Straight North

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a director at a custom-label manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North? 

I inherited our relationship with Straight North from the previous director in my position. However, I believe we initially contacted Straight North for our website’s redesign, and they’ve been offering web management and SEO services since then.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an ongoing relationship with Straight North. They offer us web management and SEO services. Although I’ve only been working with Straight North for 10–11, I know they’ve managed PPC campaigns for us in the past. Straight North has also updated our company’s website using information from a previous site. The site is hosted in Drupal, and we’ve talked about changing it to WordPress in the future. 

Moreover, Straight North manages our backlinking strategy and creates monthly blog posts. They send me their content for approval, and I review each post and make any required changes before they publish it. Straight North also helps us with keyword research and on-page optimization — they update our site’s copy to optimize our SEO. 

Moreover, Straight North advises about our SEO strategy. For instance, I recently asked them if backlinking was still relevant with Google’s algorithm's continuous updates. Straight North has explained the relevance of backlinking and how they still help determine a page's ranking. 

What is the team composition?

We work with Michelle (Account Manager) on an ongoing basis. We also work with Ian (VP of Sales). 

How did you come to work with Straight North?

I’m unsure how we initially found Straight North since I wasn’t involved in that process. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have a monthly fee with Straight North of $3000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Straight North in March 2013, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our site’s performance has been improving working with Straight North. We’ve had a web traffic increase of 5.5% year-over-year (YoY). Our target page’s traffic has also increased by 41% YoY. Our search rankings for some of our target keywords have also increased to the first results page.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

Straight North meets deadlines and stays on budget. They have their own project management tool, where I can access our project’s dashboard and see what they’re working on and the completed tasks. 

Moreover, Straight North sends monthly reports with detailed information about our site’s performance and SEO ranking. We communicate through email and phone calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with Straight North’s work consistency. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

When I joined the project, I had an extensive conversation with Michelle, where we discussed what Straight North had done for our company and the current projects’ status. I’d like to have more of those strategic conversations throughout our engagement. Maybe meet at the beginning of the year to analyze the previous year’s results and see what we succeed in and what we need to change. 

Moreover, it would also be great to have updates about the Google algorithm’s changes and updates. I create organic content for our social media and blog, and it would be great if Straight North could give me insights to help improve our SEO with that content too. I wish we had a more collaborative partnership.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend staying in touch with your account manager from Straight North and ensuring you stay on top of the aspects that are important to you. For instance, I ask Michelle a lot of questions. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing and communications at an education system. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We needed help with paid search advertising and SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a discovery phase where Straight North researched our local areas and the types of programs we advertised to. As we’ve expanded to add online program opportunities, they’ve adapted their research to be nationwide and made other changes based on our needs. We have a small admissions team, so they’ve also been helping us generate leads and run campaigns as needed.

Straight North has also given us a list of target keywords to improve our SEO. They’ve also helped with link building, blog writing, and updating our pages with keywords to improve our rankings. We had to start over with our rankings when we decided to change our business name, so they also supported us through that process.

In terms of PPC, they primarily help with Google Ads. They’ve helped with the verbiage and created landing pages for our advertising. They’ve also helped us adapt our criminal justice program due to changes within the national criminal justice system. For example, many places no longer require a college degree to become a police officer, so we’ve had to adjust our keywords to attract more people. 

What is the team composition?

Initially, we worked with an onboarding team, but now we work with an account manager, our sole point of contact.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

I found them through online research. I liked their proposal and that they’d worked with other education systems. They were also a cost-effective option. 

How much have you invested with them?

We pay $2,000 monthly for SEO services, and the paid search fee varies depending on our ad spend. We pay Straight North 15% of our monthly ad spend. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had a successful partnership with Straight North. Since working together, we’ve seen a consistent decrease in cost per lead (CPL) for our paid search. We’ve also seen increases across the board for our different programs due to SEO. Over time, we’ve improved our total enrollment thanks to Straight North’s support. 

Additionally, they did a great job managing our rankings when we changed our name. 

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed very well concerning project management. Our account manager is always available to take our calls, and she gets everything done quickly. Straight North provides monthly ad reports; we also have a weekly call to discuss ongoing updates. We typically communicate via email and phone. We also use Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with their customer service. Straight North is always willing to think of new ideas and be flexible to our changes. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Selfishly, everything could always be cheaper, but Straight North has fair pricing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate with Straight North regularly. How much you’re paying them is how much they'll do, so check things yourself if you feel the need. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a marketing assistant for a company that sells ultrasonic flow measurement devices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Straight North?

We wanted to increase the volume of our website traffic. In particular, we wanted to rank better on a few specific keywords.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Straight North mapped out our keywords and tried to get a better picture of our company in the industry and where we stood competitively. With that information, they’ve prioritized keywords and helped us find which pages we want to optimize.

Straight North has laid out a plan and optimized various pages on our website. They’ve also rewritten some of the content pages, run Google Ads, and tried to get backlinks for us on other websites. Finally, Straight North has made technical recommendations related to indexation.

What was the team composition?

We have a complete team working on the project, but we’re only in contact with Greg (Lead Frontend Developer).

How did you come to work with Straight North?

