Digital marketing for Toronto brands that need to keep showing up.
Strategy, content, design, paid media, and measurement in a single engagement scoped against quarterly business goals. We do not sell hours. We sell outcomes.
Three engagement tiers, all monthly. Each includes strategy, content, design, and reporting. Some include paid media management and PR. Available in English, 中文 (繁體 + 简体), and 한국어.
Foundation projects from CA$5,500. Growth engagement from CA$3,000/month. Premium engagement from CA$7,500/month.
The digital marketing problem
Most agency websites and content launches end the same way. The brand book ships, the website goes live, the team celebrates, and six weeks later the marketing channel goes quiet. Customers forget. Search rankings drift. Paid campaigns stop being optimized. The next quarter starts cold.
Most Toronto agency retainers are built to fill that gap, but they are built wrong. The standard retainer is hours-based: 20 hours a month, 40 hours a month, billed against a vague queue of small tasks. A blog post here. A social caption there. A Canva edit on Friday. The engagement becomes a labour pool, not a strategic motion.
The fix is a different model. Scope digital marketing engagements against quarterly business goals, not against hours. Re-scope every 90 days based on what moved and what did not. Treat the monthly invoice as a deliverable contract, not a timesheet. That is how 852 Tangram structures every Growth and Premium digital marketing engagement on our roster.
Three engagement models, in detail
Foundation (one-time project, CA$5,500 starting)
A defined-scope brand or web project, 4 to 6 weeks. No monthly commitment required. Foundation is the entry point for clients who want to test the working relationship before committing to ongoing work, or who genuinely need a one-time fix (a website refresh, a logo system, a packaging update) without monthly content support. Many Foundation clients convert to a Growth engagement within 90 days of project close.
Growth (monthly engagement, CA$3,000/month starting, 6-month minimum)
The steady-cadence engagement. Includes monthly strategic planning calls, monthly content production (typically 4 to 6 pieces depending on format mix), monthly performance reporting, and a quarterly retrospective with a re-scope conversation. Best for brands with a defined audience, a working website, and a need for consistent monthly motion. Most Growth clients use the engagement for a mix of social content, blog or newsletter writing, SEO, and ongoing brand design support. Elite Tenants is the anchor case study for this tier.
Premium (monthly engagement, CA$7,500/month starting, 12-month minimum)
Everything in Growth, plus paid media management (Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads campaigns we run as the agency of record), proactive PR outreach, monthly competitor tracking with strategic recommendations, and a monthly executive readout meeting with the client's leadership. Best for brands in active growth mode with budget allocated to paid acquisition and a need for integrated marketing rather than tactical content. The 12-month minimum reflects how long it takes paid media optimization and PR placements to compound.
| Tier | Foundation | Growth | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | One-time project | Monthly engagement | Monthly engagement |
| Starting price | CA$5,500 | CA$3,000/month | CA$7,500/month |
| Commitment | Project-based | 6 months minimum | 12 months minimum |
| Includes | Brand or web project, 4 to 6 weeks | Strategy, monthly content, monthly reporting, quarterly review | Growth scope plus paid media management, PR, competitor tracking, monthly executive readout |
| Best for | First engagement, defined scope | Steady growth, content cadence | Aggressive growth, integrated marketing |
| Ad spend | Not included | Optional, billed separately | Optional, billed separately |
Pricing reflects scope, not negotiation. We do not run hours-based billing.
How a monthly engagement works
Every Growth and Premium engagement follows the same four-week cadence. Predictability is the point.
Week 1: strategy and planning. A 60-minute strategy call with the client's primary contact. Review last month's results, surface upcoming business priorities (a launch, a campaign, a seasonal cycle), and lock the content and design priorities for the next 30 days. Output: a one-page priority brief signed off by the client before production begins.
Week 2: production. The team writes, designs, and builds. Client reviews drafts in a single batch on day 10. One revision round is standard; a second is included if priorities shifted mid-month.
Week 3: launch and amplification. Approved content publishes on schedule. Paid campaigns launch (Premium). Social, email, and blog distribution runs to plan. The client receives a launch summary on Friday of week 3.
Week 4: measurement and re-plan. A short performance read using GA4, GSC, and channel-native analytics. Results feed directly into the next month's week-one strategy call. No 40-page reports. One page of what moved, what did not, and what changes for next month.
Every 90 days, we hold a quarterly business review: did the engagement scope match what the business actually needed, and what changes for the next quarter. Every 12 months, a strategic re-scope to confirm the engagement is still earning its keep.
What "digital marketing" covers in a 852 engagement
Each Growth and Premium engagement is scoped against your business priorities, not against a pre-packaged channel list. Across the roster, our digital marketing engagements typically cover some mix of:
- SEO and content. Blog and editorial writing, on-page SEO, internal linking architecture, schema markup, content calendar planning, and AI-search optimization for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
- Social content. Original posts and carousels for LinkedIn, Instagram, and WeChat where applicable. Native writing per platform, not cross-posted recycled copy.
- Email and newsletter. Editorial calendars, lifecycle sequences, and ongoing campaign writing on Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or Squarespace Campaigns.
