Directive

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a manufacturer of LED lighting, working with distributors and contractors. I’m the marketing coordinator. I seek out marketing opportunities for the company and give us a presence in whatever arena our competitors are in.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Directive?

We initially approached them to get us a stream of possible leads. However, what we need right now as a company is more online content and presence.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial focus was on pay-per-click and search engine optimization, which we’re still strong in. Currently, we’re also asking for creative because they’re quite strong at both. We eventually started having them produce written content and ads.

How did you come to work with Directive?

Initially, it was on location. Our previous firm was in New Jersey. The time zones and distance made it sometimes a little difficult to work together, so we wanted a company that was within an hour’s drive from us so we could meet up with them in person if necessary. We interviewed three or four different firms in the area. Directive stood out because they just had, far and away, the best customer service, and their systems were incredibly detailed as far as the checklist they used.

How much have you invested with Directive?

We pay them about $6,000 monthly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with them August 2016, and the work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A lot of our business is over the phone and the majority of the leads they’ve been generating for us are over the phone. About 20% of the new leads we’re getting monthly can be traced back to the work they’re doing.

We’ve had a couple of technical and translation hiccups because we have a lot of our technical stuff—servers and other things—in China. That’s been an issue, but it has nothing to do with Directive. It’s just that there are language barriers and technical peculiarities in how work is done. Directive has really impressed me on this front by how persistent and good they are with different tactics for communicating with our Chinese side.

How did Directive perform from a project management standpoint?

Their service has been really excellent. They’re constantly going back and editing the work they’ve done, which is pretty cool to see. I was also impressed by how frequently they would revamp their processes, and I can see that as we’re working together.

What did you most impressive about Directive?

I was impressed by their attentiveness to detail and the consistency of their updates to the work and weekly reports.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Directive?

Every firm is not for everybody. Do your research and definitely stay involved. This is definitely a firm where there’s a lot of cooperation between them and your people in-house.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are shaping the future of endpoint security with an integrated platform that unifies the detection, prevention, and remediation of threats initiated by nation states, terrorists, and organized crime. Our unique approach is based on the deep inspection of all system processes combined with innovative machine learning to isolate malicious behaviors quickly, protecting devices against advanced, targeted threats in real time. I am the senior director of Americas marketing, responsible for demand generation, field marketing, channel marketing, and awareness for the Americas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Directive Consulting?

We were seeking overall organization of and visibility into our investment in PPC, paid social, and SEO. We wanted to drive leads and awareness.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Directive Consulting performed a technical SEO audit of the website in the first 30 days. After the project, they have since been performing PPC, SEO, content marketing, and some social advertising on a monthly basis. With PPC, they manage our AdWords, Bing, and Capterra accounts. With SEO, they have been focusing on backlinks, optimizing content, technical issues, and tactics.

How did you come to work with Directive Consulting?

We had a need, and they came inbound. We listened to their list of services, and I called their references.

How much have you invested with Directive Consulting?

Their fee is $7,500 per month, and our ad investment is $12,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in June 2016, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They show us every week where we are gaining and losing and make edits accordingly. We've grown in share of voice and organic search. However, the paid search lead conversion is still to be determined.

Directive began their engagement with us in June. Since that time, we went from ranking for 8 keywords in the top 10 positions to ranking for 51 keywords, according to data we receive from SEMrush. When comparing organic users from Q3 and Q4 of 2016 to Q3 and Q4 of 2015, we saw a 128% increase with 51,707 users compared to 22,647. Comparison data for leads for PPC and SEO is unavailable because tracking was set up during the Directive project in June.

What did you find most impressive about Directive Consulting?

I'm lucky to work with two vendors – Directive and my content agency – that work together to develop a strategy and execute to generate organic leads. They are both unique in this manner.

Are there any areas Directive Consulting could improve?

It is not the fault of Directive, but we need more resources devoted to the project to be responsive and let them move faster.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Mobile Text Alerts is a software-as-a-service company that allows users to send out mass text alerts to their groups. Subscribers are able to send our mass texts, sometimes to as many as 40,000 subscribers. We were founded in 2011. I am the founder and chief executive officer of the company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Directive Consulting?

