Will you run our ads or social media?

Not as part of this service. The strategy is written so that your staff, a freelancer or an agency can carry it out. If you'd like the execution handled by a specialist, we can point you to one and help you brief them.

How much should a small business spend on marketing?

There is no single right percentage. We work backwards from what a new customer is worth to you over a year and what you can afford to pay to win one, then check that against your cash flow. The guide on budgets on this site shows the method.

We already have an agency. Is this still useful?

Often more useful. An independent plan gives you a standard to measure the agency against, and many owners find it easier to have a frank conversation with a supplier once the targets are written down.

Do you plan for customers who speak languages other than English?

Yes, where your customer base calls for it. Coquitlam has large Mandarin-, Korean-, Cantonese- and Persian-speaking communities, and the plan says whether, where and how to reach them, including when translated material should be checked by a fluent speaker.

Marketing Strategy and Budget for Coquitlam Owners

A marketing strategy is a short written decision about who you want as customers, how you'll reach them and how much you'll spend doing it. For most Coquitlam businesses it fits on a few pages. The value is not in the length; it's in having the trade-offs made once, on purpose, instead of every time a sales rep calls.

What it is

The strategy answers five questions in order:

Who are your most profitable customers? Not the most common ones, the ones who are worth the most to you after costs, and who come back.
Where are they? Which parts of Coquitlam and the neighbouring cities, what kind of homes or businesses, and what they search for when they need you.
What should they hear? The two or three reasons a customer should pick you, stated in their words rather than yours.
Which channels deserve money? Usually two to four, chosen for fit rather than fashion: search, Google Business Profile, referrals, community sponsorship, direct mail, partnerships or social.
What's the budget, and how will you know it worked? A monthly figure tied to your margins and a small scorecard.

Who it's for

It's for owner-run businesses that are already marketing in some form but aren't confident it adds up. Common situations:

You pay for several things (a website retainer, a directory listing, some social posts, a few ads) and can't say which ones produce customers.
Your customer base has shifted, for example as new towers fill near the Evergreen stations or new families move into the northeast, and your message hasn't.
You serve a multilingual area and suspect you're invisible to part of it.
You're about to hire an agency and want to know what to ask for.

What's included

Customer value review. Using your sales records, we work out what an average customer is worth over 12 months and which customer types are most profitable.
Market and competitor scan. What a customer in your part of the city sees when they search for what you sell, and who else they find.
Channel plan. Which channels to fund, which to pause, and which to test with a small, time-limited budget.
Budget model. A monthly figure, broken down by channel, with a ceiling on what you'll pay to win a customer.
Message guide. A one-page summary of what to say, to whom, and what to avoid saying.
Scorecard. Four to six numbers to update monthly, with a target for each.
Handover call. We brief you, and if you like your staff or supplier, on how to carry it out.

Timeline

Most strategies take four to five weeks:

Week 1: sales data, current marketing spend and access to whatever reports you already have.
Weeks 2–3: analysis, competitor scan and channel modelling.
Week 4: draft plan and budget.
Week 5: handover and questions.

How results are measured

We agree the measures before the plan is written, so nobody can move the goalposts later. Typical ones:

Cost to win a customer, by channel, compared with the ceiling in the plan.
New customers per month from the channels you fund.
Share of enquiries that become paying customers, which tells you whether the problem is marketing or follow-up.
Repeat or referral rate, because a customer who comes back costs far less than a new one.

We can't promise a particular number of customers, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What the plan does is make the results visible quickly, so a channel that doesn't work gets cut in weeks rather than years.

Mistakes to avoid

Choosing channels before customers. "We should be on TikTok" is a tactic looking for a reason. Start with who you want, then find where they are.
Measuring clicks and likes. They are easy to count and hard to bank. Measure enquiries and paying customers.
Translating without checking. In a city where many households speak Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese or Persian at home, according to the City's demographic figures, machine-translated ads can do more harm than none. Have a fluent speaker review anything you publish.
Spreading the budget too thin. Five channels at $300 a month each rarely beat one or two funded properly.
Pushing marketing harder when operations can't cope. If enquiries already wait days for a reply, start with operations advice.

For a worked budget example, read our marketing budget guide. If you'd rather have the plan carried out by a hands-on local team, CoquitlamMarketing.ca runs local SEO and ad campaigns, and we're happy to brief whoever you choose. See pricing for project ranges, then call, text or email to start.

Marketing strategy and budget planning for Coquitlam businesses