<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Marketing Starts Here - Maggie]]></title><description><![CDATA[Your business has grown, but your marketing hasn't. Marketing plans for small business owners — website, social media, email, branding — pulled into one plan instead of five different things pulling in five different directions.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z97V!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1a578446-a772-4637-bba0-d7d184f28ea8_1254x1254.png</url><title>Marketing Starts Here - Maggie</title><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2026 02:06:16 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[marketingstartshere@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[marketingstartshere@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[marketingstartshere@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[marketingstartshere@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[How to Promote Your Small Business Holiday Event Without Posting Every Day]]></title><description><![CDATA[A simple two-week plan to get the word out about your sale, store open house or special event.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/promote-small-business-holiday-event</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/promote-small-business-holiday-event</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 03 Nov 2026 14:04:27 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!rKU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1711fcb-16b9-4c20-b994-493d8938b444_2548x1428.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you&#8217;re planning a holiday sale, store open house or special event, you&#8217;ve probably got a pretty good idea of what needs to happen before the big day.</p><p>There&#8217;s merchandise to order, displays to arrange and staff schedules to organize.</p><p>But how are you going to let people know about it?</p><p>Facebook and Instagram may be the first places you turn, and it&#8217;s tempting to think more posts will automatically mean more people hear about it.</p><p>You don&#8217;t have to post every day. I&#8217;d rather see a business prepare a few useful messages ahead of time and share them where customers are most likely to see them.</p><h4><strong>Start with what people need to know</strong></h4><p>Before creating any promotional materials, get the details of your event together.</p><p>Make sure you can answer these questions:</p><ul><li><p>What&#8217;s happening?</p></li><li><p>When is it happening?</p></li><li><p>Where is it happening?</p></li><li><p>What can people expect?</p></li><li><p>Why would someone want to attend?</p></li></ul><p>Spend a little more time on that last question.</p><p>Let&#8217;s say you&#8217;re holding a holiday open house at your retail store.</p><p>Of course, customers need the date, time and location. But those details alone don&#8217;t tell them much about why they should come.</p><p>Have you brought in new holiday merchandise? Are there gift ideas they might not find anywhere else? Will you have special pricing, refreshments or an opportunity to enjoy some holiday shopping downtown?</p><p>Think about what makes your event worth attending and include those details in your promotion.</p><p>These details will give you something to work with when you prepare your Facebook Event, social media posts and emails.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><h4><strong>Think beyond Facebook and Instagram</strong></h4><p>Social media is useful, but I wouldn&#8217;t rely on it alone. On Facebook, there&#8217;s also a difference between creating an Event and publishing a regular post.</p><p><strong>Create a Facebook Event.</strong> This gives your event its own page where people can find the date, time, location and other details. They can indicate they&#8217;re interested or going, share it with friends and return to the page for updates.</p><p><strong>Publish regular Facebook posts.</strong> These appear on your business Page. Use them to announce the event, show products, share special offers and remind people as the date approaches. Share your Facebook Event in a regular post so customers can find the details.</p><p>Local Facebook groups are worth considering, too. Check which groups allow businesses to share events and whether you can post as your business Page. Share your Facebook Event or an announcement in the groups that are relevant to your community.</p><p>On Instagram, consider posts, photos, videos, Stories or Reels.</p><p>But what about the customers who don&#8217;t follow you on social media, or who might miss your posts?</p><p>Other ways to reach them include:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Email:</strong> Send an invitation to your subscribers, followed by a reminder closer to the event. Your email list includes people who have already shown an interest in your business.</p></li><li><p><strong>In-store promotion:</strong> Put up a sign near your entrance or checkout. Mention the event when you&#8217;re talking to customers.</p></li><li><p><strong>Community calendars:</strong> Look for local online calendars and community event listings where you can submit your information.</p></li><li><p><strong>Other local businesses:</strong> If you&#8217;re part of a downtown shopping event or working with neighbouring businesses, help promote one another.</p></li></ul><p>Choose the channels your customers actually pay attention to.</p><h4><strong>Get your promotional content ready before you start</strong></h4><p>Prepare as much promotional content as you can before you announce the event.</p><p>Once you&#8217;ve chosen where to promote it, make a list. You might need:</p><ul><li><p>A Facebook Event with all the details.</p></li><li><p>A few regular Facebook or Instagram posts.</p></li><li><p>Photos of products, displays or special offers.</p></li><li><p>An email invitation and reminder.</p></li><li><p>A poster or sign for your store.</p></li><li><p>Event information for community calendars and local Facebook groups.</p></li></ul><p>Write your captions, choose your photos, create your graphics and prepare your emails before your two-week promotional schedule begins.</p><p>Schedule your social media posts in advance, too, so they go out on the days you&#8217;ve chosen.</p><p>Leave room for a photo of a new arrival or a last-minute update. With the main content ready, you won&#8217;t be trying to write posts while preparing for the event.</p><h4><strong>Here&#8217;s a simple two-week promotional plan</strong></h4><p>Let&#8217;s use a holiday store open house as an example.</p><p>Your event is two weeks away and most of your content is ready. Here&#8217;s how I&#8217;d organize the promotion. You can adjust the activities based on where your customers are most likely to hear about the event.</p><p><strong>Two weeks before: Make the announcement</strong></p><p>On Facebook, create and publish your Facebook Event with the event name, date, time, location and details.</p><p>Then publish a regular post on your business Page announcing the event, with a link to the Facebook Event.</p><p>Share it in relevant local Facebook groups that allow event promotions.</p><p>If you&#8217;re using Instagram, publish an announcement post or Story.</p><p>Send your first email invitation, put up your in-store signs and submit the event information to local community calendars.