Digital Third Coast

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Marketing Manager of CNO Financial Group

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We help our customers protect their health and financial security with a wide range of life insurance, Medicare Supplement insurance, Medicare Advantage plans, supplemental health insurance and long-term care insurance.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Digital Third Coast to accomplish?

• Scale up, reach more consumers while staying within target CPAs.
• Manage and scale Google Ads and Microsoft Ads accounts to increase qualified leads
• Assist on building out additional campaigns and test or push results further

SOLUTION

How did you find Digital Third Coast?

Referral

Why did you select Digital Third Coast over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Digital Third Coast were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Ongoing management & growth of existing ad accounts including research & development of new initiatives across core brands and secondary initiatives across paid media.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The main success metric was successfully scaling PPC campaign sales volume while remaining within the confines of profitability goals.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They provided us with great project management and clear communication. Items were delivered on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Digital Third Coast?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

It was unique and impressive that the team engaged on our business never changed. Oftentimes with larger agencies we see a lot of turnover and spend too much time getting everyone back up to speed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Digital Third Coast could have done differently?

Nothing comes to mind

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Director of a Real Estate Company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Real estate development and management

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Digital Third Coast to accomplish?

• Drive qualified traffic to the project website
• Increase visibility and awareness to the right audience
• Track website activities such as PDF downloads and form fills

SOLUTION

How did you find Digital Third Coast?

Online Search

Why did you select Digital Third Coast over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Digital Third Coast were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Google Search Ads and Remarketing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Digital Third Coast worked closely with us to identify the KPIs for this program which included PDF downloads, clicks to call, form fills, and ultimately sales of condo units.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Digital Third Coast is thorough and transparent in their work. Items were not only delivered on time, but they educated us along the way about ways to optimize the program and website modifications and tweaks to aid the effort. 

The team kept us on task with standing monthly calls on which they thoroughly explained the work they completed, their rationale for doing so, and always used the data learnings to optimize the program. We also had a live link to the data dashboard available to us at all times to measure progress.

What was your primary form of communication with Digital Third Coast?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their thoroughness from start to finish and their expert knowledge of these ever-changing platforms.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Digital Third Coast could have done differently?

Nothing! They were so thorough and precise that we have brought other projects to them because we were confident DTC would be successful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Vice President of Marketing of Lombardo Companies

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Lombardo Companies is a community developer and homebuilder, specializing in apartments, semi-custom homes and full custom homes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Digital Third Coast to accomplish?

• Execute more targeted campaigns to drive awareness and traffic to specific communities
• Increase volume of qualified leads via a paid media strategy on Google Ads Search and Display networks
• Increase traffic and visibility to website

SOLUTION

How did you find Digital Third Coast?

Referral

Why did you select Digital Third Coast over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Digital Third Coast were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Set up and manage Google Ads for Search and Remarketing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Increased quality traffic to the website to drive qualified leads for sales team.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

DTC always delivers on time. Very responsive to questions and inquiries. Always takes the time to understand our business and our needs and adjust their plans accordingly.

What was your primary form of communication with Digital Third Coast?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I recognize that DTC has a plethora of clients, but I always feel like their only client, which is amazing! They are immediately responsive to me and my needs and have worked hard to understand my business and competitors. I don't feel like DTC and Lombardo are two different companies, but rather two departments working on the same team. I appreciate all their outstanding efforts to ensure I'm a leader in my market when it comes to all things digital.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Digital Third Coast could have done differently?

Truly, DTC has been an amazing partner to work with. I have no suggestions for improvement. I just need them to keep doing what they've been doing for my business.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr. Director, Digital Marketing & Operations of Color

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Color brings essential healthcare services to people where they are, sidestepping the traditional healthcare infrastructure that burdens so many with cost and access challenges.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Digital Third Coast to accomplish?

• Plan and execute paid media strategy
• Optimize paid search
• Overhaul back-end tracking

SOLUTION

How did you find Digital Third Coast?

Worked with them at a past company

Why did you select Digital Third Coast over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Digital Third Coast were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

When I first joined my company, our paid media and paid search strategy was largely focused on our B2C business. However, shortly after joining, we pivoted our GTM strategy to a new B2B audience and away from a legacy product. I hired DTC to ensure the overall infrastructure of our paid media was set up properly–that it made sense for our business, that it maximized conversions, and most importantly that we were able to measure what was happening on the back end–and to think more strategically about how we’re setting up full funnel campaigns. 

DTC has prioritized cleaning up our old programs alongside our new programs as a way to get started, get to know our ecosystem, and get to know our business. In parallel, they have been advising us on targeting strategy across digital channels and helping to optimize keywords, ad copy, and landing pages. In a short period of time, they have demonstrated immense expertise in digital media. While we have been working with DTC for 6 months, and I would say we are still early days. We still have work to do in terms of improving our infrastructure and optimizing all of our properties according to DTC’s recommendations. However, we wouldn’t have been able to get to where we are without their partnership, and we will continue to lean on them as we continue to improve our paid media. 

