The complete guide to choosing a digital marketing company for small business
Why small business need strategic digital marketing — not just more content
Digital marketing has completely transformed the way small businesses grow in Canada.
But here’s the truth: most business owners aren’t told.
You don’t need just more posts. You need more strategy.
Small businesses survive on consistency, visibility, and trust — and digital marketing is the engine that helps build all three. Whether you're a local shop or retailer, a service provider, or a growing boutique business, your online presence is the number one factor that determines how quickly you grow.
At Actually, we help small businesses grow using a strategic mix of SEO, content marketing, website design, brand messaging, and social media. We also keep everything budget-friendly and rooted in what actually works (not trends or guesswork).
Let’s get started then.
Here’s the complete guide to choosing a digital marketing company for your small business.
1. Your website is your sales engine — not just a pretty web design
Your website isn’t ugly — it’s under-optimized.
That’s because most small business websites look fine but don't complete on-page SEO or technical SEO requirements to generate leads, to rank on Google, or appear in ChatGPT results.
A website must do these five things to convert visitors into customers:
Be mobile-friendly
Be designed for mobile, desktops too
Load fast
Be optimized for SEO
Get found for something, somehow
If your website doesn’t do these five things, it’s just a pretty web design brochure that people rarely look at.
We build sites that:
Looks great on mobile & desktops
Are optimized for Google search
Differentiate your business with strong messaging & brand voice
Have clear calls-to-action
Showcase your value immediately
Include a keyword strategy to be found & generate website traffic
Easy for you to use independently (no coding required)
A well-built website is the foundation of all digital marketing. Without an optimized website, sadly, there is nothing for Google to rank.
Our Web Design & Development Services ensure your website is built strategically → actuallywecreate.com/web-design
2. SEO is the #1 way to grow organically
Search engine optimization (SEO) is still the most powerful long-term digital marketing channel—especially for small businesses that need predictable, consistent traffic without paying for ads.
Content is king online, and SEO is the marketing tool that makes you the king (or queen) amongst your online competitors.
SEO helps you:
Rank on Google
Helps customers organically find your business
Compete with bigger brands
Get long-term visibility
Reduce reliance on paid ads
Compete with your local competitors
We optimize:
Website content
Metadata & website structure
Keywords
Google Business Profile
Local citations
Blogs & landing pages
Did you know even basic on-page SEO and technical SEO improvements can lead to immediate increases in rank and traffic? We do this for every website design we create.
All of our websites include on-page and technical SEO, connect your sitemap to Google Search Console, and set up Google Analytics. These are the final steps web design companies often overlook to officially make a small business website go live.
A strategy for local citations in SEO involves online mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP), which help verify that your business is real, legit, and located where you say it is, to directly improve your local search rankings.
Our Local SEO Services help small business websites rank and more reliably → actuallywecreate.com/web-design
3. Content is currency — but when done strategically
Every small business needs content, but not random content. Your small business needs strategic content.
The digital marketing content formula needs:
Content that matches the keywords your customers search for
Content that positions you as the expert
Content that solves customers’ real problems
Content that builds awareness and trust
We write:
SEO blog posts
Service pages
Website copy
Email newsletters
Landing pages
Product descriptions
Social media posts
Good content creates awareness. Strategic content resonates and creates revenue. We create strategic content.
Our Content Writing & Blogging Services help you publish content that actually ranks and converts → actuallywecreate.com/content-creation
4. Social media works if you stop posting randomly
Digital marketing for small business requires consistent effort using strategic methods to connect with their core audiences.
Many small businesses use social media incorrectly with:
No hooks
No brand voice
No frequency or consistency
No CTAs
No content strategy
What works?
Consistent posting
Storytelling
Brand voice
Strong visuals
Content pillars
Clear calls-to-action
Bold hooks
Knowing who your audience is
We provide:
Content calendars
Daily posts
Professional visuals
Caption writing
Engagement strategy
Reels creation
Identify core audience(s)
Performance reporting
Social media is a form of advertising. Effective advertising requires consistent, on-brand messages that showcase the services your business offers.
Social media shouldn’t be about just posting more; it should be about posting with strategy.
By using strategy that works, we help small businesses achieve their digital marketing goals.
Our Social Media Marketing Services are built specifically for small businesses → actuallywecreate.com/digital-marketing
5. Branding: the difference between memorable and forgettable
Good branding communicates value instantly.
Good branding can be bold, funny or professional. It builds trust and recognition, making your business memorable.
Regular, consistent digital marketing messaging about your brand makes you memorable—not one swipe away from forgettable.
We deliver:
Logo design
Brand colour swatches & font selections
Messaging & voice
On-brand social templates
Marketing materials
Branding is the foundation of all great marketing — and it pays when it is recognized.
Our Branding, Logo & Graphic Design Services help small businesses build cohesive identities → actuallywecreate.com/graphic-design
6. Email marketing: the most overlooked small business tool
Email marketing generates more revenue than almost any other marketing channel, and you own your email list rather than just accessing your followers' list.
Most small businesses ignore the truth about email marketing—and risk losing thousands in sales by not collecting email addresses from their social media followers.
We build:
Automated welcome sequences
Weekly newsletters
Promotional campaigns
Customer segmentation
We provide:
Content calendars
Email deployment
Professional-designed visuals
Subject title hooks
Engagement strategy
Performance reporting
Email builds loyalty, encourages repeat purchases, and nurtures customers long after they leave your website.
Plus, you own the email list, unlike social media accounts, which can miss followers in the feed. Or worse, become compromised or hacked, potentially losing it all.
Explore our Email Marketing Services → actuallywecreate.com/content-creation
7. Data, analytics & tracking — because guessing is not a strategy
Every small business knows its share of the market. But digital marketing needs to use the same key performance metric analysis strategically.
Every small business should track:
Website traffic
Lead sources
Open rates
Social engagement
Email open rates
Revenue attribution
Many don’t—or they don’t know how to analyze the metrics to provide feedback that drives performance. Which means no clarity and no growth.
Data-driven insights help us optimize budgets, improve performance, and understand your return on investment (ROI). We help you measure what matters so you can optimize digital marketing campaigns that work.
Explore our Digital Marketing Services → actuallywecreate.com/digital-marketing
The small business digital marketing formula
Here’s the exact framework we use to grow Canadian small businesses:
Website + SEO + Content + Social Media + Email + Data = Sustainable Growth
This formula works for:
Local businesses
Home-based businesses
E-commerce shops
Service-based businesses
Nonprofit organizations
Startups
We work with you throughout the digital marketing growth stages, implementing strategies that work for you when your small business is ready. We create digital marketing to get your business online and grow.
Create space for your business online with Our Services → actuallywecreate.com/our-services
Final Thoughts
Small businesses don’t need big budgets.
They need strategy, consistency, and content that works, informed by core audience analysis and a data-driven approach.
We create a strategy that works for you, not promises of a strategy that will work.
Our pricing is transparent with honest, no-ifs-ands-or-buts estimated rates. Zero empty maintenance fees or retainers, flat rate estimates that are honestly transparent.
If you are ready to grow your business online, learn about our digital marketing methods → actuallywecreate.com/about
We’re here to help you create space online with digital marketing — one strategic step at a time.