Marketing for professional services firms: so you're the name clients find, and the one that checks out.
Before we touch your marketing, we map how your own clients actually choose a firm like yours: the problem that sends them searching, the name they check first, and what the second partner asks before anyone hires you. It's built on research across 500+ clients over 10 years, and you see it before any work starts.
- Generated for clients
- $100M+
- Clients
- 500+
- In business
- 10 Years
- In-house team
- 30+
the name they check first
the problem that sends them searching
what the second partner asks before anyone hires you
Here’s the short version → Setsail Marketing is a digital marketing agency based in Vancouver, BC, that helps professional services firms get found and get hired by the clients who fit them best.
- For:
- Accounting and tax practices · law firms · consultancies · licensed advisory practices
- How we work:
- Every engagement starts with a model of how that firm’s own clients search, compare and choose an advisor · shown before any delivery work begins
- Engagement:
- Scope and timeline agreed in a 90-day plan · flat monthly pricing · month-to-month
- Evidence:
- Research across 500+ clients over 10 years
- Where:
- 100% in-house from its base in Vancouver, BC · clients across Canada and the US
- Proof:
- B Corp certified · Google Partner · $100M+ generated for clients
Firms that brought us in, and what changed for them.
Every firm below is a professional services practice, named, with the work attached.
Steepe & Co.: Agency of record since 2019
Setsail has been Steepe & Co.'s agency of record since 2019: strategy, brand messaging, content, social and website work for a private credit firm that markets inside securities regulation. Seven years in, the same team is still on the account.
Coldwater Communications: A rebrand, two website generations, ongoing care
A PR firm hired Setsail to reposition itself from provincial to national, starting with a full rebrand and a new website built on a payment plan that worked during a COVID-era cash crunch. A second website followed, and Setsail still manages the site today.
SentimenTrader: A subscription site rebuilt end to end
A US subscription research platform needed its brand, website and checkout rebuilt without losing a paying subscriber mid-migration. Setsail rebuilt the brand, the site and the subscription billing, and still maintains the platform today.
Cadeon: SEO, PPC, LinkedIn and video, one team
Cadeon runs a channel-partner consulting business with a committee buyer and a long sales cycle. Setsail has run SEO, PPC, LinkedIn, video and a full website rebuild for Cadeon since 2024, on a rolling production schedule the account is still on today.
InsurSimple: An application flow rebuilt from the form up
InsurSimple's entire product is a long, legally consequential insurance application form that people abandon when it's confusing. Setsail built the design system, UX and application flow, the same problem a professional services intake form has: keep the complexity, remove the difficulty.
Leagent: 50% increase in lead generation, 2x increase in site traffic
Leagent's REALTOR platform ran on fragmented branding and a UX that hurt adoption. Setsail rebuilt the brand, the design system and the marketing automation around a professional membership audience, the same audience shape as a licensed practice.
Proven numbers that do the talking
577%
ROI in 67 days. $224,219 in camp enrolments on $33,100 of ad spend. Pear Tree Camps Education · Summer camps
2,500%
return on ad spend, with 292 job applications in 30 days. NH New Horizons Staffing Healthcare staffing
$20M
in sales by DŌST Bikes. We built the brand, the store and the marketing it ran on. E-commerce · E-bikes
We know how your clients choose a firm, before you spend a dollar finding out.
Most agencies study your firm. We study the person you're trying to win, because in professional services the decision gets made about them long before it gets made about you.
How they search
They don't search for a firm. They search the thing that just went wrong: a letter from the CRA, a dispute with a partner, a deal that needs closing fast, a number that won't reconcile. Then they run a second search that matters more: your name, or the name a friend just gave them, to see if you're actually real and actually good. Most firms rank for the first search and ignore the second, and the second is the one deciding whether the phone rings.
How they compare
They read the bio of the specific person they'd be sitting across from, not the firm's about page, and they check that name on LinkedIn before they check anything else. After that, they're hunting for one signal: proof you work with businesses their size. A wall of logos from companies ten times bigger tells them they'd be your smallest, least important client, and that reads as a reason to keep scrolling.
How they decide
It gets decided in the first real conversation, faster than most firms expect. What closes it is a call that feels like advice, not a pitch, and a follow-up that shows up exactly when you said it would. What kills it is the second partner, the one who wasn't on the call, asking what this costs and whether they can back out. Give the first person something they can forward without having to talk you up, and the deal moves on its own.
This is built from doing exactly this kind of research for 10 years, across 500+ clients, and it's the one part of the job nobody can copy from a competitor's website.
Four things that carry the weight for a firm your size, and why each one earns its place.
Four services carry most of the weight for a firm your size. Here's why each one earns its place.
10 Years in Business$100M+ revenue generated500+ clients
B Corp Certified
Google Partner
- Channel Partner
- Claude Partner
Free 30 min
Your next client is checking you out either way. Let’s make sure you check out.
30 minutes. Free to book, no obligation. We'll walk you through exactly what we already know about how clients choose a firm like yours in your market, and what we'd do about it. You'll get something useful out of the call whether you hire us or not.
We'll ask a few questions about your practice and your market first, so the 30 minutes isn't spent on background.
10 years · $100M+ revenue generated · 500+ clients
On the call, we’ll walk you through:
- We walk through how clients in your market actually search, compare and decide.
- We point out where your current marketing is losing them.
- We tell you what we'd do first, and what it would take.
Fifteen minutes to describe your practice and who your best client actually is.
