Fruition

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of development and community relations at Advocates for Children, a nonprofit where we recruit, train, and support community volunteers to work with kids in the welfare system.

Most of our children are in foster care. We train our volunteers to look into their situations and report back to the professionals assigned to their cases. Our volunteers give a voice to the kids and provide consistent advocacy as they work their way through the system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We were presented with a new event to raise money for our volunteers. There were going to 15–17 participants in charge. We needed a company to create the platform for the donations to be received through.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at Fruition developed the platform from scratch. Along with supporting the website all-year-round, they work with our team in other ways.

What is the team composition?

I had regular communication with three people, working closely with them during the development process. My point of contact was Mike (Service Desk Specialist, Fruition).

How did you come to work with Fruition?

Our nonprofit was working with one of their competitors four years ago. I wasn’t part of original conversations that led us to Fruition, but they’re the only ones I’ve worked with in my current position.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Fruition started in January 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can’t recommend Fruition enough. The project itself was successful. We were able to raise a lot of money through donations from Fruition’s platform. They were instrumental.

The Fruition team listened to our needs, creating a user-friendly product for our donors. It was also manageable on the backend for our team. The same team members are working on the platform again for our 2020 event.

Their team is very philanthropic, donating hours, and supporting our community work. They genuinely believe in our mission, and that’s impactful. The team at Fruition is not only good what they do by giving us what we’re asking for or need, but also cares about why we need those requests.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

The team at Fruition is responsive and attentive, quickly answering questions and leaving comments. I’m not the most tech-savvy, but they’re incredibly patient with explaining issues to me. I was able to submit tickets and questions to a website they had. They would get back to me quickly, sometimes within minutes.

I appreciated their progress updates. Mike was easy to work with. He was communicative and efficient, completing tasks the way I asked. Since this was a new event for us, we knew what we needed, but not how to make it happen. I gave vague descriptions of how I envisioned the site, but their team still made it happen.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team is very supportive of our organization. Some of their staff came and supported us at the event. Working with Fruition feels like a real partnership. Because they understand our work, they’re able to create projects and other applicable items for us.

I feel comfortable reaching out to them with questions. They never make me feel like a big pain. Their team is always welcoming and friendly, exhibiting solid customer service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve. I’m satisfied with what they’ve produced and their entire process, as well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of business development at Trumpet Behavioral Health, an autism therapy provider. We have 40 locations in eight states and are growing rapidly to meet the demand. I manage marketing and advertising functions, overseeing all activity associated with traditional advertising, PR, social media, reputation management, and anything else that falls within the marketing spectrum.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

My company’s previous advertising vendor lacked transparency and creativity, and they weren’t leveraging our budget wisely to create value for us. We wanted a partner to make sure we were investing our marketing dollars in an arena that would help us generate client demand. Our mission was to grow in new markets. We were trying to understand our competitive environment online in addition to other strategic and valuable opportunities to create more content and digital engagement while making our services standout.

We also hoped to create long-term value associated with how we look at recruiting and talent and ultimately get the appropriate number of team members to work with our special patient population. We wanted a vendor that could educate us and create a strategic narrative and vision for where we needed to be.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition has become our Agency of Record (AOR). When they took over our existing site, we went section-by-section and page-by-page to look at the user flow and patient journey. Fruition optimized our top pages and looked at ways to start incorporating video and calls to action for navigation and other things. They built out pages around FAQs and rebuilt our mobile site, as around 3/4 of our traffic was mobile. The team continues to manage and host our website.

Fruition also manages all of our digital advertising strategies and spend. They assist us with Yext, place listings, Google My Business activity, SEO, and SEM. They’ve become like an advisor to us, helping us work through different initiatives around recruiting and talent acquisition in a very challenging, rapidly expanding healthcare space. They share best practices and inform us of what competitors are doing. 

They also do all of our social media reputation management. The team generates content for our blogs and oversees our monthly content calendar, for which they consider different elements associated with client demand generation.

What is the team composition?

