Ice Nine Online

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive vice president of Gibraltar Capital Advance, a small business finance company. We're an independent source of capital for businesses. I look after everything that generates revenue for the business such as sales and marketing and associated operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ice Nine?

Most broadly, we wanted new customer acquisition. Specifically, our business has both a direct and an indirect customer origination channel. The direct line involves our in-house sales and marketing efforts, and we contracted Ice Nine to help with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They first helped with a digital paid search strategy, setting a budget, executing a digital paid search on Google, and then managing all the reporting and progress of those campaigns. We also do unpaid search, which includes traditional SEO and a general optimizing of our online presence. Ice Nine also did a complete teardown and rebuild of our old website for us.

How did you come to work with Ice Nine?

Honestly, it was a referral. We spent some time vetting and interviewing, but we liked Matt [Founder and CEO, Ice Nine] right away.

How much have you invested with Ice Nine?

In fees that we pay directly to the company, we’ll spend about $75,000 by the end of 2017. Matt’s managing a pay-per-click (PPC) budget of $300,000 for us, even though it’s not what we pay him. Ice Nine doesn’t take a percentage of that as a management fee; they're getting paid by a scoped contract. But, they perform certain enumerated services for certain fees.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January, and the work is ongoing. Matt will continue to do the program and campaign management and reporting for us on PPC.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very satisfied with the site’s performance. The work is excellent and has already helped our company grow. Just in the first 6 months of the engagement, we have tangible, measurable results in customer growth. There’s been a 50% increase in our run rate of new customer acquisition, compared to before the engagement with Ice Nine. That growth makes the investment really positive. We'll have positive ROI with Ice Nine in our first 6 months.

People, internally and externally, say they like the website, so that's good news. More to the point, we've also seen a sharp increase in the number of indirect sales firms who want to partner with us, now that we have a new site and improved SEO.

What did you find most impressive about Ice Nine?

Matt takes great care of us as a customer. He isn't just performing the work as scoped under the contract. He thinks about us and generates ideas. When delivering reporting and results, he demonstrates a very high level of customer care. You can tell he actually wants this relationship to work. He's very committed to us being successful. He wants us to derive value, and he makes that very evident through his work and delivery.

Are there any areas Ice Nine could improve?

No, I don't have any suggestions. I’ll keep it all positive.

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

Customers need to have clear objectives. The customer needs to have their own strategy nailed down first. If you can communicate that unambiguously and clearly to Ice Nine, they will execute well. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Gibraltar Capital Advance is a financial services firm. We provide financial facilities to small businesses, primarily B2C. We have a sister company, Gibraltar Business Capital, that primarily serves B2B businesses. We have a sales staff, and we have multi-channel marketing campaigns to try to generate inbound leads, as well as full operations team, including underwriters, account executives, and customer service, because we finance all our deals directly. I’m the technology/marketing operations resource.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ice Nine Online?

There were two parts. First, we wanted to optimize our inbound lead generation. Our website was old. The last time it had been refreshed was in 2012 or 2013. It was fine, but it wasn’t a good inbound lead generation tool. Second, we had moved to using Pardot as our marketing automation tool in 2014, and a lot of our engagement programs and nurture campaigns were done via Pardot with emails and landing pages. However, we needed a more integrated solution and a better look and feel for the website, as well as just making it more of an inbound lead generation tool.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first part was a website rebuild, and that was a discrete project, kickoff through delivery. The second is ongoing, which is the launching of the digital marketing efforts, primarily focused on AdWords.

For the website rebuild, Ice Nine Online started from scratch. They handled both the design and development. They came in and did their innovation phase to determine our values and what we wanted to do. The design phase followed, and then the delivery phase. The ongoing work is mostly off-site advertising to bring traffic to the site.

How did you come to work with Ice Nine Online?

