Direct Online Marketing

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the associate director of advertising at an arts college. I manage advertising for the university, including digital marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Direct Online Marketing (DOM)?

Marketing can be fast-paced and often we’ll need work completed the same day. Being able to outsource a portion of that work enables to focus on the design and content we do in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They run our search engine marketing (including Google, Bing, and Yahoo), but we run our website and handle SEO in-house. DOM will offer tips if we need assistance with the backend, however. They monitor keyword searches, our ads and how much we pay for PPC, while we provide ad content. We discuss analytics with them weekly, which gives them a chance to suggest, for example, keywords we should include in our search. Meanwhile, we update them on our goals and priorities, so they know what market or age group we might be seeking.

DOM also runs ads on our paid social media, targeting various demographics. The school runs a number of events and exhibitions, and we also that advertising for those as an opportunity to reach prospective students who may not know about the different opportunities the community has to offer.

What is the team composition?

I communicate almost entirely through one of the senior digital advertising specialists. I’ve worked with other designers when he was unavailable, but he is my main contact.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with DOM since May 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Every week, we look at our number of conversions (or a request for information from the school) and make adjustments as needed. Those results depend on the campaign we’re running at that point in the year, and whether they involve our paid social or search engine marketing. Their responsiveness to the adjustments we need to make helps us better interpret and improve those conversion numbers.

How did Direct Online Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They are excellent. We’ve had some in-person meetings, but we communicate mostly via phone and email. Since we’re at an arts college, there are many creativity-driven people who have different ideas about what makes something visually appealing or engaging. DOM is always happy to accommodate last-minute changes or adjustments, whether it be the verbiage in an ad or revising text. Digital marketing is only one of several areas I cover in the advertising department, so I try to give DOM notice about work we’ll need from them but it’s not always possible. Nevertheless, they get completed work back to me or answer my questions the same day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m approached daily by other digital marketing agencies who want to pitch their company to me, but I never consider anyone else. We’re already working with a company that understands search engine marketing and social media, and that will get back to me quickly if they need to research something or don’t have an answer for me immediately.

Some of our work is international, which is as new for me as I'm sure it for them, but even though we’re both learning about the new field, they always have their client’s best interests at heart. I'm not interested in even trying to work with anyone else because they're able to do so much for me, given that I'm pulled in a number of different directions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they are incredibly accommodating.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re dedicated to their clients. They offer suggestions for reaching new audiences, but it doesn't come across like a pushy sales pitch, which I know can happen with other marketing companies. No matter what you’re trying to market, DOM will learn about the product so they can provide the best support.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m CMO of Industry West, an e-commerce furniture company based in Florida. I oversee marketing, PR, website, search, social, and product placement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Direct Online Marketing?

We’d alternated between managing our Google campaign internally and using an outside firm. The conversion rate wasn’t great and costs were pretty high. We were looking to improve our ROI.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Previously our Google campaigns were only in large buckets, such as commercial furniture or restaurant furniture. Direct Online Marketing (DOM) came in and segmented the campaigns into a much longer list. Their buckets include bistro furniture, bed frames, benches, church furniture, and coastal furniture. They also manage our influencer engagement and do some earned media, such as writing press releases. They manage the relationship with a firm we pay for social prospecting and retargeting. DOM leads the weekly calls and decides what we spend. They do some of our SEO as well.

Because of their close relationship to Google, we also regularly get to beta test new features. We were one of the first to do ads in Gmail, and we’re doing a lot of audience retargeting and segmenting.

What is the team composition?

Leland (senior digital advertising specialist, DOM) is our project manager, and I work directly with Justin (president, DOM) when needed.

How did you come to work with Direct Online Marketing?

I worked with DOM in my previous role as head of interactive marketing at Savannah College of Art and Design. When I started at Industry West, I had them come in and do an audit. They gave us their assessment and we went from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent $125,000. We're on a monthly retainer that changes based on our needs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2015 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've done an amazing job. From 2015–2017, our web revenue increased 120%, our transactions were up 91%, and our clicks were up 160%. From 2016–2017, our call volume increased 35%.

How did Direct Online Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s really impeccable. They send weekly reports of what they're working on, what they’ve completed, and what they need to be working on. We also get a metric report every week. We communicate mostly via Slack and email. We’ve incorporated them into our ticketing on Trello so they can work directly with our development team. They're very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate their transparency and their concern for the client. If they're not seeing the performance they expect, they're going to pull back very quickly. We have many different campaigns going, and they really take their time to figure out the best ROI. Their industry contacts are fantastic and they’re always willing to bring us new opportunities. They’re also really open and not locked in to one kind of technology. Justin is very well-known in the business and I can always go to him for a recommendation or an industry contact. It's the best of both worlds in that we're getting boutique customer service while also getting the experience of someone who's been doing this for 20 years.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. We've been really happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just tell them what you want, and be very clear about what you're looking for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an Executive of Dr.Evidence

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

AI-enabled SaaS platform for market landscape intelligence, designed specifically for life sciences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Direct Online Marketing to accomplish?

• Lead generation

SOLUTION

How did you find Direct Online Marketing?

cold call

Why did you select Direct Online Marketing over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Direct Online Marketing were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

DOM delivered an initial Google Ads strategy and implementation which we jointly determined unsuccessful based on our highly niche market and product.  We quickly transitioned to LinkedIn lead generation advertising to drive targeted leads.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Number of leads
• quality of leads

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

The DOM team was proactive both strategically and tactically, as well as highly responsive.  They were extremely reliable in regular reporting and communication.

What was your primary form of communication with Direct Online Marketing?

Virtual Meeting

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

Most impressive about DOM is the ownership mentality of the team.  They were continually looking for ways to optimize our campaigns and results, always came to the table with expertise and data-based recommendations, and never stopped bringing creative strategic and tactical ideas.  Further, the members of their team were an absolute pleasure to work with -- positive and down-to-earth.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Direct Online Marketing could have done differently?

I would not change a thing about how DOM works.