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Marketing for New Businesses

Every new business needs a solid foundation.

Most new businesses spend money on the wrong things first, then spend more fixing them later. The decisions you make in the first few months set the foundation for everything after.

  • Does your brand match the business you're actually building?
  • Is your website ready before your first customer searches for you?
  • Do you know which marketing moves will matter most in year one?
  • Bottom line: Is your marketing foundation something you can build on — or something you'll have to rebuild?

Startup Marketing

There's no perfect time to start. Just a better one.

“I’m starting a new business.”

You have the idea, but the brand is still fuzzy. Maybe there’s no website yet. Maybe the name, logo, message, or offer still needs shape. This is the time to build the basics right — before a rough first impression starts costing you.

“I’m open, but people aren’t finding me.”

The business is live, but your online presence hasn’t caught up. Word of mouth is helping, but your website, Google Business Profile, social media, and content aren’t doing enough yet. You don’t need to do everything. You need to know what matters first.

“My business has outgrown my marketing.”

The business is real now. Revenue is coming in. Your services, team, or customer base may have changed. But your marketing still looks like the first version of the business — not the one you’ve become.

Wherever you are, the job is the same: stop guessing, get the foundation in order, and put your time and budget toward the marketing pieces that matter first. We’ve helped hundreds of Eastern Washington businesses do exactly that.

Startup Marketing Services

What every new business needs to get started.

You don't need everything at once. You need the right things first — in the right order. Here's where we typically start with a new business.

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Brand Identity

A logo, color system, and brand guide that reflect where your business is going — not just where it's starting. Built to scale with you so you're not rebuilding in two years.

Website Design

A professional site that establishes credibility from day one. SEO-ready from launch, mobile-first, and built to work as your primary marketing asset — not just a digital business card.

Local Search & AI Visibility

Google Business Profile setup, local SEO, and AI search optimization — so you show up when people search for what you do, whether that's on Google or asking ChatGPT for a recommendation.

Brand Photography & Video

Real photos of your team, your space, and your work. Professional visuals establish credibility quickly — stock photos do the opposite.

Digital Advertising Launch

When you're new, sometimes you need to get in front of people who haven't heard of you yet. We build focused campaigns that stretch a limited launch budget toward the right audience — not just everyone within a radius.

Ongoing Marketing Support

Once the foundation is built, a monthly marketing partnership keeps it growing. Strategy sessions, content, campaigns, and production — all under one roof, on a budget that scales with your business.

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Starting a Business?

The biggest marketing mistakes startups make.

Starting a business already comes with enough unknowns. The goal is not to do everything perfectly on day one — it’s to avoid the early marketing decisions that cost more to fix later.

  • Building a logo before you know the brand.

    A logo matters, but it should not come before your message, audience, positioning, and how the brand needs to show up. Otherwise, you end up with something that looks fine in one place and falls apart everywhere else.

  • Launching without a real website.

    Social media helps, but it should not be your whole online presence. A simple, clear website gives people somewhere to learn about you, trust you, and take the next step when they are ready.

  • Skipping local visibility.

    If people cannot find your business on Google, Maps, or local search, you are making word of mouth work too hard. Your Google Business Profile, website content, location signals, and reviews all help people find and choose you.

  • Spending money on ads too early.

    Ads can work, but only when they have somewhere useful to send people. If your website, message, offer, or follow-up process is not ready, paid traffic can burn through budget without fixing the real problem.

  • Trying to look bigger instead of clearer.

    New businesses sometimes overcomplicate the brand, website, or marketing because they want to look established. Clear beats complicated. People need to understand what you do, who it is for, and why they should care.

  • Treating marketing like a launch task.

    Marketing does not stop once the doors open or the website goes live. The first version gets you started. The work after launch is what helps you build visibility, earn trust, and keep improving.

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Calculate Your Marketing Budget

Not sure what to spend on digital marketing?

Our free marketing budget calculator gives you a smart starting range based on your revenue and goals — in about 30 seconds.

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Why Cougar Digital Marketing?

We've helped lots of businesses start with a stronger marketing foundation.

We’ve built first websites, new brands, launch plans, and marketing foundations for businesses across the Tri-Cities and Eastern Washington. We’ve also seen what happens when the early pieces don’t connect — the rebrands, rebuilt sites, unclear messaging, and campaigns that have nowhere useful to send people.