</p><p><strong>One week before: Give people something to look forward to</strong></p><p>Your first announcement has covered the basic information. Now tell customers a little more about what they&#8217;ll find.</p><p>For your next Facebook or Instagram post, choose something specific about the event.</p><p>Maybe you&#8217;ve brought in new holiday merchandise, you&#8217;re planning some special offers or you&#8217;ll have refreshments and activities for children.</p><p>Show people what you&#8217;re talking about. A photo of a new product or a short video of your holiday displays gives them a better idea of what to expect.</p><p>Add any new details to your Facebook Event page as well.</p><p><strong>Three or four days before: Send a reminder</strong></p><p>By now, some people may have seen your announcement but forgotten the date. Others may be interested but haven&#8217;t made plans yet.</p><p>Publish another Facebook or Instagram post. You could feature something you haven&#8217;t shown before or remind people about a particular offer or activity.</p><p>Send a short reminder to your email subscribers with the event details.</p><p>Share your Facebook Event again if you&#8217;ve added something new.</p><p><strong>The day before: Keep it simple</strong></p><p>A short Facebook or Instagram post with the date, time and location is usually enough.</p><p>Add a final update to your Facebook Event page if needed. If you&#8217;ve scheduled your reminder, it&#8217;s already taken care of.</p><p><strong>On the day: One final reminder</strong></p><p>If you&#8217;re going to post on the day of the event, make it something current.</p><p>Take a photo of your decorated store, a display you&#8217;ve just finished or the final preparations.</p><p>Share it on Facebook or Instagram with a reminder that your event is happening today.</p><p>Then you can turn your attention to the customers coming through the door.</p><h4><strong>You don&#8217;t have to keep saying the same thing</strong></h4><p>When I&#8217;m planning event promotions, I look at what each message tells customers.</p><p>It&#8217;s easy to announce an event and then follow it with several posts that all say some version of &#8220;Don&#8217;t forget!&#8221;</p><p>Reminders matter because people won&#8217;t see every post. But there&#8217;s more to talk about than the date and time.</p><p>For a holiday shopping event, your posts might:</p><ul><li><p>Announce the event and explain what&#8217;s happening.</p></li><li><p>Show a few products that would make great gifts.</p></li><li><p>Share details about special offers or activities.</p></li><li><p>Highlight another participating business.</p></li><li><p>Remind people of the date, time and location.</p></li></ul><p>Each post has a different purpose, and all of them can be planned ahead of time.</p><h4><strong>Make the plan work for your business</strong></h4><p>Two weeks is a starting point. A large community event may need longer, while a small sale for regular customers might need only a few days. The number of posts and emails will vary, too.</p><p>If customers regularly tell you they&#8217;ve seen your Facebook posts, keep using Facebook. If your email subscribers respond well to your newsletters, make sure you&#8217;re including them in your promotion.</p><p>Pay attention to how customers hear about your business. Don&#8217;t add promotional tasks that aren&#8217;t likely to reach them.</p><p>With your information and content prepared, you can follow the schedule while concentrating on the event itself.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong><span data-color="#3c78d8" style="color: rgb(60, 120, 216);">Planning a holiday promotion and want to talk through your ideas?</span></strong></p><p>My <strong><a href="https://calendly.com/mawhitcroft/marketing-brainstorm-session">Marketing Brainstorm Session</a></strong> is a 60-minute conversation where we can discuss your plans, work through your marketing questions and figure out your next steps.</p><p>Send me a message if you&#8217;d like to book a session or book below.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://calendly.com/mawhitcroft/marketing-brainstorm-session&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Book Your Marketing Brainstorm Session&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://calendly.com/mawhitcroft/marketing-brainstorm-session"><span>Book Your Marketing Brainstorm Session</span></a></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!rKU-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1711fcb-16b9-4c20-b994-493d8938b444_2548x1428.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!rKU-!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1711fcb-16b9-4c20-b994-493d8938b444_2548x1428.png 424w, 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class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Facebook's New 2-Link Limit: What Small Businesses Need to Know]]></title><description><![CDATA[What's happening, what it could mean for your business, and a few things you can do to prepare.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/facebooks-new-2-link-limit-what-small</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/facebooks-new-2-link-limit-what-small</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:21:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Facebook could be making it harder for small businesses to send customers to their websites, online stores and booking pages.</p><p>And if you regularly share links on your Facebook business Page, you&#8217;ll want to know what&#8217;s happening.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has been testing a restriction that limits some business Pages to two posts or comments containing external links per month.</p><p><em>Yes, that&#8217;s two links per month!</em></p><p>That means links to your website, online store, booking page or event registration could count toward that limit.</p><p>And putting a link in the comments instead of your original post won&#8217;t necessarily get around it. Those links can count too.</p><h4><strong>What&#8217;s Meta One?</strong></h4><p>Meta One is a new paid subscription service offering additional features for Facebook, Instagram and other Meta platforms.</p><p>The Meta One Essential business plan starts at $14.99 USD per month and still only allows two external link posts or comments per month. Higher-priced plans offer additional links, with the most expensive starting at $499 USD per month for unlimited external links.</p><p>Prices and availability may vary in Canada.</p><h4><strong>Is this happening in Canada?</strong></h4><p>As of October 2026, I haven&#8217;t found any confirmed reports of Canadian businesses experiencing Facebook&#8217;s new two-link restriction, and Meta hasn&#8217;t announced a specific rollout date for Canada.</p><p>I haven&#8217;t encountered the restriction on any of the Facebook business Pages I manage here in Ontario either.</p><p>However, that doesn&#8217;t rule out the possibility that some Canadian businesses are already being affected. Meta is introducing the restriction gradually, and not every business Page is included.</p><p>If you&#8217;re a Canadian business owner and you&#8217;ve encountered this restriction, please send me a message. I&#8217;d really like to know what you&#8217;re experiencing.</p><h4><strong>What could this mean for your business?