Semgeeks

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief communications and corporate development officer for a helicopter provider based in NYC. We do sightseeing tours and have a 300-mile-radius charter service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Semgeeks?

We hired Semgeeks to manage our digital and social media marketing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Semgeeks developed our WordPress site and integrated Checkfront. They also implemented a chatbot service. The team now maintains the site, which is our e-commerce platform as well as marketing hub and landing page for most of our clients.

Semgeeks develops ads and runs our PPC campaigns. They oversee our social media outpouring on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. They provide SEO, ensuring that we appear in Google searches and manage our rankings on sites like TripAdvisor and Expedia. The team tracks our marketing results and makes changes as needed. They also create all of our content.

What is the team composition?

Olivia (Account Strategist, Semgeeks) is our main point of contact. We work with 6–7 other team members.

How did you come to work with Semgeeks?

When I joined my company, they had already signed Semgeeks onto a year-long contract.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company began working with Semgeeks in November 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website is very good. They completed it in a reasonable timeframe, and the design was very well orchestrated. The chatbot ensures that our bounce rate is low. Also, by tailoring social media posts, they target influencers and groups, and we’ve seen a lot of positive results from that.

Users often comment on how easy the website is to use. They appreciate the customer service. A lot of backend issues arise with Checkfront, but Semgeeks does a great job of getting around those; their webmaster comes up with creative solutions.

How did Semgeeks perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve worked with several other marketing and PR teams, and I’ve never had a liaison as intuitive, knowledgeable, and organized as Olivia. She oversees initiatives from creation to implementation to tracking the results. She’s one of the best professionals I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

The team is readily available and accommodating of last-minute needs. They work with us to change initiatives or provide recommendations if certain plans aren’t going as intended. We communicate via email and weekly calls.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They maintain a “the client is always right” mentality. They’ve never been combative; even when we express our opinions, they’re respectful and work with us to solve problems. When you give them a website initiative, they follow up and work with other parties to complete it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they do a really good job with everything.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be ready for a partner that can take pretty much any marketing function and come up with a solution, while being attentive and organized along the way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder/CEO of a HR, Organizational Development Firm that caters to Fortune 500 Companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Semgeeks?

To develop a website and manage our online presence campaign.

What were your goals for this project?

To increase awareness of our company and services. Additionally, to have a user-friendly website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After interviewing a number of firms, SEMgeeks stood out for their professionalism, cost and quality services.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed a very eye appealing and user friendly website that clearly outlined our services to the consumer. There is a very interactive component to the site.

What was the team composition?

There were 6 dedicated people on the Project Team. Each person had a specific area of expertise. They were all very professional and easy to work with. Deliverables always seemed ahead of deadline.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

As a result of SEMgeek's commitment to assisting us in gaining a wide ranging online presence, our business has grown 15% over the past 3 years. The number of inquiries into our services has tripled.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Project Team was developed based on our needs and ensuring the right people, with the right set of skills were assigned.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The ongoing communication, ongoing follow up, ability to meet tight deadlines. Above all their professionalism and expertise stand out. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

I cannot think of any areas for improvement, based on my interaction with SEMgeeks.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Kevin Joyce Real Estate (under ARC Real Estate LLC). I'm a licensed real estate salesperson in NJ and PA, proudly serving the greater Philadelphia area, South Jersey, and the Jersey Shore. Utilizing the latest Real Estate techniques in market inventory analysis, technology and marketing to deliver clients with proven, data-driven results.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Semgeeks?

Website development

What were your goals for this project?

Professional website for highlighting reviews, professional bio and lead generation.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

SEMGEEKS is well known for its high quality and value for website development.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

SEMGEEKS developed KevinJoyce.com.

What was the team composition?