Ice Nine Online was a referral. We did due diligence, looking at a few vendors. It became clear early on that Ice Nine would be able to solve both our needs, which was great. It could be a one-stop shop. They were able to refresh the website and optimize it to be a great lead generation tool, and then work on online advertising, specifically AdWords.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project at the end of 2016 or the beginning of 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I think this leads to a broader answer regarding the quality of their overall work and the process they took. The finished product is fantastic, and the ongoing work is exceptional and high-quality. I think that’s a result of their focus, day in and day out, on communication, delivery of milestones on time, check-ins, and the iterative process with the website as well as the lead generation. Their team is very proactive in communicating expectations: what we’re supposed to deliver and what they do with it, what they will deliver, just the whole timeline. So, communication is always great.

We were able to select from a variety of options. Ice Nine Online didn't pigeonhole us into what they were going to do for us. From the start, they listened to us to identify our needs and then used their expertise to lay out options, giving the pros and cons of each. They provided recommendations but were very responsive to our needs. They were focused on what was best for us to achieve our goals. I think the process they take is really good and consultative. Concurrently, they use their expertise to fill in the gaps that we have in order to meet our goals. Their project management and expertise yielded an incredible result for us.

There were curve balls along the way. We have Pardot, Salesforce, and all the apps we use which needed to be integrated. When problems came up, they took ownership and ran with it. They looked for solutions and found them. All in all, the quality and end result are great.

AdWords is huge, and there’s a lot to it. The team at Ice Nine Online knows their stuff really well. They’re incredibly responsive. They have great ideas about how to tweak, how to expand, how to change, and the reporting is tremendous. They give us a lot of focused reports that present the data in ways that allow us to identify what’s working and what’s not, and then make good decisions about how to move forward. We’ve been doing that for two or three months now, so it’s relatively new, but it’s tremendous. I don’t think I could pick which project is better because they’ve both been pretty awesome.

How did Ice Nine Online perform from a project management standpoint?

We had an aggressive timeline and needed things to be done as soon as possible. They met the timeline by working backward. We wanted to launch by a given date, so they detailed what we needed to do at each point to reach that date, using innovation, design, and development as the three main parts of the process. Even with the curve balls that I mentioned, they hit the deadline. I’m sure they worked some late nights, and they hit every milestone and delivered. The project management was great. They’re very communicative and responsive. They’re really good at what they do.

What did you find most impressive about Ice Nine Online?

They don’t operate in silos. It’s not just a website or just digital marketing. Ice Nine Online is able to take a holistic approach to understanding their client’s needs and business case. They develop a custom solution for your company to be able to execute on that vision.

Are there any areas Ice Nine Online could improve?

You can’t be all things to all people. Their specialty is WordPress and AdWords. If that’s fine for you, that's great. If not, then I don’t know if Ice Nine Online is the right shop for you. WordPress is pretty robust, and you can do a lot with it. It works great for us.

Do you have any recommendations for potential clients?

For any company interested in using a website to expand their lead generation efforts, it’s important to do the homework. When you’re looking for a vendor, know what you’re looking to do, even down to the platform. Ice Nine Online specializes in WordPress, although I’m sure they could use other platforms. If you want a WordPress site, that’s great. If you’re not sure, then go and do your due diligence about the advantages of WordPress over a different platform. A client should have an idea of what that is and ask questions appropriately because they’re going to come in with guns blazing, ready to deliver. They’re focused on delivering results and hitting those milestones.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a software development company, and our product is focused specifically on logistics. It's an all-in-one solution. It was imperative for us to have a good representation online and to demonstrate the capacity of our product.

What is your position?

I am the director of sales and business development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Ice Nine Online?

We needed our website completely rebuilt and modernized. We also used their help with some SEO [search engine optimization], and it has already paid back. We are enjoying a great amount of visits and attention to our website. The functionalities that we sought after in this project allowed us to capture consumer and visitor information and intrigue communication on their behalf. It has really increased dramatically.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It was Web development and digital marketing, if needed. Matt [Chiera, founder of Ice Nine Online] is extremely responsive and is very available. If I have any issues or any questions, he's extremely helpful and responsive to all of them.

How did you come to work with Ice Nine Online?

The company owner found them, and from what I know, it was a word of mouth reference in our case. We work with a lot of companies, and we are a very well-communicated and supported community in the logistics business.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative?