The nature of software as a service entails losing some customers each month. I had been doing marketing on my own, and our growth had plateaued somewhat.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SEO is one subject about which I'm knowledgeable, so we were doing well in this regard. Even so, Directive came in with a bunch of suggestions that have already provided great benefits during the course of only 2 months. Directive also helped manage our Facebook ads and Google AdWords campaigns as well as organizing the content on our home page, optimizing it for better conversions.

How did you come to work with Directive Consulting?

I believe that I found Directive on Clutch, where they had some good reviews. I also interviewed other candidates, but ultimately decided on Directive.

How much have you invested with Directive Consulting?

We spend between $10,000 and $50,000 per year with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Directive at the beginning of August 2016. After the initial setup and website optimization, we have maintained a monthly retainer with Directive.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I've been very satisfied. We've seen a huge bump in our conversion rates, which is in large part due to Directive's suggestions. We have taken off navigation button from the sign-up page, making people more inclined to fill out the form, rather than visit other pages.

The Facebook ads made by Directive have seen many conversions. We had been dumping a lot of money on Facebook ads that weren't converting at all. Directive directed the same funds toward a better direction.

September 2016 was the first full month of having Directive's systems put in place. We saw a 60 percent increase in sales. I don't attribute all the credit to Directive's work, but they were a huge part of that increase. We saw paid signups go up by about 45 percent, which is also in large part due to Directive's work on Facebook ads.

Through the SEO and the different keywords targeted by Directive, we've also seen a huge spike in traffic. These will be long-term dividends, so we weren't expecting to see short-term results so quickly.

How did Directive Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Our collaboration is done mostly on the phone and through email. Directive is in California while we're located in Lincoln, Nebraska. Directive gives me a project update once a week, going over any concerns I might have and the current update agenda.

What did you find most impressive about Directive Consulting?

Compared to other marketing companies I've worked with, Directive seems to have experts for each of the different fields that we were looking for like content and SEO, as well as Facebook and Google marketing. Some of the agencies we used in the past consisted of one person trying to do everything. They may have been strong in terms of SEO, but lacking in the Facebook ads area, for example.

Are there any areas Directive Consulting could improve?

When I first signed up with Directive, I was paying a lot of money without being sure what they'd be doing. I based my decision on some of the Clutch reviews saying that the work would be worth it but wasn't sure what Directive would actually do. I did mention having a better upfront explanation about what they offered to my account manager from Directive.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Directive Consulting?

Many people have asked me this question. I usually advise them to consider marketing a worthy investment. Many companies don't want to put the money in for marketing but, especially considering Directive's consulting, it's been worth the investment. People need to look at the work as an investment in the company's future dividends, rather than as a purchase.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

eSUB Construction Software is a cloud-based project management software-as-a-service company. Our product is 100% dedicated to subcontractors in the construction industry, who use our technology in the field for time-cards, daily reports, information requests, annotated image sharing, corporate reporting (including costs and milestones), and so on. It the product is designed to be used by many types of users, such as field workers, project managers, accounting staff, and executives. It has created a bridge between project management and accounting departments; the labor, cost and time data tracked by individuals in the field goes directly (once approved) into the Construction Company's accounting software, allowing finance people to create reports and work on payroll.

I am the Marketing Director of the company, responsible for everything from P&L [profit & loss], to strategic and tactical planning, and implementing different lead gen programs, digital or not. I am also in charge of live events like trade shows and other outings. We work with various associations in the industry, so I head off those efforts, making sure that the tech stack is working in alignment with our lead generation processes to help accelerate leads into the sales funnel. I'm also responsible for our Salesforce marketing and automation platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Directive Consulting?

We'd worked with other small, one-man shops which had expertise in SEO [search engine optimization] and pay-per-click, but they weren't generating a return on investment. We approached Directive Consulting to revamp our entire digital approach - start from the very beginning in building a keyword strategy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked with Directive Consulting in implementing a solid end-to-end digital strategy aimed at increasing traffic to our website and generating a return on investment. The philosophy is if it isn't measurable and working, we need to try a different approach.  Directive was also in charge of SEO, social media marketing, and content creation.

