Mole Street

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the acting head of marketing for a fintech company that enables merchants to accept digital wallets like PayPal, Venmo, AliPay and WeChat Pay, both in-store and online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We first hired Mole Street to draft a roadmap for our content marketing efforts. Upon seeing the product from the Mole Street team, we expanded the project to include redoing our website and having them manage content marketing for us on an ongoing basis.

SOLUTION

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

We had an RFP process with 4 different vendors. Mole Street won the RFP based on quality of responses to the RFP and cost.

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

The Mole Street team started with an onboarding interview, including understanding our customers, competitors and the company itself. Following this, the team did extensive research into target keywords followed by exhaustive outlines on how existing content was winning organic search ranking for those keywords. The team used that keyword research to map out a new website and then began writing weekly posts to fill the content against the keywords they targeted.

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

We worked with an account strategist, a content marketing strategist, a copywriter, a HubSpot administrator, a design director and a developer from the Mole Street team. There were additional "back office" resources that they used as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Results are still early but we have been seeing a slow and steady pick-up in web traffic. Moreover, our investors and executive team have been very positive about the quality of our content.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have weekly meetings with the Mole Street team. As well, we make regular use of a Slack channel between the two organizations.

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

They provide high-quality output for a mid-sized agency, more similar to that of much larger agencies. Design, copywriting and strategy are all superb.

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

Not yet.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of a university.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mole Street?

We brought them on to help with some public programming that was a part of a larger urban innovation summit and fellowship program.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were doing a public event that involved a number of different components. We needed some video introductions for three fellows we had selected as well as a video introduction to one of our institutes. Mole Street created these videos presenting background information about the fellows and the institute.

They also handled the overall production management of the event, which included a small band and managing logistics behind the stage. The evening was structured like a TV talk show. There were a number of different segments and Mole Street was instrumental in helping us run the event.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 people, and Brendan (Co-Founder & Principal) was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Mole Street?

One of our team members found and connect us with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $20,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was from September–November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The evening was very successful. It came off without a hitch.

How did Mole Street perform from a project management standpoint?

All the deadlines were met. The people on my staff who were working closely with them expressed some frustration with the management, but I didn’t encounter that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were flexible and good collaborators.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was some frustration, but again, it was not on my part.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re creative and collaborative.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Ewarenow LLC. It's a 21-year-old virtual company. I have partners around the world that collaborate with me. We get a lot of big things done with resources from all over the world. Our business provides custom software solutions for small and medium-sized companies as well as departments and agencies in larger organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mole Street?

The most fundamental business challenge is that small companies need computers for some function of their business. That could include Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, or others. However, they may not have computer-based processes supporting what they specifically do in their specific business. A water testing company, which happens to be one of our important clients, could theoretically use standard off-the-shelf software like Microsoft Office to keep track of the work they're doing and produce results to send to customers. However, that effort falls with its own weight once it gets beyond a small number of customers.

We help companies that want to grow and serve their customers better. Our team can help by making suggestions on standard industry projects or developing custom software that is designed to achieve a specific option.

I'm an electrical engineer by education and a computer geek by profession. Being a software engineer and programmer, I'm not very good at marketing or sales. I engaged Mole Street because they understand both marketing and sales. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They're helping across marketing and sales efforts. For instance, we have a newly re-engineered website that I'm proud of, but people can't find it organically. They're working on analyzing it to get our SEO right both on-page and behind the scenes. We're now working on defining a plan to get site visitors to take the next step with our company and what that next step should be.

In our dealings, Mole Street is very strongly focused on inbound marketing. We're supportive of inbound marketing to determine customer needs and assist with customers' next steps. what steps to take to get what the customer needs. They're getting through existing web pages and sourcing potential additional assets to help our customers come to an "a-ha" moment about what they need.

Like everyone else, I receive outbound marketing emails about things I don't want from people I don’t know. To me, what's more appealing than outbound marketing is with inbound marketing done right. It's a customer-friendly and visitor-friendly way to do things, which Mole Street follows through on. In addition to SEO, they've also done some PPC and digital marketing for us as well.

