Toronto is home to numerous businesses which are growing at a huge pace. Owning a physical business is one aspect, but then every business, regardless of its niche, demands online marketing that can highlight your brand/company in the search results and drive potential sales, traffic, and trust toward your web platform.
Toronto is also the second-largest financial center in North America, contributing significantly to the country’s GDP.
Running a business with a digital presence is tough without the right approach and marketing strategy. Small businesses have this common problem that restricts them from gradually enhancing their scope and growing.
Common queries for small businesses in Toronto with respect to digital promotion are:
- How to grow a small business with online marketing
- How can SEO services in Toronto help your business?
- In digital marketing, what is more important for your Toronto business?
- How can you shortlist a professional SEO Agency in Toronto?
All these queries need answers to ensure you are moving ahead with the marketing trends and investing your efforts with the right marketing strategy. So, without any further delay, let’s check out the nitty-gritty of digital marketing in Toronto.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing (or online marketing) refers to all promotional efforts which are helpful for businesses, brands, and individuals to connect them with potential customers using the internet and other digital channels such as search engines, websites, social media, email, and mobile apps.
Online marketing isn’t some technical thing you do to make your business a success. Basically, it’s getting your business noticed and trusted by your prospects. It’s a journey of being a popular brand that everyone trusts.
There are various platforms and ways to market your business digitally. As online businesses are growing rapidly and there is more marketing than ever, it’s counterproductive to wait for customers to come to you, no matter how good you are. You have to go out there and let people know about your brand to earn the business and build your customer base.
Digital marketing has become an essential component of any online business. So, don’t take it as a burden of a pushover; digital marketing is something that will make your brand a well-known “BRAND.”
Digital Marketing in Toronto, Canada (Stats)
Here are some facts or statistics from Statista that show the significance or need of digital marketing for small businesses. People like doing things or shopping from their homes; that’s why online businesses are popping out every day due to this heavy demand. You are in a big race, and digital marketing is the way to be found by your customers and convert.
- Canada and the US account for more than 40% of global digital marketing spending.
- Canadian advertisers have allocated over 50% of their budgets to digital campaigns.
- Search advertising accounts for nearly 50% of Canada’s total digital ad spending.
- In 2021, digital advertising spending in Canada was forecast to amount to 9.58 billion Canadian dollars, up from 8.45 billion estimated for 2020. By 2024, the expenditure is forecast to reach 12.19 billion Canadian dollars.
- 93% of Canadians planned to either do more or the same amount of online shopping in 2021.
- 50% of consumers are inclined towards a particular brand if the name appears more than once during their search.
- In September 2021, search giant Google accounted for nearly 92 percent of the search engine market in Canada.
- With a social network penetration rate of 83 percent, Canada has one of the world’s most connected online populations.
- In late 2019, e-commerce retail sales amounted to almost 1.85 billion Canadian dollars, with approximately 28.1 million Canadians have made purchases online.
- In 2021, the number of digital buyers in Canada reached over 27 million users. This means that 72.5 percent of the Canadian population purchased goods and services online.
Why Do You Need Digital Marketing?
Nothing is more effective than digital marketing if you genuinely want to engage with your customers. An extensive range of options and strategies associated with digital marketing makes it vital for your business and brand awareness.
Now, check some of the top reasons your business needs digital marketing.
1. To Reach Your Online Customers
You need to be available everywhere; your customers look for businesses. It’s crucial to track your potential customers and their changes in behavior or preferences.
For example, earlier, people used to ask their friends or wander around to find a local business they needed. But, now more than 90% of people use online to search local businesses. If they are now using the online mediums to search for businesses like yours, then it’s high time to establish a solid online presence, and for that, you’ll need online marketing.
2. Cost-Effective Mode of Marketing
Print and TV ads were the most common marketing techniques, but there are highly inefficient and extravagant. The ROI of traditional marketing is really because of poor audience targeting that can’t be helped.