There are probably 7–8 people that work with us across the different service lines. We have an accounting director, and the new permanent CEO often works with us as well.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I’d reached out to my professional network seeking recommendations for a local agency. I think having a local personal relationship is important in a strategic partnership. Individuals from other ad agencies recommended Fruition. I’d also done some online research and found that they were active in the autism space, as they’d hired individuals impacted by autism to be part of their staff. They were local, growing, and had experience in healthcare. 

My company put out an RFP and heard back from three Denver ad agencies. Luckily, Fruition was one of those. When we spoke with their references, they were passionate about their partnerships with Fruition; many commended their transparency and accountability. We were fortunate that a number of contacts and personal touchpoints led us to Fruition. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the discovery process in November 2018, and Fruition is still a partner of ours. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The digital space is obviously the epicenter of a business. Our organic traffic has increased year-over-year, as have month-over-month trends. We’ve seen increased user duration on the site and decreased bounce rate across all organic activity. Our referrals, direct traffic, and social media activity have all increased. These three areas are super important, as we’ve seen a good number of leads and conversions related to those activities. This includes parents or caregivers looking to obtain information related to autism therapy services. 

Fruition’s work on how visitors engage with our site has not only influenced client demand but also recruiting and talent acquisition. This is very encouraging, and I think a lot of it has to do with how we’re engaging different platforms, including LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and Instagram. Our Facebook audience and activity referrals have gone up. We’ve also figured out which social media accounts aren’t appropriate for us. Fruition’s visibility into other parts of the healthcare industry has been very fruitful and rewarding. All in all, from a quantitative perspective, every single metric is pointing in the right direction. 

Fruition has increased engagement with prospective clients and their families by building FAQ pages, creating monthly blogs, and managing different channels for conversation, including live chat. The number of online form submissions has increased, as has the number of online chats. The number of click-to-calls, both organic and paid, have increased, while our cost-per-lead has started to come down. Everything across the board is great. We’re able to see how we’re spending and investing our money.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very helpful to us, especially since I’m very busy managing other teams and partners. This includes a sales business development team, a lead generation outreach partner, and 6–7 vendors for an online store that sells our merchandise. Fruition’s team understands the scope of our work and major milestones. My direct interactions with them total 2.5–3 hours a week.

I know we’re not one of Fruition’s biggest clients, but we’re always treated like we are. They communicate proactively and have weekly check-ins and monthly in-person reviews. I requested end-of-week updates so that I can share those with my organization to build momentum, and they’ve delivered them. 

Fruition makes project management very upfront. They create shared drives and use a priority project tool that’s associated with our direct retainers for the new strategic contracts or scopes of work that we do with them. Everything is very fluid and dynamic. If we run into any issues, such as someone experiencing a problem on social media or portions of our site being down, Fruition responds quickly. Because of their transparency and openness, I can check their Gantt charts and project maps to see where they are in the project at any given time. Our account director is also very accommodating and available to connect. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

If you’re going to work with somebody and give them your money, you want them to treat your money like it’s theirs, and that’s what Fruition does for us. They stick to the strategic vision by seeing how they can help us achieve smart, scalable, and sustainable growth while treating our money like it’s theirs. Strategic alignment allows a relationship to turn into a partnership, and I was pleased to see this come to fruition. We began to understand the scope of some of the project we’d given them and the value of our investments.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our industry is a little different than the traditional healthcare model. We also have regulatory and ethical government body restrictions and policies to consider. Fruition was able to adapt to these differences quickly, so I have no negative feedback. They’ve been accommodating of our unique leadership and executive teams, who always want to know costs related to lead generation and acquisition, understand the value of optimization, and see how we’re different from competitors.

Any advice for potential customers?

Leverage time in the discovery process, not only to understand how your business can interact with Fruition but also to determine how to build on the personal qualitative aspects of your business to align with Fruition. Having a good discovery process, setting expectations, and aligning with the vendor is very important so that you can realize the connection and have the vendor become a sustainable value-add champion for your business. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of salon operations at Salon Plaza.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We brought on Fruition to ramp up our social media presence and community awareness.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition provides digital marketing services. They set up all of our social ads and began geofencing. The team launched and continues to manage various campaigns. They focus on marketing different areas, such as where our need-based salons and grand openings are.