Getting the foundation right early saves time, budget, and a lot of backtracking.

  • Brand, website, photography, content, and launch support in one place

  • Clear guidance on what to prioritize when your budget is limited

  • Local insight into how customers search, compare, and choose businesses

  • A practical plan for what needs to happen now, what can wait, and what comes next

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125+ 5-Star Reviews

When you do great work, people notice.

Service is the difference!! Ashley is super sharp and ahead of the curve but the real value is access and responsiveness. Other providers I have had were great until they got paid then very slow to respond to updates and changes I needed. Ashley is lighting in a bottle and handles updates and changes with urgency as well as keeps us informed of new emerging opportunities to consider. Highly reccomend. It would be a Mistake not to give her a meeting before deciding who to partner with.

Greatly appreciate the work that Josh and the Cougar Digital Marketing team did for our organization. We had a vague vision and they were able to make it better than we could have imagined. Appreciate their flexibility to work with us on a short turnaround and their suggestions for making the best video possible.

It has been a pleasure working with Cougar Digital. From managing our ads, rebuilding our website, and maintaining our Google reviews, we have been more than satasfied. We also have no problem getting a hold of them with any questions we may have or help we may need. I highly recommend them! Thank you, Alison and the rest of us at Columbia Basin Satellite & Electric

Always a pleasure to work with the Cougar Digital Marketing & Design team! They excel in creativity, effectiveness and efficiency.

Josh Kandle was able to complete a wonderful presentation to my Introduction to Business class at Columbia Basin College. He brought to life the world of Marketing on the internet and how to use it effectively and consistently. The students left the presentation with knowledge they could go out and use immediately. He was great!

We absolutely loved working with Cougar Digital on the launch of our new website and throughout several incredible photo shoots. From start to finish, their team was creative, responsive, and truly understood our vision.

My class and I had a great time learning from Josh about his background, experience in design and video, and creative process. Thank you so much for volunteering!!

Josh at Cougar Digital built us a beautiful website! He and Travis are wonderful to work with and made the whole process easier than I imagined it would be. I would recommend them to anyone that wants a great, quality website

Very helpful and easy to work with. They thought about everything that we needed on our website and it looks amazing! Very satisfied.

These guys are great! It's always an interesting scenario when you begin a relationship with a new company. I will say that from experience Cougar Digital is one of the easiest and highly educated companies to work with. If you have a question a quick email or call gets an answer. If you have an idea these guys will without a doubt help to the best of their ability. I'm no expert in the marketing world but Cougar Digital makes me feel like I have everything I would ever need at my fingertips. Thanks a ton guys, we look forward to our continued partnership!

Shared my vision in words and they were able to make a masterpiece on print!

Great company, great people. Vision matched customer expectation!

Cougar Digital did a great job arranging literature and building a website for us. Travis was very easy to work with, and the finished marketing material looks great. Thanks Cougs!

Cougar Digital has been great to work with! With their support we have seen significant improvement with our marketplace campaigns.

Cougar digital was awesome to work with. They made the website design experience very simple and were very helpful in accommodating my companies' specific needs!

Cougar Digital provides excellent follow through on all our projects. We trust them with developing solutions for our email marketing campaigns, graphic design, and collateral creation. Their designs are used by our partners nationally. We count on them for specific website support work and they always come through for us. They are solution oriented and their upbeat, friendly customer service is unparalleled.

Josh Kandle was excellent to work with on remaking our branding guidelines, etc. He was helpful, patient and his work was outstanding. Thanks Cougar Digital and Josh for making this process so great.

Working with Josh Kandle on several video projects was such a great experience . He is not only a real pro and easy to work with but he was also so open to all of my ideas for creativity and understood a lot of what I was looking for as an independent recording artist. i would highly recommend him and look forward to hopefully being able to do more in the future. ~ Lisa Mitts, Recording Artist Songwriter, Performer

Working with the Cougar Digital Marketing team was an absolute delight. Truly good people who are VERY skilled at what they do. Running a large regional food company, it's a blessing to work with an experienced digital team here locally, and not have to seek services in the Seattle or Portland market. I highly recommend working with Cougar Digital!

We had a short timetable and a limited budget. The end result was great. Working with the Cougar Digital team made the project very enjoyable.