On the other hand, digital marketing targets your potential customers online, saving marketing efforts and delivering better conversions.
Hence, you get a high efficiency at a low cost, making it an ideal medium for your business marketing.
3. Your Competition is Doing It
You can’t take any chances if your competition is doing online marketing because it’s inevitable they’ll outrun you. Your customers won’t get to know about your brand, and the competition will have all the business.
So, if you don’t want this to happen, your business needs to do internet marketing to compete with your competitors and get the most business.
4. Reach Over Mobile
Mobile is the most used device for online shopping today, so you don’t want to miss out here. You know the extensive uses of mobiles these days.
So, you need to engage with your customer over the phone. Digital marketing strategies consider the mobile users and optimize your business accordingly to drive the potential results.
5. Brand Awareness and Customer Loyalty
Digital marketing helps you drive business, gets your word out there to every potential customer, and builds your brand image. Online marketing comprises various multi-channel strategies that nurture customers to become loyal customers.
High personalization helps you build customer relationships, increase brand loyalty, and promote word-of-mouth marketing through your existing customers.
6. Data-Driven Marketing
Online marketing doesn’t work on a fluke; everything is data-backed, which increases the efficiency of your campaigns. The marketing strategies are designed based on vast customer data and current industry trends that generate exceptional results.
So, it’s not like you put your money and pray for good results, like traditional marketing. Creating the right digital marketing strategy for your business will surely deliver you profitable results.
Signs You Need A Digital Marketing Agency to Grow Your Business in Toronto
Not sure whether you need an online marketing firm or not? Well! Here are some signs or top reasons for you to hire an online marketing firm for your Toronto based business.
1. You are Occupied With Your Product/Services
It’s necessary to build a fantastic product/service, and you want it to be the best. It’s good, but marketing is the next important thing after having a good product. When people don’t know and buy your product, then all your efforts in your product development are a waste.
So, if you lack time and resources for your business marketing, in that case, it’s time you hire a marketing professional or agency to handle your business marketing and get your business in front of your potential customers.
2. Can’t Afford an In-house Team
Getting your marketing team is one way to kick start your marketing, but not if you have a limited budget. Setting up a marketing team need a high upfront among, excluding the marketing expenses. Moreover, when you have a team, you also have to overlook them to keep things on track.
So, it’s inconvenient and inefficient for businesses with limited time and budget. A marketing agency can give you all the required services at a comparatively lesser fee than an in-house team.
Considering Toronto city, there are many small businesses, and hiring a marketing agency is a lot more beneficial and convenient for them than hiring an in-house team.
3. You Don’t Know What Do To
With the growth of digital marketing, there are many factors to consider while developing a strategic marketing plan. Learning how to advertise your business using SEO, keyword research, social media experts, and creating a stunning landing page for your website may be challenging and intimidating.
Every sector has professionals in digital marketing organizations who can evaluate your company’s needs and work with you to develop a tailored strategy based on the areas where your business has the most potential for development.
4. You Are Not Consistent
Consistency matters in marketing, so hiring a marketing service is a good idea. Let’s you have skills and can do your marketing, but it needs to be consistent. All the marketing strategies need regular monitoring and optimization to work effectively.
So, if you can’t dedicate daily time to your marketing, you should get someone to do it.
5. Fewer Leads for Sales
You have people in sales but don’t have enough leads for them. It’s a sign you have to increase your leads (quality leads) to get more conversions through sales.
A digital marketing agency can help you improve your brand exposure and get people to engage with your brand to capture leads. You can do it yourself, but it’s a lot of work and need significant expertise to run successful lead generation campaigns.
An online marketing firm has the relevant experience to boost your leads and get your sales team super-busy.
6. Your Current Marketing Results Aren’t Satisfactory
If you are working with some agency or doing it yourself, and you don’t think you aren’t getting enough, then it’s time to reconsider. Sometimes, businesses work with a marketing agency and give up on marketing when they don’t get results.