One of the things that was exciting about Directive was their transparency regarding working with me to develop goals and objectives, building out a plan, running test scenarios for every campaign, and taking our investment strategy on different channels into consideration. We worked backward from there through a content strategy which could support our digital efforts.

How did you come to work with Directive Consulting?

We interviewed a number of agencies, met with them and checked expertise and references for each one. It came down to who was a better fit, had the best references, and was the most transparent regarding their capabilities.

How much have you invested with Directive Consulting?

The cost of Directive's work is above $50,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with Directive for 3-4 months, and have come to develop a good working relationship which will be long-term.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In the first 30 days of our collaboration, we gave Directive an audit project through which they were tasked at identifying the opportunities for improving our website, as well as keyword and content strategy. Directive looked at what type of content would push up our organic ranking. From there, we carved out different responsibilities between my own team and Directive's. We tested out several different campaigns, working on multiple action items. One of them involves a 5-minute soup to nuts promotional video. We have built over 40 pages of content which will be deployed on our website after the video is completed, so we're still working on many action items.

The results have been very positive. Over the last month, we've reached new levels of organic traffic on our website, and we're starting to see higher conversion rates from our pay-per-click and landing page efforts.

We have a vertical relationship with a software company, offering business advice. We've seen an increase in conversion rates, and have closed a deal with one business as a result of increasing our rankings on our 2 landing pages.

In terms of organic results, we've generated the highest number of demo requests of all time, during last month. It was a 20-30% increase which resulted in more business.

Over a short period, we've seen a return on investment through Directive's work. From a marketing standpoint, we're hitting our numbers.

How did Directive Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Directive has had weekly meetings with us, shared strategy, and worked towards action items, providing result reports on time. They're also very good people with whom it's easy to do business.

What did you find most impressive about Directive Consulting?

Directive is very transparent, which is very good for a digital agency. There are many competitors out there which, while not being Black Hat, have secrets which they're unwilling to share with clients, or they simply don't know what they're doing.

Are there any areas Directive Consulting could improve?

No. Directive has good experts who are dedicated to various areas of our digital efforts. They're involved in every little project, so I have no recommendations for improvements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Aegis develops enterprise-level MES [Manufacturing Execution System] software for discrete manufacturing. They develop, market, sell, and support their solution globally with offices in the US, UK, Germany, and China.

I’m the Global Vice President of Marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Directive Consulting?

To drive quality leads from each key region to our website. North America to start, and now we’re expanding to Europe and then, ultimately, Asia.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s pretty comprehensive. We did a lot of SEO [search engine optimization] work on the back end, which has proven very fruitful on the organic side of things. We’ve seen our metrics on the organic side go up quite a bit since they’ve been engaged. They’re doing a full pay-per-click campaign for us, which incorporates Google, Bing, and some software referral sites as well, like Capterra and Software Advisor. Also, they’re doing paid social, LinkedIn and Facebook, and then organic as well.

Directive Consulting produced a few content pieces initially for us, but we have a really technical audience, so it’s difficult to write content that’s really engaging at an engineering level. What they are doing is providing keyword-based topics and headlines for content that we’re queueing up and panning to develop internally. Directive will then incorporate that content into our paid and organic social media programs.

How did you come to work with Directive Consulting?

A Google search, of course. They were recommended on MOZ and ranked very high organically on Google, so I put them on my short list. They were one of three different companies that fit my profile in terms of the scope of what they were offering. I wanted somebody local to my area as well. Our corporate headquarters are in Philadelphia, but I’m in California, so I wanted somebody in Orange County who I could meet with periodically as needed. We do a lot of stuff over the phone and via the web, but it’s always good to meet face-to-face at certain key points throughout the year.

How much have you invested with Directive Consulting?

