Priority 1: Google Business Profile (Free)
Your Google Business Profile is the single highest-ROI marketing investment available to notaries — and it is completely free to create and optimise. A fully completed profile with professional photos, complete service listings, and an active review accumulation strategy can generate 10-20 inbound calls per month in a mid-sized US market. If you have not done anything else yet, setting up and optimising your GBP should happen today.
Priority 2: Professional Website ($497-$997)
Unlike Google Ads that stop generating leads the moment you stop paying, a well-built notary website compounds over time — ranking higher, generating more leads, and building your reputation month after month with no ongoing per-click cost. The $997 Webwrits Professional package typically generates $18,000+ in additional annual revenue, making the ROI extraordinarily high compared to almost any other business investment.
Priority 3: Direct Title Company Outreach (Free + Time)
Email or call the closing departments of 10 local title companies to introduce yourself and your services. This costs nothing except your time and generates the highest-value client relationships available to any signing agent. One title company relationship worth just 6 signings per month at $140 each represents $10,080 in annual direct revenue from a single relationship.
Priority 4: NNA Directory Listing ($159/year)
NNA membership includes a listing in the NNA signing agent directory, which title companies actively use to find qualified certified agents in their area. This listing alone can generate multiple direct signings per month in active real estate markets, making the membership fee very easy to justify from a pure return-on-investment perspective.
Priority 5: Notary Directory Listings ($0-$160/year)
Beyond the NNA directory, free listings on 123Notary, Notary Rotary, and Yelp cost nothing but time to set up and can generate meaningful visibility, particularly since these directories themselves often rank well on Google for notary-related searches. Complete every listing fully rather than creating a bare-bones profile — the effort to fill out a profile completely takes perhaps twenty minutes per directory and meaningfully improves your odds of being found and selected.
What Not to Spend Money On Early
Avoid expensive branded merchandise, elaborate printed marketing materials beyond business cards, or paid social media advertising before your website, Google Business Profile, and direct outreach are fully established. These foundational assets generate the vast majority of new notary business; spending limited early marketing budget on lower-return activities before the foundation is solid is one of the most common wasted investments new notaries make.
Reassessing Your Marketing Mix Every Six Months
As your business matures, revisit which activities are actually generating your best clients every six months. What worked to get your first ten clients may not be the most efficient use of your time and budget once you have an established reputation and review base — continuously reallocating your limited marketing time toward whatever is currently producing your best results is more effective than sticking rigidly to your original plan indefinitely.
Reinvesting Profits Into Marketing as You Grow
A common and effective approach is committing a fixed percentage of your monthly notary revenue — for example 5-10% — back into ongoing marketing activities rather than treating your initial website and directory setup as a one-time expense. This creates a sustainable, scaling marketing budget that grows naturally alongside your business rather than requiring a separate, disconnected marketing budgeting decision each year.
Avoiding Marketing Activities With Unclear Return
Be cautious of marketing services that promise guaranteed rankings or leads for a flat monthly fee without clear, specific reporting on what is actually being done. Legitimate SEO and marketing work takes measurable, verifiable time and produces trackable results within a reasonable timeframe; vague guarantees with no transparency are a common red flag worth avoiding regardless of how appealing the promised outcome sounds.
Reviewing Your Marketing Spend Against Actual Results Regularly
Every few months, honestly review which of your marketing investments — your website, your directory listings, any paid advertising — are actually generating traceable enquiries and bookings, and which are simply ongoing expenses without clear, demonstrable return. This kind of periodic, honest review prevents marketing budget from drifting toward activities that feel productive but are not actually generating measurable business results, redirecting that budget instead toward whatever channels are genuinely producing your best return on investment.
Do not be afraid to discontinue a marketing activity that is not producing results, even if it was a reasonable choice when you originally started it. Markets, competition, and your own business circumstances change over time, and a marketing mix that made sense a year ago may need meaningful adjustment as your specific situation evolves.
The Bottom Line
The highest-return notary marketing activities — Google Business Profile, a professional website, direct outreach — are consistent across nearly every market, and deserve priority over more speculative spending.