In September we published how to choose a digital marketing agency in the GTA: twelve questions to send any agency before you hire it, and what good and bad answers sound like. We said at the time that it wasn't an article about why to pick us.
This one is. But instead of telling you we're results-driven and passionate, which every agency website in the GTA already says, we've answered our own twelve questions as plainly as we'd want anyone else to. Where there's something you can check, we've linked to it.
1. Who will actually do the work, and will I talk to them?
A small team, and you talk to the people doing the work. More about us is on our about page.
The person who takes the first call writes the scope and builds the websites, online stores, apps and games, and is also the person who answers your email after launch. Social media (the calendar, the voice and the replies) is run inside the same team.
There's no account manager. The person you explain your business to is the person who builds the thing, so nothing gets lost between a salesperson's notes and a developer's ticket.
2. What did you do last month for a client like me?
For Velvéa, a Mississauga gift basket shop, October looked like this:
- Published ten gift guides, timed so Diwali and Christmas office gift guides were live weeks before people start searching.
- Built a Diwali collection that automatically leaves out any basket containing gelatine or similar ingredients, because many households that celebrate Diwali are vegetarian.
- Repriced tracked shipping across Ontario from real courier quotes to 30 towns.
- Shipped a custom basket request service, and an "ask about this basket" box on every product.
- Rebuilt how local delivery days get booked, so a full day pushes the next order to the next open day.
Velvéa's first month brought in 50 orders and more than 600 unpaid clicks from Google, on a brand-new domain. We wrote up the whole month in running Velvéa: the first month.
3. Can I see live work?
Yes, and we'd encourage you to check it rather than trust our screenshots:
- velvea.ca, a custom online store in English and French that we built and run with its owner.
- Prism Potions, a puzzle game we built for a client, live on Google Play and the App Store. We wrote about the decisions behind it, including the App Store rejection.
The rest of our work is on the projects page: an HVAC company, a cake shop, a seafood restaurant, a saree store and a home services firm. One of them is marked confidential, and we say so instead of blurring a screenshot.
4. What do you need from me?
More than "nothing". Every project needs your time in a few places:
- A clear picture of who your customers are and what you want them to do.
- Text and photos, or a decision that we write the text and you book the photos.
- Logins: domain, hosting, Google Business Profile, ad accounts.
- Answers within a few days when we ask a question.
The projects that run long are almost always waiting on content, photos or a decision, not on code. We agree what's needed and when at the start, so neither side is surprised.
5. Will I have my own access to Search Console, Analytics and the ad accounts?
Yes. You own them and we're added as users you can remove. Google Ads and Meta accounts are created under your business and billed to your card. We don't send a proprietary dashboard in place of your own logins. Every number in our reports is one you can find in your own accounts.
6. What happens in month one, and when should I expect to see anything?
It depends on the work, and we'd rather tell you the slow answer now:
- SEO: three to six months before a new site brings in search traffic worth measuring, longer in a crowded category. Velvéa's first month was better than that, and we won't promise anyone else the same.
- Google Business Profile fixes: often visible within weeks.
- Ads: clicks from day one, useful leads in two to four weeks once tracking and the landing page are right.
- A website: a custom small-business site usually takes six to ten weeks, and the content sets the pace. We've written up how long a website takes.
7. What won't you do?
Our work is search (including AI search), websites and online stores, paid ads, content and email, branding, apps, custom software and 2D games. That's a wide list for a small team, and it hangs together because most of it comes back to the same thing: being found, and having something worth finding.
What isn't on it: PR, events, TV and radio, 3D or console-grade games, and hourly staff augmentation where someone sits in your team's chat. If you need one of those, we'll tell you so and, where we can, point you to someone who does it well.
8. Who owns the domain, the site, the accounts and the content at the end?
You do, all of it. The domain is registered in your name. Code, design files, content and images are yours once the project is paid for. Your Google Business Profile, analytics and ad accounts are yours from the first day. App store developer accounts are in your company's name. There's no licence and nothing to buy back if you leave.
9. What's the notice period, and what does leaving look like?
Monthly work is month to month with 30 days notice and no cancellation fee. Leaving means you already have every login, because you owned them all along, and the code, content and files from any project are handed over with it. You don't have to argue for any of it.
10. How is this priced, and what's excluded?
By scope. A five-page site and a year of local search aren't the same job, so we don't quote off a menu. Book a free call, we'll scope it with you, and you get a fixed quote within 24 hours, agreed before any work starts.
What's excluded: your ad spend (paid straight to Google or Meta, with no markup), and anything outside the written scope. If the scope changes, you get a new number before any work starts. There's no hourly billing.
11. Tell me about an engagement that didn't work
The honest version is a mistake inside a project that otherwise went well.
When Velvéa launched, we set tracked shipping to the rest of Ontario at a flat rate we had estimated. It looked reasonable and checkout worked perfectly. Two weeks later we pulled real courier quotes for 30 towns and found the estimate was below cost for most of the province. The shop had been losing money on every shipped order. We repriced it straight away and added a lower rate for extra baskets in the same order, but we should have checked against real quotes before launch, not after.
The same month we found that Velvéa's same-day delivery cutoff was only enforced in the customer's browser, so an order could slip in after it. That one was our bug too. It's now checked on the server.
What we took from both: check every fee against what the business will actually be invoiced before launch, and enforce anything that controls money or time on the server, never in the browser.
12. Why might I be the wrong client for you?
A few reasons, and we'll say them on the first call:
- You aren't trading yet and need a site for a few hundred dollars. Use a website builder and put the money into finding customers.
- You need a large team on retainer, with daily meetings and dedicated staff. We're a small team.
- You want to be on page one within a month. Nobody honest can promise that for competitive searches.
- You want an app because competitors have one, when a fast mobile website would do more for your customers.
- You want your reviews or rankings "boosted" by anything other than doing the work. We don't buy reviews or links.
Checking the proof
Answers are easy to write. Here's how to check ours:
- Read our Google reviews on our Business Profile. One client wrote: "Really happy with the SEO work - my site's showing up way better on Google now and ChatGPT actually pulls up my business when people ask." Read the others, and check the dates.
- Visit the live work above and search for the businesses by name.
- Compare our quote with our terms. They should say the same thing. If they ever don't, tell us.
If our answers are the kind you were hoping to get, book a call. If they aren't, send the same twelve questions to everyone else on your list. Either way, you'll make a better decision.
Frequently asked
Who does the work at GrowMint?
A small team in Mississauga. The person who takes the first call writes the scope and builds the websites, stores and apps, and social media is run inside the same team. There's no account manager between you and the people doing the work.
How much does GrowMint charge?
It depends on the scope, so the way to get a number is a free 30-minute call. We scope the work with you and send a fixed quote within 24 hours, agreed before any work starts. There's no hourly billing, and ad spend is never included; you pay Google or Meta directly on your own account.
Does GrowMint lock clients into long contracts?
No. Monthly work is month to month with 30 days notice and no cancellation fee. Websites and apps are fixed-price projects. The domain, code, content, ad accounts, analytics and Google Business Profile are yours from the first day.
What kind of business is a bad fit for GrowMint?
A business that isn't trading yet and needs a cheap site this week, one that needs a large team on retainer, one that wants first-page rankings within a month, or one that wants an app when a fast mobile website would serve its customers better. We'd rather say so on the first call.
Sources
- GrowMint Technologies on Google Maps, Google
- Velvéa gift baskets and hampers, Velvéa
- Prism Potions on Google Play, Google Play
- Prism Potions on the App Store, Apple App Store
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