Idea Grove

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Senior Product Manager at Five Pack. We are a digital solutions agency offering end-to-end development and staff augmentation services for web and app development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Grove, and what were your goals?

We hired Idea Grove to help us with a brand messaging scope of work. We needed an outside voice to come in and help us wrap words around who we are, what we do, and why it matters.

While our business was excelling, we knew we needed to get our messaging concrete in order to go to the next level and ramp up 2022 marketing efforts. Idea Grove partnered with us to accomplish that.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Idea Grove came recommended to us. The referral was the first thing that attracted us to them in good faith, but it was their intentionality, excellence, and insistence on tailoring their solution to our specific needs that ultimately led us to creating a partnership.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Idea Grove set up 1h individual interviews with our subject matter experts in leadership, sales, and product in addition to conducting what was originally slated to be a 4h brand messaging session with four of our team members (with their help we got it done in just under 2h!).

In addition, they reviewed all of our existing marketing materials, created profiles of our top competitors, and engage in social listening in respect our industry. All of this ultimately produced a 41 slide deck that included their findings based on all of this work and our messaging house.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Two specifically. Jarrett was doing the majority of the research, and Laurie helped us manage the project and set up all meetings. They were both wonderful.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since we completed this scope of work, we've actively launched three new marketing initiatives in addition to refining how we tell our story to our internal stakeholders. We're seeing the benefits of the messaging already in our team being aligned on one story line of who we are and what we do, and we anticipate this will result in new sales leads by the end of Q1.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had bi-weekly check in meetings, and Laurie kept us up to date on everything that was going on. If they had questions they needed us to answer between meetings, we'd handle those via email. Communication was easy and organized.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their attention to detail and the depth of their work. They surpassed our expectations and provided so much value to us.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing at Life.io. We offer staff-based solutions for the insurance industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Grove?

We needed a company that could help us maintain our site and handle our marketing and advertising efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially hired Idea Grove to build, maintain, and manage our website and support our organic and paid social media marketing efforts. For the past three years, we’ve been using their company to elevate our brand, constantly update our key messaging, increase the number of users that come through our website, and generate and drive inbound leads.

In terms of social media, Idea Grove has been responsible for creating all of our campaigns, both paid and organic. They create all of our digital assets, write and publish all of our content, and manage our paid advertising budget.

Aside from that, they also handle our site’s SEO — they conduct keyword research to help us figure out the kind of keywords people use when looking for third-party staff-based solutions for the insurance industry.

What is the team composition?

My primary point of contact is Stephanie (Assistant Account Executive), our project manager, but we also work with five other people from Idea Grove.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay Idea Grove over $100,000 per year, so I’d say we’ve spent around  $500,000 in total so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Idea Grove has consistently exceeded our expectations. In fact, we set 8 KPIs with them and they were able to meet 84% of our goals for 2021. These goals include website metrics, bounce rates, organic search traffic sessions, clicks per campaign on our social media, and number of followers. Their SEO work, in particular, has driven tons of traffic into our site and ensures that it appears on the first page of Google.

How did Idea Grove perform from a project management standpoint?

Idea Grove has been outstanding in terms of project management. They don’t just adhere to the established timelines and budget — they also help our team do the same!

We primarily communicate through email, and we also have weekly calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Idea Grove’s breadth of knowledge spans across all marketing verticals, which is really impressive. Their team of experts really runs the gamut. They’re not just strictly focused on increasing social media metrics — they know how to bring in and convert leads, design and build websites, and so much more.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything that Idea Grove could improve on at the moment — if anything, we’re really interested in expanding our current partnership with them to include public relations, which is something that they also offer.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The only advice that I could give is to give Idea Grove a shot. They have elevated our brand in a way that our in-house team would not have been able to do alone, and I’m confident that they can do that for any other company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of securityprogram.io, a small security consultancy that builds a SaaS product for small and midsize companies to do cybersecurity. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Grove?

We had done a good job selling the product to our network but had done a mediocre job getting our message out beyond our immediate group of friends and colleagues. 