</strong></h4><p>If you regularly include website links in your Facebook posts, this could affect how you promote your business.</p><p>For example, you might share links to new products in your online store, encourage customers to book appointments or promote upcoming events.</p><p><em>The restriction doesn&#8217;t mean you can only publish two Facebook posts a month.</em></p><p>You can still post photos, videos, business updates, product information and other content. It&#8217;s the external links that are being limited for affected Pages.</p><h4><strong>A few things you can do to prepare</strong></h4><p><strong>1. Make better use of the links already on your Facebook Page.</strong></p><p>Check your website link, contact information and action button to make sure everything is accurate and working properly.</p><p>You could also consider a service like Linktree, which allows you to create one page containing links to several destinations, such as your website, online store, booking page and newsletter. You can then add that link to your Facebook Page&#8217;s website information.</p><p>Another option is to pin an important post containing a link to the Featured section of your Facebook Page. Keep in mind that publishing a new post with an external link may count toward your monthly allowance if the restriction applies to your Page.</p><p><strong>2. Give customers other ways to respond to your posts.</strong></p><p>Instead of always directing people to your website, encourage them to send you a Facebook message, ask a question in the comments or contact your business directly.</p><p>For example, if you&#8217;re promoting a new product, you could invite customers to message you about availability or pricing rather than relying entirely on a clickable link.</p><p>This can also create opportunities for conversations with customers who may have questions before they&#8217;re ready to make a purchase.</p><p><strong>3. Plan which Facebook posts really need an external link.</strong></p><p>If your Page becomes subject to the restriction, think about which two link posts would be most useful to your business each month.</p><p>Maybe it&#8217;s an event registration, a seasonal promotion or a new product launch.</p><p>You can continue sharing regular content without external links and save your two monthly link posts for the promotions or announcements that need them most.</p><p>And if you have an email list, keep using it. Email gives you another way to share website links, promotions and business updates directly with your subscribers without depending on Facebook&#8217;s posting restrictions.</p><h4><strong>What if you receive a notification about the restriction?</strong></h4><p>Check what Facebook is telling you and whether your Page has reached its monthly link allowance.</p><p>You don&#8217;t necessarily need to purchase a subscription. Review your options first and decide whether you can continue promoting your business without paying for additional links.</p><p>I&#8217;ll be keeping an eye on how this develops, particularly here in Canada, and will share more information if we start seeing the restriction affecting local businesses.</p><h4><strong><span data-color="#3d85c6" style="color: rgb(61, 133, 198);">Need a hand figuring this out?</span></strong></h4><p>If this restriction shows up on your Facebook Page and you&#8217;re not sure what to do, or you need help setting up something like Linktree, send me a message.</p><p>I&#8217;m happy to help you figure out your options.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png" width="1456" height="816" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:816,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2808206,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/i/221526008?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PW7K!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cc13567-b39f-4dcd-8ffc-3061f77427fa_2548x1428.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How Do You Know if Your Marketing Is Working?]]></title><description><![CDATA[A simpler way to know what to pay attention to]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/how-do-you-know-if-your-marketing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/how-do-you-know-if-your-marketing</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:02:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Many small business owners and entrepreneurs feel like their marketing isn&#8217;t working. I get it. I get bogged down looking at the numbers and data too, and sometimes I think, it&#8217;s not working. But let&#8217;s slow down, make this easy and simple, and think about it in a more grounded way.</p><p>Only 18% of small businesses said they felt very confident in the effectiveness of their marketing, according to Constant Contact&#8217;s 2025 Small Business Now report.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>There is so much we can measure now.</p><p>Likes. Followers. Reach. Clicks. Email opens. Website visits. Impressions.</p><p>Some of those numbers are helpful, but they don&#8217;t always tell you whether the marketing did what you wanted it to do.</p><p>A social media post might get a lot of likes and still not lead to a sale, an inquiry or someone visiting your website.</p><p>An email might have a good open rate, but if you sent it because you wanted people to register for something and nobody clicked the link, the open rate isn&#8217;t really what you need to be looking at.</p><p>So before you put a piece of marketing out there, ask yourself:</p><p><strong>What do I want this to do?</strong></p><p>If you&#8217;re promoting a product, maybe you want sales.</p><p>If you&#8217;re promoting an event, maybe you want registrations or people through the door.</p><p>If you&#8217;re sending an email, maybe you want people to click through to your website.</p><p>If you want more inquiries, maybe you want people to call, email or send you a message.</p><p>Give that piece of marketing a clear goal before you put it out there, and make sure the call to action lines up with it.</p><p>If you want people to register, tell them where to register. If you want them to buy, make it clear where they can buy. If you want them to contact you, tell them how.</p><p>Then when you go back later to see how it did, you already know what you&#8217;re looking for.</p><p>The other numbers can still tell you something, but you don&#8217;t have to pay attention to all of them every time.</p><p>And if you didn&#8217;t get the result you wanted, look at why. Was the message clear? Was the offer clear? Did you promote it in the right place and give people enough time? Was it obvious what you wanted them to do next?</p><p>The next time you&#8217;re about to post something, send an email or run a promotion, take a minute first and decide what you want it to do.</p><p>That one step will make it much easier to know what to pay attention to afterward, and whether your marketing is actually doing what you need it to do.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png" width="1456" height="816" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:816,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:5951145,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/i/221032981?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ASP_!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552b9ca2-ef01-412e-9f14-82bc82eb53d9_2912x1632.