Agency Entourage

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company provides data management for the clinical trials industry. We have a unique software to help with data analytics and digitalization of clinical trials and programs. I am the Vice President of Strategic Marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agency Entourage?

Our main challenge was the absence of a coordinated look and feel for the organization. We needed help with preparing customer-facing messaging and typical communication pieces for the company as a whole. We also had a very rudimentary website that needed to evolve.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My predecessor asked Agency Entourage to work on the company’s social media, but I asked them to redirect their efforts this year. They worked to refresh the look and feel of our company’s marketing campaigns. This involved creating an outward-facing campaign and new messaging. Agency Entourage then updated a cascade of materials: ads, brochures, and our website. With content from our team, Agency Entourage put together a new campaign that had a cleaner user interface.

How did you come to work with Agency Entourage?

I was introduced to Agency Entourage at my previous job and I recommended them to my current company.

How much have you invested with Agency Entourage?

Our company has invested between $10,000 and $20,000 with Agency Entourage.

What is the status of this engagement?

We are currently working with Agency Entourage. They are the only agency that we regularly use.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They have a good mix of resources and keep continuity on a project, which is a timesaver. Agency Entourage’s creative team is also pretty outstanding. They were very willing to listen and make revisions. The designs that they’ve done for us have gotten attention and are visually appealing to people. Agency Entourage won an award for one of the campaigns they did for us.

How did Agency Entourage perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of key performance indicators, they met all timelines on deliverables. They’re very good at communication and keeping us in the loop.

What did you find most impressive about Agency Entourage?

Agency Entourage is committed to customer intimacy and knowing their clients. They take the time to understand what your business challenges are. They’ve had great retention of staff, which is very efficient. As a customer, that means I’m working with someone who knows my needs well. I’m not always having to re-educate a new resource. On the service side, they have a very fast response rate. They always respond to any issue or inquiry within 24 hours or less. That’s something that makes Agency Entourage stand out. Agency Entourage is certainly committed to doing what’s required to be more successful.

Are there any areas Agency Entourage could improve?

Since their reach is very broad, it’s hard for Agency Entourage to know what works in specific industries. For example, we are a B2B [business-to-business] in a highly complex niche area. So the kind of tactics that work in a B2C [business-to-consumer] environment are not appropriate. Sometimes, time is wasted recommending things that are not appropriate for our niche. Perhaps they need more strategic thinking, which usually comes with experienced folks. They have a young staff, so we’re willing to provide that strategic arm. It would help if they have more experienced staff who’d been around the block.

Another area for improvement is pricing. Sometimes, there is the feeling that while they have given us a great deal on one service, what we’re paying for another project is disproportionate. More predictability in the pricing structure probably would be a better thing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Good Days is a nonprofit organization that provides help to people who need medications to battle chronic diseases, but might not be able to afford them.

What is your position?

I am the senior director of marketing and communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Agency Entourage?

They do a lot of my collateral marketing for me. They've been a great help with branding my organization and providing materials that help reinforce that brand.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They create brochures and are redoing my website and a lot of writing. They create manuals for me and help with content creation for social media. They also blog and do a lot of copywriting. They write two or three blog posts a week. They run social media accounts for me.

How did you come to work with Agency Entourage?

Somebody that I knew previously who worked at an ad agency we worked with now works at Agency Entourage, and I followed her there. She's brought some new techniques to the table. No one from the ad agency was managing social media accounts. She told me how Agency Entourage could manage social media accounts for me while also continuing to provide the services that my old agency did.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We have a monthly retainer. The price ranges from $5,000 to $20,000 depending on the month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them for a year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don't have exact specifics, but when we look at the analytics for the social media, we've definitely substantially increased our traffic from before when I was doing it on my own. We get a lot of feedback from the people who are getting the message. There's a lot of direct traffic from Facebook and from the blogging to the website. The quality of work is amazing and people are very impressed. They are incredibly creative and the design work is so professional. I feel like I could be working at Pepsi – getting that caliber of talent.

How did Agency Entourage perform from a project management standpoint?

Agency Entourage does a pretty good job. When I have a hard deadline, they always meet it. Every week, I get a status update on where we stand.

What distinguishes Agency Entourage from other providers?

They listen well and respond well.

Is there anything Agency Entourage could have improved or done differently?

They might want to try double-checking things before I get them. Sometimes, they'll deliver things, and I catch mistakes that I feel like they should be finding.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My organization is Qualtrust Credit Union. We're located in Dallas/Fort Worth. We have locations throughout Dallas/Fort Worth and in San Angelo, Texas. Close to 50 percent of our member base that use us are former Verizon employees. We're continuing to grow. We have a complex marketing model.

