From the tools to the tech.

I didn't start in marketing. I started in a plumbing apprenticeship, straight out of school — early starts, dirty work, and a front-row seat to how local service businesses actually run.

The pull to travel took me out of the trade and, eventually, into a role at Shopify, then Canada's fastest-growing tech company. Being surrounded by that world cracked something open for me: I saw how the right systems, marketing and automation could take a good business and make it unstoppable — and how most small operators never get access to any of it.

That's the gap I came back to fill. I moved from the tools into business development, and then into building New Wave Digital Marketing — an agency built specifically for the tradies, clinics and local operators I grew up around.

Since then, we've built over 500 websites. But the thing I'm proudest of isn't the number — it's that I still think like someone who's been on the tools. I know what it's like to be great at the work and invisible online. I know a website is worthless if it doesn't ring the phone. And I know most business owners have been burned by someone who talked in jargon and delivered nothing.

We're the opposite of that. Straight-talking, local, and genuinely good at making your business easier to find and easier to choose.

— Sam Barnes

Our mission

To help generate $1 billion in leads for the businesses we work with.

Every website, every funnel, every campaign we build is a step toward that number — because behind it are thousands of local businesses getting the phone calls, the jobs and the growth they deserve.

Part of the New Wave Group

New Wave Digital Marketing is one part of the New Wave Group — a family of brands built to help local service businesses grow. When you work with us, you get the focus of a specialist team and the backing of everything the Group brings with it.