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why the Human Side of Marketing Matters]]></title><description><![CDATA[Using AI without losing the personal connection with your customers]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/why-the-human-side-of-marketing-matters</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/why-the-human-side-of-marketing-matters</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2026 22:46:25 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>One thing I always like about small businesses is that customers can actually get to know the people behind them. I think that&#8217;s something special, and something we have to be careful not to lose as more of us start using AI to help with our marketing.</p><p>And I understand why we&#8217;re using it. Creating content can be challenging and time-consuming, especially when marketing is only one of the many things you have to get done. It&#8217;s not always easy to know what to say or how to say it, and AI can make that easier. It can help you organize an idea, work through the wording or create an image quickly when you don&#8217;t have a lot of time.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>But the content still needs to sound and feel like it came from your business and from you.</p><p>Sometimes I see social media posts that are polished and well written, but they don&#8217;t really sound like the person behind the business. The same thing can happen with images. They might look good, but they don&#8217;t always look much like the actual product, the business or what customers would recognize.</p><p><strong>Bring yourself to AI.</strong></p><p>You still have to bring your own ideas to it and be intentional about what you want to say. AI can help with the wording, but your experience and understanding of your customers still have to come from you.</p><p>There are real people behind every small business, and real people on the other side of the marketing too.</p><p>When I talk about the human side of marketing, I&#8217;m not talking about making everything personal. I mean knowing who your customer is, understanding what they need from your business and communicating in a way that sounds like you.</p><p>For a small business, that matters because the people you&#8217;re marketing to are often the same people you see in your store, talk to on the phone or meet at an appointment. They may already know you. What they see in your marketing should still feel connected to the business they actually deal with.</p><p>And customers seem to be noticing this too.</p><p>A 2026 Gartner survey of U.S. consumers found that 50% said they would prefer to give their business to brands that do not use generative AI in consumer-facing messages, advertising and content.</p><p>Here in Canada, an Ipsos survey found that 45% of Canadians said they would trust companies and brands less if they used AI in advertising images or video.</p><p>I don&#8217;t think those numbers mean small businesses should stop using AI. But they are a good reminder that how we use it matters, especially when trust and personal connection are already such a big part of small business.</p><p>That&#8217;s also one of the reasons I developed my Human Marketing Connection Method. I want small businesses to be able to use tools that make marketing easier without losing their own voice in the process.</p><p>If you&#8217;re using AI to help create content, start with your own idea. Give it the context it needs about your business and your customers, and use it to help you work through the wording.</p><p>AI and the other tools we use for creating content are going to keep changing, and I&#8217;m sure we&#8217;ll keep finding new ways to use them. I think that&#8217;s a good thing. But none of those tools knows your business or your customers the way you do. They don&#8217;t have your experience or the relationships you&#8217;ve built with the people you serve.</p><p>That&#8217;s the part I don&#8217;t want small businesses to lose</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png" width="1456" height="816" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:816,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:5342094,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/i/220445601?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oPto!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8129a756-8084-4939-86b4-2a1cb93bb30c_2912x1632.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Should I Actually Be Focusing On With My Marketing?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Three questions to help you decide what matters most right now.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/what-should-i-actually-be-focusing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/what-should-i-actually-be-focusing</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 13:04:18 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There is always something else you could be doing with your marketing.</p><p>Post more often on Facebook or Instagram.<br>Start sending emails.<br>Update your website.<br>Create a Facebook ad.<br>Make a Reel.<br>Update your Google Business Profile.<br>Plan a promotion.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>And if you spend enough time online, you can find someone telling you that all of those things are important.</p><p>That&#8217;s where it can get overwhelming.</p><p>Especially when you&#8217;re also running the business, looking after customers, answering emails, paying bills and dealing with everything else that needs to get done.</p><p>So instead of asking:</p><p><strong>What should I be doing with my marketing?</strong></p><p>Try asking:</p><p><strong>What does my business need from my marketing right now?</strong></p><p>Maybe you need more people coming into your store.</p><p>Maybe you have an event coming up and need people to register or attend.</p><p>Maybe you&#8217;ve added a new service and your customers don&#8217;t know about it yet.</p><p>Maybe you have a customer email list, but you haven&#8217;t used it in months.</p><p>Once you know what you&#8217;re trying to accomplish, it becomes easier to decide where to put your time.</p><p>If you need registrations for an event, spending hours trying to grow your Instagram following may not be the priority.</p><p>If customers keep asking the same question about what you sell, what something costs or how to book, that information may need to be clearer on your website or social media.</p><p>If people are already finding you through referrals, that may be worth paying more attention to instead of adding another marketing channel.</p><p>You also don&#8217;t always need to add something new.</p><p>If customers regularly mention that they saw your posts on Facebook, keep using Facebook.</p><p>If people are opening your emails and clicking through to your website, that&#8217;s a sign email is worth continuing.</p><p>If referrals are bringing in good customers, think about how you can make it easier for happy customers to recommend you.</p><p>Before adding another marketing task, look at what is already getting a response.</p><p>And look at the time you actually have.</p><p>If you realistically have two hours a week for your own marketing, build your plan around two hours.</p><p>You don&#8217;t need to be on every social media platform, send an email every week, run ads and constantly create new content.