The average year is going to be about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s ongoing and I plan to use them for the foreseeable future. I hired them in February and they started in March, and we saw measurable improvement in traffic and qualified leads almost immediately. We have a contract through the end of the year, and as long as we continue to see positive results, I intend to extend that contract into 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve seen improvement in a lot of different areas. We’re tracking a whole slew of metrics, and they’re almost all up because of Directive's work. I’ve built out a pretty comprehensive web tracker that tracks the whole of KPIs [key performance indicators] relative to historical performance. We’ve also established goals that go against that.

We track the overall visitors that come to the site, so we do track quality visits. Those have gone up relative to organic and paid quality visits. Then we have our leads. Obviously, we have a couple of different categories of leads when they come to our site and fill out different forms. One is when they fill out an information request, which is specifically requesting a salesperson to contact them. A secondary softer lead is when they download gated content. We’re tracking those, and those metrics have improved as well, both paid and organic.

We track our total paid clicks, our ad-click-to-lead ratio, and then cost per lead. Everything is going up. I was seeing positive results within the first 60 days. We were definitely getting results I could brag about within 60 days.

How did Directive Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

My project manager is really outstanding.

What did you find most impressive about Directive Consulting?

They get it. I’ve been doing this 17 years, and I have worked with hundreds of vendors for different projects in the past. I have longstanding relationships with certain contractors. I kind of have a best-of-breed model where, rather than hiring internal people, I pay even a premium to work with best-of-breed in different areas, whether it’s web development, graphic design, advertising, or PR. I try to establish long-term relationships, so the relationship is really important to me. From the get-go, I could tell that they were really out for my best interest, and they wanted to establish a long-term relationship that was going to be beneficial to both of us.

They’re no-nonsense. They knew I was very data-driven and that my decisions about them were going to be based on a combination of a good working relationship as well as measurable results. I knew that right from the get-go. I tasked them with several things in the vetting process that I wanted examples of, and I only gave them a short period of time to do it because I wanted to gauge their willingness and desire to work with me, and they accommodated that. I basically gave them an absurd request before I even signed a contract with them, and they fulfilled it. That was at the beginning, so that gave me a good feeling. I had been burned by another vendor, and I wasn’t going to make that mistake twice.

I wanted to set aside a half hour or so each week to have tracking meetings and measure the performance from that previous week, and they’ve been very accommodating with that. They were always providing me with comprehensive reports, but they weren’t exactly in the format that was easiest for me to convey that information to my superiors, so they’ve been very accommodating and adaptive in putting together a measurement model that works really well for me. It ties the measurable metrics to the activities that they’re doing, so it makes it very easy for me to say to my management, “Hey, these are the things that we’re doing, and this is the result. These particular categories are key KPIs.” I can show them what we’re doing that’s driving those results and what we’re going to be doing in the future, along with what’s working and what’s not. They’ve adapted to my requirements enthusiastically.

Are there any areas Directive Consulting could improve?

They could always be cheaper, but you get what you pay for. They’re considerably more expensive than my last vendor, but at the end of the day, the value I’m getting from them is far superior to what I was getting previously. I don’t blame them for that, especially since I sell six-figure software. What else could they do differently? Nothing. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with them, and I’m hard to please.

They go the extra mile. I have a project manager and then they have several people on the back end, and they’ll bring those people in on the call any time I have a question.

They leave no stone unturned in their quest to drive new leads to our site. They’re looking at every angle constantly, measuring, testing, and improving. I don’t have to ask for anything. They know far more about this than I do, and they’re leveraging that to get the results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

GPS Tracker is a sub-company of Global Tracking Communications, Inc. We own, write, and operate our own software aimed at providing ways to optimize businesses.

I am the Marketing Manager of the company. I am responsible for online marketing as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Directive Consulting?

Our challenge is building a competitive business in the field, using a limited budget. Some of our competitors are big corporations, so we need to be creative in terms of marketing endeavors and spending.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Directive Consulting has helped us with the SEO [search engine optimization] profile of the company, as well as with content marketing and pay-per-click. We try to separate ourselves from competitors by creating a consultancy image for the company. The marketing spend is driven towards our online presence and brand identity.