Our teams collaborate on creating content for the ads. We often deliver the basics of what we want the ad to look like, and then Fruition puts their own twist on the content and finalizes it.

Fruition assists in other areas as needed, including Salesforce Pardot and QuickBooks.

What is the team composition?

At the beginning of our work together, we just worked with two team members; now, we work with four.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I was not a part of that process. However, we have a lot of partners out of Denver, where Fruition is based out of, so I think it was a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

I estimate that we spent $1,700 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work with Fruition began in May 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Fruition has done a great deal for us. They’ve driven a lot of social traffic. We’ve also gotten more calls.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

Fruition is very much in alignment with our values, and their services bar none. They always find a way to meet our needs, and they get the work done. They’re excellent to work with. I’d recommend them highly.

We have weekly conference calls and also communicate via email and text. They send us reporting via email. We’ve built a strong relationship; we’re comfortable picking up the phone and calling them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a very well-rounded team that assists us in a lot of different areas. It’s been a great partnership.

Fruition’s behavior and how they work with clients makes it clear that they really care about the success of our company, not just making money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t. They should just keep doing what they’re doing. As they grow, they should never forget the little things they do to get to know people and their values.

Any advice for potential customers?

I would tell them to give Fruition an opportunity; they’ll be able to help grow their business. If they want to work with somebody with strong people and technical skills, I’d say Fruition is the company for them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital media services at The Strong National Museum of Play, a non-profit museum that serves families and children.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

As a nonprofit, we have limited resources, staff, and expertise. My company was looking for design and development services for our existing Drupal website.

In the past, we’d only gotten halfway through updating the site’s look and feel. We were having trouble keeping up with the demands of stakeholders and internal clients that wanted website projects completed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition redesigned and updated our Drupal website, adding visuals and functionalities. One of the first projects we tackled was redesigning nearly every landing page and all of our main navigation.

After a bit of time working with Fruition, we decided to have them host our website, as our existing server was outdated. They also continue to maintain the site. I’m responsible for communicating the museum’s needs to Fruition, so I put content, information, and goals into simple wireframes and pass those off to Fruition. They build out the functionalities that we need.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with Erica (Lead Technical Project Manager, Fruition) and Steve (Developer, Fruition).

Occasionally, we work with their designer or someone who is brought on to handle deployment or technical issues. Typically, though, it’s just Steve doing the development work, which is nice because he’s really gotten to know our needs, how the site functions, and what the site’s peculiarities are.  

How did you come to work with Fruition?

A couple of years ago, we were having some difficulties with the site and started to research what resources were out there for Drupal. We had a call with Fruition, and one of the people on the call was actually from Rochester. However, nothing materialized until about a year later, when we knew exactly what development we wanted to outsource. Based on the really good call we’d had with Fruition, we requested a quote from them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $5,000 each month, plus a small hosting fee.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in November 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Fruition’s Drupal expertise has enabled us to complete projects at a much faster rate than we did before. Their productivity has been very well received internally. Also, certain pages have experienced more web traffic.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything has gone smoothly. They’re very on top of it and respond quickly. Despite a three-hour time difference, we rarely have to wait long to hear back from them.

We communicate through Fruition’s service desk, and we also have a phone call every other week with Erica. The regular communication makes it seem like they’re right there.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their Drupal expertise is phenomenal. We’d struggled with a lack of internal Drupal knowledge, so being able to pass the work off to people who know this platform inside and out is really refreshing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. It’s always a collaboration.

Any advice for potential customers?

Organization is key. Working with a third-party versus an in-house team is a different mindset. When someone is in-house, you can be a lot more fluid; however, with an outsourced team, you have a set number of hours per month, so staying organized, articulating what you want, and providing wireframes is helpful to both parties. The more specific you can get, the more efficient your time will be working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital media at Ontario International Airport in Southern California. I’m responsible for managing social media, the website, and all digital integrations. We have about 5.1 million passengers each year and host nine airlines that travel to 21 destinations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We hired Fruition to provide website support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition is our sole web agency, and they do everything from backend development to day-to-day maintenance. We collaborated on a website refresh, which Fruition began by analyzing data, UX audits and reports, and site usage. They continue to revamp high-traffic web pages, such as our parking page. We recently added a feature that allows customers to book parking in advance, and Fruition ensured that this was available on the site’s homepage and various other pages.