We needed a company to help us get our message out beyond our network and take on the work to do that. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idea Grove provides us with a broad range of advertising and marketing services. They started by assessing our website and made some recommendations about the content we needed to generate. They then spent the next six months helping us write a few landing pages and blog posts to improve our SEO efforts. We worked with them collaboratively on the blog pages, but they handled the bulk of the writing. 

They completely redid our website and we launched the new content onto it. Now we're working on a few new projects with them. They've joined us for strategy meetings, and their technical writer has provided us assistance on ongoing writing work. 

At one point, we were looking into social media marketing and PR and they brought in teams to advise us on each field.

We also did a case study with one of our customers and we wanted to amplify the positive feedback from that study. Idea Grove wrote up the case study and added some design to make it look nice — they're also doing a social media campaign to help us promote the case study. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a few teammates, including a project manager, a technical writer and copywriter, and two teammates who worked on SEO efforts and social media, respectively. 

How did you come to work with Idea Grove?

We worked with a lot of firms before we settled on Idea Grove. Since I'm based in Dallas, I was looking for a local firm to work with. We had talked to a few other firms and they didn't seem very privacy conscious — our partners must listen to us and understand our business. 

We did some one-off projects with smaller firms, but we weren't sure they could provide all the services we needed. We also talked to some bigger firms and felt we'd get lost under the bigger clients they have who are spending more money than we would. 

I eventually got a recommendation for Idea Grove from a teammate of mine. They ended up being a nice fit for us because they gave us the time and attention we needed — they listened to what we wanted to do without being aggressive. Idea Grove was tuned into what we wanted, and we knew we'd be able to demand their attention, even as a smaller client. They were also big enough to provide the services we needed while small enough to focus on our business and overall project goals. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $5,000 a month with Idea Grove; that amount does not include the money we've spent on ads.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2021 and the project is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In the marketing world, it's hard to measure the impact of a project because it's hard to attribute one thing to our success. However, their work has helped us get to the point where we can measure some successes, including website metrics, which we couldn't track before. I'm hesitant to push too far on concrete metrics, although Idea Grove has provided me with exactly what I need so I can confidently point our customers to our website. 

The case study that Idea Grove has put together is going live in about a week — this case study will help users understand where we are in the marketplace and what our company is doing right now. 

How did Idea Grove perform from a project management standpoint?

We have biweekly meetings depending on the phase of the project with the project manager, who provides us with direction on how to move forward. Those meetings are generally followed up with an email. I also receive a monthly statement that summarizes what we've done that month and meeting minutes that I can read through.

They communicate well and we've had very open discussions about what they're doing. The project manager is on every call, taking notes and ensuring that my team knows what Idea Grove is doing. The Idea Grove team has an internal system that standardizes their status reporting. 

We have clear discussions about where we're spending our energy, and we have a set strategy for each marketing effort. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Idea Grove fits in our niche — if we were a bigger company, maybe we'd care about different things, but they have the perfect business model for us. They're successful with us because they can engage and listen and then bring in the right people to complete a project. 

We have a constant stream of communication and feedback, which allows them to accomplish a lot — they're also able to respond and understand what we're doing from our side of the project. Their team is a partner who is there with us, not necessarily engaging with us week-to-week, but still ensuring everything is going well. 

I like that their team adapts their focus as we go. During one part of the project, I felt that we were not meeting our goal regarding blog posts and they adapted their workflow based on my feedback and quickly got us back on track. I feel like I'm really being listened to. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We initially struggled with understanding the advertising strategy and differentiating between PPC and social media ad spending. Idea Grove is doing a good job explaining everything to us now, but initially, it was hard for us to understand. 

Sometimes Idea Grove's work is too planned for our company's structure. We're a smaller firm and can turn on a dime to change what we're working on, but they drive our marketing strategy, and they're aiming for a longer-term goal and have some problems switching priorities. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely a difference between our companies. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients need to have a strategy discussion right away with Idea Grove and evaluate what they want to do. Idea Grove can provide many different services. There is not one obvious way to go — it's good for clients to understand what they're trying to accomplish while still adjusting to using Idea Grove's services to their benefit. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the strategic communications lead at a company that provided an AI-powered virtual assistant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Grove?

