For US businesses
Branding and web agency for US small businesses
Brandtropic is a remote branding and web agency for small businesses in the United States. From Tijuana, on Pacific Time and minutes from San Diego, we build your brand, a website made to be found on Google and recommended by ChatGPT, and the marketing behind it. US clients are invoiced in USD.
- Time zone
- Pacific Time, the same clock as California. Calls on US business hours.
- Billing
- Invoiced in USD, with a clear proposal before you commit.
- Pricing
- Quoted in three tiers — Basic, Mid and Heavy.
- Built in
- Accessible design, consent-ready forms and local SEO.
- Languages
- English and Spanish.
Nearshore, not offshore
Same clock as California. Minutes from San Diego. A cost structure from the other side of the border.
“Nearshore” gets thrown around a lot, so here’s what it means with us. Brandtropic is a nearshore branding and marketing agency based in Tijuana, Baja California, right across the border from San Diego. We’re on Pacific Time, so a 10 a.m. call in Los Angeles is a 10 a.m. call here — not a message that sits overnight waiting for a team on the other side of the world.
The cost side is just as plain. Our team is based in Mexico, so our cost structure is a Mexican one: running a studio in Tijuana costs less than running the same studio in San Diego or Los Angeles. That difference shows up in the proposal, and you still get a team on your clock that works in English and invoices in US dollars.
Remote doesn’t mean hands-off. You get a clear proposal before anything starts, direction before we build, reviews on your schedule and, for monthly work, a report on the numbers we agreed before starting. Every piece is approved by a person before it reaches you.
On US business hours
Tijuana runs on Pacific Time and changes its clocks on the same dates as the US, so these gaps hold all year.
- PacificSame clock. California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada: your 10 a.m. is our 10 a.m.
- MountainWe’re one hour behind. A 10 a.m. call in Denver or Salt Lake City is 9 a.m. in Tijuana.
- CentralWe’re two hours behind. A noon call in Chicago or Dallas is 10 a.m. here.
- EasternWe’re three hours behind. A 1 p.m. call in New York, Atlanta or Miami is 10 a.m. here.
Arizona doesn’t change its clocks: in summer it shares ours, in winter it’s one hour ahead.
Invoiced in USD. Quoted before you commit.
No menu of prices. A proposal sized to your case.
We don’t publish fixed prices, because a dental office in Phoenix and a coffee roaster in Portland don’t need the same work. Every project is sized to your case in three tiers — Basic, Mid and Heavy — and you get a clear proposal before you commit: what we’ll do, what it costs and how long it takes. US clients are invoiced in US dollars.
Brand and website projects have a closing date. A brand identity usually takes three to five weeks; a small business website, from a few weeks to a couple of months, depending on your content and how fast approvals come back. Marketing, content and systems run monthly, because they only pay off when they run continuously.
For reference, this is what the US market usually charges. These are rough market ranges to help you compare quotes, not our prices.
| Who builds it | Brand identity | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Free to a few hundred dollars | A few hundred dollars a year on a site builder |
| Freelancer | A few hundred to a few thousand dollars | About $1,500–$8,000 |
| Studio or small agency | About $5,000–$30,000 | About $5,000–$25,000 |
| Large agency or custom build | $50,000 and up | $25,000 and up |
Market ranges for orientation only, not Brandtropic prices. Your proposal is sized to your case.
What a US website has to get right
A few federal and state rules shape how a US business website, its forms and its marketing should work. Here’s the plain-English version, and what we build in from the start so you aren’t retrofitting it later.