I was not part of the price negotiations. The company president had negotiated the price and, at the time that I started working with Matt on the project, they had already communicated and started with a payment plan.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them February of this year [2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don't have specific metrics. I've been too lazy to look at the numbers themselves, but we have seen obvious results, at least comparing to what our presence online was with the previous website. The level of interest this one has enabled us to capture has been tremendous. Unfortunately, I don't have specific metrics to share with you, but it is noticeable for us, and we are very happy with it.

What distinguishes Ice Nine Online from other providers?

First and foremost, they're knowledgeable. Matt brought some wonderful ideas. We're not very experienced with web design, so Matt brought some very sound and professional ideas regarding the design, the attitude, and the approach of presenting our brand on the web for certain small and big details.

Second, as I mentioned, his responsiveness. He has always been available, he's always given us feedback on any ideas, suggestions, or questions we may have. Ice Nine Online is very knowledgeable in what they're doing. They are focused in this particular area, and their services were spot-on. They are very dedicated to the projects that they take.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

Given our experience, certainly not.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I worked for a boutique consulting firm here in Chicago. More often than not we're dealing with pharmaceutical companies, and we've been around for more than 35 years.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I actually just moved into a new role two weeks ago. I do development and account management, primary accounts, opening up accounts, and consultant care.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Ice Nine?

It was potentially bringing back existing clients, and maybe more so than that, the priority is opening up new doors and getting our networks to areas that we aren't in. We revamped our website three or four months ago. Our owners had developed this website in 2005 or 2006, so it was extremely outdated. We're an IT [information technology] consulting firm, so being in that area, it wasn't looking too good that we had an old website. We reached out to Matt [Chiera, founder of Ice Nine], whom I had actually met at a networking group, and he revamped it for us. He also does a lot of our digital marketing as well as metrics and analytics that come along with SEO [search engine optimization].

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

He entirely redid our website to give it a great modern feel. Now, he is doing our digital marketing and metrics.

How did you come to work with Ice Nine?

In a sense, I guess you could say we did send an RFP [request for proposal] to them. It wasn't as in-depth as some of the ones I know we deal with on the consulting side, but we did have a bunch of options and ended up going with Matt.

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

Just for the website, maybe $25,000. The SEO and the digital marketing he's doing for us now is entirely separate.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the website in early February. We had pinpointed it to end May 15, and I think it was three weeks ahead of schedule when it was all said and done. The website is concluded, but we're still in contact, obviously not as much as we were when it was being developed, but he works on our SEO and our digital marketing.

He's kind of exposed us to areas that we weren't in before. I know Matt does a lot of work with restaurants and retailers, so he has done a lot of research for us on where should position ourselves strategically. This is all kind of new, but the relationship is definitely still there.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The nice thing about doing the digital marketing is, you can trace the metrics back to a specific area and dictate whether the digital marketing is being effective or not. He is probably the most passionate SEO digital marketer in Chicago. He's incredibly professional, knowledge, and ahead of schedule. Like I said, we were three weeks in advance on our deadline.

We got great feedback from our clients on the website and where it was going, so I would absolutely recommend Matt, both on the Web development side and the SEO digital marketing side.

What distinguishes Ice Nine from other providers?

He's extremely engaging. He's got great skills. He facilitates well, and I think one of the most interesting things about Matt is that he came in to do our content development, and he is extremely creative in taking in and regurgitating something that makes a lot of sense on the website.

We have a guy here who was a CIO and he was relaying information to Matt, and Matt understood, and he created a precise message on our website to transfer it over to our clients. It's kind of brilliant how creative he can get with coming up with some great content. He's extremely organized, and he's got a great team around him that do transfers. He's also a pleasure to work with. He's very transparent, and he's an incredible facilitator in getting things done.

Another great thing that he provides is training. He's trained us in being able to control our website on our own moving forward. Everything we do in changes, and if we ever want to do color schemes, we can do that moving forward.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

Honestly, I don't have anything in particular that I think he could do better.