SEMGEEKS web building team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

In the saturated business of real estate a professional, high-quality website is a must, even for individual sales agents. It sets you apart from apart. My lead conversion rate went up approximately 20% after the website was up. The website is consistent with the professional services I provide and is a way for prospective clients to validate it.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team at Semgeeks provided excellent communication throughout the entire project. The communication wasn't overbearing and was exactly the right amount to not impact my day to day operations, but get the job done right.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Quality and price were both high and it was completed ahead of schedule. Normally you hear you will have to sacrifice one or two for the third. Not the case with SEMGEEKS. They quoted under the competition and in my opinion, delivered a higher quality product than competitors would have in a shorter period of time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were none. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the partners of First Equity Mortgage. It is a licensed residential mortgage company located in New Jersey.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SEMGeeks?

We were really looking for help with our online presence from an overall marketing standpoint. We were also developing an online platform to generate business leads from people searching for mortgage-related products online.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SEMGeeks provided 3 services for us.  First, they helped us fully develop our company website. The one that we had was really not that great; it was not that up-to-date. They overhauled the whole thing and created a new site. From a branding and marketing perspective, they really gave us a fresh, updated look. The new site really explained all the products and services that we offered.

Additionally, SEMGeeks helped us with 2 online campaigns to generate business. One was to help us manage our PPC campaign. It was a campaign for homeowners or potential homeowners that were searching online in New Jersey for loan programs. They helped run banner ads so that people would find our site and our information.

SEMGeeks also helped us through some SEO marketing, allowing us to gain a presence on Google. For example, if somebody searched for a renovation loan in New Jersey, they got us. For certain terms like that, we were showing number one on Google organically, meaning we didn't have to pay for it. The PPC and the SEO marketing was really what they did from a lead standpoint.

How did you come to work with SEMGeeks?

I don't remember exactly, but I know it was definitely a referral. It might have been that one of our employees knew SEMGeeks personally. That person probably heard good things about them from other companies who had used them.

Initially, we had come across a couple of companies in our search. A couple of people had recommended SEMGeeks while somebody else recommended another company. We had several conversations with SEMGeeks and we felt really comfortable with them. They were able to answer a lot of our questions appropriately. It was a little tricky because a lot of this was language that we didn't really understand. SEO marketing and pay per click were all really new to us. SEMGeeks helped explain all the different channels and way you can market yourself in a really comprehensive way. That's what got us really most comfortable with them.

How much have you invested with SEMGeeks?

We probably paid $10,000 to $15,000 for the website. In the past 2 years, we spend an additional $1,500 to $2,000 on a monthly basis.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're still working with them on certain things. The development the website was a one-time project. I've got to be honest; I don't remember exactly when it was that they did that. If I had to guess, I would say they did that work about 2 years ago. We've continued to use for SEO marketing and PPC since then. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The fact that we've continued to use them speaks volumes. I probably couldn't give you exact numbers off the top of my head, but we were very happy. They definitely delivered the results. For the SEO campaign, we showed up exactly where they said that we would. They got us to number one on Google searches.

We get monthly reports from them for both campaigns. The reports show all the statistics, where we ranked the previous month, where we rank now, and where they intend to have us ranked.  For PPC, they would show us  a breakdown of the cost per click and conversion rates. We could actually see a lead come through and things like that. They had definitely met our barometer, I would say.

How did SEMGeeks perform from a project management standpoint?

Now we're in the stage where what they're doing isn't deadline-oriented. But any time we wanted to kick off a new campaign, they would always immediately send out meeting invites. SEMGeeks would get everybody on the same page and do a call with all the necessary people from their side. They are always available.

With the website, they laid out a very specific deadline. They explained how long it would take to get it all done. If there were any delays, they were probably more on our end as SEMGeeks needed certain content from us to build out the site. When they got what they asked for, they moved everything along according to schedule.

What did you find most impressive about SEMGeeks?