Fruition added map and destination features to our site, enabling customers to click on a location to determine which airline can take them there. Fruition helped rolled out Spanish and Mandarin translations to accommodate our Belarussian and Chinese customers. They’ve helped make our brand more digital, and they provide SEO. The team updates our metadata ties and oversees our landing pages and search engine rankings.

Fruition is in the discovery phase of building out our Internet. Our company has never had an internal employee Internet, and we’re looking forward to every team and department having their own site.

What is the team composition?

The primary team that we work with is Jonathan (VP of Digital Strategy, Fruition), Erica (Lead Technical Project Manager, Fruition), Tony (Service Desk Lead, Fruition), and Jon (Developer, Fruition).

How did you come to work with Fruition?

Fruition was already onboard when I joined my company, so I’m not sure how they were selected.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $150,000–$350,000 over the last fiscal year.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company obtained new leadership in November 2016, but Fruition was working with us before that. Our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website refresh provides our customers with a friendlier user experience. Our concessions and destinations pages are more interactive and modern, which distinguishes our site from other airport websites. Fruition’s digital and SEO services have not only improved the customer experience but have also educated us internally on taking a more digital approach. Most airports don’t have a robust digital team like Fruition.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

The Fruition team is agile, responsive, and collaborative. We try to have in-person meetings at least once a quarter; my team has traveled to Fruition’s office in Denver to have brainstorming sessions, and they’ve come to our office.  They’re very open to exchanging ideas and facilitating a back-and-forth partnership. We have one or two weekly calls and interact every day via email.

For a few projects, Fruition has had to work with external vendors; for instance, to enable pre-book parking, they engaged with our parking contractor. They’re flexible and open to working with different parties.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our relationship isn’t just transactional; Fruition is part of our team. Fruition treats our brand as if it were their own. We have an in-house graphic designer and photographer, but we don’t have the capacity to build the website. Because of Fruition, we’ve brought our vision to life.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any that I can think of.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be as collaborative as possible and ensure that Fruition understands your brand. Having such a strong working relationship improves the quality of the work and can even expedite results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a controller at SCB International, Inc., an e-commerce company focused on nutritional products. I also oversee marketing and manage the website and IT.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We had two main websites: a blog-based WordPress site and a Magento 1 e-commerce site. An inexperienced developer had poorly executed our most recent iteration in 2013. Custom core code modifications made the Magento 1 site prone to bugs and difficult to patch. Also, our blog site had thousands of articles and ineffective navigation, which was causing an information overload problem. By 2018, we had outdated graphics, bad visual layouts, poor performance on mobile browsers, and slow load times. Although we had high traffic on the blog site, our conversion rates on the e-commerce site were below the industry average. Finally, we knew Magento 1’s end of life date was 2020, so we wanted to update our site to Magento’s newer version. My company hired Fruition to help us with these challenges.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition rebuilt our websites from scratch and integrated the two. They did front- and backend development and all of the design work. Initially, the team did mood boards, mock-ups, and theme redesign. Then, they used FishPig to integrate our WordPress and Magento sites. They also integrated all of the third-party modules that we needed in Magento, such as Mailchimp and Mandrill, ShipStation, and PayPal. They analyzed our user flow and made improvements based on a concept called progressive disclosure, so that information would be presented to users as needed instead of all at once.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact was Erica (Lead Technical Project Manager, Fruition). My team also worked with Chance (Technical Sales Engineer, Fruition) on backend development and Nathan (Senior UX Designer, Fruition) on frontend development. We engaged with a user flow expert and another web designer who helped with the layout, frontend, and graphics.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

Fruition happened to contact us when we were actively looking for a web developer. We liked their work and the fact that they had a full team of experts; we didn’t want just a one-person team working on such a major overhaul. After a few quote revisions, my company hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw a 1% increase in the conversion rate, which brought us closer to the industry average. Fruition also resolved our information overload issue.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

It was evident that Fruition had experience managing complex, high-level projects. Erica was one of the best project managers my team has worked with. She held weekly follow-up meetings, had a keen attention to detail, and was capable of solving unforeseen challenges. She was easily accessible via email or phone. Having a detailed quote that was representative of the work helped ensure that we adhered to the timeline and budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their graphic designers were top-notch. They did such an excellent job with our website that we had them redesign our logo.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue we ran into was Fruition’s lack of experience with our ERP system, Sage. However, they can’t know every system. They did great from project management and technical standpoints.  