| The rule | What it’s about | What we build in |
|---|---|---|
| ADA and website accessibility | US courts have applied the Americans with Disabilities Act to business websites, and accessibility lawsuits against small business sites are common. WCAG 2.1 AA is the usual target. | Accessible design: readable contrast, keyboard navigation, clear headings, labeled forms and alt text on images. |
| State privacy laws | California’s CCPA, as amended by the CPRA, and a growing list of other states regulate how sites collect and share personal data through forms, cookies and analytics. Many apply only above size or data thresholds. | Consent-ready forms and cookie banners, forms that link to your privacy notice, and analytics set up so visitors can say no. |
| CAN-SPAM | Commercial email can’t mislead in its sender or subject line, has to include your physical postal address and a working way to unsubscribe, and opt-outs must be honored within 10 business days. | Email templates with your address and an easy unsubscribe, and lists that respect every opt-out. |
| TCPA | Marketing text messages generally need the person’s prior express written consent, and every message should make it easy to opt out, for example by replying STOP. | Text sign-ups with an unticked consent box in plain words, and opt-out flows that work. |
This is general information, not legal advice. Laws change and depend on your business; for a compliance decision, talk to a lawyer. We build sites and campaigns to respect these rules; we don’t certify legal compliance.
Local SEO for US businesses
When your customers search “near me”, this is where you win them or lose them.
- Google Business ProfileClaimed, verified and filled in: categories, services, hours, photos and posts. If you go to your customers, it’s set up as a service-area business, so your home address stays private.
- Service-area pagesOne page for each city or area you actually cover, written for the people there — not the same page with the town name swapped.
- ReviewsA simple routine to ask happy customers for a Google review, and to answer every review, good or bad.
- Same name, address and phoneYour NAP written exactly the same way on your site, Google, Yelp, the BBB, Apple Business Connect and Bing Places. Mismatches confuse search engines and AI assistants alike.
- Local structured dataLocalBusiness markup on your site, so Google and AI assistants read your hours, area and services as facts instead of guessing them.
The full picture of how we get businesses found on Google and ChatGPT.
What we do for US businesses
Five services, one team. Start with one and add the rest when your business asks for it.
- BrandingLogo, brand guide, colors and typography: the rules to use your brand right, everywhere.
- Web designA site built to be found and to convert, with hosting and SSL included. You don’t touch anything technical.
- SEO, AEO & GEOFound on Google, recommended by ChatGPT and cited by AI search tools.
- Marketing & contentSocial media, campaigns and monthly content, with AI-connected reports on what worked.
- AI systems & CRMBrandtropic System and custom tools, so leads and tasks stop getting lost between inboxes.
See it built: Harmony Investments (fintech), ExplorActive (ecotourism) and Los Espíritus (retail).
Questions from US businesses
Straight answers, no runaround.
Can a Mexico-based agency work with my US business?
Yes. Brandtropic works fully remotely with US businesses from Tijuana, minutes from San Diego and on Pacific Time. Calls and reviews run on US business hours, the work happens in English, and you’re invoiced in US dollars.
Do you invoice in US dollars?
Yes. US clients are invoiced in USD. Before anything starts, you get a clear proposal sized in three tiers (Basic, Mid and Heavy) that says what we’ll do, what it costs and how long it takes. You commit only after you’ve seen it.
What hours do you work?
We’re on Pacific Time and keep US business hours for calls and reviews. On the West Coast, we share your clock. On Eastern Time, we’re three hours behind you, so a 1 p.m. call in New York is 10 a.m. for us.
Will my website be ADA compliant?
We design and build with WCAG 2.1 AA as the target, the usual benchmark in the US, and check contrast, keyboard use, headings, forms and alt text before launch. Nobody can honestly certify a site as ADA compliant once and for all: content changes, and the law sets no single technical standard for private businesses. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do you do local SEO for my city?
Yes. We set up your Google Business Profile, build pages for the places you actually serve, give you a simple routine for reviews, and keep your name, address and phone consistent across Yelp, the BBB, Apple Business Connect and Bing Places. Nobody can promise the top spot on the map, but these are the signals Google looks at.
Can you build my website in English and Spanish?
Yes. The team works in English and Spanish, so if part of your market speaks Spanish, we can build a bilingual site and keep your brand voice consistent in both languages.
A team on your clock. Tell us where you are.
Tell us where your business is. We reply with a first read of your case and a clear proposal in US dollars — what we’ll do, what it costs and how long it takes. No commitment.