</p><p>You need to decide which things are most useful for what your business is trying to do right now.</p><p>A simple way to sort it out is to ask:</p><p><strong>1. What am I trying to accomplish?<br></strong>More store visits? More bookings? More registrations? More sales of a particular product?</p><p><strong>2. Which marketing activity is most likely to help with that?<br></strong>Social media? Email? Your website? Google? Advertising? A promotion?</p><p><strong>3. What can I realistically keep up with?<br></strong>Choose something you actually have the time to do consistently.</p><p>Those three questions can make the marketing list a lot shorter.</p><p>Sometimes you don&#8217;t need another marketing idea.</p><p>You need to decide which of the ideas already in front of you is actually worth your time right now</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png" width="728" height="485.3333333333333" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:false,&quot;imageSize&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;height&quot;:1024,&quot;width&quot;:1536,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:728,&quot;bytes&quot;:2976633,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Small business workspace with a laptop, coffee mug, sticky notes, receipts and a desk calendar with a few handwritten business tasks.&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/i/218838705?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe61b4f5b-ef34-4734-b405-0fa97133ae10_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;center&quot;,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Small business workspace with a laptop, coffee mug, sticky notes, receipts and a desk calendar with a few handwritten business tasks." title="Small business workspace with a laptop, coffee mug, sticky notes, receipts and a desk calendar with a few handwritten business tasks." srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hz94!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c02b772-bdde-445a-9011-602ef4177221_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Two Words Changed How I Felt About a Local Business]]></title><description><![CDATA[A simple way to see your business through someone else's eyes.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/two-words-changed-how-i-felt-about</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/two-words-changed-how-i-felt-about</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:29:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A few years ago, I walked into a local store as a volunteer with a community organization. I wasn&#8217;t there to shop that day. I asked the owner if we could leave some flyers for something we had coming up.</p><p>As I started to explain why I was there, she looked at me and said, &#8220;Bye-bye.&#8221;</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>I was shocked. I honestly didn&#8217;t know what to say other than, &#8220;Oh, okay.&#8221; And I left feeling very different about that business than I had when I walked in.</p><p>I wasn&#8217;t a customer that day. But I live in this community, and I could have been one many times after that.</p><p>And a few years later, I still remember it.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png" width="1456" height="816" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:816,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:8116078,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/i/217722943?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FjNd!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4bfcfd51-4dd5-4390-b66a-1057f2d91c06_2912x1632.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h4><strong>Business owners see the pieces. Customers see the business.</strong></h4><p>When you&#8217;re working inside your own business, it&#8217;s easy to separate everything out.</p><p>There&#8217;s the website, social media, email, signage, promotions and events. Then there&#8217;s what happens in the store, how you answer a message, and how you talk to someone who comes in.</p><p>To you, those can feel like completely different things, because you&#8217;re usually working on them at different times and for different reasons.</p><p>But that&#8217;s not how someone on the outside experiences your business.</p><p>Not everyone who walks through your door is there to buy something that day. But they&#8217;ll still leave with an impression.</p><p>The same goes for every other part of your marketing. Someone might see something you posted on Facebook and then go to your website. They might get an email from you and later come into your store. They don&#8217;t separate those things the way you do.</p><p>To them, it&#8217;s all your business, and all of it contributes to the experience they&#8217;re having with you.</p><p>And when someone has a really good experience, they remember that too. They might come back, tell a friend about you, or be the one who mentions you when someone in a local Facebook group asks where they should go.</p><p>When we&#8217;re this close to our own business, it can be hard to see what someone else is seeing.</p><p>Looking at your marketing from the customer&#8217;s side is a big part of how I work. It&#8217;s part of what I call my Human Marketing Connection Method.</p><p>Try looking at your business the way someone new would.</p><p>Start with your Facebook page, then go to your website. Can you find what you&#8217;re looking for? Does it feel like the same business?</p><p>Then look back at the last few messages you answered. Think about how your reply might feel to someone who doesn&#8217;t know you yet. And think about the last few people who came through your door. What kind of impression did they leave with?</p><p>All of those things shape how someone feels about your business. If something feels a little off along the way, that&#8217;s where I&#8217;d start.</p><p>When you&#8217;re running a business, it&#8217;s easy to get caught up in everything that needs to be done. But every so often, it&#8217;s worth stepping outside of it for a minute and asking:</p><p><strong>What kind of experience are we creating for everyone who finds us, whether that&#8217;s online or through our door?</strong></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/two-words-changed-how-i-felt-about?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/two-words-changed-how-i-felt-about?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Posting on Social Media Isn’t a Marketing Plan]]></title><description><![CDATA[The bigger picture of small business marketing]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/posting-on-social-media-isnt-a-marketing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/posting-on-social-media-isnt-a-marketing</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2026 13:04:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Somewhere along the way, social media became marketing. Or at least that&#8217;s how it can feel when you&#8217;re running a small business.</p><p>You haven&#8217;t posted on Facebook in a few days, Instagram has been quiet and you keep hearing that you should be doing more video or making Reels. So you sit down, try to come up with something to post and, a few days later, you&#8217;re doing it all over again.