Square 2

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Delegate Solutions, an automated delegation provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square 2?

We needed their team to handle our marketing efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve outsourced our marketing pipeline to Square 2’s team. They focus on implementing solutions via HubSpot, which is our main marketing platform. They help us design our website, workflows, landing pages, and marketing campaigns from a HubSpot marketing standpoint.

In line with our HubSpot marketing, Square 2 has devised a lead scoring system to help us identify our most dedicated customers through their engagement records while also having a glimpse at their preferred activities. Additionally, they’ve recently aided our email marketing efforts based on the content generated by our founder.

What is the team composition?

We work with three key resources, but we scale up the team on an ad hoc basis.

How did you come to work with Square 2?

One of our founders was in the same network as Square 2’s team.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Square 2 commenced in June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Square 2’s marketing work has been instrumental in effectively promoting our company’s vision, expertise, areas of focus. It’s hard to talk about metrics, but we’re most certainly content with what they deliver — we can always trust their team to keep contributing to our success by understanding the ideas and messages we want to portray and relay to our audience.

How did Square 2 perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email, phone calls, and Zoom meetings. Square 2 has a concise and proactive approach — they keep things moving forward with their effective leadership skills.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Square 2 can leverage any stereotypical marketing idea or deliverable. We’re not marketing experts, and their team makes an effort to bridge the gap between practical and creative ideas to generate out-of-the-box results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

On top of being good at what they do, Square 2 is a responsive and feedback-oriented partner — I have nothing constructive to share about their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set realistic expectations and communicate your feedback with utmost honesty — you can then sit back and trust Square 2 to realize and deliver your goals.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Intelligent Video Solutions is a group of video technology professionals who are passionate about helping our clients use video to advance their organizations’ purpose.

• Unified by the goal of providing outrageous customer service, our team can design, implement and support any size video observation and recording deployment.
• Our solutions are built from the ground up to support critical end user objectives. I'm a founding partner and CMO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Square 2, and what were your goals?

Primary end goal is to 2x our monthly MQL's through message clarity, audience building, paid advertising and improved revenue operations. Square 2 also did website migration to hubspot CMS and built new web content.

SOLUTION

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

Initial meetings and presentation of the proposal.

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

ACCELERATOR Competitive Audit

• Deliverable: Presentation of audit findings and recommendations Persona Review and Buying Cycle Framework Development
• Deliverable: Presentation of persona descriptions – including the demographics, psychographics, sources of information, challenges, goals, pains and solutions as well as the Buying Cycle Framework The Intelligent Video Solutions “Big Story” and Differentiation
• Deliverable: Revised marketing messaging package Product Launch Strategy
• Deliverable: Product Launch Strategy Content Audit & Content Strategy Development
• Deliverable: Content strategy plan SEO Review and Keyword Strategy Enhancement
• Deliverable: SEO and keyword strategy Website and Technology Audit
• Deliverable – Website optimization plan. Data Audit and Data Strategy
• Deliverable – Data migration plan. Events and Trade Show Lead Generation Strategy
• Deliverable – Trade Show lead generation plan. Website Enhancement
• Deliverable: Enhanced Intelligent Video Solutions website HubSpot Optimization
• Deliverable: Fully Optimized HubSpot Instance HubSpot CMS Migration Oversight
• Deliverable: Migrated Website Onto the HubSpot CMS (Content Management System) Development of Four (4) Buyer Journey Assets
• Deliverable: Four (4) new pieces of marketing content Development of Additional Nurture Campaigns
• Deliverable: HubSpot drip campaign(s) Analytics and Reporting Package
• Deliverable: Complete reporting package Demand Generation Campaign
• Deliverable: Live demand generation campaign Paid Social and Search Campaigns
• Deliverable: Live paid campaigns Trade Show Campaigns
• Deliverable: Initial trade show campaign “Wake The Dead” House List Campaign
• Deliverable – email campaign to current database via HubSpot Referral Marketing Campaign
• Deliverable: Referral campaign

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

At least 10. Execs, copy writers, editors, web dev, UX/UI and more

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Web development and content creation has been outstanding. New content and campaigns have netted some very high value leads and our audience is growing organically.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Wonderful. Frank T is master at sheparding a client through thier processes.