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the director of sales and marketing for a guest property.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fruition?

We needed services for SEO, PPC, advertising, blog writing, and social media management.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to build out these platforms to increase revenue.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A PR agency recommended Fruition to our team.

Describe the project in detail.

Fruition built the platforms and has since managed our SEO, PPC, and advertising campaigns. Services also include social media management, content development, and blog writing.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager who oversaw dedicated project leads for each target objective.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any statistics or metrics that speak to the quality of their work and impact of the engagement?

The property’s year-over-year revenue has increased 100% in five years. Our group’s overall revenue is up 50%. Our social media audience base has grown exponentially as well.

How did the Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

They capably manage different projects simultaneously. The team is also cost-efficient and timely.

What impresses you about the Fruition?

They stay current with industry trends and always look for new ways to achieve growth.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are always areas for improvement, but nothing worth noting stands out. We are very happy with our results to date.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of Marketing at a healthcare staffing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We had a website in place but needed help on various side-projects. Specifically, we wanted guidance on SEO, SEM, and web development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition worked on our simple WordPress brochure page, mainly focusing on SEO and SEM. They weren’t involved in the website’s original development, but they helped with content development and marketing, as well as with UX audits, bringing in recommendations around that. We use the brochure site to organize events, and they helped ensure it could integrate easily with other third-party tools like EventRight. It was a clear-cut project with a modest budget.

We do not engage them for email marketing.

What is the team dynamic?

We have quarterly business reviews and receive everything I would expect from a top-tier agency. I have worked with the director of SEO, a project manager, two support individuals and a pay-per-click and SEM manager. There are five people supporting the account, but I only communicate directly with the account manager on a daily basis.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I did some research, some with Clutch, and received referrals in town. We had already been engaged with an SEO agency, but I wasn’t satisfied with the results we were seeing for the budget. I got in touch with Fruition, and they seemed like a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend between $100,000 and $200,000 annually for their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Fruition in May 2016. The relationship is ongoing. We’re in the process of developing another WordPress brochure site with Fruition since they met our expectations on the first one.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a simple task, but Fruition exceeded our expectations on the web development project. Year-over-year, we saw an 87% increase in organic traffic compared with when we were working with the other SEO company. There are other metrics we look at, in terms of blog traffic and users generated from it. We’ve seen some good conversion increases from the recommendations they've made.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the things I look for in an agency is its internal workload, and whether or they communicate frequently. We can be high-maintenance at times, but Fruition is easy to get ahold of, and they work with us as much as we need in order to achieve what we want.

They’ve always hit deadlines, for both the brochure site and content creation targets. I haven’t had any concerns in this sense.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing I appreciate about Fruition is that they aren’t afraid to learn about our industry. This was a challenge I laid out from the beginning since we’re in a unique industry, and only staff on a contract basis. They put in the effort to learn about what makes our industry unique, and what works for the different individuals we staff. We have targeted content that required hours of research, in addition to the time put into the main project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve done a good job on the PPC side of things, but I’d only rate them a 4.5/5 on it. For everything else, I’d give them a 5.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing for an eye care center, which started in 1999 as a LASIK provider. After the first 15 years, we made the move to become an all-encompassing medical and surgical eye care provider, offering advanced treatments for glaucoma and cataracts. We are now positioned to become a national center of excellence and have started building regional centers of excellence with different brands and names across multiple US states.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

When the relationship started, our aim was to grow the business and achieve a recognizable brand in the community. We also needed to build a website that translated that same prominence in the market.

We recently changed names. We kept our first name variant for a long time. However, we knew that it wasn’t our future, and we needed to expand its scope. We needed to figure out what brand name could take us from our old name to the new one, while still carrying the brand equity and highlight where we wanted to go.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over time, Fruition has become an important partner for us. They have helped us in all facets of marketing, elevating our brand and positioning as well as strengthening our digital presence.

