LOCOMOTIVE Agency

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re one of the largest generators and retailers of electricity and energy services. I run digital marketing, focusing on large business lead generation and overall UX on our digital channels. Decisions surrounding PPC and SEO also go through me on the digital side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Locomotive?

They’re our SEO and digital marketing partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their services run the whole gamut. They provide audits, SEO reporting, keyword research, recommendations, and technical suggestions surrounding tagging and metadata. They’ve also written and implemented code for us. Unlike many other providers, they provide very technical services.

Outside of tech, they’ve audited and written content for me on a regular basis. When I’m writing a blog, I can send it to them. They run it through some tools and come back to me with a plethora of recommendations to make it the most beneficial solution for our SEO.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 of their resources. 

How did you come to work with Locomotive?

We did an open RFP that involved a ton of research. Our team decided upon their services in the end.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $400,000 on their services over the course of our relationship. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around May 2015, and our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since starting our engagement with them, I’ve as little as 5%–10% growth for a certain keyword to as much as going from unlisted to a top-five spot on search results. In those situations, that can be a 200%–400% lift for specific keywords and terms. 

How did Locomotive perform from a project management standpoint?

With a lot of vendors, there’s high turnover. Their consistency in staffing is excellent. They were always able to support us as our internal teams and demands changed. There’s never any pushback or complications on their end.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their availability coupled with their technical resources really makes them stand out from others. I’m sure I can find competing firms with similar SEO skillsets, but their technical knowledge goes above and beyond. They’re tapped into what Google is doing on a code-based level. That’s fundamentally different than most of their competitors. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish they were local to our region. That would allow us more face-to-face time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand that it is your responsibility as a client to provide planning and resources to your partner. That will help you both succeed in the collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a fabrics distributor. Across North America, our customers use the fabric and hardware to create awnings, retractable marine applications such as boat covers and Bimini tops, upholstery, shades, and outdoor furniture.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Locomotive?

We’ve been serious about e-commerce and expanding in order to find new customers for existing products and new products for existing customers. To truly be successful in that, we knew that organic SEO was really important.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought in Locomotive to support our technical SEO. They’ve built out best practices across the site with page titles, keywords, and have even developed content to support our efforts. We also used them for PPC for a little bit, but decided that SEO was really their strength.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked directly with 2 account managers and three people from their team on a regular basis.

How did you come to work with Locomotive?

We found them through a reference, who really recommended them. We evaluated several companies, and based on what we saw, we chose to move forward with Locomotive.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend between $75,000–$85,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since June 2016 and our relationships ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen substantial growth from organic search—traffic is up by 60%. As a result, the number of transactions and overall revenue has increased. Compared to what we spend with them on a monthly basis, we receive a great return.

How did Locomotive perform from a project management standpoint?

We meet with them on a bi-weekly or monthly basis depending on what’s going on. They do a great job from a project management standpoint. They’re on top of everything. They make sure that they get all of the information they need from us. Then our team reviews their work, and we go from there.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The value we get from them is substantial. Other than that, they’re really good people and it’s great to work with them. Putting that all together, we’re really happy with our partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I feel like there’s always room for improvement, but even if I could think of anything, it would be nit-picky.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what your objectives are and what you want to accomplish. Work with their team and use their experience to identify and prioritize your needs. As anyone with a background in SEO knows, there isn’t a magic thing you can do—it’s a lot of little things working together. But Locomotive helps you determine what you need to focus on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am co-founder and CEO of an company in the Netherlands. We sell digital goods and have grown in the last 8 years into a scale up company of 30 employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Locomotive?

For our internationally targeted webshop .

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to expand to other regions than countries in Europe. Locomotive has helped us establish our brand in the United States, Canada, Australia and others.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Recommended by Moz.

Describe the project in detail.

The webshop needed to be optimized, localized, translated and being indexed. From there, we needed to increase traffic using a lot of different methods.

What was the team composition?

We implemented everything our selves, we do have a lot of developers working here. Locomotive has been giving great advice, tracking opportunities, tracking errors, planning our next steps and creating content.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been growing 500% in visitors in the last 9 months.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication went great despite our timezone differences. We used Zoom and e-mail. Accessibility for urgent issues was great and normal communication went as expected.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Locomotive always had inspiring and refreshing suggestions. We also have ourselves quite some SEO knowledge in house

Are there any areas for improvement?

No yet.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the researcher of ORACLE

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We developed a risk prediction tool for asthma attacks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LOCOMOTIVE Agency to accomplish?

Make an existing risk prediction calculator visually pleasing

SOLUTION

How did you find LOCOMOTIVE Agency?

Referral

Why did you select LOCOMOTIVE Agency over others?

High ratings, Close to my geographic location, Great culture fit, Good value for cost, Referred to me, Company values aligned

What was the size of LOCOMOTIVE Agency’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Develop a digital strategy for the redesign of an existing medical risk prediction tool Web design of oraclescore.com Frequent feedback with the creators to ensure that mutual understanding

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Feedback from creators

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

On time, frequent feedback, assessed needs first, multiple iterations After sales care: they translated the website for us after the projectwas done.

What was your primary form of communication with LOCOMOTIVE Agency?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

Their quality and effective work were outstanding, company culture, employees seemed to be having fun, good value

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

None that I ca imagine.