Cougar Digital and team is very responsive, knowledgeable, and capable and has done a great job in building and maintaining our business web site, and providing needed graphic design for our needs. Highly recommend them to anyone wanting expert work and assistance in these aspects of their business.

I really love the team approach with Travis and the group, they are very professional, organized, and skilled at what they do. I wish I had employed them for my website and advertising years ago. I regret spending so much money trying to do it on my own or with cheap services that took my money and did nothing. I feel like they are MY team, and I feel I'm not alone trying to achieve my business goals to get my services out to the public.

Josh Kandle was absolutely terrific to work with and the quality of his product is outstanding. Josh made great use of our time and was very collaborative for our project. I would highly recommend Cougar Digital Marketing they produce great product at awesome value. Cheers, George Stanley General Manager Audi/BMW Tri Cities

Josh was fantastic to work with! He took Real Estate photography photos on the 14th, and had all of them beautifully edited and back to me in 24 hours! Highly recommend his services!

We had a great experience working with COUGAR DIGITAL for creating our website and helping us with our ongoing marketing needs. Ashley, did an exceptional job with the website. Josh created an awesome logo and branding bible for us, and Makayla's photos added a professional touch. Highly recommended for top-notch digital marketing solutions!

If you need a website. Call these guys and you won't be disappointed. You'll be surprised at how affordable they are and with the great LOCAL customer service they provide. These guys know their stuff.

Josh did a great job making a couple of highlight videos for me. Easy to work with and prompt service

Every business, large or especially small, should have professional help on marketing. As a small business owner, I only have so much time. I need to keep my focus on the daily tasks and still be able to be a family man. Cougar Digital takes this immense pressure off my shoulders. Not only does my business grow, it's easier. Highly recommend.

We’ve been working with Cougar Digital Marketing for almost 6 years, and they have consistently gone above and beyond for Boiada Brazilian Grill. Josh is amazing at graphic design and always brings our ideas to life in fun, creative ways. Travis and Ashley have done an exceptional job with every aspect of our new website build — from strategy meetings and design to training and development. Cougar is professional, timely, fun to work with, and they create outstanding content. We couldn’t be happier with our new website — it’s beautiful and easy for our team to edit and update. Highly recommend Cougar to any business looking for a true marketing partner!

Josh and Cougar Digital did an amazing job on a video for an event. We were super proud to show it to donors and had a wonderful response by community members regarding the video. Well done Josh and Cougar Digital!

We had the privilege of working with Cougar Digital to create a video for our annual Hospice Gala, and we couldn't be happier with the results. The team captured the heart of what we do beautifully, creating a piece that was both moving and true to our mission. Josh, in particular, was outstanding. His compassionate approach made our interviewee feel comfortable and valued, allowing them to share their story openly and genuinely. The video resonated deeply with our guests, effectively conveying the essence of hospice care and the impact of our work on patients and their families. Thank you, Cougar Digital, for helping us share our story in such an impactful way!

Josh produced an outstanding web site for TRI-CITY MUSIC. He ad access to numerous resources that made for an amazing finished product. Josh also provided extensive training on how to update the website myself. I have received numerous positive comments on Josh's creation. For outstanding product and service, I recommend Josh.

Had a great experience working with Josh! Super easy to work with and really knows his stuff - especially when it comes to lighting and editing for interior shots. The photos turned out amazing, with just the right vibe we were going for. We ended up adding a few extra shot requests last minute, and Josh had no problem fitting them in. He also helped with staging, which made a big difference, and the drone footage was a great bonus. His pricing was very reasonable for the quality we got. Great value for money. We’ll definitely be hiring him again for future shoots!

Josh was easy to work with. He returned my calls and emails promptly! And he did amazing job. I will not hesitate to reach out to him again for up coming projects!

Our website turned out great! Nick was super easy to work with really made the process a breeze. Josh was our photographer for our website, after seeing the results from the first shoot we had to schedule for another! The pictures turned out better than imagined. Josh did a great job staying out of our crews way but managed to catch all the action with great detail. 10/10 would recommend to anyone!

Josh Kandle and his team did a great job educating us about the importance of up-to-date digital tools, and how quickly out-of-date solutions can hinder our on-line reach. The solutions he offered were more than fairly priced, paid immediate dividends, and I am happy to refer him to any business in need of a productive digital marketing program.

Josh did a great job on my headshot. He provided a timely appointment and spent the time to make sure he got the best shot. He was even willing to try several different locations. I would recommend him for anybody looking to update the professional photos.