</p><p>I see this a lot. So much time goes into trying to keep social media going that, after a while, it starts to feel like that is the marketing plan. But it&#8217;s really only one part of it.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>Your website, email list and Google Business Profile are all part of your marketing. So are your signs, printed materials, promotions, events, community involvement and what happens when someone actually does business with you. All of that contributes to an amazing customer experience.</p><p>A promotion might show up on social media, your website, in an email or on a sign in the store. The point is that those pieces are working together, not separately.</p><p>That&#8217;s where having a marketing plan matters. It helps you see what needs your attention and how the different pieces fit together.</p><p>There&#8217;s another thing I&#8217;ve noticed too, especially now that there are so many tools making it easier to create content.</p><p>I use them too, and they can be helpful, but I think we still need to pay attention to whether what we&#8217;re putting out there actually sounds and feels like our business.</p><p>You know your business and your customers. You know the conversations you have with them, the questions they ask and what matters to them. All of that is part of your brand, and people should be able to feel that in your marketing.</p><p>I&#8217;ve seen a lot of content lately where you could change the business name or swap out the logo and it could belong to almost anyone. Staying on brand is more than using the right colours, fonts and logo. It also needs to sound and feel like your business.</p><p>That doesn&#8217;t mean adding more things to your marketing. A plan can actually help you stop doing things just because you think you&#8217;re supposed to and focus on what makes sense for your business and your customers.</p><p>Without a plan behind your social media, it can be hard to know what to post or why you&#8217;re posting it. That&#8217;s when it starts to feel like a chore and often gets put off. When it comes from your marketing plan and content calendar, your posts have a purpose and reflect what&#8217;s actually happening in your business.</p><p>Social media can be an important part of your marketing. But it shouldn&#8217;t be the thing you&#8217;re constantly trying to keep up with while the rest of your marketing gets pushed aside.</p><p>Sometimes it&#8217;s worth stepping away from social media for a minute and looking at the whole picture &#8212; what you&#8217;re trying to do, what&#8217;s working together and whether it still feels like your business.</p><p>That&#8217;s where marketing needs to start &#8212; with a plan for the whole business, not just a plan for what to post.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png" width="2366" height="1326" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/bdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1326,&quot;width&quot;:2366,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:5019512,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Two women working together in a bright small retail shop, with one using a laptop while the other packs an order at a worktable.&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/i/216815606?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd71f2eb0-92c2-4f74-b48c-dd39df138abb_2366x1326.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Two women working together in a bright small retail shop, with one using a laptop while the other packs an order at a worktable." title="Two women working together in a bright small retail shop, with one using a laptop while the other packs an order at a worktable." srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ebGW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdfbb86d-0408-426d-acb1-9de393093c41_2366x1326.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Your Google Business Profile — Is It Costing You Customers?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Small gaps in it can quietly send people elsewhere.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/your-google-business-profile-is-it</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/your-google-business-profile-is-it</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:04:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span>Let&#8217;s start here. I want you to search your own business name on Google. Right now &#8211; not your website, just your name, the way a stranger would type it. Just grab your phone and do the search.</span></p><p><span>Now, look at what pops up. That&#8217;s your Google Business Profile. What are your hours, your business description, photos, do you have any reviews? And for a lot of businesses it&#8217;s the first thing people see when they search for your business or a business of your type. This might be their very first introduction to your business, they haven&#8217;t seen your website, or your socials or know anything about you.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><span>So take an honest look at it! Are the hours and days right? Is it in the right category? Are the photos old? What about your business description? Are there any reviews that you have not replied to, whether they&#8217;re good or bad?</span></p><p><span>Here&#8217;s why it matters. Someone who is searching for your business or a business near them is going to decide in a few seconds whether or not they want to do business with you after viewing your google business profile. Do they trust you enough to walk in or call? Depending on what they see it might send them the wrong message.</span></p><p><span>And here&#8217;s the kicker. You&#8217;ll never know how much business you&#8217;ve missed. Because people just won&#8217;t come by your store, they won&#8217;t call you, they&#8217;ll take a hard pass and go some where else instead. And you won&#8217;t even know it happened.</span></p><p><span>But, it&#8217;s an easy fix. Go to your Google Business Profile and update the hours, delete old photos or posts, upload new photos, update the description, check the contact info, add social profiles.</span></p><p><span>It will be the best twenty or thirty minutes of your time.</span></p><p><span>Go check it today and give it a bit of love. Then you can relax knowing that part of your online presence is giving off the right vibes and attracting customers.</span></p><p><span>Let me know what you find. Or if you have questions. I&#8217;m genuinely curious and here to help.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png" width="1456" height="816" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:816,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:828649,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/i/211739682?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yvZe!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58e5cf10-4704-43d8-b3f5-1142be380aba_2912x1632.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Marketing Starts Here - Maggie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[[Start Here] Welcome to Marketing Starts Here, by Maggie]]></title><description><![CDATA[Practical marketing advice and ideas for small-business owners who want to know where to focus and what to do next.