Online marketing is essential for a company to grow, so instead of giving up, work with a reputed internet marketing firm to deliver profitable incremental results.
7. Your Competitors Are Outperforming You
If your competitors are doing better than you, they are working on a better strategy than you to reach customers and convert them. You can’t let this go on; otherwise, you keep losing business. Either modify your current marketing strategy or take the help of a marketing strategist or consultant to help you develop an effective, customized online marketing strategy for your business.
A digital marketing firm does intricate market and competition research to create a better approach.
So, if you want to be the market leader, a professional’s help is a must.
8. Your Website is Outdated
Your website is your online store, where people come and buy things. If it doesn’t offer a pleasant experience and is obsolete now, you need a revamp. You’ll need a fresh design and content to make your website best according to the current market trends.
A digital marketing firm can help you develop a website that will perform well in search, increasing customer exposure. Search engines like Google have an extra focus on user experience, so making a site that fits the Google guidelines will make your site perform better.
Hence, it would help if you consider a marketing expert’s input when you are redesigning to have a well-performing website.
Apart from a design perspective, a marketing agency can curate SEO-friendly content for you that will aid your SEO and nurture your visitors to become your customers.
After all, content is your online salesman and needs to be the best.
Types of Digital Marketing Agencies
Digital marketing is a vast field with various parts like PPC, SEO, SMM, CRO, etc. Generally, marketing agencies work on a specific function (single-channel marketing agency), and you must reach out to other agencies for other services.
You can also find full-service marketing agencies to get all in one solution. You can even find agencies that don’t serve all services, but few of all (Multi-channel marketing agencies).
We listed various types of online marketing firms to help you choose the right one for your needs.
1. PPC Ads/ SEM Agency
Paid advertising is another method of attracting visitors to a website. Paid traffic is investing money to bid on keywords and ad placement in search results. It can quickly generate leads, but your campaign must be put up properly to reach your target demographic. Websites, search result pages (SERPs), and social platforms can display ads.
Online ad firms specializing in digital marketing know about creating engaging, optimized ads that follow best practices. A PPC ads agency will be perfect for you if you want to run ad campaigns.
2. SEO Agency
Digital marketing companies have started specializing because organizations use it more frequently. One of the most crucial segments of digital marketing is the SEO agency.
SEO firms often concentrate on ranking your website in search engines using strategies like link building and on-page optimization. Even some businesses have content marketing specialties.
Remember that an SEO service’s main objective is to raise your website visibility to the top of search results. You might choose a company that offers SEO services if your needs are comparable to theirs.
3. Content Marketing Agency
Content marketing is creating and disseminating text, pictures, and other material that are valuable to your audience rather than merely broadcasting advertisements.
A content marketing agency takes care of your content demands. A B2C company may use material such as social media postings, blogs, infographics, videos, etc.
If you are a B2B business, it will mainly consist of white papers, reports, case studies, and videos.
4. Social Media Marketing Agency
Even though the term is highly descriptive, it is still an umbrella phrase. A social media agency is typically a one-person firm or a small group of collaborators. They’re presumably focusing on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. It’s crucial to find out which of their duties they have the most amazing control on.
Hire a suitable agency that utilizes your target platform by being aware of it. Even better, you may work with a social media company that offers support for all popular social networks. Verify each platform’s expertise carefully.
5. Email Marketing Agency
Despite the rise of social media and other channels, email remains one of the most powerful marketing tools. It may be used as part of a content marketing plan to provide value to customers and convert them into customers over time.
Email marketing experts are adept at creating attractive messages and determining the best audience outreach and monitoring customer interactions and data, as well as making strategic decisions based on that data.
You can use email marketing with other marketing strategies to improve your results and accomplish your business goals. It might be your agency if you wish to outsource your emails.
6. Influencer Marketing Agency
Influencer marketing means collaborating with current influencers, such as celebrities, specialists, and public figures. When they advertise your product to their audience, which they frequently do on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, devoted followers will take their advice and purchase from you.