They have updated the site several times over the years to meet changing behaviors of people online. For instance, mobile wasn’t a thing when we made the first version of the site. When it became bigger, Fruition helped make our page responsive and adapted it to the changing landscape. They’ve never been happy with the website and always see room for improvement. We constantly test new features and items in order to make it more effective. This is a powerful piece of our relationship with Fruition.

In terms of more traditional marketing, Fruition has helped us with the design of internal and marketing print collateral and logos. We’ve had 4 versions of these materials as our name transitioned. They’ve helped update our brand and identity with each name change. There was always a large amount of research that went into the work beforehand. Fruition never delivered a logo because they thought it was pretty. There was always justification and data around how certain colors and fonts are relatable to our target audience. We need to be data-oriented in marketing, given the degree of softness in the industry. With Fruition, this is always in place when we are given change recommendations.

Our current logo and branding identity were developed through Fruition’s input. Fruition put together a complete branding and identity package that showcased all the research they put behind the logo, font use, colors, and general branding. It is strong and has many subtle pieces with multiple underlying meanings. We embraced and stood behind it, turning it into a strong brand. We suffered during the transition period, but we now have a name that we can all be proud of.  

Fruition also helped us fine-tune how we approached paid search campaigns. They made tests in order to determine the best return on investment.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

They were selected before my time with the company. I do know that we were both local companies, which definitely played into the decision. More likely, it had to do with Fruition’s expertise and ability to be a partner for us. We wanted to work with someone whom we know will be there for us and whose expertise we can trust.

How much have you invested with Fruition?

The cost has varied depending on the specific project over the years. Recently, we’ve paid $15,000 per month for Fruition’s services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2015, and the engagement is still ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I have to highlight the fact that people search for our brand more than they search for the general service we provide. This is a point of pride for me since it shows the value of our brand right there. Fruition was instrumental in helping us build that.

When we were struggling with different names and what we could call ourselves, people were still calling us by our old name in the community. Now, I can tell that our current brand is strong by checking out our branded searches. Since 2016, I have been seeing increases in searches for our new name. People are mentioning us because we are a big player in the Denver market, and we have many reviews referencing us in the right way.

Digital marketing is a huge factor in growing our site’s SEO [search engine optimization] value. The strengths we now have for our domain and brand surpass general category searches in our market. We have not only achieved this but managed to keep it, which is a difficult thing to do in the current changing digital landscape.

I don’t have specific numbers for other metrics. I do know that our organic search, website, and overall traffic continue to grow on an annual basis. We have beaten last year’s numbers every year. When I looked at the recent numbers for 2017, I saw a 50% increase in traffic compared to 2016. We have a strong growth, much of which has to do with testing and working out the right messaging and campaigns.

Fruition has done a great job of adapting to trends and whatever is happening with search. They keep our site relevant, strong, searchable, and lead-driving. The latter is a huge piece of our direct-to-consumer business, and the site has been constantly worked on to improve conversions. Fruition has even helped us attract a private equity investor, which enabled us to grow at an exponential speed and expand to different states. This happened through the work Fruition has provided over the years.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication has been stellar. I know that I’m a demanding client, but Fruition has always been available. We are attended to by multiple members of the team, and they listened to our ideas and suggestions. When we have brainstorming sessions together, it feels like Fruition is an extension of our team. I don’t think that one day goes by without contacting them, but we exchange emails as much as needed around pertinent projects. There would be weekly updates to help us keep track of projects. If we threw them a project that could affect a previous deadline, they would communicate that to us. We also have a monthly sit-down meeting to look at results.

What did you find most impressive about Fruition?

Fruition’s technical expertise stands out because they deliver results at the end of the day. When things need to be tweaked, they do so. This is the simplest but most effective way of assessing them.

Secondly, the idea that we have an all-encompassing team available to us is a strong attribute. We don’t have to go to different agencies for different parts of our marketing. The fact that we could go to Fruition when our social media work started was a valuable thing to have. It’s hard to manage multiple partners and have everyone speaking to each other. If we can lean on one partnership for all of this, it will be ideal.