Our goal was to communicate with our developer audience through our blog and help them find ways to integrate our services into their apps. To do this, we regularly publish our service’s latest features, tell brand stories, and share a behind-the-scenes look at our product. We needed help producing those blog posts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idea Grove helped us write content for our blog. We mainly provided the overall message that we wanted our audience to take away from each post. Whenever they needed to interview someone, we also gave the team some background and research on the interviewee. 

We wanted to emphasize the storytelling aspect of the content, so we worked closely with them to improve that. For example, we did a series of posts that profiled women leaders in the AI space. During our engagement, Idea Grove produced 15 blog posts. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two teammates: the project manager and the lead writer.

How did you come to work with Idea Grove?

When I joined the strategic communications team, we already had an established contract with Idea Grove.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership lasted from April 2020–August 2021. I’m not sure if they continue to work with the company because I’ve already left.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The content they wrote for us was very well-received — the posts were being shared around and engaged with. The Idea Grove team has really helped us celebrate the people who helped make our product.

How did Idea Grove perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was fantastic; in fact, I would say that it was one of their greatest strengths. The project manager was very organized and really helped move things along and kept things on track. They were a team of good communicators, so we always knew what they were working on, which was great. We typically communicated via phone calls and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What made Idea Grove stand out was their willingness to do whatever it took to make us happy. Their flexibility in managing the project also stood out to me. The team was just easy to work with and made sure to deliver precisely what we needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there wasn’t anything they could’ve improved. At the start of the project, we had some critical feedback on their storytelling, but the Idea Grove team worked hard to meet our standards instead of being defensive about it. They dealt with criticism well. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work closely with them to achieve the tone of voice you’re looking for. Idea Grove is an excellent copywriting team, but don’t expect them to be highly technical. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

During this project, I was the Global Digital Marketing Manager for a life and annuities insurance technology and services firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Grove, and what were your goals?

Website development with the goal to stand up a newly designed website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected Idea Grove having used them for many years and knowing their talented and expert staff, and what they are capable of.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Once we had page designs, each page was sent over to Idea Grove to begin creation and stand up on a dev site. Around 20 pages in total were created with new designs, plus an overhaul to universal page header/navigation and footers.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

An account executive was present throughout the process and helped to drive and keep everything on track. There was also a digital media director who oversaw page development and a dev team doing the creation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our results were more visual than anything like an uptick in site traffic. We were going from an older less insurtech look to a new, fresh look that would help us complete in the InsurTech space.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had weekly calls with updates on progress and any delays were noted and we were made aware. Communication tools included email and Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The reason we stayed with Idea Grove for many many years is their ability to complete projects with outstanding results, at a cost-friendly to your budget. Everyone we worked with was very professional and knowledgeable in their area of expertise.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

As with any project, there are hiccups along the way. Some timelines were pushed back but these were addressed along the way and solved for. Roadblocks were not an issue with Idea Grove.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the marketing head of Comet and K2View when I worked with Idea Grove. Both of these companies center on enterprise software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Grove?

I needed a full-service agency to help me with my marketing, web development, and PR needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idea Grove provided multiple services for us. As I was the head of marketing for the two companies I mentioned, I needed their team to support me across every aspect — ranging from lead generation to PR, graphic design, and web development.

Their team managed our social media profiles to get the word out about our company. As for our website, they developed it using HubSpot CMS, migrating off our old WordPress platform and refurbished its design for it to be more impactful and user-friendly.  Apart from integrating a feature that automated our company’s sales and leads processes, they also helped us develop our first scoring framework via MergerTrak.

On the PR side, we collaborated with Idea Grove to produce multiple press releases and practice pitches. Their team also helped us improve our brand image by generating new graphic materials and standardizing our brand.

What is the team composition?