So, if you want some big influencer or someone famous from your industry to promote your business, then influencer marketing is the way to go.
An experienced influencer marketing agency connects with various influencers and can quickly get your product on their social handles.
7. Full-Service Digital Marketing Agency
As the name says, this type of agency provides all the marketing services you need. These agencies have experts for each marketing channel. Sometimes, they say full-service but can’t do all the things. Still, confirm that they can provide all the services you need.
You must know by now which online marketing agency you need to hire.
What Does a Digital Marketing Agency Do?
A digital marketing agency performs a wide range of duties. Different optimizations and content curations are needed for each marketing channel to provide the desired results.
If we talk about such tasks, it can become a complete book. Here are some things a marketing agency accomplishes or business objectives that an internet marketing company helps you reach if we take a broader view. You must use an internet marketing business for these tasks.
1. Grow Your Traffic
It is one of the primary goals of any business. Nowadays, most companies have a website, but the fierce competition keeps your website from being found by your customers.
Online marketing agencies employ various marketing channels and strategies to drive traffic to your site.
Marketing experts create integrated systems to help you have paid instant and free traffic in the long run. It depends on your goal and how an agency or expert works for your business, but if you want more traffic to your business, a marketing agency can surely help you with it. Even with the local SEO, an online marketing firm can increase the foot traffic or calls to your local brick-and-mortar business.
So, if you want more visitors to your restaurant in Toronto, it’s possible with a marketing firm.
2. Generate Quality Leads
Sales are the ultimate goal of all businesses, and for that quality, leads are required.
Internet marketing companies know how to understand your market and customers precisely and layout strategies to facilitate lead generation from more relevant customers.
The methods are so accurate that only potential customers will see your campaigns and drop their leads. The sales funnel has various stages, and marketing experts create custom strategies for your business to establish optimum lead generation for each unique funnel.
Inbound marketing strategies nurture your potential customers from start to the end till they become your customers.
So, if good lead generation is what you want, an online marketing company can do it for you.
3. Spread Brand Reach
Digital marketing companies specialize in promoting businesses online and building relationships with customers; they understand how to increase your brand’s online reach.
Working with a digital marketing agency will help your website gain visibility through keyword analysis and customer persona creation.
A marketing agency can help you get audience exposure on search engines and social media platforms. People don’t buy from brands they don’t know or trust. Marketing agencies spread awareness and increase your authority among people to make your brand a brand that is known and trusted by people.
4. Create Conversion Centric Strategies
Conversion is the main stage of any marketing strategy, and an experienced marketing agency can set up a flawless journey for the customers that result in a conversion. It’s not how much traffic you get; it’s how many of them are converted.
Online marketing strategies work on buyer persona intricately to create an experience that aligns with buyer persona and facilitates conversion. Online marketing agency uses various data to develop a system with high efficiency.
5. Pave Your Success Path
You have a business, but you must accomplish a few objectives to operate it and make it profitable. To be successful, each of these objectives needs marketing’s assistance.
A digital marketing firm comprehends your goals and creates marketing plans that provide your desired outcomes. A marketing company might be your success partner. You must engage the right marketing company or expert to smooth the road to success.
Questions to Ask a Digital Marketing Agency
If you have decided to invest in digital marketing services, you need to interview some online marketing agencies to hire the best digital marketing firm.
Here are some interview questions that you can use to screen your prospects.
1. What’s your specialty or expertise?
Before you choose an agency, think about what kind of expertise it can provide. You must know your requirements and ensure the agency you hire has knowledge and experience in that domain.
Digital marketing, site development, design, and social media management are all areas where many firms specialize. Inquiring about their expertise can provide insight into how they operate with your company to design a plan that will assist you in meeting your objectives.
2. For how long have you been in the market?
It’s easy to get flattered by words, but it’s crucial to ensure your marketing agency can meet those words. There are many marketing firms in the market, and it’s good if you work with someone who has significant experience. No business can survive in the market for long if they aren’t delivering good services. It’s not the only thing you should consider, but the experience is valuable.