Directive helped with back-linking, on-site and off-site SEO, cleaned up our website code, and created custom landing pages supporting social media campaigns. Directive Consulting has tracked our conversions and worked on improving our general SEO profile.

How did you come to work with Directive Consulting?

I've used many SEO companies in the past, and found Directive through research. I was able to contract them once the company assigned a bigger marketing budget, and they've been my best partner so far.

How much have you invested with Directive Consulting?

We will spend at least $50,000 in the first year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Directive in April 2016. Our first month was spent cleaning up our website and coming up with a game plan. Once the new site was launched, Directive implemented more on-page SEO tweaks, backlinks, and landing pages.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we've only been working together for a short amount of time, I haven't seen many results, especially given that we have a 90-day sales cycle. There have been more conversions on the pay-per-click campaigns that Directive managed, so I've been happy so far.

Outside of conversions, we have seen an increase for the return-on-investment given by our landing pages. Our ranking has been increasing steadily after the site launch, which was surprising to us. Usually, at this point in the relationship with an SEO company, there comes a period of excuses and requests to wait for 3 months before seeing any kinds of results. Directive Consulting has handled back-linking behind-the-scenes and worked on our pay-per-click campaign, optimizing our keywords and moving the budget around. This made a significant difference.

How did Directive Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Directive has been great in terms of communication. Because I'm working with an outside SEO company, I've felt the need of keeping a very close relationship, but Directive has performed great on multiple lines. I've worked with many of their team members, who have been helpful to me.

What did you find most impressive about Directive Consulting?

Directive is made up of great, intelligent people who are passionate about what they do. This is the main thing that separates Directive from other SEO companies and gives them good value for the price point.

Are there any areas Directive Consulting could improve?

Directive doesn't have a good graphics department, and it would be nice if we could buddy-up our content marketing with infographics and animations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a biometric performance testing company. We use clinical-grade technology to measure and track people's health and fitness progress, specifically their body composition, cardio fitness, and metabolic health. We offer biomarker testing, genetic fitness testing, gut health testing, and anything else related to tracking the body.

I am a co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Directive Consulting?

We needed help in creating a more holistic campaign across all digital channels and social platforms. We have a microsite strategy, so we needed to make sure that there was consistency across all sites, establishing ourselves as an authority. Outreach, growth, and consistency across the brand were our goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Directive Consulting is helping us tighten up and optimize our social platforms, pay-per-click ads, and also providing SEO services.

How did you come to work with Directive Consulting?

I might have read an article about Directive. I looked them up, reached out, and had a long courting process. Directive took the time to talk to us, explain everything, and put together a thorough report of their offerings, showing us how we could improve. After talking to Directive, we had a good vibe. We're still a young company and had a tight budget at the time, so it took us a while to get to a point at which we'd be comfortable with delegating the work to a specialist in the digital world.

How much have you invested with Directive Consulting?

We plan to spend around $50,000 to $100,000 for Directive's services in 2016.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with Directive for 2-3 months and have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our relationship is still in the early stages, but we've seen some good results. It's been a pleasure working with our account rep from Directive. I'm familiar with this field, so I've been able to work with him.

Subjectively, I have seen an increase in our site visits and keyword rankings. We're still learning which ads need to be optimized in order to get better results, but the experience has been positive.

How did Directive Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Directive has been very professional and thorough in terms of monthly reports, which was important to me. More than simply showing results, I appreciated the amount of detail we've received. Directive isn't simply putting in the minimum amount of effort, but actually taking the time to break down the information for us and helping us understand it.

What did you find most impressive about Directive Consulting?

I have an older colleague who hates technology, but wanted to have a conversation with Directive if he was going to spend money on their services. Directive did an excellent job in handling his personality. There is definitely an age gap when it comes to understanding technology and how it can optimize a business. People with a more old-school approach to business can be skeptical and hard to persuade. Directive's principal stated his case well during our conversations.

Are there any areas Directive Consulting could improve?

No. Directive could improve our ads and SEO, but they're still learning our business. Our relationship is still new and there will always be improvements.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We provide assistance for legal documentation.