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

Our experience with the Square 2 team has been outstanding. Their accelerator process in particular is a unique and efficient way to accomplish many initiatives in a short period of time. The deliverables created in just 5 weeks provided analysis, content and strategic recommendations that will drive our Marketing objectives for the next 6 months at least.

Each member of the team is an expert in their field and Frank T. could teach a masters class in customer service and strategic delivery. Do not hesitate to engage with them!

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

None yet.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of channel marketing at G&H Orthodontics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square 2?

When COVID-19 hit and our business slowed down, we saw an opportunity from a business operation standpoint to step back and look at our operations. This allowed us to find opportunities to get better in places where a hectic production and business schedule wouldn’t traditionally allow for.

We engaged with Square 2 and had a conversation about their business accelerator program as it related to our marketing efforts and customer-facing brand. Our team engaged with them to help us develop and implement a brand refresh as well as the first phase of a website build and relaunch, all over a six-week period.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The key deliverables were the website relaunch and brand refresh. We’re having an ongoing conversation about key content we can find and create to support our customers. This is through a collaborative approach of creating and delivering that content in a way that’s valuable to our business and customers.

Square 2 delivered a competitive analysis of what was happening in the marketplace outside of our company. It included an understanding of best practices and assistance as well as the best method of delivery for those communication pieces in order to drive the highest level of value.

The website launch was phase one of a larger project that’ll ultimately result in the development of a full and more robust e-commerce solution on our website. This deliverable is still in progress.

Their team also handled our SEO. They recommended we move to an ecosystem that is more open-ended and didn’t require heavy technical training or coding ability to support. Square 2 moved us into HubSpot. With that included training of the system and getting our team up-to-speed on the platform. They helped us build customer journeys, personas, and life cycles that SEO was tied into.

Square 2 builds out plans based on goals. These plans happened through a conversation to see what attainable goals our business can achieve. They build a mechanism to help support that and do it in a 30-60-90 day sprint. There’s always a goal on the horizon as well as a constant flow of work that’s tied and dedicated to measurable goals within time bounds. We know what success looks like within the transaction and relationship.

What is the team composition?

The team I worked with on a daily basis included Frank (Growth Strategist) and another growth consultant. Through my relationship with those two individuals, we were brought in and had conversations with others. There was a web developer, SEO specialist, and a technical advisor who helped us understand all the technology needed to build a scalable solution that’d grow with us.

We also had a senior content developer who helped us build our story and message as well as junior copywriters to churn through the work.

How did you come to work with Square 2?

Our CEO was at a meeting several months ago where Square 2 gave a presentation. He engaged with one of the individuals from Square 2 and then dropped their name at my desk upon his return. My CEO relayed that Square 2 said some right things that made him think they understood how to help businesses be successful. He told us to have a conversation with them, but that there was no pressure and it was ultimately our decision.

It happened at the right time as we were looking to put the pedal down and invest in some marketing resources. We were working with other agencies and not getting the level of service we would’ve hoped for. Everything fell into place.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $70,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started in April 2020 and is ongoing. We launched the website in June and phase one is done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There is an impact in looking at the website we have now versus our former one. Square 2 gave us a six-week timeline, and we hit it. They delivered something that will add value to our organization.

This partnership has helped us alter our thinking and change the way we focus our business. Historically, we were product-focused. With Square 2’s help, we’re moving toward a customer-focused, practical, application model that focuses our success on our customer’s success.

One of the things that I’ve been happy with and has immensely helped is having a project manager. I always know that if I need something, Frank will be available, approachable, and will get me the answer I need so I can keep my team informed, up-to-date, and focused on the work at hand.

From the get-go, Square 2 has had our best interest in mind. Our initial goal was rolling out all of the engagement into one major process. After having some conversations and consultations, Square 2 made the recommendation we break this into two phases so we could focus our efforts on each phase to get the highest level of value.

As opposed to forcing something through, they helped us think strategically about what was going to drive the most value and success as well as not be too cumbersome of a project for our business. This allowed me to go to my executive team and give a rationale as to why things would be scoped how they were. It was a consultative and collaborative conversation that was rooted in the overall success of our project and business, which was really appreciated.

How did Square 2 perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done a wonderful job with project management. I’ve worked with dozens of agencies, and they are the strongest project management-based team I’ve been a part of. I meet with Frank and our growth consultant daily for 30-minute huddles to go over what has been achieved. We also go over upcoming goals we have over the next 24 hours to keep the project going as well as troubleshoot any items.