They have been fantastic to work with. Each member of the team offers different expertise to augment our internal capabilities. The primary results so far are 1/ Reduced paid media spend due to running programs ‘smarter’ and 2/ A back-end infrastructure that facilitates measuring paid media results. We don’t yet have ample conversion data to measure our improvement, but this is simply due to not having legacy data to compare against. Now that we have the foundational elements in place, the focus will turn to optimization, and I’m confident we’ll see an uptick.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The primary results so far are:

1. Reduced paid media spend due to running programs ‘smarter’
2. A back-end infrastructure that facilitates measuring paid media results. 

We don’t yet have ample conversion data to measure our improvement, but this is simply due to not having legacy data to compare against. Now that we have the foundational elements in place, the focus will turn to optimization, and I’m confident we’ll see an uptick.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

DTC is incredibly punctual with their deliverables. They respond to our questions quickly and always add insight beyond the initial question. We communicate regularly on Slack and email, and also have weekly and biweekly syncs with the two main pillars of our business.

What was your primary form of communication with Digital Third Coast?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Digital Third Coast has deep expertise in digital marketing. I am especially impressed with their knowledge of Google Ads and tracking conversions on the back end of Google tools.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Digital Third Coast could have done differently?

As we continue to work with DTC, I look forward to their input on holistic paid media strategy. They have been providing this, but our first priority up to this point was getting the proverbial house in order–making sure things worked as expected. Now that we have built this out, we can spend more time with them on the front end optimizations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a content manager for a B2B e-commerce platform in the cannabis industry called Leaf Trade. We have built a marketplace and analytics platform to enable cultivators to sell their products to dispensaries in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Third Coast?

We were trying to get the website up and running, but we didn't have enough internal technical skills to get it to where it needed to be. Our SEO scores and overall site speed were really low, and we weren’t happy with our performance through Google search and other platforms. We’re in a rapid phase of growth, and we needed to resolve those issues quickly. 

We hired Digital Third Coast to optimize our SEO and site performance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a brief phone call with one of their account managers, and we talked about our goals and what we were looking for in an agency partner. We provided them with a brief of what we were looking for and where we wanted to take the site. After that, we set up a kickoff call with the account manager and the team we would be working with, and they walked us through everything they were going to do and how they were going to fix the issues. 

They’ve been looking through the plug-ins that we can remove to make the site perform faster, and what pages could be optimized by removing multiple headlines and syntax errors. They’ve been cleaning up content, fixing broken links, removing broken photographs, and are even going into our blogs and fixing things there. 

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Jordan (SEO Account Manager), and we work with one other person. 

How did you come to work with Digital Third Coast?

We were looking for agencies in Chicago and came across them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $5,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2022, and it is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve greatly impacted our SEO and Google site performance. Our site performance is now an 89 and it started between 40–50. 

How did Digital Third Coast perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything has been on time, and any issues that have come up they have immediately flagged and let us know about. We use email to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re highly responsive to everything that we need and answer any questions that come up. They are incredibly friendly and personable, and they have the ability to self-manage. They stay on top of things and are highly proactive. They’re great to work with, experts in their field, and they’ve been doing exactly what we’ve needed them to do. 

Their work has been absolutely phenomenal, and we’re planning on working with them again in the future. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We don’t think there is anything that they could improve upon. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust what they’re doing and take their advice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice President of Product Develop responsible for driving awareness and adoption of our product amongst breast cancer patients and their physicians.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Digital Third Coast?

We hired Digital Third Coast to help us create, implement and manage our Google and Facebook Ads to drive sales leads, help create product awareness, and drive traffic to our website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this firm and what were the deciding factors?

Digital Third Coast was highly recommended by our long-standing marketing agency, Media Directions Creative Group.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

The key deliverable was a paid media campaign/strategy to drive qualified leads resulting in orders for our product. The Digital Third Coast team initially implemented search ads and we recently added a few display options as well. They helped to identify keywords & negative keywords, helped to write ad copy, conducted A/B testing, and assisted in the data collection & reporting process. We had a few initial meetings to get the ball rolling & now we meet monthly to discuss results of the prior month.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1. We primarily work with John L., a Senior Paid Media Account Manager.
2. During the setup process, Nathan P., Director of Paid Media, was involved
3. As well as Lyndsey M., Director of Business Development.
4. Over the course of our working relationship we have also briefly worked with Cassie D., Paid Media Account Manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The paid media campaign has been successful. We've seen increased website traffic overall in the last 6 months & our Google/Facebook Ads have led to increased product inquiries.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We meet once at the beginning of the month to discuss the results of the previous month. However, John is always responsive & available to answer any questions or concerns I have.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Our experience with Digital Third Coast has been fantastic - John in particular is very helpful as our account manager. He uses excellent analogies to help explain concepts & gives valuable advice with regard to our entire digital strategy - not just our paid media campaign.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No improvement necessary. Their market research has been able to help our company succeed in the unique niche our product lives in.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the operations director of a small, family-run, and online machinery brokerage. We broker for all types of industrial machinery.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Third Coast?