What is your position?

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Directive Consulting?

We wanted to launch a Facebook advertising campaign.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Directive provided Facebook advertising services for us.

How did you come to work with Directive Consulting?

We'd used them in the past for SEO [search engine optimization] work, which we stopped due to budgetary reasons. We were pleased with the work done by Directive, so we called them back.

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

The current project cost is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was short term. After the setup done by their team, we've taken over the campaign ourselves. If it pays off, we will circle back to them and do more work. We've worked with Directive for a total of four months combined for our Facebook advertising and SEO work, during a period of around two years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Directive is great to work with, very helpful and responsive. Our experience has been positive. I love their passion and technical knowledge, they are a young and vibrant group. We've only engaged in Facebook advertising for a week, so it's too early for meaningful metrics.

How did Directive Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

I can't comment too much yet on project management. They are certainly a driven and passionate group that goes out and gets results quickly.

What distinguishes Directive Consulting from other providers?

They're simply great to work with.

Is there anything Directive Consulting could have improved or done differently?

With Facebook, we were hoping to start an automated campaign targeted at the people who had clicked on our ads, but we found out that this wasn't possible. We now need to either do this manually, or hire Directive later on. Had we known this, we would have changed the project specs in the beginning.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We manufacture test and measurement equipment, namely devices that monitor signals on wired protocol buses. We work with standards like I2C, USB, and others. These are things that a normal, everyday consumer wouldn't know about, even though they're found in everyday life.

All off the devices that communicate wirelessly with an Apple product are powered through USB. A car has five or six CAN buses in it. SPI is a language used to program every type of flash memory a user may have interacted with. We sell our products to electrical engineers. Our market is highly technical, with maybe only one million people worldwide.

What is your position?

I am the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Directive?

We wanted to improve our natural conversion rate on paid searches, and also improve the total number of visits to our sites, spending as little money as possible in the process.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Directive provides organic SEO and strategy work for us. They also handle our pay per click work, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter marketing. I have a bias with regards to social media expenses, based on my past experience. Directive is trying to convince me otherwise by obtaining results.

How did you come to work with Directive?

A manager in our company was in charge of looking at available agencies. I got the number down to a top three. I interviewed each one, looking at the breadth of their service and attitude. The agency we'd worked with in the past gave me the impression that we were being taken for granted. They stopped coming in with new ideas, as opposed to Directive. They come up with a lot of ideas and are willing to tell me if they're unsure if something will work or not.

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

The cost of their services is in the six figures per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them on January 1st, 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I'm beginning to see preliminary metrics which are showing me that my SEO is way up. During the last month, I received 20,000 organic visits, which is 15% better than any other month before that. On the pay per click side, the cost per conversion has been driven down by well over 50%. I think that this is quite remarkable and due to Directive's work. I now need to reallocate those funds to even more of the same work. My aim is not to save money, but to get more sales.

The process with Directive started off with a comprehensive review, which took a month. During that time, they didn't do anything significant from an activity perspective. They then agreed upon an action plan. Directive has a breadth of skilled people, including individual specialists for pay per click, SEO, engagement management, blog writing, social media marketing, and initial investment strategy. They're a relatively small company, but are big enough to have specialized resources in what they do. They've been also willing to help with technical issues with my site, including WordPress items.

Their latest recommendations had to do with user interface [UI] changes within the website aimed at enhancing searches and user comfort. I wouldn't have taken their advice about the UI unless I was reasonably certain that Directive was starting to learn what my particular audience was. They're as full-service an agency as my company can afford. I fall within the 8-10 million dollars per year slot. In my case, going to a non-full-service agency would have left me with many shortcomings. I do most of my advertising through a different company, but the SEO, pay per click, social media work, ghost writing blogs, and assessing our technology has all been handled very well by Directive.

How did Directive perform from a project management standpoint?

They're focused on getting the job done and it's very easy to get a hold of them. There was never an occasion in which I had to wait for a day or more for a response to an issue.

What distinguishes Directive from other providers?