We have a dedicated team working on our project. They were all working on other projects, but everyone is very communicative and available if there are needs. This was great especially considering we realigned the scope down the road. Their team was more than willing to help us accomplish that and make sure we were successful.

Everyone has a role to play and does their part to understand the overall goal of the project. This success is tied to the accelerator model they’ve built and the importance of having one point person on each side. All-in-all, it’s been a painless experience as much as building a website can be.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The speed with which they deliver valuable assets that will drive leads and customer impact has been most impressive We went from a blank sheet of paper to a fully launched website in just six weeks. Normally, that’d take 6–8 months at the level of complexity that we needed. The level of hands-on support and accessibility from their team is excellent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Looking at the big picture, the positive things highly outweigh any negative experience we’ve had. Constructively, the only thing that would’ve been helpful could’ve happened in the early stages. If there was an opportunity in the discovery process, before getting down the road in the project, to help organizations like us understand scope and gaps, I'd find that helpful.

This would help us to see where things could potentially fall or slow down. This effort was done to an extent, but it was one of those situations where we didn’t know what we didn’t know until we were in it. If there was a way to get to those tough questions about technology and gaps on the teams that would manage or own processes, that'd be helpful.

I’m relatively new to my company, and this was my first project. It was successful so we’re happy and proud. As a newer person, there are places where I don’t know the business yet. Being able to help prod and get to those answers and solutions would be helpful. This could’ve been done to a higher level.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Square 2 is willing to move as quickly as an organization needs. You must be ready to pull the trigger and make decisions if you want to achieve the same results we had. Their team is dedicated and truly built to drive value. However, they’re only as good as the input they’re getting from a client.

Make sure you’re ready to make those decisions and fully prepared to understand what all of this entails. Also, be sure to have someone who’s solely dedicated to the relationship from the client-side.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Sales Director for Murray Corporation. We're a manufacturing company, specializing in hose clamps for many industries, as well as custom metal stamping and plastic injection molding.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Square 2 Marketing?

We lacked marketing expertise so we needed help with branding and the use of digital marketing to increase the quality and quantity of our leads and opportunities.

What were your goals for this project?

We want to develop an effective marketing campaign to help us grow our sales by 15–20% per year.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had several referrals from colleagues and some companies known to us from past careers. We also conducted an online search.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

We set our objectives and put together an action plan to grow our sales and increase the activity generated off our leads. They spent time learning our business so they could develop content about our company and our products. This can then be positioned in front of the decision makers that we want to reach.

They helped us learn more about ourselves as a company and develop our "remarkables", or what makes us stand out. With this information, they can get the word out about what makes us different and track the effectiveness of these efforts.

What was the team composition?

We work with a small team primarily, but we've worked with the principals of the company as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're about five months into our one-year contract. So far, they've met all of their promised deadlines and we're on pace to see activity soon. Based on how they have handled the process so far, we have no doubt that we will see an increase in activity and many new opportunities.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They're great to work with and we've asked them to work with a third-party firm that we had already hired for some SEO work. They've been willing to do this and didn't let it slow them down in striving towards our goals. They've made the most of the situation and been a real team player. The project is well planned out and they meet deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have great knowledge of technology and how to use it to maximize our marketing efforts and dollars.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have nothing to say at this point.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm Director of Sales and Marketing at iDS. We’re strategic consulting and expert services firm for law firms and the legal suites of large corporations.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square 2 Marketing?

We were in the process of rebranding and updating our marketing strategy. We decided to move from an internal marketing department to outsourcing the marketing function.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We're only in our first 90 days of the engagement, so the main focus is establishing a strong foundation and strategy. They've walked us through a very methodical process to help us rethink the face we present to the market. They’re evaluating the competitive landscape in order to fine-tune our message and value proposition. It's an update of our competitive position in the marketplace, which addresses key changes in technology and the evolving needs within the litigation landscape.

We did several “brain dump” sessions to provide them with all of our information. They took that content and distilled it down to an easy to understand value proposition.  In the first 60 days, they have done several analyses and outputs: a competitive assessment, a content assessment of our website, and an SEO assessment, buyer personas, and a content strategy. We are in the beginning phases of implementing the strategies.  In addition to this work, they have been very flexible with helping us with one-off projects.  

