Marketing that works in Toronto
Short, practical articles about getting found and getting customers in the GTA. Written by the people doing the work, not by a content agency.
What your local business should post when you have no time
You don't need a content strategy. You need eight posts a month that prove you exist, do good work, and are easy to hire — and they can all be filmed on the job.
When a spreadsheet is enough, and when you need your own system
Custom software is sold far more often than it is needed. There is a clear line between the two, and it has nothing to do with the size of your business.
How many hours a month you lose to admin
Most owners we meet in Toronto are spending eight to twenty unpaid hours a month retyping the same things. Here is how to count yours, and which parts are genuinely worth automating.
Facebook and Instagram ads: what to expect if you have never paid before
Boosting a post is not advertising, and the first month never looks like the case studies. Here is the honest version, in order, so you can tell progress from waste.
Is Google Ads worth it for a small business in Toronto?
Sometimes yes, sometimes absolutely not — and you can tell which before you spend a dollar. It comes down to four numbers you already know about your own business.
Five reasons your ads aren't selling
When campaigns fail, the budget gets blamed. In our experience it's almost never the budget — it's one of these five, and four of them are free to fix.
What a website really costs in Toronto
Quotes for the same website in Toronto run from a few hundred dollars to five figures. Here is what changes between them, and what you are actually paying for.
Do you need a website if you already sell on Instagram?
Plenty of Toronto businesses run entirely on DMs and do fine. The question is not whether Instagram works — it clearly does — but what happens on the days it doesn't.
How much should a Toronto business spend on Google Ads?
The honest answer has two parts: there's a floor below which the money is wasted regardless of how good the campaign is, and above that floor the right number comes from arithmetic, not opinion.
Why your business is invisible on Google in Toronto
You have a website, you have customers, and you still can't find yourself on Google. In almost every case it's one of seven things, and most of them cost nothing to fix.
Why your website is slow, and what it's costing you
Speed is the rare problem that costs you twice: visitors leave before they see anything, and Google notices they left. Both are fixable without rebuilding the site.
How to show up on Google Maps in Toronto
For most local businesses, the three results on the map are worth more than the rest of the first page combined. Getting into them is unglamorous, mostly free, and takes about a month of small steps.
Eight things your website needs before it can sell
A website can look excellent and still do nothing. These are the eight things that decide which one you have, and most of them take an afternoon to fix.
Wix, WordPress or custom: which one for a small business?
Most of this decision gets made on price, which is the wrong criterion. The real question is what happens in year two, when your business has changed and the website hasn't.
How to get more Google reviews in Toronto
Reviews are the cheapest advantage a local business has, and most owners never ask for them. Here is the routine we set up with our clients.
Get found on Google Maps in the GTA
The steps we follow to move a business into the local map results, written for owners, not marketers.
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