I can contact their owners directly and they'll get back to me within the hour. The accessibility and customer service they provide are excellent.

Is there anything Directive could have improved or done differently?

They're a small company, which entails some specific challenges. They don't have a multitude of SEO experts that can bring different views to an issue, and they don't have specific expertise with regard to my technology. They're an agency trying to learn embedded systems, which is a market that encompasses a million engineers worldwide, out of a population of seven billion. A bigger company would be more likely to find someone familiar with this space, allowing me to not invest as much time in things like finding the right keywords.

Having worked with a couple of agencies during my thirty year career, I can say that Directive is pretty self-sufficient. My last agency was much needier regarding the time they demanded. With Directive, I can explain something once and they will come back to me with a comprehensive plan.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are called Alternative Divorce Solutions. We are a law firm practicing out of court divorce mediation. We're based in Newport Beach and have offices in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

What is your position?

I am the Chief Operating Officer and a co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Directive?

We hired Directive because of difficulties with our last digital marketing agency. We found that the old agency had an automated approach and didn't think outside the box. They weren't aligned with our expectations for growth.

Our goals were to increase our leads and call volumes on a monthly basis. If the right leads come in, we will achieve the level of growth that we want.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They offer organic SEO, social media marketing and pay per click services. They help us tailor our content efforts, online blogs, and all the keywords going into them. Directive also helps us find places where we can post content and back-link to our site.

They work on syncing all the online directories in which we're present and strategize on getting us positive reviews from customers.

They do all these things in a much more optimized way, with a lot more thought put behind it than our previous agency.

How did you come to work with Directive?

We had a major fallout with our previous company, and had to find another one with haste. I reached out to five or six different online marketing companies I had found through traditional searches. Directive won our business by being cost effective and through the historical analysis that they did on our business by going over our analytics and our Google Ad Words campaign. They showed us all the things that we were doing right, and everything that we could have been doing better.

Directive had a great online presence themselves, which is a major prerequisite when researching for a digital marketing agency. Unlike most agencies we approached, they were willing to do a lot of upfront test work, without signing on. We didn't want a standard, cookie-cutter offer that couldn't fit with the specific niche of our business. After 90 days, they've proven themselves by getting us to the level that was promised.

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

The annual cost is confidential but it's a significant investment for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed on with Directive in October 2015. They haven't yet had a lot of time to achieve results, but they've worked around the clock for us. We plan to work with them indefinitely if their transparency and attention to detail remain the same.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We had a landing page for our business that had been set up by our previous company. It didn't work exactly right, and the team obsessed with it as a result. We tried many small tweaks until we got to the same stats as before the hiccup. We're now slowly increasing in traffic.

Their overall audit to every little detail has been remarkable. They got our Google business page up to order and enabled us to get reviews through it. They set up our Moz Local listing and synced up our online directories. They're also helping us with directories like Avvo and Mediators.com.

It's hard to name all the specific things they've done.

We've started from almost zero because of our past experience. It took the Directive team 30 days to rebuild everything with the budget that we'd allocated them. It was limited because we'd lost a lot of money due to decreased business. We don't yet have proper analytics, but the phones are now ringing at the same level to last year, when we were prospering. We're now at neutral and trending upwards.

How did Directive perform from a project management standpoint?

A lot of the companies we worked with in the past didn't even set goals or benchmarks. Simply showing us the number of visitors we'd had in a month isn't enough without a historical context and conversion rates. Directive has shown us the full extent of the data and have held themselves accountable. They don't have a fear of being measured and don't become defensive.

What distinguishes Directive from other providers?

They're obsessed with what they do. They didn't enter the market just because they saw a need for this type of service. Directive treats every customer the same in terms of being success-oriented, regardless of how large they are. They hold themselves accountable.

Their attention to detail and striving to constantly learn more, instead of getting the impression that they've figured everything out (which is a common vibe in the technical world), is what sets them apart. They take the time to explain figures to you and they admit when they don't know something.

Is there anything Directive could have improved or done differently?

Down the road, I'll probably find something, but up to this point, I can't think of anything.