What is the team composition?

I'm in contact with two people on a very regular basis and five others as needed. 
I'm in Bangkok, and Mole Street is headquartered in Philadelphia. Most of their people are spread around in other places in the northeast parts of the US. It's 100% remote work.

How did you come to work with Mole Street?

I visited HubSpot as a suggestion from a friend and colleague of mine. After providing them with my name, email address, and phone number, Brendan (Principal, Mole Street) sent me an email within 24 hours. He introduced himself and asked if we could have a 15-minute chat. Brendan followed through and turned it into a meeting at my convenience based on my Thailand location. I felt he had a good start on things.

I knew I needed to change something vital about my business operation and needed some decent marketing. Once I got talking with Brendan and had a couple of discussions, I was comfortable enough that it didn’t seem to make any sense for me to hunt down other vendor candidates. I felt that would be a big waste of my time. I had one that was good, and the deal made sense.

How much have you invested in them?

I've spent $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in December 2020, and it's still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have a good organization and planning process. I was looking for the action plan and schedule recently and realized that they've stuck to their timeline. Things that were supposed to be done in January were done in January. They have a plan that makes sense, and they are on target to meet goals.

To their credit, they scheduled routine weekly meetings on Thursday mornings. When Wednesday comes around, I see what I need to get done before our Thursday morning. Having a weekly meeting forces me to confront my part of marketing at least once a week.

When it comes to SEO and blog content, we're just starting to get to the point where we can see that there are more visitors coming to the site regularly than ever before. Traffic seems to be growing a little bit each week, but it's still early.

How did Mole Street perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they do very well. They have a well-defined project management process, which we see directly in action at least once each week. My primary point of contact makes sure I know what is going on in between meetings, so there are no surprises. The others on the time are assigned to tasks that they're managing well week to week. 

Project management is well under control and effective. That's one thing that good marketing has in common with good engineering: you have to plan, and things need to happen in the plan. The sequence can change a little bit, but they have to get things done. I do the same thing in managing my software projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have an excellent balance between their marketing expertise while integrating it with my company-specific needs. As a founder and opinionated CEO, they're effectively dealing with my preferences and intentions. At the same time, they're perfectly comfortable telling me certain things might not be a very good idea. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a one-time problem with one of the founders, but I worked on that offline with him. It wasn’t a show-stopping issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Sign up and do it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of School at Fredericksburg Academy, an PK-12th grade independent school serving 360 studentsl in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Fredericksburg Academy inspires and empowers our students to discover, to engage, and to imagine the limitless nature of themselves and the world. Our PK-12 students are scholars, teachers, artists, athletes, leaders, and more...because they can be.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mole Street?

We worked with Mole Street to provide us with an all encompassing digital marketing campaign. Services included providing us with landing pages for our website, ebooks, SEO keywords and tagging, paid ad management, blogs, and email campaigns.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking to increase traffic to our website with the ultimate goat of increasing enrollment. We were looking for consistent messaging and wanted to have targeted campaigns to meet the different personas of the potential families looking at our school.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected this vendor because the principal went to an independent school and was very aware of the unique challenges Fredericksburg Academy is faced with. Mole Street did not need to be brought up to speed on these challenges- they were fully aware of the history of Fredericksburg Academy and the surrounding region so we were able to get down to business pretty quickly.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Once we decided on Mole Street, we had a discovery meeting to discuss a variety of topics that would help us grow enrollment. We had members of our team complete a short survey to help focus on areas for development in each of our three school divisions. We held bi-monthly calls to discuss strategy and progress of the different campaigns that were run.

The assets needed for the campaigns were completed by the end of the first month working together. We launched a series of paid ad campaigns and a landing page to go along with those ads. Mole Street developed an ebook that focused on our indexed tuition program which informs parents that each family has a unique financial snapshot which helps determine what tuition might be for a family- this is a big hurdle for our school as we are in a region that does not have a lot of peer schools who charge a similar tuition.