What is your position?

I am the senior vice president of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Agency Entourage?

They helped us get our website in order, develop a social media presence, create content, and design graphics and advertising efforts.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We needed to have a more robust, interactive, cleaner, and fresher website. We didn't have a Facebook or social media initiative. They helped us develop a Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn presence. They also developed a blog that has become very important part of our website. It has a nice following, is updated constantly, and our customer base enjoys it. We introduced a new mobile app that allows customers to do picture deposits and interact with their accounts in a normal big bank way. They made it easy for customers to use on any platform. They also designed advertising and graphics. It was a team effort, but they provided leadership and guidance.

Our blog is 100 percent produced by them. They talk to us about where they're going with the blog and look for our input, but they have the lead. They do a newsletter for us. We talk about topics for the content they create, and they have continually shown a lot of versatility.

How did you come to work with Agency Entourage?

We met Ben [Randolph], the principal and got to know each other. We had been doing TV advertising for about two years. We had a media buyer who had a relationship with Agency Entourage. She highly recommended them, so we set up a meeting.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

They have a team that's available to us 24/7. We meet once a week. The cost depends on what our PPC [pay-per-click] is. On average, it's $10,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're on our fourth year with them. You don't stay with a company that's not producing results and they are.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We began to see almost immediate results with our PPC and Facebook initiatives. We saw a big lift in our website on all fronts. We were ranking number one in our area on Google searches thanks to their SEO. That's a complex process to get more recognition from the Google team. They helped us with that.

We started providing lending for RVs about the same time we brought them on. That year. we put on $40 million in loans that we didn't anticipate. They weren't responsible for all that, but that was a big part of it. They are a significant part of our growth.

How did Agency Entourage perform from a project management standpoint?

There are always going to be changes in account managers. It's a young talented team. They've done a great job of acquiring the best and brightest in terms of education and experience. With that, you're going to have a little turnover. In terms of staying responsive, organized, maintaining attention to detail, being timely, and getting in touch with, they've gone above and beyond. It's one of their strengths. Ben is local and is invested in what we do. The first account manager was amazing. She was very creative and innovative. She knew our business as well as we did. We've had three account managers, and each one has offered a unique set of skills.

What distinguishes Agency Entourage from other providers?

Their responsiveness and affordability separates Agency Entourage from the rest. For 50 to 300 employee businesses, they're great. We've referred them to many folks. The larger you get, the more you might stretch them, but it depends on the project.

Is there anything Agency Entourage could have improved or done differently?

I would say it's a challenge for all of us for them to hang onto their talented people. They've recently located to downtown Dallas. They bought a new building much closer to us and are now much more accessible to their clients. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and president of Taylor Hooton Foundation. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a very small organization with only six employees. Our job is providing education and raising awareness about the problem of performance-enhancing drug use.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agency Entourage?

We needed help with marketing, social media, and website work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Agency Entourage does everything in terms of graphic design work. They produce printed and virtual materials using PDF files. They create logos, brochures, public service announcements, advertisements, and others. One project involved providing graphics for our work with Major League Baseball team programs. Agency Entourage also works closely with my son on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. They do content for those platforms, too. It's not an effort to manage the quality of Agency Entourage. I look at them as my external vice president of marketing.

How did you come to work with Agency Entourage?

We used to retain the services of a company called Numantra. It was eventually acquired by Agency Entourage.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've worked with Agency Entourage for five years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Thanks to Agency Entourage, we're consistently improving our social media engagement, website visitors, and click-throughs. Everything is currently trending in the right direction.

How did Agency Entourage perform from a project management standpoint?

Agency Entourage performed very well from a project management standpoint. We have a weekly meeting to track action items. Every Monday morning, we track where we are overall on a project basis. Every Friday, we get an email from Agency Entourage about the major deliverables they're working on for the upcoming week. We also have a monthly meeting with the principal of the firm. This gives us an opportunity to directly address the owner of the business and let him know when we're having problems. I feel we're fully engaged with them.

What did you find most impressive about Agency Entourage?

They're very professional, and they have a couple of folks that are very creative. I call them virtual employees. They're our virtual marketing team.

Are there any areas Agency Entourage could improve?

We always want more work for our dollars. We've had a handful of "must improve" meetings, but when we have complaints or believe that things need to change, Agency Entourage does the changes.