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of 8 people including our main contacts, marketing strategist and a marketing consultant.

How did you come to work with Square 2 Marketing?

They were recommended to us, but I went through an extensive vetting process. I interviewed 10 companies and did a deep dive on the top three. Square 2 stood out for their value (i.e., the cost-to-output ratio) and their focus on ROI. One of my goals is to move marketing from a cost center to a revenue generator, and they spoke my language.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $38,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together mid-March 2018 and the engagement is ongoing.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their output so far has been fantastic. Everything they’ve produced is high quality. They're very smart and intuitive. They're able to take a tremendous amount of information and turn it into easy to understand concepts, which speak to the needs of our clients.

How did Square 2 Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is fantastic; there’s been no issues. We communicate weekly. They've been very responsive and flexible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really appreciate their strong focus on ROI, and how they tie everything that we do back to a strategic need of our client. They're very smart people.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing specialist at an IT consulting company that helps managed service providers (MSPs) and sells them software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square 2 Marketing?

We have used them for a variety of things over the years. Initially, we were struggling with creating content and building our first website. Since working on that in 2015, they have transitioned into more of a strategic relationship with us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built our first website in 2015, helped us write white papers and blogs, and helped us practice inbound marketing. Today they advise us on digital strategy and are going to help us redesign our website over the next few months.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with a project manager.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $75,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with them since 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After Square 2 Marketing built our first website our engagement numbers increased dramatically. They also helped us adopt an inbound methodology to become a thought leader with content for people to download and fill out in order to capture leads rather than cold calling MSPs.

How did Square 2 Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They have been great. We really enjoy working with our project manager. He's been very responsive to any requests we have and facilitates meetings with some of their other teams such as development and strategy. We mostly communicate over email, but we will often have meetings over the phone or on Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understand our business. We're a pretty technical company that is mainly focused on one vertical, and I know that they don't have a ton of experience marketing to MSPs. However, they've really done a great job of understanding what we do and helping us communicate that to our clients. I was very impressed with how they were able to grasp our business very quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they have been nothing but good for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to communicate well. We've been fortunate enough to have a good rapport with our project manager and I feel like that's reflected in some of our work together. Don't be afraid to reach out to them or ask questions because they're very good at responding.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Director of Marketing of Wolf & Company, an accounting and consulting firm, and specifically head WolfPAC, our Integrated Risk Management branch. WolfPAC offers our financial institution clients a holistic, cloud-hosted software and service technology solution for their compliance needs and regulatory burden.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square 2 Marketing?

We needed to improve the SEO and mobile responsiveness of our five-year-old website so it could function more effectively as an inbound engine. While our customers didn’t wholly buy on what they found online, they did seek out providers who offered an automated risk management platform. Square 2 Marketing has the proven track record of inbound methodology expertise to intensely treat these problems I lacked the resources to resolve internally.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Square 2 Marketing designed and implemented the overall keyword and content strategy for our website update. They crafted new pieces for the actual webpages, and strategically repurposed our existing content for specific phases of the buyer's journey. They’ve added insight to both our websites. All new content will go live on WolfPAC’s resources section.

To maintain messaging consistency, they developed a voice and tone document which we will continue to build on internally. “The Remarkables,” namely their compilation of our company’s strengths, highlights what sets us apart, and provides a snapshot of WolfPAC’s personality. Together, these documents function as guidelines for our more static content, and we’ll use them in our personnel trainings, interactions with clients from our database, and internal sales.

Their team also designed event preparation tools and nurturing workflows that utilize our HubSpot technology. While not immediately revenue-producing, these projects empowered our sales team to start conversations that translated into quick wins for the fall sales season. After our initial proposal, we requested tools to highlight our team’s attendance at shows, and to follow up on sales. They work on an agile principle that lets us easily adjust allotted points to fit our changing needs.

What is the team dynamic?

The process has been incredibly collaborative. They utilize their knowledge experts’ entire spectrum of resources, and staff our meetings with talent that directly corresponds to our needs. Their specialists are always prepared with the correct answers to ideas we pitch ahead of time, and are willing to explain their methodology. Our conversations clarified timelines and hierarchies of importance, which made their decisions much easier to understand. Frank Tolkacz, Meghan Durett, and Dave Little are responsive and reliable. They’ll provide thorough follow-up to our questions within 1-2 hours of a call, rather than having to wait for the next meeting. Now that our project is in the website development phase, we meet on a weekly basis.