- Paid media (Premium only). Google Ads, Meta Ads, and LinkedIn Ads campaign management as agency of record. We never mark up ad spend or take a percentage.
- Design and brand support. Ongoing creative production: ads, social graphics, landing pages, sales decks, and brand-system extensions as the business adds product lines or markets.
- Reporting and measurement. Monthly performance readouts on the metrics that drive your business, not vanity numbers. GA4, GSC, ad platform reporting, and channel-native analytics combined into one page.
The 852 Promise (digital marketing edition)
The 852 Promise. If we miss the agreed monthly content calendar deadline, your next month's invoice is reduced by 10%. We commit to the calendar in writing at the start of every month. The reduction is automatic, not negotiated.
This is unusual in Toronto. It works because we plan against capacity, not against optimism, and because monthly accountability is the right discipline for ongoing work.
Case study: Elite Tenants Growth engagement
Elite Tenants is an Ontario proptech company offering tenant screening and legal protection services to landlords and brokerages. The engagement started as a Foundation project: a brand identity rebuild and a new website on Wix Studio, delivered in 5 weeks. After launch, the founder, Richard Campbell, asked for ongoing content support to match Ontario's leasing-season cycles (the spring rush, the fall renewals, the winter slow-down).
We converted the engagement to a Growth monthly retainer at the start of Q2 2026. The cadence: monthly strategy calls with Richard to surface upcoming priorities, a content calendar matched to the leasing seasons (educational pieces for landlords in spring, FAQ-driven SEO content for brokerages in summer, retention-focused emails to existing customers in fall), and a quarterly retrospective.
The strategic shift inside the engagement mattered more than the volume. In Q2 we moved Elite Tenants away from generic "tenant tips" content and toward landlord-decision content (screening cost vs. eviction risk, legal liability for skipped credit checks, what brokerages owe their landlord clients under Ontario law). Engagement quality on the new content runs higher than the old tenant-facing posts, and the qualified-lead conversation with brokerages is materially easier.
The engagement is currently in its third quarter. Richard's quote at the last quarterly: "The content is finally talking to my actual buyers."
Why 852 Tangram
- Strategy first, scope second. Every engagement starts with what the business needs to move, not with a content checklist.
- Quarterly re-scope built in. Your Q2 engagement does not have to look like your Q1 engagement. We re-plan every 90 days.
- Available in three languages. English, 中文 (繁體 + 简体), and 한국어. Native speakers on the team, not Google Translate.
- Monthly invoice tied to the calendar. The 852 Promise applies to every Growth and Premium engagement.
Frequently asked questions
Can I start with Foundation and upgrade to a monthly engagement later? Yes, and this is the most common path on our roster. Foundation is a 4 to 6 week project with no monthly commitment. Many clients use it as a working trial before signing a 6-month Growth engagement. We do not pressure the conversion. If the project relationship is wrong for ongoing work, we say so.
What digital marketing channels do you handle? Across the roster, our engagements cover SEO and content (blog, on-page, schema, AI-search optimization), social content (LinkedIn, Instagram, WeChat where applicable), email and newsletter, paid media (Premium tier), design and brand support, and monthly reporting. Specific channel mix is scoped in week one against your business priorities, not pre-packaged.
Do you run paid ads as part of the engagement? Paid media management (Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and other platforms) is included in the Premium tier as agency-of-record management. We do not include paid media in the Growth tier; clients running paid ads on Growth tend to use a specialist or in-house lead. We never take a percentage of ad spend and we never mark up media.
What happens if my business needs change mid-engagement? Re-scoping happens every 90 days as standard. If something material changes between quarterly reviews (a pivot, a funding event, a new product launch), we hold an interim re-scope conversation and adjust the calendar. The monthly invoice stays the same; the priorities inside the month change.
Is ad spend included? No. Ad spend (the actual dollars paid to Google, Meta, LinkedIn, or other ad platforms) is always billed separately and paid by the client directly. The Premium engagement includes the agency-of-record management of those campaigns. We never take a percentage of ad spend, and we never mark up media.
Can I pause an engagement for a month? Growth and Premium engagements carry minimum commitments (6 and 12 months). One month off is not how the model works because the strategic cadence breaks. If you need a hard pause for a verifiable reason (a business closure, a major life event), we will negotiate in writing. We will not pause to save budget for next month.
How is this different from hiring a freelance marketer? A freelancer gives you one person, one skill, one rate. A 852 engagement gives you a team (strategy, writing, design, paid media on Premium) operating against your business goals with monthly accountability and a 90-day re-scope cycle. Freelancers work well for narrow needs. Monthly engagements work for ongoing strategic motion.
Do you have minimum monthly terms? Yes. Growth engagements run on a 6-month minimum commitment. Premium engagements run on a 12-month minimum commitment. The minimums exist because content and paid media compounding take longer than a month or two to show. We will not sign 30-day engagements; the math does not work for either side.
Pricing recap
Foundation projects from CA$5,500. Growth engagement from CA$3,000/month, 6-month minimum. Premium engagement from CA$7,500/month, 12-month minimum. Ad spend never included. Every engagement covered by the 852 Promise.
Or read the Elite Tenants case study.