My boss researched and found them online; he even read some Clutch reviews about their work. Afterward, we met with Greg and someone else from their team and decided to start working with Straight North right away.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2022, and it’s an ongoing collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve definitely seen an improvement in some of the biggest keywords we wanted to target. Before, we were nowhere to be found, but we’re now on the second page. Moreover, some searches are now on the first page, like flow meter.

In addition, we’ve seen an increase in website traffic. We also had the most forms filled out in January 2023.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is excellent. Straight North lays out in advance which tests they’ll do each month. They also have a great reporting dashboard where we can see what they’ve completed and what’s in progress and check by month, status, test category, and more.

We have weekly and monthly meetings with the project manager. We mainly use Zoom, but we communicate whenever it's needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re forward with the reporting. The team shows us their progress and is always willing to accept feedback.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could do more technical tests sporadically, although that doesn’t cause any issues.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to do some research and talk to them about all the areas you can find on their dashboard because it’s very extensive. If you know how to read it, you’ll have everything you need whenever you want it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Legacy Recovery Center. We’re an in-patient behavioral health facility.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We needed a website and SEO services for our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Straight North created our WordPress website from scratch. We won’t begin our SEO efforts until next year, but we’ll continue with their services to do our SEO. They’ll work on keyword research and backlinks.

What is the team composition?

We had 5–6 teammates involved with the website development. However, we primarily worked with Natalie (Email Marketing Specialist); she was the team lead.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

We searched online for multiple companies that provided the services we needed. We looked at the competitors’ performance and found that Straight North performed the best.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $13,500 on the website. We haven’t paid for SEO because we haven’t begun, but we signed a year-long contract at $7,500 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in January 2022. We scheduled to finish the website in May, but our physical property burned down, so we put a hold on the project. In total, it took about six months, but they delivered the website in August 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website went live recently, and Straight North gave us what we wanted. We told them our vision, and they created all that and made any edits we wanted. Overall, we were pleased with the website's high quality.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

They were professional, timely, responsive, and easy to work with. We communicated through email and Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Initially, they stood out for their analytics and performance. The website and SEO they’d done for the competitor were performing very high, so we reached out to them. Then, their dedication, communication, and professionalism were outstanding. They didn’t try to sell us something they couldn’t deliver; they were straightforward and transparent, so we felt they were trustworthy. All in all, Straight North gained our trust, and they demonstrated their success with their work for other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I can’t think of anything; we were pleased with all our interactions, and their quality of work was excellent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be direct and communicate effectively about what you’re looking for. If you don’t tell them exactly what you want, they can’t be held accountable for not delivering it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of managed care, PHO, and wellness for UnityPoint Health and Optimum Health Solutions in Peoria, Illinois. Optimum Health Solutions is a particular business unit we own. It’s a corporate worksite wellness company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We’d never compiled a website for marketing purposes for the Optimum Health Solutions unit.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We solicited help from Straight North to put together a website. After filling out our statement of work, we agreed on the services we’d purchase and had a kick-off meeting with them. We described our company and went into great detail about what we do and the services we provide. Then, they started drafting the content for our website.

They built the website from scratch, doing design and development work. We developed the website to drive business when people search for our various service lines. We worked closely with Straight North to describe those service lines and what they do, and they wrote the content for us. We spent some time reviewing the content and ensuring it fulfilled our message and what we were trying to get across to potential customers.

Also, we later decided we wanted to have them develop a new logo, which wasn’t in the original scope. We had a logo when they showed us the website’s first draft; we thought the site looked great, but the logo looked awful. We went back to the team and asked them if their graphic designers could give us some options. We had the colors we’d use, but we gave them free rein to come up with alternatives. They developed four logos; we picked one and moved forward from there.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Natalie (Project Manager) and Matthew (Vice President, Sales), who were our main contacts. They worked with people internally on their team.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

I knew Matthew. We started discussing their services and if they could assist us with website design. Then, they put together a package of material related to their services, including a financial proposal. We went through the process locally with our CFO and gained approval for the project.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about $22,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in April 2019 and launched in July 2022. Currently, they’re doing maintenance and training on adjustments. Additionally, we hope to engage them for business development services in the future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were pleased with everything they did for us. The quality of their work was exceptional, and the team was highly professional and timely in their communication. Since we have complicated processes, we’d had trouble before developing content that wasn’t too complicated for the end user. However, their writers did an excellent job. We sent them a ton of information, and they turned it into nice, concise summaries — the team did a fantastic job minimizing what we do into bullet points to get the point about our service delivery across

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

We stayed entirely on budget; we only gave additional expenses when we changed or added something. For example, there was an additional cost when we asked them to do our logo and change some things after they completed the project scope. However, we talked about it ahead of time and agreed on a fee structure to move forward. From that standpoint, there weren’t any surprises. Also, they always met expectations and the deadlines we laid out.

We used Google Meet, phone, and email to document the changes we wanted. The situation dictated how we communicated, whether we had a meeting, a phone call, or sent emails back and forth.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They communicated exceptionally well. They brought new ideas and were very thought-provoking. Straight North challenged us to think about our business and how we wanted to promote ourselves. We also changed our minds a few times regarding what we wanted on the website and what we wanted to add, and they were flexible with us.

