An embedded growth team is a retainer that buys coverage of roles, not a bucket of hours. You get a growth lead who owns the plan, the production roles that plan needs, and a weekly rhythm that makes slippage visible within days instead of quarters.
What it is, in plain terms
Think of it as renting a small marketing department that already knows how to work together. The growth lead (Ali Sedighi) sets the goal with you, breaks it into a 90-day plan, and assigns each piece of work to a role: search, paid acquisition, website, content, analytics or follow-up. You see one plan, one meeting and one scorecard.
Roles are switched on according to the plan. A Mississauga clinic group that needs local visibility and faster phone answering might run three roles. A York Region distributor launching a new product line might run paid search, content and website roles for a quarter, then scale back. The retainer moves with the plan, and the scope document says exactly which roles are active.
Who it's for
It fits Ontario businesses that already have:
- a product or service that sells when buyers find it
- enough margin to fund marketing out of revenue rather than hope
- an owner or manager who can give 30 to 45 minutes a week to a check-in
- growth work that keeps slipping because nobody owns it full-time
It's a poor fit for a business that hasn't sold anything yet (start with a growth audit or a project instead), or for a company that already employs a marketing team of three or more. The second group usually needs a fractional leader, not more hands; our sister site Ontario.Management covers that.
What's included
Every retainer includes the growth-lead role. The other roles are scoped per client.
- Growth lead: the 90-day plan, weekly check-in, budget decisions, vendor coordination and the monthly review.
- Search and local visibility: Google Business Profile, local pages, reviews process. See search, ads and content.
- Paid acquisition: account structure, budgets, search terms, landing-page pairing.
- Website and conversion: fixes and tests on the pages that bring enquiries, described on the website and conversion page.
- Content: a monthly calendar built from real customer questions.
- Analytics and follow-up: call tracking, lead log, response-time rules and the scorecard.
All accounts sit in your name. We work in them as users you can remove at any time.
Timeline: the first 90 days
| Weeks | What happens | What you should see |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Access, tracking, lead log, baseline numbers | A first scorecard showing where enquiries come from today |
| 3–6 | Leak fixes: follow-up rules, top website pages, profile clean-up | Faster responses; fewer lost calls; cleaner data |
| 7–10 | Demand work: search pages, ads changes, first content | Movement in enquiry volume by source |
| 11–13 | Review and re-plan | A written 90-day review and the next plan |
The order is deliberate. Spending on new demand before tracking works means you can't tell what paid off.
How results are measured
The scorecard tracks a short list of numbers, agreed in week one:
- Enquiries by source (calls, texts, emails), counted from the lead log, not from platform dashboards alone.
- Cost per enquiry by paid channel.
- Median response time to a new enquiry during business hours.
- Quote or proposal win rate, if you share it.
- What shipped this week versus what was planned.
Revenue attribution is only as good as the information you give us about closed work. Owners who share a monthly list of won jobs or contracts get far sharper decisions than owners who don't.
Mistakes to avoid when hiring any outsourced team
- Letting the vendor own your accounts. If the ads account or domain is in their name, you don't own your marketing.
- Measuring activity instead of outcomes. Twenty posts a month means nothing if enquiries didn't move.
- No single decision-maker on your side. When three managers give conflicting feedback, the team stalls.
- Judging the work at week four. Search work in particular takes months; decide at the 90-day review, with data.
Retainers run from $2,500 to $12,000 a month; the pricing page explains what moves you up or down that range.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours a month does the retainer include?
We scope by roles and deliverables rather than a bank of hours, because hours reward slow work. The written scope lists what ships each month and which roles are active.
Is there a minimum term?
There is no lock-in. We ask for the first 90 days to be treated as one planning cycle, because most changes need that long to show up in the numbers, but you can stop with notice.
Who do I talk to each week?
Ali Sedighi. He leads the plan, chairs the weekly check-in and makes the priority calls, so you never brief the same problem twice.
Can the team work with my own staff?
Yes. If you have an office manager who answers enquiries or a staff member who posts on social media, they become part of the rhythm and appear on the scorecard.