digital marauders

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I created a product called Pottymints, which are air fresheners for the bathroom. I’m the owner and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with digital marauders?

Up until this year, we’d mainly focused on our wholesale business. Most of those connections were made through trade shows and expos. We realized that we should also have a retail website that can reach potential customers. Our existing e-commerce site on WooCommerce had serious issues that we needed to fix.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

digital marauders built us a new website on Shopify. I picked the basic template and they built out custom features and transitions. They were able to give us the exact site we wanted without having to pay for the premium Shopify package.

Once they got our website working, we started a new project with them. They’re now managing and handling everything that has to do with e-commerce sales. That includes acquiring customers, running ads on Facebook or Instagram, and heat mapping and A/B testing our website. They’re analyzing the customer journey and UX to see what's keeping people from finishing the checkout process. 

digital marauders also reviewed the contract we had with another digital marketing agency. They let me know that it wasn’t the best contract. They were able to ask the right questions and hold the other firm accountable for the fact that they actually weren't doing everything that we were paying them for. They eventually took over that scope of work as well. Whereas the other firm was indexing around 18 words in Google Ads, digital marauders is up to 300 words. They also hired a small agency to focus on targeting and retargeting the ads. 

What is the team composition?

Since we first started, I work directly with the two co-founders. There are definitely other team members that work on our project but my communication is exclusively with the founders. 

How did you come to work with digital marauders?

I actually met Matt (CEO, digital marauders) at a trade show. He came to find us because his mom had purchased our product for him. He told me about digital marauders and I got a good vibe from him, aside from the fact that he personally loved our product. I decided to hire them to build our new website. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $30,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together two years ago and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They're just awesome. digital marauders has only been working on digital marketing for two and a half months and our cost per click is already significantly lower. In terms of sales, we're doubling what we were doing before. Their initiatives are working much better compared to when the other agency was handling our campaigns. It’s pretty cool to see, and they haven’t even done a full push yet. We had an inventory issue in the past so they want to make sure we can succeed and deliver good customer experience. 

How did digital marauders perform from a project management standpoint? 

I love working with them. We’re a small company and most of the people that we work with are outsourced vendors. With digital marauders, I feel like I've gained more teammates. They have so much knowledge and they're not afraid to share it with me. I communicate with them all the time on the phone or over Slack and email. They handle everything so efficiently. It's the equivalent of us having an in-house team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have some really big clients. We're quite small compared to other companies that they work with. They don't treat us like a small company, which is really nice. The co-founders remain our points of contact even as they continue to grow. We're not made to feel like we're less than their big clients. They give us the same if not more attention. They tell us what we need to do to help them succeed as opposed to waiting for me to say something.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. Even though they've grown a lot since we started working together, they make changes before we think of them. I like the fact that they’re now starting to work more with other small companies. They saw there was work to be done and not as many firms willing to give that level of attention. They seem to be ahead of the curve in terms of knowing what's needed from small companies like ours. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Hire them and let them take charge. Be open to their ideas and listen to what they have to say. They have great experience so their advice can really help you grow.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I do digital production and project management. When I worked with digital marauders, I was e-commerce manager for a small to mid-sized retail company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with digital marauders?

We needed a complete overhaul of our e-commerce business that had a focus on apparel and textiles.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed a content management system built on a Magento platform that would provide integration with our warehouse and inventory system. We had two brands that had to share one cart. We wanted a seamless shopping experience, and to be able to bring both brands back to one cart for checkout.

At the time, we were only engaged in email marketing. They helped us work on setting a benchmark against the industry and worked through design and interactive email messaging. We had a designer, a developer, and a project manager assigned to us.

How did you come to work with digital marauders?

Our IT person had a connection with someone that had worked with digital marauders in the past, and they recommended them to us.

How much have you invested with digital marauders?

We spent between $30,000 and $50,000 for the website. Then, we purchased blocks of time from them for further help.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in mid to late 2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were always working on making the checkout process easier; users commented that it was easy to use. It was a lot of work to get it accomplished, but based on customers’ comments, we got there. We kept tweaking it according to customer feedback and as money allowed. Over the course of a year, we increased our revenue by four times. We went from $200,000 to over $1 million in the first year.

How did digital marauders perform from a project management standpoint?

I was doing the project management for our company and worked closely with digital marauders’ principal. They were able to meet deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about digital marauders?

They had the ability to listen to us and not layer too much of their own ideas. We did rely on them for industry standards and best practices. They went out of their way to work with us and to make sure that the message and branding were on point, especially since our principal was quite fickle about her brand. It was difficult to find something that would exemplify the brand as best as possible, but they were able to accomplish it.

Are there any areas digital marauders could improve?

I would have liked the development process to move quicker on some of the smaller projects. I know that the developer that worked on our project is no longer with the company. I understand that they had to prioritize since they are a smaller company.