Smarter Loans Inc. is not a lender. Smarter.loans is an independent comparison website that provides information on lending and financial companies in Canada. We work hard to give you the information you need to make smarter decisions about a financial company or product that you might be considering. We may receive compensation from companies that we work with for placement of their products or services on our site. While compensation arrangements may affect the order, position or placement of products & companies listed on our website, it does not influence our evaluation of those products. Please do not interpret the order in which products appear on Smarter Loans as an endorsement or recommendation from us. Our website does not feature every loan provider or financial product available in Canada. We try our best to bring you up-to-date, educational information to help you decide the best solution for your individual situation. The information and tools that we provide are free to you and should merely be used as guidance. You should always review the terms, fees, and conditions for any loan or financial product that you are considering.
We’re all bombarded by marketing campaigns all of the time, but only the good ones stand out to us. A challenge for businesses, both large and small, is how to make marketing effective while remaining affordable. Luckily, there are a multitude of both online and offline marketing tools and services that help businesses and entrepreneurs make a big impact, without the cost of hiring a team of PR experts.
Below is a list of some of the most popular marketing companies currently helping Canadians with accessible tools and services to further their business; click on any of their names to discover more about them. And to learn everything you need to know about using these tools, keep reading!
Marketing tools and services are broadly defined as professional resources that market or advertise a business, person or service. They can also be used to assist in product development. Digitally, these services rely on promoting businesses through search engines, social media and paid channels.
There are many different facets to marketing services, including:
Many of the companies and tools that exist in this sector offer a range of services, allowing businesses a one-stop-shop for all of their marketing needs, while others specialize in just one niche - for example, email marketing.
As you might expect, the cost of such services ranges; some providers offer basic functionality for free, and require subscription to a paid plan for more advanced assistance. Some offer free trial periods before you are compelled to pay for continued use, and others require paid membership upfront. On average, small to mid-sized businesses can expect to spend anywhere between 2% and 10% of their revenue on marketing.
As the vast majority of marketing these days occurs online, using a digital marketing service is an extremely cost-effective and efficient way to approach marketing. And almost all of the providers in this sector rely on a digital presence for the business or person seeking exposure. So if you don’t have a social media presence, website or other digital footprint, it will be necessary to create them - or get the marketing service you are working with to do so for you.
Almost any business or venture that relies on interaction with others can benefit from marketing. After all, what’s a business without customers? The exact type of marketing tool used varies depending on a company’s needs, target audience and budget, so it’s important to understand what you’re hoping to achieve with your marketing before investing in any route. An established mid-sized business, for example, will have different needs than a small, individual venture, which is different again from a personality looking to expand their brand.
Although online marketing services have become very popular, there are some disadvantages to their use, which should be weighed against their benefits.
Advantages include:
Disadvantages include:
With so many options and so much functionality, it’s crucial to know what you’re looking for before deploying any form of marketing. Choosing the right tool starts by asking yourself the following:
Your goals must be identifiable, specific and measurable for you to ensure a successful, targeted and cost-effective use of any marketing tool.
There are any number of providers in the marketing industry, both online and off, but here are some that you may want to investigate as you get your marketing off the ground:
Provider |
Main Utility | Costs |
---|---|---|
Mailchimp | All-in-one marketing platform | Basic use - free Essentials - $9.99+/month Standard - $14.99+/month Premium - $299+/month |
InfusionSoft | Email marketing and automated marketing campaigns |
Initiation fee - $2000 Subscription fees - $199-$599/month |
Buzzsumo | Content marketing | Basic use - free Pro - $99/month Agency - $299/month Enterprise - $999/month |
Canva | Graphic design and digital content | Basic use - free Canva for Work - $12.95/month |
Ahrefs | SEO | $79-$2500/month |
Buffer | Social media marketing and content automation |
Basic use - free Paid plans - $10-$250/month |
Optimizely | Customer experience optimization | $50,000+/year |
SEMrush | SEO | Basic use - free Pro - $99.95/month Guru - $199.95/month |
Unbounce | Landing page design and conversion | Launch - $80/month Optimize - $120/month Accelerate - $200/month Scale - $300/month |
Lumen5 | Video content creation | Basic use - free Starter - $29/month Premium - $79/month Business - 199/month |
Marketing tools are professional resources that market or advertise a business, person or service. Digitally, these tools rely on promoting businesses through search engines, social media and paid channels.
Marketing tools can be used for a wide range of purposes, including search engine optimization, email marketing, social media marketing, video marketing, customer research, marketing automation, website design, paid advertising, and much more.
It’s not a strict requirement to have a website in order to run an online marketing campaign, but it’s pretty important! A website gives your customers somewhere to go, to view your products or business, purchase items or otherwise engage with you. If you don’t have a website and are utilizing digital marketing, you should definitely have some other form of online presence - for example on social media.
Marketing can cost almost as little or as much as you like, depending on your needs, your company’s size, and what you’re hoping to achieve. Many online marketing tools have free options that provide some basic functionality to get you started, but advanced features and more targeted help usually only comes with paid services. These can range from a few dollars a month to thousands.
You don’t have to be a technical whiz to use many of the online marketing tools now available; more advanced users, or those wishing to perform complex tasks, might need some technical know-how (or familiarity with a specific platform) to get full use of all available functions, but many tools are deliberately made easy-to-use and intuitive, so even novices can deploy them.
The success of a marketing campaign depends on its aims and goals, and how much money and time was spent on it. Each person’s measure of success will depend on their expected outcome for the resources they input.
Traditionally, email marketing and search engine optimization are the two most cost-effective forms of marketing, with the highest ROI.