Honey & Hive Agency

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Forever Young Agency, a business consulting agency that owns six businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Honey & Hive Agency?

They’re my go-to marketing agency for all my businesses.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Honey & Hive does marketing work for all of my businesses. They create positioning and branding strategies, and they develop and design content. For strategy, they do everything from web design, branding, and logo design. The team also handles our organic social media marketing and performance marketing, such as paid ads. They’ve worked with Google Ads, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Yelp, and Pinterest. 

When I have more sophisticated projects, Honey & Hive does my demand generation funnel work from top to bottom, including email and paid ads. Additionally, they do some web development work; they build websites, landing pages, and microsites to create marketing and sales funnels. Some of the tools they’ve used are WordPress, Wix.com, and Webflow.

Honey & Hive starts with a discovery meeting for each project. They try to get as much information as possible, including the positioning statement, branding, success metrics, and goals. If the business doesn’t have a good strategy or positioning statement, they do workshops for both of those first. The team goes through the whole gamut of what the business is, why it matters, the metrics we want to improve, and what success looks like for us, going through macro brands and tactical KPIs. From there, they come back with a couple of execution proposals of how they think they can achieve our goals for us. Then, they initiate engagement. 

What is the team composition?

There are four people from Honey & Hive on the team: Caitlin and Kylie (Co-Founders), a digital marketing specialist, and an intern. 

How did you come to work with Honey & Hive Agency?

Caitlin and I used to work together at another marketing agency. She learned about marketing and communications from a notable executive and always did great work at our previous company. I follow her on social media, and we’re connected on LinkedIn. When she announced she was starting Honey & Hive, I was immediately interested in being her customer. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $10,000 a month with them. In total, we’ve spent about $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2021, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Honey & Hive did all the branding and marketing strategy for a service I launched four months ago, and we’re already generating about $90,000 a month in sales. They’ve helped our site traffic, brand awareness, and return on ad spend grow insanely fast. Additionally, I’ve referred them to about six clients who now use Honey & Hive, and they also love them and have thanked me for introducing them.

How did Honey & Hive Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very organized, and their project management skills are top-notch. We use Slack, Zoom, and text messages to communicate, and they’re pretty available. They’re very communicative about what they’ll work on and when. They use Asana to document all their work. The team provides a strategy calendar and a campaign tracker, showing everything they’ve agreed to do in a monthly view. 

In any given project, we get to a point where we don’t have to meet with them. Instead, we comment on the calendar, leaving feedback or asking questions about performance analytics. I’ve been working with them for two years, and we don’t have meetings anymore; we work digitally. Overall, their project management is the number one value prop and one of the reasons I keep referring them to all my clients. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed by Honey & Hive’s dedication to helping us win. They have an interesting blended approach where, if they can’t do something, they find someone to augment their team and do it. They’re not a one-trick pony; they listen to us and expand our marketing, building it around our business versus what they’re good at. I appreciate this personalized approach. 

Additionally, they revisit their work and look for ways to improve. Most vendors don’t admit when their strategies aren’t working, whereas Honey & Hive pivots the contract to do what will make us the most revenue. They’re honest, transparent, and really want us to win. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They need more skills in SEO; they could partner with someone or learn how to do better SEO work. This is a minor thing, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear and articulate about what you want and how, and open a line of communication with Honey & Hive. Although they’re very adaptive and capable, you need to speak up. They could take over and drive the project for you or augment your team. You should have those conversations upfront because they can adapt much faster if you know exactly what kind of agency you need. The perfect client for Honey & Hive is an entrepreneur who is too busy to figure out what they need in terms of marketing; the team will figure it out with you.