How did you come to work with Square 2 Marketing?

I reached out to Mike Lieberman, one of the founders of Square 2 Marketing, after learning about his client interactions and agile organization at his Hotspot Inbound 2016 conference presentation. After speaking with Jeff Lynn and Eric Keiles, I circulated the idea internally to solidify the scope of our project and investment. After the final signing, the onboarding was very efficient.

How much have you invested with them?

Our monthly costs were as follows: May-$12,000 each for the first two months, and $10,000 thereafter. The website build phase will cost $25,000 monthly for October through December. Hopefully, our site will go live prior to 12/31, and starting in January, we anticipate decreasing our monthly point value to $9-10,000.. While they’re slightly more expensive than other providers, their work has proved much more valuable. I factor the education they provide into the overall cost, because it’s made us a better marketing organization.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May of 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website is now fully integrated and mobile responsive. We will host it on the Hubspot COS system for at least the next two years, and it’s optimized to utilize the system’s full array of tools and capabilities. This seems like a good investment, since we’ll need to change our website every three or four years.

While I don’t have quantitative metrics to share, the quality of their content writing and development is excellent. Following each meeting, they’ll compile a summary document that encapsulates how we want to frame our users, and capture this tone on the first attempt. I never have to edit, which is very rare, and they provide us with thoughtful feedback. We have yet to reject any of their suggestions.

While other organizations only delivered on one or two things after claiming the ability to complete a project, Square 2 actually delivered. Square 2 Marketing has pushed us faster than any other vendor, and it's making us more successful. We’ve had to slow the pace they’re used to from working with other clients, and we’ve still completed more in the nine months than we did in an entire year with another firm.

On a call within the first month, my director stated that he was "absolutely thrilled” with their work, which I’ve never heard him express about any vendor in the entire 12 years we’ve worked together —He does not give that level of praise lightly.

How did Square 2 Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

I love working with them from this standpoint. We receive weekly status update by Monday morning, whether or not we had a scheduled call. Within an hour of our calls, they send summative e-mails. This documentation holds us accountable to promptly review and return materials. They keep their statements of work broad and flexible, and acknowledged any uncertainties about completing specific facets.

Communication has been fluid and responsive, and they don’t overwhelm us with superfluous contact. We hold monthly prioritization process to adjust our goals as needed. They have never told us we lacked sufficient points to complete a project, or that we’d have to wait. I no longer have to constantly say “no” to my colleagues’ ideas. Instead, they figure out what needs to be shifted from a 30- to a 60-day timeline, or what’s at stake if we pursue a “shiny” new idea. Rather than marketing against the service, we can collaboratively decide how to use the points and schedule the work. It was always our decision as to what was accomplished.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re definitely the best agency I've ever worked with. When we first brought them on, we were still working with a different agency, and the difference was night and day. Their value is tied to their agile marketing properties and principals, and exceeds what we pay for. In my experience with at least six other agencies, account managers are often reliant on a third party, and unequipped to promptly answer my questions. I’ve never experienced this lag in responsiveness from Square 2 Marketing, because I always have direct access to experts. The team is smart, accommodating, and has a good perspective. No agency I’ve worked with previously lives and breathes HubSpot like Square 2 Marketing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While other agencies and service providers claim to want feedback, they often have a conflict-adverse mentality. Square 2 Marketing actually courts critique, asking tough questions and seeking brutally honest answers that will help them improve. This openness enables them to identify and overcome points of weakness things before they become debilitating

Advice for potential customers?

Patience is critical with anything in-bound related. It's a continual process. Many people expect miracle results when they begin working with SEO and inbound marketing, like a triple fold increase in visitors overnight, or metrics going off the charts in 30 days. Don't listen to fake emails that “guarantee results on first page of Google." Those people are lying. Even with the best content and agency in the world (including Square 2 Marketing), that's just not realistic. Aside from budget, it ultimately comes down to matching the content you feature to the search queries users care about.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Specialist for WolfPAC Integrated Risk Management, a software solution designed to assist financial institutions with the different types of risk they manage within their organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what reason(s) did your company hire Square 2 Marketing?

