, and citations like Yelp and Apple Maps."
Sean Garner [39:30]: "At this point, all of your social media profiles should be built out so they look clean, consistent, and professional. Your profile image should be your business logo, or your headshot if it’s a personal brand. Your About section should be filled out with clear contact information so people know exactly how to call you, email you, or visit your website. All of that information should then be plugged into a solid CRM that your team actually uses, so you can stay on top of potential customers and convert them into clients for life. That’s how you build a sales funnel, and that’s the first step of the Marketing Domination framework. In the next episode, we’ll cover how to actually fill the sales funnel. Just because you build all of this doesn’t mean your business will automatically grow—it means you now have a solid system ready to receive leads. In the next episode, I’ll show you exactly how to fill your sales funnel in 2026 so your marketing helps you stand out online, grow your business, and dominate your market. I’ll see you there."