We initially worked with five of them before expanding it to a team of 15 resources.

How did you come to work with Idea Grove?

I found Idea Grove’s team online after looking for a potential agency to help us with our various needs. Upon examining their profile, I realized that their marketing culture aligned with my own concepts. 

When I found their team, I honestly thought that they’re the exact people I wanted to work with to make my business goals happen. In addition to their evident competence in the realm of technology, I saw how genuinely kind they were as people.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a total of $500,000 for the wide range of services they provided.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from August 2018–May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Idea Grove was a phenomenal team that executed on-point solutions. If it weren’t for their massive aid in the implementation of our marketing, scoring, and development needs, we wouldn’t be awarded as the 15th fastest-growing company in Dallas. Through that award, we received a good deal of press coverage, and that yielded profitable results to us. Overall, I could say that their team’s expertise effortlessly led us to the path of success.

How did Idea Grove perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicated via emails and phone calls. Idea Grove was an accountable team — their strong commitment to accomplishing every task we designated was impressive. I truly respect their work ethics as a team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their impressive work culture and reliable nature were well-reflected in every solution they delivered. I was always confident that I could trust them to drive positive results for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could work on providing clearer result projections. It could be challenging for their client to create assumptions if those aren't well elaborated.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?’

Be very open to working with a strategic partner like Idea Grove. Make the most of their productive pieces of advice and solutions, and you’ll be able to see the valuable results for yourself.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO/President of Rocky Mountain Tracking, Inc., a tracking company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Grove?

We needed help with web development and design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idea Grove helps us rebrand our company and website. The team helps us with naming new products that haven’t been introduced yet. Additionally, Idea Grove helps with keyword research.

We started with a creative brief. They gave me options to choose from in terms of colors and fonts. They did the UI/UX part and the content. There were two groups working on what the message should be and how the design should be done. Everything meshed together to make it a complete product.

The website is being built from scratch. There were a lot of compliance requirements, including usability for blind people and deaf people. The team made a lot of recommendations. From a PR perspective, they work on the messaging for existing customer changes. We’ll be doing content marketing with them soon.

What is the team composition?

We work with 6–8 people.

How did you come to work with Idea Grove?

I hired them after I spoke with 6–7 website and PR companies. Idea Grove’s approach was very detailed, and they could work with my budget. They were organized in how they presented themselves. They checked a lot of boxes for me. Overall, it was a good decision.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2020, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything looks beautiful. We’ll be moving to the new website at the end of the month. It’s already launched but we’ll make the full transition. The messaging is on point for what we are today. They came up with some good designs too. Idea Grove offers an excellent package.

How did Idea Grove perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job. Sometimes things fall into the crack, but they take ownership. They did a good job of handling things. We never were in a position where it looked bad. We worked collaboratively to fix any issues we had.

They’re beyond responsive. We have a weekly meeting and the communication is always good. We use email and Google Docs to manage the project. We make live updates back and forth.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I can find a lot of designers; to have a company that can do content as well is great. PR and design are definitely their strengths. They’re very personable. We’re a small company, and they made me feel very welcome.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m satisfied with what they’ve done so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re not just talented; they have a really good, strong team as well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CMO at daVinci Payments. I led the IDEAS team (Insights, Engagement, and Agency Services) to grow awareness and engagement for the company's products and services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Grove?

We rebranded Swift Prepaid Solutions to daVinci Payments and most recently through a merger became Onbe. Idea grove had the goals of building brand awareness and trust for daVinci, a fast-growing leader in a well-established market.

The Idea Grove team implemented a data and trends-driven PR program including management of email marketing and organic and paid social to amplify PR efforts. In the past 2+ years, Idea Grove has supported the company through two rebrands, one merger, 20+ survey campaigns and 10+ company-centered announcements.

What were your goals for this project?

Demonstrate the impact of engaging, branded and co-created payment experiences and drive dialogue within the industry. Increase awareness and build trust among prospective customers with compelling stories that highlight daVinci’s impact on large enterprises and their specific payment needs. Forge lasting relationships with media and industry analysts—especially among payments, fintech and top-tier business outlets—to position the brand as a go-to source and thought leader in the payments market.

