It's Thursday, 10pm, and the marketing didn't happen. Again.

It's Tuesday. You've got a plan this week. This is the week you finally do some marketing for the studio.

Now it's Thursday, 10pm. It didn't happen. Again. Because this week:

• One of your teachers got sick, so you covered her classes on top of your own.
• The plumbing broke. You had a go at fixing the toilet yourself. You couldn't, so you waited in for the plumber.
• Susie couldn't work out how to cancel her class online, so you did it for her.
• Jessica asked to cancel after the 24-hour notice and still wanted a refund. Again.
• The soap ran out.

None of that was marketing. All of it was your week.

So when someone tells you to "just post more", you want to scream. I get it. I ran my studio exactly like that for nine years. The person telling you to post more has never mopped a changing room at 9pm.

So I'm not going to tell you to post more. I'm going to tell you about the one post that's actually worth your ten minutes. And it's not on Instagram.

The post that shows up when it counts

It's a Google Business Profile post. Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that comes up when someone Googles your studio: the map, the stars, the reviews, your opening hours. A Google post is a little update you put on that listing. A photo and a couple of sentences. That's genuinely it.

Doesn't sound like much. Here's why it beats an hour on Instagram.

1. It reaches people who are already looking for you

Think about who sees what. On Instagram, people are scrolling to switch their brain off. They're not looking for a Pilates studio. On Google, the person who sees your post typed "Pilates near me" ten seconds ago. She's actively deciding, right now, between you and the studio down the road.

Your Google post shows up at that exact moment. A fresh photo of your studio, this week's schedule, a class with two spots left. That's not marketing shouted into the void. That's a warm hello to someone already at your door.

2. Google rewards studios that look alive

Google's job is to send people to businesses that are actually open and actually good. A profile with fresh posts, recent photos and answered reviews looks alive. A profile nobody has touched in a year makes people wonder if you've closed down. And here's the part that matters: Google shows active profiles to more people. Every post is a little signal that says "we're here, we're busy, send them our way."

3. AI is reading it too

This is the newer bit. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI for a Pilates studio near them, the AI picks a shortlist and ignores everyone else. It leans on the same signals: complete listing, steady reviews, signs of life. Your Google posts are evidence you're a real, active, recommendable studio. Your competitor's silent listing is evidence of nothing.

4. Almost nobody else is doing it

Every studio around you is fighting for attention on Instagram. Very few have posted on their Google listing this month. Some have never posted at all. That means this is the rare corner of the internet where ten minutes a week actually puts you ahead, instead of just keeping up.

How to actually do it (on a real week)

Once a week, one post. A photo and two or three sentences. What's on this week, a class with spaces, a client milestone, your new teacher. You don't need anything new: reuse a line from your newsletter, your class update, or something you already told your clients.

I don't even write mine from scratch. My AI system turns my weekly newsletter into a Google post for me, and I just upload and schedule it. One conversation, three pieces of content.

Because here's the truth: the soap will run out again. Someone will always need covering. Jessica will always want that refund. That's the job, and it's not going to calm down. Which is exactly why the marketing that works for you has to be the ten-minute kind, in the place where people are already looking.

The studios showing up on Google now are the ones that will still be full in two years.

Victoria, Core and Code