Our company was small, and we didn’t have outside investor money. Everything we did had to be as efficient as possible. With that, I needed help in SEO, PPC, and digital marketing. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We met face to face at the beginning of our partnership, and we explained to DTC our company, goals, target audiences, and available resources. From there, they facilitated an entire overhaul of our online presence.

DTC analyzed our market and integrated changes that needed to be made. They conducted keyword research, and using their insights, they implemented improvements in our site’s layout and presentation. 

They’re developing link-building campaigns by marketing public interest surveys and advertisements to boost our SEO performance. We’re also running PPC campaigns on Google and Bing. We meet with DTC monthly to discuss our ongoing efforts. 

What is the team composition?

My primary contacts are Ryan (SEO Account Manager) and a PPC manager, but I’ve engaged with up to 10 different teammates.

How did you come to work with Digital Third Coast?

I searched for SEO agencies in the Chicagoland area, and I interviewed three companies. DTC impressed me — unlike the other firms, they had interesting things to say. I could also feel that they were interested in my success while we were talking. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2017, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re a small company that’s fighting a much bigger fish — thanks to DTC, we’re winning. Our main competitor is much more well-funded than us, and they go about their business in a very different way. Despite that, we consistently and significantly outrank them. 

We currently have 4,900 page-one keywords and 798 keywords appearing on the top three. We’ve seen a 24% increase in our page-one keywords, and our category rankings have more than doubled since 2019. They’ve also helped us acquire a significant amount of high-value links relevant to our business. 

Before engaging with DTC, our revenue has plateaued — now, we see a 10%–30% increase in income every year. They’ve been a boon to our business.  

How did Digital Third Coast perform from a project management standpoint?

DTC is always very engaged and willing to find our needed resources. We communicate through emails, phone calls, and Zoom.

I’ve had the same PPC manager since I’ve worked with DTC, and they know my business very well, allowing us to work in a very close partnership. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

DTC is interested in our business’s success. We take pride in working with integrity and engaging to our customers’ benefit — we feel like DTC has the same work ethic. Whenever we encounter issues, they respond as if it’s also urgent to their business. I’ve worked with other vendors in the past, and no one has ever been like DTC. 

The implementation of our campaigns has been in March 2020, right when the pandemic hit. We’ve been terrified that our sales will drop, yet DTC’s efforts have buoyed our business in various categories. Their work has resulted in a record year in sales because we’ve been able to identify new markets.

They provided us with more intuitive strategies — instead of guessing the market, they used tools to find markets. There’s no way that I could’ve handled the amount of PPC work they’ve done. Additionally, they keep me ahead of the curve by constantly trying new things with Google. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. DTC takes my feedback on issues and makes improvements. We have a comfortable enough relationship to discuss when something fails, and DTC has always been responsive. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest with what’s going on in your company. Always keep them at arm’s length as you get to know them. In addition, be open to talking about more than just your business’s core line. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Manager for Beltservice Corporation, which has its headquarters in St. Louis, MO. Beltservice Corporation is a world leader in the design and fabrication of custom conveyor belting. Founded in 1969, we support a global network of distributors and OEMs with hundreds of belting products. Our tagline, “Adding Value to Everything We Touch”, is both our mission and a promise to provide our customers with the quality products and fast, reliable service they deserve.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Digital Third Coast, and what were your goals?

To help us grow our Google Ads strategy and drive website traffic. Improved SEO and understand our customer's habits

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Links Technology, based in Chicago and also a partner of ours (website CMS development), knew that I was looking for a company that could specifically help with paid SEO and the referral came from them. After talking to Digital Third Coast, I was impressed with their knowledge and understanding of my specific goals. I felt that they could successfully take on our challenge and help get us to the next level navigating our way around Google.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Deliverables included a Paid Media Campaign, which consisted of Targeted ads, both search and display. Identifying key words and relevant search terms. Developing campaign structure, help with creative messaging and geo-targeting. A/B split testing, and collection and reporting of campaign progress. Assisted with ad copy and web analytics. We had an initial kick-off meeting then several other one-on-one team meetings and then a monthly touch based meeting to go over the prior month's metrics

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Lyndsey, Director of Business Development, and Alissa, Paid Media Account Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Since implementing our paid Google Ads, website traffic has increased significantly, we have received several converted leads and have made our products more visible to Distributors and OEMs.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

DTC has been just fantastic managing our paid media accounts. They have provided a customized dashboard with all reporting. Can answer all questions. Our monthly touch-base meeting provides information that I need to take back to my sales and marketing team. They have a great personal touch to their business model, and I've liked everything about this experience.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I love how they just dig right it and get the project moving. It never felt like I was not in control of the project, that I just had the best helping me reach my goals as a marketer. I never had to ask them what they were doing. They worked flawlessly with our CMS consulting company to get the website code working that they needed for tracking. Seamless!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I wouldn't want to do business with them if they did anything differently!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior digital strategist at Lurie Children's Hospital. Specifically, I work on the hospital’s fundraising efforts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Third Coast?