Our reasons for partnering with Square 2 were two-fold: We were low on resources and were looking to outsource some of the activities that were currently being implemented in-house. We've adopted an inbound marketing strategy and were hoping to receive expertise in effective ways to implement, broaden, and strengthen our message and marketing tactics. We were hoping to be more effective and efficient through the suggestions and actions of Square 2.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to build a strong marketing foundation that we could continue to build upon in the future. As an organization, we wanted to start completing projects and seeing results that we could measure and report.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We spoke with many potential vendors, searching for a group that had the methodology that we wanted to align with, and the capabilities of each. We wanted to start a website rebuild, and the process of reworking the site was also a large component in our choice of vendor. We determined that Square 2 Marketing's unique website build plan and agile philosophy gave us the flexibility we needed, and the customer focus met our methodology requirements.

Describe the project in detail.

It isn't a project-based relationship, but rather, more of a partnership. My organization works with Square 2 to determine where our spend can have the most impact, and I value the recommendations they provide. They have experts from different marketing backgrounds to give us the most valuable insight possible and continue on to implementation as we require.

What was the team composition?

There are multiple people from Square 2 that work on this engagement. There is a project manager and a strategy manager on every call and meeting. We are also visited by SEO experts, development and website experts, and content strategists. This is not an exhaustive list but highlights the breadth of work they are capable of providing to their clients.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been very happy with the results we've received thus far from Square 2. The content that they have produced for us in terms of personal development and website creation has been strong, and our needs are clearly taken into consideration and well executed in all the materials they work on.

We will be able to complete our website rebuild months faster than if we had used a different partner, and we can already see that it will be a significant improvement over our current site.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication and feedback have been a breeze with Square 2. Our project manager is efficient and ever-present. They are really great at asking the right question to get to the heart of the story we're trying to tell. It's clear that they are not simply trying to complete a task, but really thinking through what we are working to accomplish.

We were pleasantly surprised by how rapidly they work both within their team, and with our team to get feedback and to communicate questions/concerns. We have never felt that working with Square 2 has slowed us down - quite the opposite, in fact. Their effectiveness has allowed our team to work more quickly and complete projects faster than we could have ever done in-house.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We have worked with various marketing vendors throughout the years, but we have never encountered a group that had this strong of a mix of expertise, communication, and vision. We truly think of them as partners and trust that they will continue supporting our marketing strategy as successfully as they have been thus far.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Robert E. Little Inc. is a four store John Deere dealership. I am the Dealer Principal Owner and General Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square 2 Marketing?

We had a relatively old website that was not generating leads or anything for us. It was more of an informational type of thing. We were looking to update that and our SEO to generate traffic and business at our dealership, in both sales and service.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, we went over what our needs were, and they developed a new website on WordPress for us. With our input, they developed the content and look of it, how it should be, and what’s working today versus what we’ve done in the past. The content development they did was for the website. That being said, we are hoping in the future they’ll help with social media content and blogs. We were limited on the budget for the first year. We let them know what we wanted to see on the website and they created the look and presented it to us. We had changed some things around, but it was pretty much their ideas.

How did you come to work with Square 2 Marketing?

Many years ago I went to a seminar that they held. One of my advertising reps for television at the time suggested I take a look at it. I was impressed with them talking about doing advertising that was quantifiable because I always disliked advertising because you spend a lot of money and you never knew what worked and what didn’t. They had ideas that seemed a lot better than what we were doing. When we got to the point where it was time to do something with our website I looked back to them and talked to their sales team. We met and went from there.

How much have you invested with Square 2 Marketing?

We've spent over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’re still in the development stage. We’re working with them on ongoing programs and sales and things we can do to use the website to create more and more traffic in our dealerships.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One thing they added to the website was some links where you could click on and schedule service and maintenance for your equipment. We get a direct email from that telling us somebody’s interested in service. We’ve probably had 30 or 40 requests which were new for us since we weren't receiving anything in the past. It was really good for us that we were getting that information. They have provided us reports as part of the program we signed up for and tell us how many visitors we had and what the increase was. Website visitors saw a 24% increase month over month on the latest report in August.

