Digital Current

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a bootstrap company called Daysmart Software. We offer salon, pet grooming, medical spa and tattoo parlor software. We help people run their businesses more efficiently.

What is your position?

I am a co-owner and founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Digital Current?

My husband and I have masters in engineering and electronic and computers control systems. Back in the 90s to mid-2000s, I was able to get a number one organic Google ranking for the search term 'salon software'.

Since then, a lot of things have changed. We had continued to do search engine marketing ourselves, but slipped down to about number three or four for our top phrases. We hired Digital Current to get us back up in search results, and also to gain us more visibility with other related keywords, like 'appointment book'. We want to generate more leads online and maintain and strengthen our entire presence on Google.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They do organic SEO for us. We handle our own Google AdWords, between me and my employees. This is really straightforward for common people, and doesn't require a company with a lot of technical expertise.

We also make our own Facebook posts but they are helping us with social media content, and they're posting comments to other industry related pages. They are doing many different things to grow our online profile.

How did you come to work with Digital Current?

I have a very good consultant working out of Silicon Valley who is familiar with a lot of the big software companies. He recommended Digital Current to me and did a lot of the leg work of selecting an online marketing agency.

I found that one of the frustrating things with hiring firms is trying to contact vendors, and it was really a joke that some of them were trying to basically sell 1990s technology. I was really surprised with the quality of some of the SEO agencies I contacted. Most presentations were not sophisticated and these agencies were just focused on getting sales.

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

$7,000 per month is our current budget. We used to spend well over $10,000 per month on Google Adwords, so now we’re saving money and getting better results.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've only been working with them a few months. I think we started in August 2015, so only four months so far. However, Digital Current has already made a significant impact.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

When we dropped down to number five or six on Google AdWords, we were spending around $15,000 a month, and would be overwhelmed by the traffic every day at about three o'clock.

We’re not paying for AdWords anymore, so all our incoming traffic is organic. Within a month of working with them, doing a search for ‘salon software’ will have us as the first or second result, organically. We’re absolutely thrilled with them. They’re timely, they know what they’re doing, and have explained things well. We’re a technical company, so we had a lot of questions, to which they gave us really good answers.

I haven’t yet gotten the reports for new leads. We will have an upcoming meeting about this. It’s something hard to measure right now, because around the holidays, salons are very busy, so traffic drops off. We’ll get an up-kick in January. Subjectively speaking, when I check the trial downloads, business is definitely going up.

How did Digital Current perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed our campaign very well so far. The headline metric we have is from our SEMrush computed visibility score, which improved drastically after working with Digital Current. Our score jumped 66% for keywords we care about and we jumped from #5 to #2 in the most important (and competitively contested) keyword phrases in the first two weeks.

What distinguishes Digital Current from other providers?

Their response time is incredible and they're very knowledgeable. I had a lot of very detailed questions. For example, we have training videos on our website, which are sending users to Youtube, and we couldn't decide if we should embed the videos on the website, or link them. Digital Current responded within a couple of hours, saying that we needed to embed them, and needed to add transcripts because that helps search engines. Every detailed question of this sort, they've been able to answer. 

Is there anything Digital Current could have improved or done differently?

No, they're awesome.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The name of our company is Diamond View Studios. We're a professional video production company.

What is your position?

I am the vice president and executive producer of Diamond View Studios.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Digital Current?

Our overall goal with them was to manage our content in terms of SEO, in the cities of Tampa, Miami, and Orlando, and to develop a web presence on Google, to show up in searches for professional video production.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Right now, they strictly work on SEO, and content development for blogs. They write nice articles for the blog section on our website.

How did you come to work with Digital Current?

I did a Google search for them and pulled up an article from Forbes.com. They were in the top ten SEO companies in the United States. I placed calls to a number of companies from that list, and had a good experience with them.

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

It’s between $10,000 to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work is ongoing, with the potential to move to the next tier of services. We've been working together for eight to twelve months. We may add more services and expand our budget later if we can see the success the first efforts generate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I'm satisfied with the results. We're in the top three results for Google searches for Tampa, and it’s getting better with the other two areas we’re targeting, Miami and Orlando.

We are seeing more inquiries for video production, whether they be phone calls or online contact.

How did Digital Current perform from a project management standpoint?

Digital Current seems to do a great job and have organized our campaign properly.

What distinguishes Digital Current from other providers?

I like Digital Current’s flexibility. If I send them an email, we can jump to a discussion pretty quickly, and we have a monthly ongoing discussion about our results and areas of improvement.

Is there anything Digital Current could have improved or done differently?

No, I'm pretty happy with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an affiliate marketing network. We do online advertising on a performance-based approach.

What is your position?

I am currently the project manager and brand manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Digital Current?

Digital Current's work with us is twofold. I am not versed with SEO, and they are. I rely on them heavily to help us maintain our strength and our top keywords. Also, they help us with our brand management, making sure that when people search for our company, only the good search results are showing up.