Working with Mole Street we also developed a series of blog posts that highlighted different aspects of our program. Mole Street provided reports to us on paid SEO progress to see what what working well and what was lagging and made adjustments in consultation with us. In addition, Mole Street helped us onboard data into HubSpot.

What was the team composition?

We worked closely with Brendan and Megan throughout this process. At times, others were involved in the project as well depending on the area of focus (for instance there was one particular person who focused on the website aspect of the project)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched an online calendar where prospective parents could schedule tours right from our website. We also added a chat feature to our website which allowed us to interact with prospective families in real time as they engaged with our website. We saw an increase in traffic and interaction with our paid ads and were able to see what topics were getting the most click throughs which directed us to create more content for those specific topics.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We communicated well as a team overall. I felt that there was ample communication between our project manager and theirs between our bimonthly phone calls. We shared a lot of documents via Google which was productive for all of us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their knowledge and passion are infectious. Brendan truly has a gift and understands the intricacies of digital marketing. They were patient with us as we were not always as responsive as we needed to be- they were ready to get going but we held them up!

I appreciated the communication and check ins that Brendan had with me personally in between the calls and meetings that took place among the teams at FA and Mole Street.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall we were very satisfied with the work that was done by Mole Street- there were a few bumps in the road but they quickly addressed issues we had.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO and COO of a creative agency. We provide resources to artists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mole Street?

A big challenge for us was to get as many members signed on as we could for a new facility, particularly in our first couple of months of being open.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mole Street provided paid advertising insights and consulting services. Their team built out our customer personas and helped us to understand who we’re targeting and what channels we should use to distribute our paid media spend.

They focused on Instagram as well as Google. At times, their team also used Twitter and Facebook.

They worked on landing pages on our sales end to drop users when they click on the paid ad. Their team added creative insights to the paid ads too.

Week over week, their team gave us analytics and reported to achieve our goals. We wanted to funnel new leads into tours, so the main call of action in the paid ads was to book a tour in our new space.

What is the team composition?

At any given time, 3–4 people from Mole Street worked on our project. We worked with their project manager who coordinated with us weekly.

How did you come to work with Mole Street?

We found them through our network, so it was word of mouth. A colleague referred them to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just under $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019 and wrapped up the engagement in March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their team really honed their efforts to get people to tour. We ended up signing over 700 new members since working with Mole Street. We increased our overall conversion of leads by over 10%. Anecdotally, it was helpful to have their leaders involved in the process.

How did Mole Street perform from a project management standpoint?

Before Covid-19, we met in person and then moved to digital communication. Their team provided any documentation when asked. They went above and beyond to pull in different data. Overall, they were on time and organized. While we had an account manager, their leadership also helped throughout the process and lended a hand.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mole Street’s reporting was thorough. It was helpful because I was the person that made sure the effort was worth our investment. Their reporting was helpful to ensure that we got a lot of value from their services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can improve and Mole Street could improve their onboarding. There was a lag in the value starting to take effect. It took about 2–3 months for us to start seeing results from our money. It would be helpful if there was a quicker way to onboard.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear plan set up and get it set in stone. Get on a similar page early on. It took us a little bit to get into a flow. Once we got the flow, Mole Street kept the pace well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a company that provides financial strategic services for small companies both regionally and nationally. We help them with milestones along their path of growth.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mole Street?

We didn’t have a marketing team on our end. This was our first foray into the marketing world.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, they took the time to understand our company, operations, and positioning. We’ve been established since 2013 and had a strong web presence for that period. Despite our site being fully-designed, they created landing pages and add-ons to the platform to streamline their online marketing efforts.

We’re working on business development through HubSpot. They instructed us on what kinds of emails to write within the system. We uploaded those along with contacts, and they held our hand through that process.  

Recently, we started working on SEO. In that effort, they’ve created informational one-pagers to send to clients. They’re focusing on content development through our blog. I drive most of the content, but they’ve been extremely helpful in templating and formatting content to be SEO-friendly. We’re planning on integrating paid advertising through Google Ads and LinkedIn as we move forward. 

What is the team composition?

I work with five different people but have one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Mole Street?