How did Square 2 Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very proactive. We realized what we could afford to do at this point and getting the website up and running in just a matter of months where it could’ve taken up to a year to get it done. They were proactive in managing that and getting us this far. Now we’re working on getting more and more of the marketing in the future. They met deadlines 100% of the time.

What did you find most impressive about Square 2 Marketing?

I felt it was professional. They told us what it was going to cost and did it on time. We certainly see a much better product than what we had.

Are there any areas Square 2 Marketing could improve?

I’m a cheap person, so everything’s too expensive to me. I know you get what you pay for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a company that focuses on metal fabrication for large world-class companies. We do custom work for people, from very small orders up to very large, multimillion-dollar accounts. Some of our clients provide construction or mining equipment, oil and gas, or transportation like locomotives for passenger rails. Others offer services such as fabrication, welding, machining, or painting a mechanical assembly that weights up to 40,000. I am the Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square 2 Marketing?

Over the last several years, the markets have been a little more volatile. The cycles have been more compressed than what we were used to. One of the largest business challenges we have is that our company has grown organically. We’ve always grown by word of mouth and we’ve never really had much of a sales team out there. That’s great because we have relationships with clients that really appreciate what we’re doing for them.

One of the biggest goals with Square 2 Marketing was to grow our diverse sales segment. We want to grow through more business in additional segments. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are not experts in marketing or sales, we’re experts in fabricating metal part products. That’s why we relied on Square 2 Marketing to guide us. With today’s analytics and the different tools that are out there, it’s an excellent time to advertise. Now, you know exactly where you’re spending your money. We believe online marketing can be a core function here.

We asked Square 2 Marketing to provide a full digital marketing strategy. After they did that, we chose a path that included the website. They did a lot of content writing and editing. Since we’re an organization full of engineers, we’re not the best at creative content. Square 2 Marketing also knew how to optimize content for search engines. They helped build our site, managed the content, and rolled everything out from start to finish. It’s been a good relationship thus far. In addition, Square 2 Marketing is advising us on social media. We’re trying to leverage the articles and content they’re building. They were instrumental in helping us build our blog and get it up and running. They’d take our input and generate content, and that’s what we’d use on our social media platforms. The next goal is to leverage what we have and start driving opportunities into the funnel.

How did you come to work with Square 2 Marketing?

I saw them give a talk in Pittsburgh. I sent my sales director down, and he came back and said it was something we might want to think about. We reached out to them, had a first conversation that seemed to make some sense. We went further and eventually decided it was the way we wanted to go. We had considered other options, but Square 2 Marketing were very highly recommended. They’ve lived up to their reputation as far as I’m concerned.

How much have you invested with Square 2 Marketing ?

Off the top of my head, we’ve spent about $160,000 for the year.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think our contract with Square 2 Marketing ends this month. We’ve told Square 2 Marketing that we want to continue working with them. We’ll soon start looking at plans for next year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since our engagement with Square 2 Marketing, site visits have increased. We’ve also gotten feedback from people who watch us. We’re getting a lot more engagement for that type of media than we ever have before. When our first email blast went out, I got a number of calls within 24 hours that said everything looked great. When we received some constructive criticism and we relayed that to Square 2 Marketing they immediately made changes. Those changes were noticed by the same people who gave the constructive criticism.

As I mentioned before, they also helped us get our blog up and running. Once a week or every other week, their content editors would call us and have an interview-based session. We’d run through enough content to for 3 to 5 blog posts. We’d spend an hour and a half, 2 hours on the phone getting that content out and then we were good for another couple of weeks.

How did Square 2 Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Square 2 Marketing has been terrific with project management and they’ve been really wonderful to work with. Their project management is very much on task. We did run behind on a couple of items, but that was 100% on our side.

At the start, we weren’t ready for how fast we needed to move. We’d never done this before, so we didn’t really know what we were up against. They helped guide us through that. If I sent an email to our contact at 11 PM on Saturday night, I would not at all be shocked if she replied in 50 minutes. There’s no way I would expect that. They were very professional about everything which is why we want to continue with them.

What did you find most impressive about Square 2 Marketing?

It’s clear that the Square 2 Marketing team is made up of are experts in the field who are very intelligent about the industry. They seem to care a lot and are very thoughtful.

Are there any areas Square 2 Marketing could improve?

From my perspective, not really. I can’t think of anything that they need to change drastically. They’ve done everything I’ve asked them to do.