- Journal
Field notes for
technical founders.
Positioning, conversion, technical SEO and AI search, written for people building a product rather than serving a local market. The rest of the Journal, on local SEO and Google Business Profile, lives at the main Journal.
How Much Should a Seed-Stage Startup Spend on Marketing?
Percentage-of-revenue rules break before you have revenue. Here's how to build a first startup marketing budget from time, tools and media instead.
How Much Does SaaS SEO Cost in Canada?
What SaaS SEO costs a Seed-stage Canadian startup: the three pricing models, what each budget buys, and why US price pages overshoot.
When Should a Startup Hire a Marketing Agency?
There is no funding round that says it is time. Five signals founder-led marketing has stopped scaling, what to fix yourself first, and how to start small.
Why Your SaaS Blog Gets Traffic but No Signups
If your SaaS blog gets traffic but no signups, the gap is usually who is searching, not how many. How to re-sort your posts and build what buyers read.
SaaS Product Launch Checklist for a Small Team
A SaaS product launch checklist for a small team, from six weeks out to thirty days after, with docs and changelog treated as launch assets.
Webflow vs Framer vs Next.js for a SaaS Marketing Site
Webflow vs Framer vs Next.js for a SaaS marketing site, judged on rendering, CMS limits, who ships the next page, and what moving later will cost you.
Marketing Agency Onboarding: What to Hand Over
Onboarding a marketing agency or a fractional marketer? What to hand over, at which access level, and the one account your startup should create itself.
How Long Does SEO Take for a SaaS Company?
How long SEO takes for a SaaS company depends on four gates, not a calendar. What to watch in Search Console each month, and when to start worrying.
Is Your Marketing Agency Doing a Good Job? How to Tell
Is your marketing agency doing a good job? Four checks a founder can run that the monthly report won't, and how to tell a slow quarter from a bad fit.
How to Fire Your Marketing Agency: A Founder's Checklist
How to fire your marketing agency without losing your domain, data or email list: a founder's exit checklist, in the order that protects you.
What Does a SaaS Marketing Agency Cost in Canada?
What a SaaS marketing agency costs in Canada at Seed stage, in CAD: the four fee models, what each one buys, and how to compare quotes fairly.
Writing the Job Description for Your First Marketing Hire
Generalist or specialist is the real decision behind your first marketing job description, and your stage settles it. Plus what to leave out.
Questions to Ask a SaaS Marketing Agency Before You Hire
Seven questions that separate an agency able to learn a technical product from one that will ship generic content, with what a good answer sounds like.
What a Software Company's Marketing Retainer Should Include
What scope, reporting, access and notice terms to get in writing before you sign a marketing retainer, and why a content quota is not a strategy.
Free Trial or Book a Demo: How Your SaaS Should Choose
Free trial or book a demo is not a philosophy. It is four questions about contract value, time to value, your buyer's approvals and your calendar.
CRM and Lifecycle Email for Early-Stage SaaS: Where to Start
The three lifecycle emails an early-stage SaaS should build first, where a CRM actually helps, and what CASL requires of product email in Canada.
Fractional CMO, Agency or Hire: What Each Costs in Canada
What a fractional marketer, an agency and a first marketing hire actually cost a Canadian startup, priced against runway instead of a monthly budget line.
What Your SaaS Pricing Page Has to Do Before a Demo
Contact us to understand why your pricing keeps buyers from contacting you. The three questions a SaaS pricing page has to answer before anyone books.
Does Your SaaS Site Need an llms.txt File?
Somebody told you to add an llms.txt file so AI assistants cite your product. Google says no AI system uses it. Here is what does matter.
What Makes a SaaS Trial Signup Page Actually Convert
Trial signup benchmarks, what the credit-card data really means, why cutting form fields is overrated, and what to test when you cannot run a valid test.
B2B SaaS Startup? Run a Marketing Audit First
Buying ads before auditing your funnel is a deploy with no logging. What an audit covers, what skipping it costs, and what a week of it gets you.
Why Vancouver Tech Startups Need a Human-First Brand
Gradient mesh, Inter, two-tone purple. Vancouver startups all look alike, which is a strange outcome for a process meant to make you stand out.