I ran into Brenden (Principal) at a conference in Philadelphia, and we started chatting. Immediately, I liked their strategic approach to marketing. I was really looking for a strategic process, so I hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

For the first year with them, we’ll spend $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in November 2019, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While I don’t have any hard metrics, they’re helping us achieve our marketing and branding goals. The content and overall improvements to our branding and pitch have been impressive. Working with Facebook, we’ve set up live webinars to continue to attract leads.  

How did Mole Street perform from a project management standpoint?

They work well together internally, so they don’t miss a beat. Everyone is in the know in our weekly meetings. That’s really helped. They’re attentive to our needs, offering us high-touch attention. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very skilled in their marketing strategy approach. They’re not simply throwing things up and seeing what sticks. The strategic process attracted me to them. They really tried to understand the business to make sure we were moving in the right direction with our marketing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve been pleased with them. They’re top-notch. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

A key player on your end has to be their designated point of contact in your work together. If it’s not the CEO, it should be someone else who understands your business strategy and can portray it to an external party. If an internal person is not engaged, efforts can fizzle out or take a while to get started. If you’re active, they’ll keep up with you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m an attorney at a law firm. I focus on discovery in a department within the firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Mole Street?

We wanted to rebrand our group. This included renaming our department, and creating marketing materials to showcase the pillars of our department. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us strategize on how to select a new name. In addition, they assisted with developing marketing materials such as sales sheets, and other informational materials that explain who we are and what we do. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with several people including Tina (Graphic Designer), Kimberly (Project Manager), and Brian (Founder & Principal). 

How did you come to work with Mole Street?

I believe Mole Street has worked with our firm before, however, I’m not sure as I wasn’t directly involved in the hiring process. 

How much have you invested in them?

We invested between $100,000-$250,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May 2019-January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have statistics to share. However, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback internally. Upper management was happy with the branding materials Mole Street provided. They’ve helped make it clear what we do. 

How did Mole Street perform from a project management standpoint?

They were phenomenal in keeping us on task. If we were ever late for a deadline, it was a result of my team and I putting off the work because we had other things going on at the firm. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their time management was impressive. They set agendas and weekly calls which helped us stay focused. The quality of their work was excellent and looked very professional. They were responsive and accommodating to our preferences. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I was generally very pleased with them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Utilize all of the time they give you. They offer a lot of time and opportunities to meet, and it’s helpful to keep in contact with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CEO and Founder of a virtual reality and police training company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mole Street ?

We needed help with our product positioning.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they helped us create the entire aesthetics around the product from logo to web presence, to video, and photography. Next, they helped us differentiate our product with the amount of research they did and explained what the competitive landscape looked like. Finally, helped us identify our niche in the marketplace and develop a strategy to accomplish it.

In general, they helped with analytics, SEO, keyword strategy, wordsmithing, and marketing.  They had powerful networks they were willing to operationalize for us.

What is the team composition?

We had three main points of contact.

How did you come to work with Mole Street?

We found them through friends of friends in a referral network.

How much have you invested with them?    

We’ve invested $150,000 – $200,000. It was worth every penny.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2016, and wrapped up in December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We went from zero customers to eight big-ticket customers with high dollar contracts. They were basically founding team members who helped us get to where we were.

How did Mole Street perform from a project management standpoint?

They were absolutely perfect. They were always prompt, professional, and responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to break down SEO optimization, a field that I had no background in, I found very impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to work with Brendan (Principal) directly. It turned into a long-term advisory relationship and it was the key for me.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CEO of a security as a service provider. We serviced retail, healthcare, and financial services clients. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mole Street?

We needed to increase our brand awareness and market interest to stand apart from our competitors. We wanted to do this through a comprehensive digital marketing plan.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At first, Mole Street came to our site and interviewed key members of our business, to get a better understanding of our value proposition and who we are as a company, as well as some of our challenges. 

From there, they came back with a strategic growth plan. It addressed improvements in our SEO strategy, brand awareness, and content strategy. The other elements included web design and updates and continuous lead generation.