I had zero understanding of online marketing or lead generation. They fully educated me and kept us up to speed. They're very much on the cutting edge of technology, what's working and what's not working. They take feedback very well. Anytime I needed to say, “I don't know if this is working,” or “We're not satisfied with this,” they always took it seriously. Other times, they would show us, through statistics that things were working. If it wasn't, they were always willing to go back to the drawing board and revisit things. Then they're just very proactive. They invited us to a meeting the week after next to touch base on our overall satisfaction. We’ll talk about the different campaigns we're running and if there's anything we think should be changed.

Are there any areas SEMGeeks could improve?

I don't think so, to be honest.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Catchword is a brand name development firm that has been in business for 18 years. We’ve got offices on the East and West Coast. Our company names products, services, and companies. Mostly, we work for large multinational companies, but we’ve also served smaller and medium-sized companies.

I am a partner of Catchword and have been with the company for 16 years. I manage all of our business on the East Coast. Some of my responsibilities include SEO, SEM, and AdWords. I’ve become personally invested and to some degree knowledgeable about that whole space. I am super sensitive to the importance of working with somebody in the know. It’s critical that they feel the pulse of SEO nowadays from a website development standpoint. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SEMGeeks?

We had an opportunity to collaborate on a B2B technology branding project. The client asked us to develop a name for their spinoff business. This is a client in the DCIM space, data center infrastructure management.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SEMGeeks assisted us with the initial positioning and brand development work. We were the naming partner that was hired to collaborate with them. They developed the back-end website design, including the SEO and SEM aspects of the rollout and website development. On this particular project, they were responsible for the overall brand identity, including the logo and wordmark. They gave input on SEO strategy and other considerations that would affect rankings. In terms of technology, I’m not exactly sure what back-end platforms they used to build the site, but it was remarkably fast.

Once a client hires our agency, oftentimes the other agencies they’ve hired aren’t always part of the process—upfront branding firms or back-end design firms. I’m not sure whether this was a requirement that the client had or if SEMGeeks wanted to be a part of everything throughout. They were just very involved with our part of the process. We were meeting them on a regular basis and corresponding by way of phone and email. It’s super helpful, too, because ultimately they were the designers of the brand and the website. It’s super helpful to folks in the naming business to get the perspective of the design folks on the names that you’re considering for the new company. That was the value that they added to a lot of the meetings. They provided the design expertise on the names that we were considering and talking about with the client. That was the nature of our initial collaboration with SEMGeeks.

Catchword is still in touch with the client and we continue to collaborate on an ongoing basis for all of their optimization work. It wasn’t just this one-off website development project. It may be a combination of website on-page SEO modifications and continuous updates. I’m pretty sure that they are doing some AdWords management on account of this client as well.

We also hired SEMGeeks for our own website redevelopment project, mostly from an SEO and SEM perspective. SEMGeeks did not do the actual design and development; we got their counsel and tapped into their SEO and SEM expertise. This was after we had already engaged somebody out on the West Coast, where our firm is based. However, we saw that our development firm made mistakes in our original website. If we had the money and engaged a firm like SEMGeeks from the beginning, we would probably have avoided those issues.

How did you come to work with SEMGeeks?

SEMGeeks was engaged by this company to help out with the upfront branding and positioning work. Then we were hired to collaborate with them. Our engagement was serendipitous because neither one of our agencies knew about the other agency until this client had brought us together. It turned out to be a really great relationship for the both of us.

How much have you invested with SEMGeeks?

For Catchword’s consult with them, we didn’t spend much at all. We spent under $1,000 to talk with them for our own site. They were extremely kind in how they dealt with us on a feed basis. It was very much in the interest of good will. They offer a much more affordable rate because they’re based New Jersey, not in Manhattan.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them for approximately 2 months. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From my perspective, it was a hugely successful deliverable. I’ve been in the business of branding for 25 years. I’ve seen a lot of work, a lot of designers, a lot of design agencies and SEO-type firms. I was super impressed with the website and branding that SEMGeeks had done. It was a remarkably deep, well-structured, and well-organized website. They developed a gorgeous site that’s extremely functional, fast-moving, and SEO-friendly. I think the site that they worked on was nominated for a Webby Award, which is pretty impressive. That speaks to the organization, layout, and visual appeal of the site. I think the awards are mostly visual; I’m not sure to what extent the SEO component is taken into consideration. The fact that it’s been nominated is an indication that the client would have to be pretty happy with that outcome. If anything’s a testament to how satisfied the client was with the work, it’s that they just continue to work with SEMGeeks.