Not ready to book?Ask for the Professional Services Growth Audit, the same 30 minutes, framed entirely around your practice and your market.We do not share or sell your information. Your details are used to prepare your audit and share it with you.
Trusted by governments and 500+ businesses
10 years · $100M+ revenue generated · 500+ clients
In their words · Reviews ★★★★★
They say it better than we can
From political campaigns to nationwide rebrands and massive product launches: an in-house team that moves fast and delivers, across North America and worldwide.
“If I have a client who needs something up in three weeks, you guys will just do it… I never hear no, or ‘it can’t be done’.”
Theodora Jean
Founder & CEO, Coldwater Communications
“Everything that Setsail has designed for us, we try to incorporate that now in all of our presentations, including investor materials.”
Dorthy Cheng
Executive Assistant, CleanDesign
“You made yourselves part of Charlo. You made yourselves part of my story.”
Lia Psomiadis
Founder, Charlo
“We changed our direction of our business and Setsail has been matching that pace each and every time that we made that adjustment.”
Blake Voyer
Microworks Handyman
“I’ll immediately hear from somebody… It’s just handled. It’s just white glove considerate handled without a white glove price tag.”
Melanie Clarance
Co-Founder, AetherEV
“Creating a real strategy with KPIs that aren’t out of touch… this isn’t a pie in the sky story, this is an actionable work plan.”
Lucas Ens
Economic Development Officer, City of Prince George
“We’ve been working with Setsail for 7 years for all our marketing materials, website design, product design, videos, photos. They’ve been great. Responsive, responsible, great materials.”
Larry Knurik
VP Logistics, GVA Brands
“It’s been really easy, smooth, and it’s been a great time, and I’d recommend it to anyone.”
Antonio Zivanovic
Founder, ElektraFi
“Tom and Jason are a thrill to work with… The direction and strategy that they bring to the table is top notch.”
Gordon Lai
Surface 604
“If you’re looking for a marketing team that really gets it and delivers outstanding results, Setsail Marketing is the way to go.”
Sam Atakhanov
Founder, DŌST Bikes
One person can’t research your clients, write the pages that survive their checks, and keep your name showing up when they search. So you get a specialist for each part.
Here's who's actually on a professional services account:
Strategist
Maps how your specific clients search, compare and decide, before any campaign gets built.
SEO & GEO specialist
Gets your firm ranking for the problem your clients search, and cited when they ask an AI tool for a firm like yours.
Web & brand designer
Builds the bio pages and the visual identity that hold up to a sixty‑second LinkedIn check.
Account lead
Your single point of contact, running weekly updates so nothing sits waiting on a reply.
All 30+ of them in-house. No subcontractor chain, and no handoff to a junior after the first meeting.
Communication and reporting that make marketing the easiest thing on your desk.
From “is this even working?” to watching it work: live portal, monthly report, scheduled calls, or a quick message when something’s on your mind. However you like to work, we’ll match it. Inside the portal: your live dashboard and anything that needs your approval.
01
Day one: you know where you stand
We record your starting numbers before we touch anything, so every win after that is one you can see.
02
Every week: you see it moving
Progress shows up in your portal as it happens, so you never wait for a report to know.
03
Every month: you know what your money bought
What we expected next to what happened, in a report you can read in five minutes.
04
Every cycle: steered
Every 90 days the plan re-forms around what’s working, so your budget keeps flowing to the work that pays.
Plans designed to reach your goals, at a pace that matches your ambition
Flat monthly plans for every part of this, from one service to the whole stack. See what’s included on the pricing page.
Every plan starts the same way: a Growth Strategy call. 30 minutes, free. You’ll know whether we’re a fit and what we’d look at first.
Professional services marketing is a hundred small jobs. Here's every one we do.
Getting found
- Keyword and topic research built around the problems your clients actually search
- On-site SEO and technical fixes
- AI and GEO work so tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity cite your firm
- Local search and Google Business Profile management
- Monthly ranking and visibility reporting
Website & bio pages
- Website design and build
- Individual bio and practice-area pages
- Case study and results pages
- Site hosting, uptime monitoring and small ongoing updates
Brand & credibility
- Logo, visual identity and brand guidelines
- Practice area positioning and messaging
- Sales and pitch-deck templates
Staying visible
- LinkedIn and social content for the firm and its partners
- Email newsletters to your existing client and referral list
- Video and photography for bios, testimonials and events
Bringing in new clients
- Paid search and LinkedIn ad management
- Landing pages built for a specific practice area or campaign
- Cold outbound to a defined list of businesses that fit your ideal client
Keeping score
- Monthly reporting on rankings, traffic and leads
- Live dashboards you can check any time
- A named account lead who owns the relationship
What’s included depends on the plan you pick.
If you catch yourself nodding at one of these, book the call
- ✓ Your best clients still come from referrals, but you'd like the phone to ring without waiting for one.
- ✓ You've got two or twenty partners, and no one has time to also run marketing.
- ✓ You want the advisory work, not more of the compliance work that pays less and burns more hours.
- ✓ You know a prospective client Googles you the second someone gives them your name.
- ✓ You're in a regulated profession and you're tired of agencies making claims your governing body would never let you make.
- ✓ You want to see the plan and the reasoning before you commit a dollar to it.
If two or more of those sound like your practice, book the call. We'll tell you straight if we're not the right fit.
Questions from partners and principals
Setsail Marketing
Vancouver, BC + Beaverton, OR
- Clients across Canada and the US
- 500+
- Revenue generated for clients
- $100M+