They also help us promote a lot of positive online articles. They get the right articles to help us build our SEO, and our brand presence online.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Right now, they are not doing any Pay-Per-Click [PPC] management or social media work. I handle that aspect. So it is all organic SEO work.

How did you come to work with Digital Current?

To be honest, I'm not familiar in how we came across Digital Current. The person who handled brand management before me selected them. I'm sure that they reached out to multiple companies.

From my personal experience with Digital Current, I can say that they are always prepared and are very knowledgeable. That provides a certain comfort for us, especially since this is an area where I'm not strong at. I rely on them to be the experts. Every time I speak with them, I know that they know what they are talking about.

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

I'd say we are in the range of $50,000 to $75,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've worked with them for almost a year now. What we've seen is that, while we make improvements in certain areas, there's always something to grow towards. So, we set new goals and continue to work with them. I recently spoke with them and looked at new projects. They've always been there, and were always a great ally for me to rely on. I know that when we come to them with something, they will know what to do, and we can trust them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don't have any readily available.

How did Digital Current perform from a project management standpoint?

We are satisfied with them. We meet, or rather, e-meet on a monthly basis. We have phone calls and presentations on a bi-monthly basis. They were always ready to show the results of what they've improved on and what still needs work. They're very upfront about things that may be more difficult, and are very good at setting the expectations for those types of situations where there are fast changes and things that require more work. We've been very happy with them.

What distinguishes Digital Current from other providers?

I think they're a great company. They're definitely experts at what they do. Christy, specifically, is whom I work with, and she's an amazing resource to have in your back pocket.

Is there anything Digital Current could have improved or done differently?

Not that I can think of. We are pretty happy with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is a global distributor of different projects, spanning across multiple business sectors called Scan Source.

What is your position?

I work in the Corporate Marketing Department, and I am a Marketing Project Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Digital Current?

We work with a lot of different manufacturers and vendors. They are helping us with one particular vendor, to increase their SEO.

Our company, as a whole, does not do a lot of SEO or website management. We're currently trying to get up with the times, and one of our vendors decided to not wait for our corporate initiative, and instead managed their campaign on their own, doing some page search and re-targeting, and looking at what their websites needed. I had a counterpart that did research on some companies, and had come across Digital Current as a viable option for SEO, after vetting a few different companies.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Right now, it's a combination of organic and Search Engine Marketing [SEM], along with paid search. We don't know what exactly to do, so they're helping us in looking at everything, and telling us what we should be doing, where we stand, and where we could improve, all based on the specific objective of what we're trying to accomplish.

How did you come to work with Digital Current?

We had worked with an SEO firm in the past, and had been very unhappy with their services. That vendor had done one paid search campaign that didn't go well. The few campaigns that we had done, didn't turn out great. So, our digital strategist went to three or four different SEO firms that had been recommended through other people, before deciding that Digital Current was the one we should use. She was most impressed with them, especially with their level of customer service and the amount of information they gave beforehand.

I'm the Marketing Project Manager, but I work with someone in Merchandising, who would approve any spending. Therefore, Digital Current first presented to me, then to our merchandising person, and they were blown away. Compared to the last firm that we worked with, just the first pitch and presentation that they did really impressed us.

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

The campaign that I'm working on is at over $100,000. This figure is for just one vendor. Our corporate team is looking into working with more than one agency, so the figure could go to over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've had a contract with them for four months, and, in total, we've collaborated for closer to six months. We are pitching their services to other stakeholders, because we've been really impressed with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We just launched a page, and, at this time, we have a 25% conversion rate, which is unheard of.

I actually talked about switching something, and they dissuaded me. The page is performing remarkably well, and we don't want to mess that up.

How did Digital Current perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been great. If anything, we've been a hindrance to the projects, because of some business situations on our end. They've rolled in with our punches anyways.

The website that we were working on, for which they did a lot of research and analysis, got switched with literally a 24 hour notice. So, we had some delays in our campaign, but through no fault of Digital Current. They've been great at leading us through the path of getting our website launched and choosing other vendors to service the website.

They offered some best practices, and told us where to spend our money and what wasn’t needed. They've done their research on the webpages that they've done, and we've been 100% satisfied with all of their work.

The last SEO firm that we worked with recommended certain things which I had questioned. Later, when we talked to Digital Current, they literally recommended the opposite, and, sure enough, our campaign has done better than it had with the other SEO firm.

What distinguishes Digital Current from other providers?

Our client manager has been amazing. We've recently had an excellent call with them. Everything they said made sense, and their general level of customer service is remarkable. Any time they don't know the answer to a question, they tell us they will come back with an answer, which they always do.

They're very communicative. We have weekly check-ins to make sure that we're all on the same page. Our company is in the unique position of not being the direct client. I have a manager that has to approve everything before I can even show my merchandising person, who then has to approve everything, and then show her vendor. Literally, we have four layers of approval on our end that can cause a back-log on projects. They've been great about working with us and our approval process and so we just rolled with the punches.

Is there anything Digital Current could have improved or done differently?