SOLUTION

How did you select Idea Grove?

We found Idea Grove listed as a top PR agency on Clutch and included them in a review for our business.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Idea Grove implemented a data and trends-driven PR program to build brand awareness and authority in the fintech space. Idea Grove supported daVinci’s organic and paid social media focus to further elevate brand awareness. Additionally, Idea Grove provided strategy recommendations to improve platform utilization, followers, and social approach.

What was the team composition?

We worked closely with two points of contact but also had access to Idea Grove’s leadership and larger team of specialists..

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We grew our awareness, web traffic, leads to our website, social following and placement in leading news sources significantly.

Our media presence significantly increased, and the company began seeing coverage in core fintech, business and retail trades.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Idea Grove is a partner augmenting our staff. They are able to bring different agency experts when we need them for specific situations in planning, brainstorming and executing unique initiatives.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have the ability to quickly adjust to our needs and lend specialized expertise when we need it above and beyond our day to day initiatives.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a technology company that specializes in providing clients with digital signage solutions. That includes our primary offering, which is a software platform that powers those networks, as well as complimentary services: deployment, content strategy and development, and custom app development services. We provide those to a variety of markets, including retailers, health care providers, entertainment venues, and corporations for internal B2B communications tools. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Grove?

The outcome we’re driving toward is more lead flow for the business, but there were a couple of things contributing to that. One is making certain that we had compelling thought leadership. It’s really important for us to have a certain voice in the marketplace so that we represent ourselves as being smart, helpful, and fun. We didn't want to do much self-promoting all the time, as that wouldn’t bring much value to people.
 
Beyond thought leadership, we needed help better leveraging tools. We had Salesforce and HubSpot, but we really weren't using those; we didn't have workflows, campaigns, or nurturing. We didn't have a good online presence, nor did we have the traffic or conversion rates we needed. We weren’t nurturing. We brought in Idea Grove to help elevate our marketing performance overall. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idea Grove is the primary party responsible for developing our thought leadership, which is a really big deal at Reflect. I am the person responsible for reviewing all of that content and helping drive the content calendar, and I am notoriously difficult for copywriters. I’d rejected all of the content that a previous provider created, so it’s a huge hurdle. Idea Grove helps us identify the right content, writes the copy, and takes feedback.

They also help us manage HubSpot and the environment. They’re responsible for creating the workflows, campaigns, and all of the nurturing. They also handle all PR for us. How we communicate in the marketplace is so important to us, and we are very demanding about the quality of that. They also do the primary account management for us.

Idea Grove brought in another partner to help us with ad placement and discoverability, so actually driving the lead flow into the systems. 

What is the team composition?

What’s really great about Idea Grove is that they act as if they’re a part of the Reflect team. We have weekly team meetings that include Idea Grove, Reflect, and the other marketing partner; only a couple of internal resources are a part of that. Idea Grove always has at least three people on those calls, but there are several others that work on various parts of the project.

How did you come to work with Idea Grove?

I don’t remember how we found Idea Grove. The person who was running marketing at the time found them.

How much have you invested with them?

Over 18 months, I’d estimate around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is ongoing, and I’d estimate that it began around April–May 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve improved in all metrics across the board, from website traffic to conversion rates. We’ve seen an increase in leads created, both in terms of marketing-qualified and sales-qualified leads. Virtually every metric has improved.

How did Idea Grove perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re exceptional. We both use a similar operating system for how we run the companies, so they fit right in. They behave as an extension of the business. It’s been really great to have them on the team. I don’t feel like they’re outsiders; I feel like they’re a part of our internal marketing team, and they function really well in that role. We use a project management board for tracking purposes.

One of the really great things about them is that they know what they do well and where they can be helped, and they aren't afraid to bring in somebody to help round out their expertise. They've been a really good partner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re willing to take a position and even push back. I’m not the easiest person to work with because I have strong views, and they care enough to tell us what they believe we should do. They’re also confident enough to back that up with best practices and information. They don’t do it in a way that’s condescending. They’re courageous enough to let us know if our idea isn’t going to work and then explain why. That open and honest communication is really important to us. They excel at it.