So great to have a guy like Josh and the Cougar Digital team in your corner. Professional, fast, and awesome to work with.

We love Cougar Digital! We have worked with them on various projects - rack cards, posters, banners, even a couple commercials. They're friendly, helpful, creative, and truly and do great work. We would recommend them to anyone!

Cougar Digital answered the phone, literally. During a company name change, we reached out to multiple design and marketing groups from the Tri-Cities to Walla Walla to Spokane. Although we'd left messages with each vendor, Cougar was the only one courteous enough to respond. After a couple consultations, Joshua Kandle, Director of Marketing took charge of the design of our new company logo. With patience and professionalism, he listened to our concepts and following a series of modifications, he created a logo that is printed on millions of labels and boxes that're shipped globally. The logo is headlined on our website and our email, along with being printed on our work garments. Digital art might be easy with today's technology, but without Joshua's patient nature and ability to listen to our ideas, the incredible logo wouldn't have been possible. Vehemently I recommend Cougar Digital. They're professional yet personable. They're communicative and driven while remaining patient.

Great company! Love how quickly Josh responds to our needs, questions and requests! Highly recommend them

Cougar digital marketing is a fantastic company for your online marketing needs I had couple estimates on building my website cougar digital was one of the highest but their knowledge and responsive put them apart from other marketing companies which is why chose them best dollars I've spent for my business is here

Travis and his team are amazing. They were quick to communicate, completely understood what we were looking for, and delivered an amazing product by the deadline requested. We can’t recommend them enough!

We have nothing but great things to say about Cougar Digital Marketing! Travis took the time to understand our goals, worked around our schedule, and went above and beyond to make our vision come to life. Ashley was a whiz and was always available when we needed her. Our site turned out better than we imagined. Can't recommend them enough.

I used Cougar Digital Marketing for a personal Christmas gift in 2024. Josh was professional, friendly, and helpful throughout the whole process from setting up location and time for photos, to helping me through the purchasing process to get the photos printed. The Christmas gift was my father's favorite this year-- thank you , Cougar Digital Marketing!

I am the Office Manager of a business that badly needed a website reworked. I knew that Cougar Digital was up to the task, but I was unsure of my own Manager. He really didn't want to go through the steps to work with anyone on anything like a website. Nick was fabulous (as in over the top) in his Customer Service skills with a very hard to work with man. The professionalism of Cougar Digital, coupled with the patience and skills of Nick, provided my Manager with everything he needed to get a new website. The website is beautiful and I am one very pleased customer. I will always go to Cougar Digital for all of my marketing needs.

Mykaela Faulconer at Cougar Digital is one of my favorite people to work with, ever, across the board. She is incredibly talented, and has done consistently stellar graphic design for me and my team at Tri-City Orthopaedic Clinic. I have never had a bad interaction with Mykaela, and she goes above and beyond to provider exemplary customer service at every turn. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work with Mykaela on a daily basis. Everyone at Cougar Digital is amazing, and I would recommend them whole-heartedly.

We hired these guys to handle some commercial photos for both exterior and aerial shots. Josh and team were excellent to work with and made things easy while adapting to changing schedules and weather. The photos turned out amazing in the end. Highly recommend.

Working with Josh at Cougar Digital Marketing & Design was an excellent experience! The process was incredibly collaborative, allowing us to bring our vision for the Pasco School District Career Guide to life. Josh listened to our ideas, provided valuable insights, and worked tirelessly to ensure the final product exceeded our expectations. We are thrilled with the outcome and can't wait to share our new Career Guide with our students and families. Highly recommend Cougar Digital for any design and marketing needs!

Business Startup FAQs

Questions? We've heard 'em all.

If you’re thinking it, there’s a good chance someone else asked it too. 

What’s the first marketing move a new business should make?
What should a new business budget for marketing in year one?
Does a new business need a website right away?
How long does it take to launch startup marketing basics?
Can you help with one marketing piece, or do I have to hire you for everything?

Digital Marketing for Busy Professionals

Learn more. Grow faster.

Quick, useful reads to help you think bigger and market smarter.

Ready to get started?

Tell us where you are. We'll help you figure out what comes next.

30 minutes, no homework required. Tell us what you're building, where you are in the process, and what you're trying to accomplish. We'll give you an honest read on where to start and what it actually costs.