I also thought they were really smart and very strategic in the way they approached the branding and the positioning work. What I liked an awful lot about them was how respectful they were of the naming part of the brand development assignment. They respected our level of expertise in this niche aspect of the branding world. That’s one of the reasons why we got along so well on a personal level. They’re just awesome people.

How did SEMGeeks perform from a project management standpoint?

Other than the project that we worked on together, I’ve had limited project management experience with them. They seem very well organized from a project management and team organization standpoint. We had a series of phone calls where they were advising us as we rolled out the website. That was our occasion to engage them directly, just an initial personal consultation. They were extremely responsive and very articulate. I think that they’re great communicators. I communicate with them on a regular basis for various things. Sometimes, it’s related to our own business, while sometimes it’s for potential clients that we’re recommending them to. SEMGeeks was also very well-balanced. They always had a broad team in place for whatever it was that you were talking to them about. That’s based on the people that were always copied and included in emails and meetings. They’ve worked extremely well with us.

What did you find most impressive about SEMGeeks?

What impressed me most was their ability to balance captivating visual design with being SEO-friendly. On one hand, SEMGeeks knows the importance of SEO and having sites that Google will look favorably upon. At the same time, there’s a strong visual appeal that is going to wow customers that land on the site. That’s what you’re looking for in a website development firm, not just somebody who’s got great visual vision. You need a partner that can balance that with top-level SEO counsel and design a site that achieves both of those goals. That’s exactly what their objective is. It’s their focus and it’s exactly what everybody should be looking for. That’s why SEMGeeks is now my go-to agency when I have a client who’s coming up with a new name for a company. I’d recommend them if it’s fairly certain that the client’s going to need an identity and ultimately a website to support the company. After the technology branding project, we’ve had the opportunity to recommend them to other clients. Frankly, we were impressed with their team, creative work, and smarts.  

Are there any areas SEMGeeks could improve?

Honestly, if I could think of something, I would tell you. I really can’t. I’ve enjoyed all of our communications. I’ve enjoyed the work that we’ve done together with this agency. I really, honestly can’t think of anything that I’ve discovered needs improvement at this stage.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the owner of a landscape nursery and am in charge of all financial and marketing decisions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Semgeeks?

We needed a new website as well as help with our online marketing.

What were your goals for this project?

Our company is 35 years old and has a landscape nursery with a garden center division and a landscape design and build division. We wanted to find a way to market these two divisions separately.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online for a local company and found Semgeeks.

Describe the project in detail.

Semgeeks handled website design as well as marketing for us.

What was the team composition?

We had a project manager assigned but everyone at Semgeeks was there to help.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Semgeeks produced a great website and helped us with our marketing. I’m pleased with the results.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were on top of me so that I could give them feedback. It’s easy to get distracted when running a business, however, Semgeeks had a calendar and a plan for my input. It all worked out great.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team knows the best way to meet a project’s goals.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It’s typical to always want things done faster, but after seeing the final product, I realized how much time it takes to make it right the first time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a mid-size insurance agency offering all lines of insurance. I am a principal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Semgeeks?

Web Design

What were your goals for this project?

Cleaner, simpler, user-friendly & better looking website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Chose from a group after careful research =.

Describe the project in detail.

Migrate some content from old site, design & build new site, content creation

What was the team composition?

4-5 - Web designer, developer, project manager, seo, content writer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our clients tell us they love the design of our site, and that it is easy to navigate.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team approach worked very well.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They could have maybe pushed harder against some of my bad ideas, but it was a good experience overall.