obo.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and president of Ecoprint, an environmentally friendly printing company with a history in commercial offset and digital printing. Established in 1977, we also offer in-house mailing and large format services as well as promotional items and apparel. We have 30 full-time and several part-time employees and an annual revenue approaching $5 million.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire obo. Agency?

We reached out to obo. to help us generate qualified leads and improve our brand recognition.

What were your goals for this project?

I had one simple goal: replace the old sales approach that was dependent on cold calling and traditional sales representatives with a process that consistently generated warm prospects for follow-ups.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had been struggling with our existing prospecting practices and knew I needed to do something different. While I was confident that my brand and name were marketable, I was skeptical of the email marketing (i.e. spam) method. Still, I felt anything was worth a shot and one of my employees at the time had connections at obo.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After obo.'s co-founder met with my key staff members and me to share his company’s success stories, he developed a 90-day plan, researched the printing industry, and presented his outline, which we readily approved.

What was the team composition?

Fortunately for us, the team leader was familiar with the printing industry after spending several years working for a commercial printing company. He could understand and relate to our challenges.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At 30%, our positive email response rate dramatically exceeded expectations and our sales pipeline increased by nearly 200%; the volume was almost overwhelming. Determining how to best distribute the positive responses among my sales staff was the only internal challenge I faced.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

My management team and I worked well with obo., but my traditional sales staff had difficulty with the amount of leads. I have since released most of those staff members and am trying to build a more contemporary “hybrid” sales representative. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed with their willingness to understand the nuances of my business. Rather than force on me an inadequate or inappropriate solution, they truly did their research, which is demonstrated both in my results and those of similar printing companies throughout the United States. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

Only for myself.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is a wireless communications company based in Baltimore, Maryland. We've been around for over 40 years, and we provide Motorola two-way radio communication as well as in-building solutions. If an organization does not have a strong cell signal in their building or strong public safety signal for first responders' two-way radios, we go in and fix that.

I'm the director of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with obo. Agency?

We were looking for a lead generation solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were interested in obo. Agency's marketing automation services. Their process consists of doing a strong overview and learning everything about how we function, what we sell, and who our ideal customer is. They did a lot of research and came back with some recommendations. We also needed help with our database. They were instrumental in helping us scrub that, identify, clean up, and then market a lot more specifically to unique groups instead of just general marketing to the whole group.

They also did email campaigns, content marketing, and newsletters. The lead generation involved email marketing. They created the content for our outbound marketing email campaigns, and it was a combination of warm to our database and cold to prospects. I was impressed with obo. Agency and their capability, so we let them handle our newsletters that we had been previously been doing with another marketing firm as well. For the newsletters, I provided most of the content.

Now, we're talking about working with them on blogs, webinars, and case studies. That's going to be new for us.

What is the team dynamic?

Noah [Co-founder, obo. Agency] was our initial contact. He is incredibly bright, wonderful to work with, and he's always responsive. We have an account manager we also work with. We have weekly phone calls, and she's incredibly responsive and capable. I've worked with many marketing agencies, and they're the most responsive, creative, and proactive group I've worked with.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $50,000 annually with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our email outreach efforts generated a total of 128 unique positive responses out of 430. They rate all the responses either positive, neutral, or negative. It's almost a 30% positive response rate we've generated. We're not only getting inquiries; we're getting appointments, request for quotes, and even orders. At one point, we had to slow it down because we were having trouble handling the volume. We've had great success with them.

How did obo. Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We had deadlines to meet all the time. It's never been a problem with them. They have a very can-do attitude and make things happen. We recently had an acquisition, and they helped us with promoting it as well. I wrote the press release, and they tweaked and developed it into an email that we sent to our database and the acquiring company's database.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're incredibly knowledgeable, responsive, and proactive. We've gotten to a point where it's now time to move ahead and develop new tactics. They take the time to know your business and be proactive. They evaluate, re-evaluate, and adjust campaigns as needed if we're not getting the results that we're looking for. Some agencies get campaigns going, but then fall short with the analysis and follow-up. Obo. Agency is constantly reviewing ongoing campaigns and looking for opportunities to improve them for better results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven't had any negative experiences with them since we've been working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to their recommendations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Marketing of EZTracker401k

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Publish a subscription based monthly newsletter

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire obo. to accomplish?

• Obtain new subscribers
• Retain current subscribers
• Get our product out on social media sites

SOLUTION

How did you find obo.?

Online Search

Why did you select obo. over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget

How many teammates from obo. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

OBO has helped us come up with a social media and email campaign from concept to design to delivery. They also helped us set up our marketing funnel and email maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• increased subscribers
• increased mailing list
• lowered cost per click
• increased conversion rate

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

yes

What was your primary form of communication with obo.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

My OBO team is friendly, creative, and reliable! obo. always brings new, creative ideas to the table to help take our campaigns to the next level. They are quick to respond and are overall a great comapny to work with. We look forward to continuing our partnership with OBO and expanding our campaigns to further leverage their expertise. 

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

none