3. Which brands have you worked with?
Knowing who the agency has previously worked with might help determine if you’re in the proper spot. Check to see if the agency works with companies similar to yours, in addition to looking at the quality of work in their portfolio.
Hiring a marketing agency with relevant experience is not compulsory, but it’s a plus. You can also talk to their previous clients to get feedback. Also, ask for the case studies to see how they served others and what you can expect.
4. Who will be working on your project?
You must know who will be working on your marketing project. Sometimes, marketing firms get clients in the name of a renowned expert, but then get some freshers or less experienced people to work on your business project. So, make sure you know the guy and interact before recruiting the marketing company.
5. What’s the duration of the contract and what’s included in it?
Building a platform and driving traffic with high-quality content takes time. Many experts believe that seeing benefits from an inbound marketing effort takes 3-6 months.
It will impact how long you decide to work with a marketing firm. If you make the contract too short, you may try to cripple yourself before you see any results.
So, inquire about the agency’s standard contract term.
What should you be looking for in month one to establish that you’re on the correct road if it takes 3-6 months to see results from an inbound marketing campaign? Request a list of each month’s deliverables.
6. What’s your process?
Instead of asking how they plan to assist you in achieving your objectives, inquire about the process.
Sure, if you ask how, it’s easier for an agency to respond that they’ll assist you in developing a good marketing plan. Inquiring into the method will, on the other hand, provide additional information about the strategy’s specifics.
Consider it a red signal if an agency cannot explain its approach in-depth, including the tools necessary and the frequency of engagement with your team.
7. Have you managed a business my size?
If you’re a big company, you’ll want to ensure your next agency has the resources to handle your diverse product lines. Check to see if they have case studies of similar clients’ work. Look for testimonials and evidence that they have successfully worked with more extensive clientele.
8. What credentials do you have?
The quality of an agency is determined by its verified & authentic certifications and accreditations. For verifying a specific agency’s work, these credentials must be confirmed by a credible third party.
Let’s imagine a corporation needs an agency that understands all there is to know about Google Ads. So, ensure the agency has the credentials related to the industries you are looking for, like Google ads certification, Facebook ads certification, content marketing certifications, etc. There are even several categories to consider with some qualifications.
9. How do you report?
Almost all organizations that provide monthly internet marketing services include some reports as evidence that their techniques are effective. Walk away from a firm that does not provide reports.
It’s a different thing if their reports genuinely illustrate their position. Inquiring about their reports is an essential question for a marketing firm since it reveals how open they will be once you’ve signed a contract with them. You may also ask them to show you a sample report to get a sense of what they provide.
10. How do you communicate?
It’s a good idea to find out how they communicate with their clientele immediately. A firm that does this knows you’re not a marketer, so they rely on buzzwords and industry jargon to divert your queries. While this sector is complex, there is no benefit in making it appear even more so.
If you ask how many leads a particular channel brought in, for example, you shouldn’t get a dissertation; you should get a precise figure. You can also ask for a one-contact point to get the support anytime you need it.
11. Have you ever assisted a website in overcoming a penalty?
Hopefully, none of the agency’s customers have been penalized, but they may have received new clients seeking assistance recovering from a Google algorithm penalty.
You can also ask about the factors that can get you penalized and how they ensure those things are avoided.
12. How much will it cost?
Inquire about the cost of implementing the efforts they want you to support. Keep in mind that less expensive does not always equal better. Inquire about the expected return on investment and the contract, if one exists.
What should you expect in terms of deliverables? What if you decide not to complete the contract? A good marketing agency won’t hold you back with the contracts, just like us.
13. How long will it take to show results?
Even content deserving of the top place takes time to rise in the rankings. That is true of all facets of inbound marketing; practically nothing is instantaneous, and it should not be.
Inbound marketing necessitates a significant degree of trust from your audience. It’s the foundation of any successful marketing approach.
