These guides are for owners who want to understand their own marketing before they spend money on it. Each one tackles a problem that's sharper in Simcoe County than in most of Ontario: a year that swings with the seasons, customers who live elsewhere, and budgets that need to move from month to month. Read them in any order.
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Reaching absentee cottage owners: marketing to customers who are two hours away
Absentee cottage owners search from home, care most about reliability and proof, and rebook the same trade year after year if it's easy. This guide shows how to reach them and keep them.
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Seasonal ad budget maths: setting a different ceiling for every month
A seasonal trade should set its ad budget month by month, from what a job is worth, what it can afford to pay to win one, and how many extra jobs the crew can take. Here's how, with a worked example.
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The Simcoe County trades marketing calendar: a sample year, month by month
A seasonal trade in Simcoe County should market one season ahead of the work. This guide lays out a sample year, explains why each month matters and gives you a one-page format to plan your own.
The Simcoe County trades marketing calendar
Our month-by-month marketing calendar lays out a sample year for a seasonal trade in the region, from late-winter pre-booking to the fall closing rush and the heating season that follows.
You'll learn:
- which months to push and which to hold back
- when to start promoting each season, which is usually earlier than you'd think
- how to use quiet months to set up the busy ones
- a simple one-page format to plan your own year
Start here if you've never planned marketing more than a few weeks ahead.
Reaching absentee cottage owners
Our guide to reaching absentee cottage owners explains how to market to the people who own property in Simcoe County but live in the GTA or elsewhere for most of the year.
You'll learn:
- the different kinds of seasonal owner and what each one cares about
- how they search for trades from a distance
- what your website and messages need to show them
- how to build a repeat-booking routine without breaking anti-spam rules
It's most useful for shoreline and cottage-country businesses in places like Tiny, Ramara, Oro-Medonte, Severn and Wasaga Beach.
Seasonal ad budget maths
The guide to seasonal ad budget maths shows how to set a monthly Google Ads budget from your own numbers, rather than picking a round figure and hoping.
You'll learn:
- how to work out an affordable cost per booked job
- how capacity should shape spending in each month
- a full worked example for a Simcoe County trade
- the warning signs that you're overspending in peak weeks
It's the right read before you start or restart any paid advertising.
What these guides deliberately leave out
The guides stick to marketing. They don't cover how to do any trade job, what your licence or permit obligations are, or how to price your services, because those depend on your trade and your regulator. For Ontario regulators such as TSSA, ESA and WSIB, go straight to the official sources; our sister site Ontario.Center keeps a reference list of them.
They also avoid predictions about specific months. Ice-out, the first frost and the start of heating season shift every year, and a guide that claimed to know them in advance would be guessing. Instead, each guide shows you how to read your own records and adjust, so the advice still holds when spring comes three weeks early or late.
Who writes them
Every guide is written under the direction of Ali Sedighi, MBA, who leads Barrie.Marketing and has spent more than 17 years in digital marketing. The worked examples use made-up but realistic figures, clearly labelled, so you can replace them with your own. Nothing in the guides is a promise of results; they describe a method, and how well it works for you depends on your trade, your towns and your crew.
How to use these guides
The guides are written to be used, not just read. Each includes worked examples and checklists you can apply to your own business with a pen and last year's job records.
If you'd rather have us do the planning, the seasonal campaign planning service turns these ideas into a written calendar for your business, and the Google Ads service runs the budget side. You can see what that costs on the pricing page, or read about us first.
Frequently asked questions
Are the guides free?
Yes. They're free to read and use. You don't need to contact us or give us any details to read them.
Do the guides apply to trades other than HVAC?
Yes. They're written for any seasonal home-service business in the region, including plumbing, septic, docks, roofing, electrical, landscaping and property care.
How often are the guides updated?
We review them when platforms or rules change, and each guide shows the date it was last updated at the top.