Grow With Studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of SoundAway, an acoustics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grow With Studio?

We needed help with digital marketing and e-commerce development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In 2007, they developed our e-commerce website. In 2016, I initiated them to do marketing services and SEO. A year later, we initiated PPC and shopping feeds, and they continue to help in that area. Over the course of our relationship, they’ve redesigned our website twice.

I did extensive research on the different e-commerce platforms and decided that Volusion was the best platform for our company. After making my selection, Grow With Studio set up the platform.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 10-12 people.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested at least $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2007, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since December 2017, I’ve received reports from Volusion regarding our PPC marketing as well as shopping feeds. We didn’t have any data or metrics to compare against. If I look at the first result of the first report, the return on investment was 5 to 1. Today it averages out about 7 to 1. 

Not only are they able to improve the content of the website, but they’re also able to optimize it so that everything works in sync. The PPC, the SEO, and shopping feeds are all working off the same content and metadata. The results are all based on the work that they’re doing. They understand our business well. They understand the content well enough to continuously improve it.

How did Grow With Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re extremely responsive. They communicate well throughout the team. We communicated very frequently initially, and now our communication is more on an as-needed basis. We use Basecamp. They’re as good as you can find. They make sure things get done as requested, as discussed, and as expected.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Things have worked so well. They communicate frequently enough that I’m abreast of what’s going on. They make changes as needed quickly. They make recommendations and suggestions to continually improve the campaigns. I’m pleased with what they’re doing. Even though we’ve had new team members come and go, it’s seamless.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can rely on their technology to carry you through as you grow.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the creative director at a garden hose company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grow With Studio?

We worked with their team on several projects. First, we designed a website with them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After redesigning our site with them last year, we started finding more areas for collaboration. They continue enhancing our website with custom designs, but also provide SEO and PPC services for us. The team also writes articles for our site based on Google rankings. We’re working with them on our social media too.

What is the team composition?

Collectively, we’ve worked with five or six people that wear a lot of different hats.

How did you come to work with Grow With Studio?

When I came on, they had already designed our website.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, I’d say we’ve spent $15,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe they started in 2008. The redesign of the website was completed, but we have two additions planned for the future. Their SEO work continues, and we recently started their PPC program. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything has improved. We’re a small to mid-sized company that built a website to have a presence and build our brand. The redesign we did is making us more money, and the social media work has gained us followers. The SEO work continues to bring people to our site with content that shows improvement with each monthly report.

Their responsiveness is great. We knew that we may be pushing them outside their templates and existing programming, but their custom design department worked well with our creative team to establish the look and feel we wanted. When presented with a challenge, they would provide an honest opinion on whether it could be done or not and have solutions for us. I also feel they went above and beyond for us during the design process. We appreciated that.

We depend on them and consider them an extension of our staff. Within the last couple of months, we’ve worked out a great rhythm and I look forward to the continued great results with their team.

How did Grow With Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they perform very well. We’re about three months into our social media services with them. We’re at the point where I feel confident that they’re given us the right amount of attention with their other clients. They’re really on top of things. Along with their responsiveness, they keep to deadlines. We’ve had no issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We trust them. They’re well-educated experts in their field. If they don’t know something, they go back and make it a team effort to gather the information. The team seems to be pretty cohesive on their end.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we were working on the redesign, I think they were a bit short-staffed. Some things took a little longer because of that. They were very busy, so I guess it might be time for them to increase their staff.

Most communication is done through a messaging system called Basecamp. Although at first it was frustrating to not pick up the phone and talk through some things, I find they write and communicate very well.

Clients can also make a scheduled appointment for a phone call if they need to, but they're limited to time. We have a better understanding of the language and the different packages we're working with now, so it's easier, but at first, I was impatient with having to message everything.

Again, they write and communicate very well through this system, but clients need to be prepared if they're learning their language that this is the common form of communication.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients need to be well-aligned with what they offer. I would highly recommend working with them if that’s the case. They have a great team of very experienced people that you can count on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a pet nutrition company that provides holistic supplements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grow With Studio?

We wanted to get the word out about the benefits of pet nutrition, such as managing pet healthcare and vitamins. It was a way for us to get people to learn more about our company’s supplements, too. Grow With Studio helped us by reworking our website’s UX/UI.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

To start, Grow With Studio rearranged the information on our website so that it was easier to navigate. We have a huge library of articles, which they were able to organize and filter. Now, users can search through our content and know where our resources are.