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/start-here-welcome-to-marketing-starts-260</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/start-here-welcome-to-marketing-starts-260</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:36:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png" width="1456" height="816" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:816,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1368818,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/i/211347490?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SAq5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F395abadc-26b6-417d-980b-c7655cda948e_2548x1428.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p style="text-align: center;">Marketing Starts Here has been part of my life since 2015, although it had a different name back then.</p><p>I originally started The Social Link to help local businesses figure out how to use Facebook for their marketing. A lot of business owners were just beginning to understand what social media could do for them.</p><p>As my work expanded beyond social media, I changed the name to Marketing Starts Here in 2018.</p><p>Since then, I&#8217;ve continued working in journalism, communications and marketing, including several years in corporate marketing. In January 2026, I returned to running Marketing Starts Here.</p><p>A lot has changed since 2015, especially with AI becoming part of everyday marketing. But one thing hasn&#8217;t changed.</p><p><strong>There&#8217;s still a human being on both sides of the marketing.</strong></p><p>And that&#8217;s something I don&#8217;t want small businesses to lose.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><h3><span data-color="#3c78d8" style="color: rgb(60, 120, 216);">What Marketing Starts Here is about today</span></h3><p>Before you spend more time posting on social media, find out what your business actually needs from its marketing.</p><p>I&#8217;ve seen business owners worry about not posting often enough, then rush to put something on Facebook simply because they feel they should.</p><p>But marketing is much more than social media. It&#8217;s your website, emails, advertising, signage and everything else your customers see and experience when they interact with your business.</p><p>Sometimes the best place to start is by looking at what you&#8217;re already doing.</p><p>That&#8217;s why I now focus on marketing advice, reviews and practical planning rather than just creating more content.</p><h3><span data-color="#3c78d8" style="color: rgb(60, 120, 216);">What you&#8217;ll find here</span></h3><p>Every Tuesday, I share practical marketing advice, ideas and observations from my work with small businesses.</p><p>We&#8217;ll talk about social media, websites, email marketing, branding, AI and the things that make marketing easier to understand and manage.</p><p>My aim is to give you information you can use in your own business, whether you&#8217;re doing all the marketing yourself or looking for some guidance.</p><p>If you&#8217;d like to understand more about how I approach marketing, these four articles are a good place to start:</p><ol><li><p><strong>Scattered Looks Like This</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>Clear Looks Like This</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>How I Actually Work</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>A Real Win</strong></p></li></ol><p>I&#8217;m based in St. Marys, Ontario, but my work isn&#8217;t limited to local businesses.</p><p>If you&#8217;d like to receive my articles each Tuesday, you can subscribe for free.</p><p>And if you&#8217;d like some experienced guidance with your own marketing, you can  <strong><a href="https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/work-with-me"><span data-color="#3c78d8" style="color: rgb(60, 120, 216);">explore ways we can work together. </span></a></strong></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[[4] How I Actually Work ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Strategy first. Content last. Not the other way around.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/how-i-actually-work-6b5</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/how-i-actually-work-6b5</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:34:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>People mostly come to me wanting help with their social media content. They usually want better Facebook or Instagram images, help with writing, help with the type of content to post, when to post it, and they want posts that don&#8217;t feel so hard to write or create.</p><p>But content is not where I start.</p><p>Because content on its own isn&#8217;t a marketing plan. When you&#8217;re busy running a business, it&#8217;s easy to fall into the habit of creating something simply because you need something to post. And over time, your marketing can start to lose the voice and personality that made it yours in the first place.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>That&#8217;s why I look at the business first. I want to understand your goals, who your customers are, what you&#8217;re offering and how you&#8217;re currently marketing your business. I&#8217;ll look at your website, social media, email marketing, messaging and other marketing activities to see what&#8217;s working and what might need attention.</p><p>From there, we can decide what makes sense for your business, what needs to happen first and what can wait.</p><p>This is the thinking behind <em><strong>The Human Marketing Connection Method</strong></em>. Marketing is still about people. Your website, social media, emails and everything else you put out into the world are all ways your business communicates and connects with real people.</p><p>When there&#8217;s a plan behind it, your marketing can have a consistent message without losing the voice and personality of your business. And the content you create has a purpose beyond simply having something to post.</p><p>That human connection is what I don&#8217;t want businesses to lose. The tools we use to market a business will keep changing, but people still want to connect with businesses they know, like and trust.</p><p>This is how I approach marketing reviews, planning and ongoing support through Marketing Starts Here.</p><p>If you&#8217;d like to know more about working together, you can explore my <a href="https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/work-with-me">marketing services.</a></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png" width="1456" height="816" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:816,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:512830,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://marketingstartshere.substack.com/i/211347314?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H9k7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f40ce61-fd5d-449d-a6bd-ad5e08af185d_2366x1326.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[[3] Clear Looks Like This]]></title><description><![CDATA[Know what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what's coming next.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/clear-looks-like-this-ad7</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/clear-looks-like-this-ad7</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:32:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Imagine knowing exactly what your marketing needs to look like this week, this month, and even a few months down the road.