So, if a possible digital marketing agency boasts about its capacity to provide results in a month, you shouldn’t fall for it. Generally, it takes 6-12 months to get the first page rankings, depending on the competition and niche.
14. Have you built a new brand?
Successful branding should be demonstrated by marketing companies so that you can see what they can achieve for you. What level of expertise does the agency have in developing new brands? Can they give you instances of brands they’ve created consistently across several platforms?
15. Which marketing platforms are right for us?
The right marketing firm won’t answer immediately before knowing your target audience. They should ask for your ideal customers and the platforms they engage on. The platform you should market is where your target customers are available.
Tips to Consider While Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency
Here are some things that you should keep in mind while employing an online marketing firm.
1. Know What Do You Want
The first stage in the process is to understand your marketing challenges and why you’re seeking an agency partner. Hiring a full-fledged internal marketing staff is sometimes out of reach for small companies.
So, know your specific marketing needs to get those services only. Moreover, you can also look for marketing agencies that serve small businesses only to get affordable marketing packages for your required services.
2. Know Your Business Goals
Are you looking for help with online sales, lead acquisition, website traffic, brand awareness, or anything else? It is one of the most crucial considerations to make when you are hiring a marketing agency.
You must not only identify the company goal but also work on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will be utilized to measure performance. The more specific your objectives are, the more the agency can give results-oriented solutions.
3. Set A Budget
When deciding on the digital marketing services you want, you must consider your company’s current situation and resources.
A digital marketing agency’s pricing varies based on the sort of pricing plan they use. Hiring the cheapest one isn’t the right way. Always prioritize the value you are getting against the fee, and choose a cost-effective option.
4. Check Agency’s Online Reputation
Checking the online presence of a digital marketing firm to assist you with your business attain the proper form of branding is one of the measures to consider when picking one.
Check their web reputation by reading reviews from previous customers. They are probably trustworthy if they have primarily good reviews with some negative ones. If they get all excellent ratings, that’s also suspicious since some businesses bribe customers to provide them just positive feedback.
5. Look for Relevant Experience
Looking for an agency with experience in your business is worthwhile. They will not only be aware of your problems but their tactics and skills will also assist you in developing marketing campaigns that are tailored to your target demographic.
Because the firm has solid expertise in your business, it can help you create excellent marketing campaigns and guide you away from bad ideas.
6. Review Portfolio
It’s critical to understand their previous digital marketing campaigns or efforts. Any reputable digital marketing firm would never hesitate to brag about its accomplishments and potential clients.
You can determine whether or not this agency is suited for your task by looking at their portfolio of works. It’s not like all new agencies are bad. You can also work with a new firm, but the agency must have professionals with significant expertise, authentic client case studies, and a proven online reputation.
7. Analyze Your Competitors
Knowing your competition and their tactics to engage audiences will help you identify which marketing domains you should work on. An excellent digital marketer always asks your competitors to develop a better strategy.
8. Communication Methods
The frequency and manner of reporting by digital marketing companies vary. There should be a clear expectation of participation when choosing an agency, whether it’s daily reporting or monthly meetings. When setting deadlines, keep your time and resources in mind.
Communication is vital for successful marketing campaigns, so make sure there are convenient means for easy communication.
9. Work Projection
You must know when what will happen on your business project. An experienced digital marketing agency will be able to give guidance that will help you enhance your business from the start. Request an overview of the first 30 days to understand what your potential agency has planned. You can even ask for a work projection for up to 6 months to have a clear roadmap in your mind.
10. A Dedicated Account Manager
You must have a dedicated professional for your marketing project. You should be able to know and interact with the person who’s going to handle your project. Make sure the assigned professional has significant expertise, and you can contact him anytime for support.
Conclusion
Digital marketing is essential for all online businesses, and you must hire an online marketing agency if you can’t do marketing or afford an in-house team. This guide has all the information you need. Utilize this information and hire a result-driven digital marketing agency for you to skyrocket your business growth.