Are there any areas Fruition could improve?

I’m sure I’ve had constructive feedback for them at some point, but everything works well overall.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Tru Family Dental, which is a practice support organization for dental offices. We provide back-office support to dental practices with whom we’ve affiliated. We have seven offices that are currently under our umbrella, and we provide operational, IT, marketing, and onboarding support. Pretty much everything that helps the office run smoothly, we handle on the backend - anything but the delivery of care.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We needed to attract new patients and have a consistent presence online.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition built out the entire website, from the page for Tru Family Dental to each individual practice location. We’re in different geographies, so there was the main site, and also one for the all the subs. We grow through affiliation, meaning we buy other offices. When we do that, we’ve got a model to get that practice up to speed pretty quickly. We have a professional photographer come by, drop those photos in, create the social media pages across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc., and then get off and rolling with a PPC campaign. We immediately start tracking our keyword SEO ranking across a span of 75 or more keywords, and then it’s off to the races. That’s how we put it all together out of the gate.

Tru Family is three years old, and Fruition was here from the beginning. We had three or four offices at that time. Once we figured out the brand and everything, Fruition went out and built the website and all the pages. For any new office we acquire, it’s now a temple. You just change the city, location, photos, and team member information, and you drop it in. That helps us to scale efficiently.

There’s a social media manager who spends time with us. We’ve got a dedicated development manager, and then a dedicated PPC manager. So, all those channels are handled; social, online, and then the PPC. Additionally, there’s a fourth team member who is a business manager, making sure we’re looking at our spend per patient acquisition online through different channels. That’s the whole package, and we get full access to everyone. We have to continually evolve, so as we change the way we monitor calls or new pieces of collateral going out either in practice or mail, Fruition is there, helping to design and set up the correct analytics behind it. Once we send it out and capture data, they review that.  

We really wanted to have a lot of access to data from a dynamic number insertion perspective, with the different properties we have. That technology is in there. We’re able to pull reviews from our individual Google+ pages to the web chat automatically with a plugin. We have a practice management software that we use. As a medical provider, there’s insurance, billing, all these other things that are connected together. That captures the patient information once they come. The leads are directed to a call center. We’ve actually built a plugin into the website to allow patients to complete their health history online versus having to print out the papers and then scan it. Those are some of the little bits and pieces in terms of tech that’s placed in.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I’ve known of Fruition for a period of time through friends. I knew of their experience in multi-unit health care marketing. Once we got this thing off the ground, I wanted to reach out to them early. I wanted to make sure we were getting a provider that knew what they were doing in multi-unit health care.

How much have you invested with Fruition?

When I look at what I spend with them for support, ongoing SEO monitoring, and development, then what my PPC spend is, we’re best-in-class for our industry. I know what our industry dynamics are for the cost to get a patient in the chair, and the ROI is favorable to a high degree.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January of 2015, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The volume and year-over-year growth have increased. All the metrics are exceptional. Our site is clean, elegant, and responsive. Everything we hoped and dreamed, Fruition has delivered, and they keep delivering as we continue to expand. I’ve never any issues with the reliability and functionality of the website.

My cost to get a patient in the practice is less than the industry average. One practice we affiliated with used to see one or two new patients a month. They now see 20 to 30 new patients a month.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

There haven’t been any problems with the time zone difference or getting in touch with them. They’re accessible by phone, email, and Skype. They have an emergency support number, and it’s all good to go.

What did you find most impressive about Fruition?

Across the board, they’re really committed to the organization. I have an office that’s going to go live in June, and we got billed in May for it. I sent an email to the billing department at Fruition, and a minute later it comes back with that invoice change, no questions asked. I’ve tried to fight other vendors on stuff, and I get nowhere with them. They’re very much client-facing, and whenever I have a question on an invoice, they get it done immediately. With all my other vendors, it’s like I’m trying to pull teeth, no pun intended.

Are there any areas Fruition could improve?

I know they’re working on building some business intelligence tools that will drive more reporting data. You can get anything you want now, but version 2.0 is going to be interesting, once they get a BI tool in there that populates and pushes.