</p><p>You know what you&#8217;re posting on social media, when your next newsletter is going out, what promotions are coming up, and whether your website needs updating. You&#8217;re not scrambling to put something together at the last minute because you&#8217;ve already worked out a plan.</p><p>And everything sounds like your business. Your website, social media and emails all have the same voice and messaging. Someone visiting your website should recognize the same business they saw on Facebook or heard from in an email.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>You also know why you&#8217;re doing what you&#8217;re doing. Whether it&#8217;s bringing more people into your store, getting more enquiries or staying in touch with existing customers, your marketing has a purpose beyond just keeping your social media active.</p><p>You can see what&#8217;s getting a response, make adjustments when something isn&#8217;t working and plan ahead instead of constantly reacting to what&#8217;s happening that week.</p><p>And perhaps the biggest difference is that marketing doesn&#8217;t have to take up so much of your time and attention. You have a better idea of what needs doing, what can wait and where your efforts are most useful.</p><p>If this is the kind of clarity you&#8217;re after, I&#8217;d love to hear from you and what&#8217;s getting in your way.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png" width="1456" height="816" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:816,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:546012,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://marketingstartshere.substack.com/i/211347134?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Pam!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed01e09-b6d3-4804-ba1c-7c606e5efa34_2366x1326.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[[2] Scattered Looks Like This]]></title><description><![CDATA[Your business grew. Your marketing didn't...]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/how-i-actually-work-55f</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/how-i-actually-work-55f</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:31:10 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span>An email list that&#8217;s gone quiet since March. Maybe longer.</span></p><p><span>Three different social platforms, and three different voices on each one. There&#8217;s no clear message tying it all together, so one post sounds casual, the next sounds formal, and none of it really sounds like the same business.</span></p><p><span>A website that&#8217;s still describing an older version of what you do.</span></p><p><span>Not knowing where to even begin. And just thinking about all of it eats up the time you don&#8217;t have to spare. So you post when you actually have time, and some weeks that&#8217;s never.</span></p><p><span>Here&#8217;s the thing though. Doing more marketing isn't necessarily going to solve any of this.</span></p><p><span>What you need is a clear plan that brings the pieces together. It gets better with one clear plan... something simple that brings all the pieces together. Once that&#8217;s in place, you&#8217;re not reinventing your marketing from scratch every single week.</span></p><p><span>You just know what&#8217;s next. </span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png" width="1456" height="816" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hlIr!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf1c890d-3f0a-4094-a64d-9533f83b744c_2730x1530.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="icon-noB79L"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image buttonBase-GK1x3M"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[[5] A Real Win]]></title><description><![CDATA[How one small business got its marketing organized.]]></description><link>https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/a-real-win-fef</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/a-real-win-fef</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Maggie Whitcroft]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:29:15 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!TIAp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F28301a9c-5c72-43a4-8410-500bf4b7fbaa_2366x1326.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When a client came to me, their email list had been sitting unused for years. They were posting occasionally on social media, and there were problems with their Facebook and Instagram business accounts. They&#8217;d actually lost access to both.</p><p>Before we could start creating more content, we needed to sort out what was already there.</p><p>We reviewed their online presence and worked through the issues that needed attention. That included updating bios, About sections, links and other information so people could find the right details about the business.</p><p>We also got their email marketing going again, created templates and put systems in place to make regular communication easier to manage.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>Now the business is communicating with its customers through email newsletters and social media, with information and links that are consistent and up to date.</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t a complicated overhaul. It was a matter of identifying what needed attention, getting those pieces organized and putting a workable system in place.</p><p>And that&#8217;s what made the difference. Instead of marketing being something they got around to whenever they could, they now have a structure they can follow.</p><p>If your business has marketing activities that have been neglected or aren&#8217;t working the way they should, we can take a look at what&#8217;s happening and figure out where to start.</p><p>You can learn more about my <a href="https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/p/work-with-me">marketing services,</a> or send me a message if you&#8217;d like to talk about your business.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!TIAp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F28301a9c-5c72-43a4-8410-500bf4b7fbaa_2366x1326.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!TIAp!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F28301a9c-5c72-43a4-8410-500bf4b7fbaa_2366x1326.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!TIAp!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F28301a9c-5c72-43a4-8410-500bf4b7fbaa_2366x1326.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!TIAp!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F28301a9c-5c72-43a4-8410-500bf4b7fbaa_2366x1326.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!TIAp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F28301a9c-5c72-43a4-8410-500bf4b7fbaa_2366x1326.png 1456w" sizes="auto, 100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!TIAp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F28301a9c-5c72-43a4-8410-500bf4b7fbaa_2366x1326.png" width="1456" height="816" 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height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2 icon-noB79L"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.marketingstartshere.ca/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Marketing Starts Here - Maggie! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>