The team is smart, and their copy is very good. I’ve also never had a copywriter that I didn’t fire, so it’s nice to work with them and have the quality of their work be so good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It could always be less expensive, but other than that, I don’t think so. As I mentioned, when they felt like they needed additional expertise, they were the ones that suggested it. They weren’t afraid of bringing in another partner, even though that means the revenue gets split up more.

Any advice for potential customers?

First off, understand what you’re trying to accomplish and how you’re going to measure results over time. We were really clear about what we needed to accomplish in the relationship, and that really helped them understand what success looks like.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Esker is a worldwide leader in AI-driven process automation software, helping financial and customer service departments digitally transform their procure-to-pay (P2P) and order-to-cash (O2C) cycles. Used by more than 6,000 companies worldwide, Esker’s solutions incorporate technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to drive increased productivity, enhanced visibility, reduced fraud risk, and improved collaboration with customers, suppliers and internally.

Esker operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France, and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. As the Marketing Director for Esker, I’m responsible for determining and overseeing the execution of all marketing strategies within the US. The public relations program that we’ve partnered with Idea Grove on for the past several years is a significant part of that strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Grove?

Esker first turned to Idea Grove in January 2016 for help with a media relations strategy that would increase awareness of Esker within our industry, as well as our customers’ specific industries.

These include fintech, supply chain management, manufacturing, food & beverage, life sciences and electronics, among others. Throughout our relationship, we’ve also tapped Idea Grove to help with content strategy and development, as well as social media support.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal continues to be increased awareness and brand recognition for Esker among its competitors. For this, we’ve been tracking share of voice and branded search referral traffic.

SOLUTION

How did you select Idea Grove?

We chose to work with Idea Grove because of their experience in the B2B tech space and clear understanding of Esker’s technology. That was something the other agencies we looked at couldn’t match.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

For nearly five years, we’ve worked with Idea Grove to effectively communicate the complex technology that Esker develops and the business challenges it helps overcome. Idea Grove has achieved this by tapping into Esker’s executive resources to create a thought leadership strategy for media coverage. They’ve secured a consistent cadence of contributed articles and original stories about the trends in our industry and the ways we help our customers.

They’ve also interviewed many of our customers directly in order to tell their stories, whether that’s in the form of a press release that highlights one of Esker’s new customer wins or a case study that demonstrates the results we’ve helped a customer achieve. Idea Grove has leveraged these customer stories to earn even more media recognition for Esker, both within our industry and in the industry publications our prospects are reading.

What was the team composition?

We’ve received support from all levels of the agency, including at the VP level. We receive regular updates from a single point of contact, which helps streamline communication. The team also includes a mid-level member dedicated to our account strategy and a member of Idea Grove’s PR team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Within the first year of engagement with Idea Grove, media coverage of Esker increased by 700%. We exceeded media coverage goals by 350% and this increase in coverage resulted in a 181% increase in direct traffic to Esker’s website. Over the past five years, Idea Grove has helped us steadily increase Esker’s share of voice among top competitors.

This metric has grown from 15% in Q1 2016 — at the start of our engagement — to 24% share of voice in Q1 2020. We’ve also seen a consistent increase in branded search referral traffic since partnering with Idea Grove, which indicates an increase in brand awareness. On average, branded search referral traffic has increased by 26% year-over-year since 2016.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our team at Idea Grove provides regular project status updates and quickly pivots to address any new and changing priorities. They act as an extension of our team and help drive strategies we need to achieve our marketing and business goals.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Idea Grove has a deep understanding of our business, technology and the industry. We’ve entrusted Idea Grove with our customer relationships to extract the information needed to tell compelling stories about the results Esker helps our customers achieve. They’ve also built strong relationships with the media who cover our industry, which helps yield consistent media results.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing comes to mind!