It’s Canada Day, our version of Independence Day.

And as we know, Canadians can be humble, non-self-promotional, and avoid celebrating success.

But there’s a lot to celebrate, especially in our startup and tech sectors.

So that’s why I’ve put together a list of innovative Canadian startups and companies that can help your business grow – no matter where you are.

(And this is not a random list, with most of these companies I’ve either engaged with, used their product/service, and/or have worked with them).

For Getting More from Your Content Marketing…

Uberflip is your “content marketing system”.  Based in Liberty Village in Toronto (cool offices), Uberflip lets you streamline and get more leads from your content management.

For Converting Visitors into Customers…

As Unbounce‘s Co-founder Oli Gardner says, “never start a marketing campaign without a landing page.  Vancouver’s Unbounce is a landing page platform that allows marketing to build, test, and optimize landing pages without the need for any coding.  Pretty cool, and pretty affordable too.

For Managing Your Social Media…

Hootsuite is one of Canada’s social media success stories.  With over 100 million users worldwide, the West Coast platform is a complete social media management system for monitoring and managing your brand.

For Working with Influencers Whom Have the Ear of Your Audience…

Businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on Influence Marketing, according to a recent Tomoson report.  East Coast’s InNetwork is an Influencer Marketing platform that allows brands to find, engage, and manage Influencer Marketing campaigns with those people who have the ear of your audience.  On the flip side, it’s also a place to create a profile if you are an Influencer.

For Advocate Marketing…

I’ve used Influitive before, it’s very cool.  It lets you create unique challenges for your advocates like writing a review, sharing a blog post, completing a survey, etc., and reward them.  It’s probably best used by brands with larger followings, but could probably be used for rewarding employees and/or members of an organization too.

For Better Data and Social Intelligence on Your Audience…

LeadSift is another East Coast success story.  We tested it out a few years ago as a Twitter lead gen tool, but since it has expanded to beyond just Twitter, allowing businesses to gain a deeper understanding of their audience for insight analysis, media planning and buying or 1:1 engagement.

For Referral Marketing…

Referral SaaSquatch is a referral platform for SaaS-based solutions.  Based in BC, the platform lets you create, manage, and optimize campaigns for current customers that will help get more referrals for your biz.

For Enabling Employees & Partners to Post Approved Brand Content…

Social media “fails” are commonplace with a lot of companies and brands.  Enter Toronto’s PostBeyond.  It’s a tool that allows employees to consume and share the company’s approved content on their personal social networks while ensuring clear, consistent brand messaging.

For Invoicing, Accounting & Billing…

Freshbooks is another huge success story.  You probably know about this cloud accounting platform (for non accountants), but if not, now you do 🙂

For Paying All Your Suppliers & Vendors in One Place…

Plooto is your payment platform for paying all your vendors and suppliers in one place.  No need for cheques, drafts, filing cabinets or visits to the bank.

For Requesting, Approving & Managing All Your Company Purchases…

Having had to get written sign off for so many purchases in my marketing career, I’m glad to see a company like BC’s Procurify come along.  It allows for easy expense requests and approvals for the entire company on one simply platform.

For Simplifying Complex Contracts…

Beagle is a startup based out of Kitchener that I recently came across but find really interesting.  Using AI, it helps you to read contracts, highlight key information and provide immediate understanding.  In other words, “sniff out the fine print” so you don’t have to.

For Online Payroll…

Halifax/Waterloo’s Wagepoint is online payroll software that does all of the above (it works for both US and Canadian businesses).  Pretty easy to use and pretty darn affordable too.

For Simpler, More Affordable Banking…

Koho is another startup I recently came across.  If there’s any industry that needs disrupted in Canada (besides telecom), it’s banking.  Canadians pay some of the highest banking fees in the world and Koho is trying to change that with no monthly fees and keeping banking mostly a digital experience (which is where it’s going anyhow).

For Internet & Telecom Services…

Speaking of telecom, Toronto’s Diallog Telecommunications offers nearly everything a Bell, Rogers, or Telus does for businesses, but at less cost and better service.  Every customer is even assigned a dedicated account rep who will get to be familiar with your business, and you, imagine that 🙂

For Web Hosting Services…

HostPapa is Canada’s #1 Small Business Website host.  It’s pretty affordable, popular, and they definitely “get” social media.