For the website, Mole Street really focused on a strategy that would make it a living, breathing online representation of our business. The team implemented experiential marketing, creating a look and feel that was very engaging for the user. Our SEO and content strategies went into that as well. 

What is the team composition?

We worked primarily with four members of the team: Alicia (Creative Director), Brian (Founder & Principal), Tina (Graphic Designer), and Brendan (Principal). 

How did you come to work with Mole Street?

I met Brendan through mutual friends. We began networking, and I decided his team would be a great fit for our project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $100,000–$250,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement took place from June 2015-June 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The transformation in the look and feel of our business was significant. It helped us gain new, key clients that we were going after. Over time, we started to see an elevation in our search engine rankings. Further, our website traffic and lead generation increased overall, as did, most importantly, our conversion rate. That communicated to us that we were capturing the right type of customers with the strategy that Mole Street implemented.

How did Mole Street perform from a project management standpoint?

Brendan and Brian were very supportive at the beginning of the engagement with our executive-level discussions. They worked hard at educating our more conservative, risk-averse stakeholders, encouraging them to move in the forward-thinking technological approach to growing our business that we wanted to move towards.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everything Mole Street did allowed us to attach tangible benefits to the investment we made in them. Further, they brought a passion and energy to the relationship. That, coupled with the expertise they have in their niche and their ability to understand our business, was extraordinary.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Every business has elements for improvement, but overall, we were extremely satisfied with our engagement with Mole Street.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat Mole Street as a long time partner, not a vendor for a short-term project. The more you can share with them and educate them on your goals, the more they’ll be able to help you reach those goals.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I serve as the director of business development for a service provider to companies, startups, and individuals in the medical device industry who are looking for support commercializing new devices. We also help with staying up to date on regulatory compliance, provide quality assurance and manufacturing assistance.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mole Street?

We don’t have any internal marketing support at our company, so they serve as our marketing team, handling everything from HubSpot consultation and website design to content SEO and PPC.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide coverage on pretty much all of our marketing tasks as a company, focusing currently on content creation and strategy for our blogs, which are posted on HubSpot. We contribute a little bit to that process, but they determine what the topics should be, coming up with a series for the blog, and then actually doing the interviewing and writing.

We have also been working on driving our advertising and content creation strategy based on more of our analytics, so they have been providing regular reports on SEO, keywords, and click-through rates to help inform our decisions as we go.

What is the team composition?

Quite a few members of their team are involved in our project, and we meet with a number of them on a weekly basis.

How did you come to work with Mole Street?

We’ve been a HubSpot customer for a few years now, and one of our account managers there connected us with them when we were in the market for a new provider. A few companies were in the running, but in the end, we decided to go with them based on their attitude and expertise in those early conversations.

How much have you invested with them?

The project has cost a little over $100,000 so far in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around September 2019 and are continuing to do so.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They are very data-driven as an organization, which has been very helpful to us. We have not had a lot of that in the past, so we are finding that a lot of our decisions can now be based on what they find are effective keywords to target, topics to cover, and ads to run on various platforms.

We don’t have a lot of metrics on their performance as of yet because we’ve taken the first quarter to really get things in place, but we have definitely been satisfied with their efforts. I have full confidence in their team, and we have a great rapport and cadence for all of the work.

How did Mole Street perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s obviously a lot going on right now, so they have a lot to manage, and I think their ability to handle all of that has proven to be very solid. The team is very communicative and responsive, and we are consistently emailing back and forth between our weekly meetings to make sure that everyone is always on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everything that comes out from their team is spot on, whether its content, visuals, or strategy. One of our values is doing things to excellence, and they could not align with us on that more. They pay attention to the details, they do their homework, and it is always apparent that they’re making sure the output is always excellent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

With any provider, you always wish things could move a little faster, but I wouldn’t want to trade the quality for the speed, so it’s not something that I’m particularly worried about. I think that as we work together more and our relationship becomes more sophisticated, that will come.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just place your trust in them Brendan’s got great passion, energy, and vision, which is one of the main things that I was attracted to when we were interviewing them. They can see where you need to be to meet your goals, so let them run with it and you’ll see results.