We needed help with promoting our fundraising campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Digital Third Coast helps us run campaigns across various channels. Specifically, they set up PPC campaigns on Facebook and Google. The designs and content are provided by us, while the Digital Third Coast team runs our ad campaigns as efficiently as possible. Users who come across our ads can then click through to learn more about our mission and make a donation. Additionally, they help us optimize our website copy.

What is the team composition?

Four teammates are working on the PPC campaigns, and two people are helping us with our site’s copy.

How did you come to work with Digital Third Coast?

Another department in our hospital was already working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in February 2020 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started working with Digital Third Coast, we’ve seen an increase in donations. We also have significantly more donors, so we’re satisfied with their work.

How did Digital Third Coast perform from a project management standpoint?

The team oversees the project well. We communicate through email and phone calls, and they’re very responsive. It’s easy to collaborate with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Digital Third Coast is knowledgeable on the latest digital marketing trends. Furthermore, they’re keen to provide excellent service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything critical to say about the team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Feel free to ask questions and be open to their ideas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a digital marketing manager for C+R Research, a market research company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Third Coast?

Three years ago, we realized our website wasn’t doing well and wasn’t good for SEO, so we revamped the site and hired Digital Third Coast (DTC) to improve our search engine results.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DTC helps us with our SEO and consistently looks at our website for ways to improve it, even helping us to implement some of them. They’ve suggested how to best label and organize our content, and they’ve recently updated all of our page tags. Moreover, they’ve helped us improve our visibility and ranking on search engines.

We work together to develop a research topic that looks into what people are looking for. DTC goes ahead and researches whatever we’ll review. They create the content for our website and reach out to journalists who may be interested in the research. Then, those journalists quote our research in trade press articles and link them over to our website. Therefore, the more links we get from high-domain websites, the more credibility our site obtains, and we get recognized better in the search engine results.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Ryan (SEO Account Manager). He’s brilliant, and he’s one of the best people I’ve worked with. We also work with Collin (Senior Content Strategist), who works on campaigns. Additionally, they have people on their team doing our work.

How did you come to work with Digital Third Coast?

We have a marketing consultant, and he’s helped us with many different initiatives throughout the company, including our website. He’s a part of our anchor advisers in Chicago and works with many vendors. We just go with whoever he recommends, and he suggested DTC.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2018, and we have an ongoing relationship that we plan on keeping for the foreseeable future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We track a few hundred keywords, and DTC has helped us to get the majority of them to the first or second page of the Google search results. We’ve gotten more leads and gained exposure, and our site’s domain authority number keeps rising. Also, our website traffic has gone up significantly in the last couple of years.

Additionally, we get two reports. One of them details the campaigns we’re running and media placement they’ve earned. On an average campaign, we get about 30 placements in a year. In 2019, DTC broke the record with almost 400 media placements, and then they had another campaign with 173. This year, our last seven campaigns have gotten 192 media placements so far.

On the other hand, some campaigns are three years old, and they’re still getting in huge publications, like The New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, Business Insider, Chicago Tribune, and more business journals. Therefore, huge media websites are constantly mentioning and quoting our research.

Finally, we track organic traffic to see what it’d cost if we were to buy it like PPC, and it has grown exponentially — nearly 700% from last year.

How did Digital Third Coast perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically communicate through email. Once a month, we have a call to go over our monthly report on website traffic, keyword performance, and search rankings, amongst other things.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer service is excellent. They’re very responsive, and we can tell that the people we work with enjoy what they do. They’ve been excited about helping us. It’s been amazing to see how they say they’ll do something, and in the next couple of months, we can actually see the results. In this sense, we get the best bang for our buck with DTC.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any areas of improvement. DTC is doing a great job, and we’re happy with their service. We’re even trying to figure out if we want to spend more money with them. We’ve liked the work they’ve done with the keywords, so we want to allocate more time with the guy who works on that so he can keep knocking it out of the park. We’ve even asked for their help with some reports.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

SEO and website traffic can be technical and confusing to many people, so make sure you understand what you want and what you’re looking for before you go with a company. Ask them for examples of what they’ve done and how it drives results.