That improvement in accessibility also helped our SEO ranking because it became more valuable to people. Pet owners began to recognize us as industry experts in our field. 

How did you come to work with Grow With Studio?

I’ve been a customer of theirs for many years and love the customer support they provide. While I did look at other companies, I chose Grow With Studio because they understood that there’s more to SEO than just rankings. They were careful about what they could promise and deliver.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2019 and have just committed to another six months. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen tremendous growth in the number of people who’ve found our site. But it’s not just about raising our rankings — it’s about offering value to our brand. They’ve improved our pages by making it easier for people to understand our content. 

How did Grow With Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. Every month, we set our goals and plan out which pages to work on along with any special projects. Then, they call to check in on how we’re doing.

The team has also been outstanding with regard to meeting deadlines. Over last year’s holiday season, we fell behind around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and they accelerated in January to catch us up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their ability to think outside the box that makes them stand out. People think that you just have to plug in keywords into your site, but that’s not how it works at all. It’s more complicated than that.

For example, our blog had a lot of duplicate content on it, which affected our SEO negatively. But, we didn’t know that it was a problem at the time. Grow With Studio pointed out the issues that could potentially affect our site’s performance.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m a very happy customer. I’ve used them twice before and have gotten minimal results based on the team assigned. My current contacts are great because they know how to measure our success and have trained us on how to use Google Analytics.

That empowered me to figure out these reports myself, which increases transparency. Other agencies might give you a report that only shows you what makes them look good. Grow With Studio actually showed me how to keep them accountable and understand my metrics.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Decorative Fabrics Direct. Our web division is Decorative Fabrics Direct.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grow With Studio?

Our company already had a paid advertising program in place, but we didn’t have any ongoing SEO or organic traffic efforts. There was a lack of in-house sophistication and knowledge to do the work required to obtain organic clicks. This was the primary reason we engaged with Grow With Studio.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Grow With Studio conducted a full review and audit of our website. We have a lot of products on our site, including about 10,000 fabric selections. Their team reviewed the whole platform, analyzed the data, and provided a benchmark of our current standing.

Then, they started working with the overall site design, making suggestions and changes. The biggest thing was adding content to our category pages. This included adding more descriptive information, primarily to our different upholstery fabric and drapery fabric categories. Formerly, we had very little content on the pages other than the thumbnails of the items; there was no text or content.

Once they started uploading that content, I collaborated and worked with them on it. Grow With Studio framed the content around what customers would want and what target audiences would have questions or interest about. Together we worked, altered, and reviewed the content until we were ready to post it. They did all of the minor and major product categories of the platform.

We recently brought on another individual to work on our social media; we’re going to create a Pinterest account. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of this social media campaign once we start it.

What is the team composition?

I work with a few people on their staff and have one primary contact.

How did you come to work with Grow With Studio?

To my knowledge, they’re associated with, if not a division of, the software provider that hosts our platform and provides our store’s software.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership began in August 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started seeing results within two months. Over the last four months, the organic click rate increased by 600% and the impressions have gone up by 300%. Grow With Studio is doing a terrific job, and we’ve seen tremendous success.

What’s more, our volume of sales has grown substantially. The number of site visitors and traffic has increased fourfold. Grow With Studio provides reports that allow me to see Google Analytics. The graphs are great to look at; they look like a mountain because they shoot straight up. They’ve done a fine job, and I couldn’t be happier.

We find good people in all the fields we deal with, but Grow With Studio has been top-notch. They have good business sense melded with technology. The end result is that I want an ROI with the money I spend on them, and that happens.

They truly understand the business application and how they can bring tech into the fold to enhance our business. I’d be surprised if we don’t continue the partnership for a long, long time. Their team has a lot to offer, and they’re just scratching the surface.

How did Grow With Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication has been fantastic. We hold weekly phone calls where we discuss progress and address questions. Sometimes the calls are short and other times they’re longer, but they’re never rushed. I talk with the same individual each time which is what I want — someone who can grow with us and understand our business needs. I give Grow With Studio my highest praise.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I give them an A+. Not only do they know the technology, but they can also relay it to me, a businessman, in a way that I understand. They don’t take me too deep into it. Their team is patient and makes it easy to do business with them. They’re extremely personable, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. We’re satisfied, and they’re delivering results.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s beneficial to have weekly phone calls, even if they’re very short. Personally, it keeps me in the loop and gives us the chance to explain more about our products. Likewise, it gives them the chance to bring in ideas that might fit. If you want real results, you have to engage.