Timelines. Mainly because we work with timelines differently, and they end up having to roll with how we operate, and getting set dates of when something is due. Still, that's not necessarily their fault.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Legacy Building Solutions is a worldwide seller, manufacturer, engineer, and installer of tension fabric structures.

What is your position?

I am the director of marketing for three websites going on five, and mostly in charge of our worldwide presence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Digital Current?

Our goal was to increase authenticity. We’re a young company that needed to exude trust since our product is upwards of a million dollars. When you’re in business for a couple of years, the players and the leaders here already have decades of experience. It’s nice if you can have a sense of authority and create trust, and that’s what we needed to do.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Digital Current works for two websites - legacybuildingsolutions.ca and legacybuildingsolutions.com.

The dot-com was an established site that we had migrated last year. They helped us tighten up the technical work, ultimately to help move us in a direction that we couldn’t have done otherwise without their technical expertise. They really helped us get on track. Even though we had a team before, they had nowhere near the breadth of experience that we had with Digital Current. So, we’ve met our goals and we are looking forward to setting the bar higher and increasing our lead share which has been amazing in the past year.

The dot-ca was a different story. They helped us migrate from an old site that had been dormant for a year and we created a new site in WordPress. Not only do they have the SEO experience, they also have WordPress expertise, so Digital Current can help us in those two ways. They're great help because we try to do everything correctly here when it comes to web design and SEO. They help us with instructions on exactly what to do and how to do it. They’re just a full service agency.

How did you come to work with Digital Current?

It was an arduous process. We used local companies before and we were looking for a larger breadth of experience to expand our region. Not that Minnesota’s not known for SEO agencies, but I was really looking for somebody that had a lot of good experience to take us to that next level. We had some internal challenges to overcome and some competitive challenges as well.

One of the great resources that I went to was Clutch. We found lists of the top ten agencies. I went through them all and called them. I will tell you that nine of them did not call me back in a timely manner. One of them did, it was Digital Current. They were immediate in their response.

Our decision wasn’t about cost at that point. It was about what their agency could do, and if they could deliver on their white hat SEO promises. We also wanted to know what direction they felt we needed to go in. We did presentations and some of them were really nice, but when it came down to it, it was a matter of trusting them to take us to that next step. It was a hard decision, but what led us to it was the experience that they had. They didn't just present their SEO skills, but they showed us how they could help with our online presence and with the authority play, which is exactly what we needed.

Their presentation was good and they offered what they felt we needed. It was a good marriage. We just fell in love. There were some hiccups and what’s really cool to me is how a company reacts to the hiccup. That’s what I love about them; they are 5000% committed and 5000% transparent. They recognize mistakes and have a long term vision.

Their redirection is immediate, but it’s a careful redirection and it’s well thought out with their team. They don’t make any quick moves without them being very thought out and measured. They’re like the string on the kite slowing me down. Sometimes we have discussions, but they’re creative and they’re always watching our backs. We’ve only been with them six months, but it’s been powerful. We were on page one and our competitors have been in the business for 100 years. How do you compete with that? You need to exude that trust which is what we’ve done.

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

It ranges between $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been with them since February, 2015 with no plans to stop. Soon, I’m going to give them another website since they can do their work in Spanish too. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

SEO is similar to pay-per-click [PPC]. It’s a constant battle. We’ve always been juggling between number four and five. Number four on Google gives us the leads we need and I can attribute them to our SEO and visibility.

Last year we redid the website and when I got here two years ago, we had a four year old company. I increased the bandwidth 300% and the traffic is still going up another 75% from last year. I hired Digital Current because I know what I’m doing. I knew that when I set the bar two years ago, I would need someone to bring in that little extra technical push that people like me don’t know or think about doing. I’m good at SEO but I needed them to be great. I want somebody to push that limit and constantly be on the same page.

How did Digital Current perform from a project management standpoint?

They are strong in this regard.

What distinguishes Digital Current from other providers?

Their professionalism is off the charts. They’re always into the data. They’re really great people and it’s turned out to become a personal relationship too.

Is there anything Digital Current could have improved or done differently?

They had growing pains that they’ve addressed. They become better at delivering on promises. Our salesperson is high up in the company, and he visited us every week. We need that hand-holding. We’re paying for it, but that’s what we need.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a tech company specialized in the cannabis sector. I manage all of the SEO for on-page, off-page, and technical.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Digital Current?

They were hired to conduct an SEO campaign to assist in higher rankings for specific pages.

What were your goals for this project?

They were to increase organic traffic & KW rankings.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found them through Google along with other vendors. Digital Current stood out in their approach and decided to try them out. We have since increased the budget with them twice.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They were tasked to identify key opportunities to increase organic traffic & KW rankings in multiple areas of our site.

What was the team composition?

The team composition was generally the account manager and the people that were executing the task.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since the start of the project, we have seen increases of up to [+30%] total organic traffic.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Digital Current was very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to achieve results and pivot quickly impressed us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None so far. Awesome vendor to work with.