In addition, they were reasonably priced for all the work they did and were extremely patient. We kicked off our engagement, and since a hospital system owns us, we had to pause the project for over a year and a half because we were all working in the hospital’s clinical settings to help with the pandemic. Nonetheless, they continued to follow up, and when the pandemic hit the second time, we returned to the hospital again. We finally reached the point where we could engage again on the project, and they were very patient with our team to complete this.

Overall, Straight North treated us with the same importance and respect as a large client, although we were a small service line. Sometimes it’s hard to get organizations to help us with certain services because we’re not as important in the grand scheme of things. However, they treated us as their only customer, which we greatly appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

On the contrary, we really appreciated their patience. They didn’t give up on us despite the long delays we had. They followed up and made sure we could launch when we were ready to go.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager at Current Midwest. We are based in Michigan City, IN, and supply industrial electrical products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We are in a niche market and offer unique products to a specific client base. We’ve been driving inbound sales efforts recently because our outbound sales strategies were ineffective. We wanted to increase our website traffic through marketing to drive inbound leads. Our goal was to optimize the search and make it easier for potential customers to find our products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

During the proposal stage, Straight North helped us with keyword research and came to us with 135 keywords. They also conducted a competitor analysis of the top ten results for nine of our relevant keywords.

Once we moved forward with the partnership, they performed a content gap analysis. We presented our website and shared information regarding our target clientele. We also went over our most important product lines. They analyzed three of our landing pages, shared feedback, and updated them. They worked with us to build organic SEO campaigns. They added and revised our website content and added backlinks. We plan to extend our engagement for another six months and they will continue to help us with SEO. 

What is the team composition?

I have worked with two people; Michelle is our account manager and the main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

I had worked with Straight North on PPC at my former company, and when we were researching partners for this SEO project, they kept showing up at the top of the search results. 

We sent out an RFP and narrowed it down to three partners during the proposal stage, and Straight North stood out. Their proposal was very robust, and they made it feel as though we were already working with them. We thought they would be the best partner for optimizing organic searches and moved forward. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly $25,000 in the partnership.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Straight North in July 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since working with Straight North, we’ve seen a 70% increase in website traffic. Even better, we’ve seen a 233% increase in conversions. We define conversions by the number of users who come to our website and click the call button or send in an interest form. We’re having one of our best years so far, so we see the impact in dollars, not just traffic.

The landing pages that we provided Straight North with at the beginning of the project have also seen significant traffic increases. These pages were basically untouched before we started working with Straight North, and they’ve seen increases by 187%, 150%, and 433%, respectively. We’re just seeing so much more overall traffic, and I know our brand recognition is stronger because more people seem to know our name. 

The most exciting thing about our partnership has been the quality of the leads coming in. I believe the quality of leads has improved due to the content that Straight North added. Not only do we see more traffic to our website, but the people reaching out are more qualified, farther along in the sales cycle, and ready to buy. 

We were initially focused on increasing our number of prospects, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that the average spend from our current clients has increased. The increased spending is due to them finding our other product lines more easily. Customers who have been with us for decades are coming back and purchasing different types of products that they didn’t know we offered.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

Michelle is an exceptional project manager, and I have enjoyed working with her. She keeps the project on track, works with her team behind the scenes, and then communicates progress with me directly. It’s been a great relationship, and I look forward to continuing to work with Straight North. 

During the proposal stage, they gave us a six-month scope of work, and then we extended it for another six months. I went back through the original scope, and they exceeded expectations for what they promised. They did an excellent job providing me with updates. We used a portal to manage the project, which granted us visibility into task progress and status to completion. 

The whole process has been straightforward. They have made it easy for us to see progress and find areas for improvement. They are very motivated to deliver what they promise. 

I was very diligent about going through the project plan and ensuring we got everything we paid for, and we did. We have monthly Zoom calls and use email to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been in the business for a long time, and I can’t say enough good things about Straight North; they are the best. The team is wonderful, and I’m impressed with how invested they’ve been from the beginning. They always ensure we are satisfied with their results and are getting our money’s worth.

They are highly respected in their industry and even by their competitors. When we decided to move forward with Straight North, the other vendors who submitted proposals acknowledged their aptitude with SEO and told us we would be very happy with our decision. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing Straight North could improve on. I’ve been delighted with the partnership; I wouldn’t change anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise ensuring your content is ready because Straight North is a fast-moving team. They always stick to the timeline, and the scope of work they outline is the work they’re going to do, so try to be organized.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the VP of Marketing for America's largest independent industrial equipment and service provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed an updated corporate website that better told our story, while also incorporating services and capabilities from our 24 operating units, each with their own website.

SOLUTION

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

I was not a part of this decision, I hadn't joined the company when this decision was made.

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

The site was built in Wordpress, so the majority of our requirement was to help us decide how best to share large volumes of information in a digestible format.

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

We had one project manager who solely handled all interactions between ISS and the vendor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site was launched a week ago, and so far, the performance of the website is much improved. The site runs quickly and smoothly, and is more intuitive to navigate.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They were very responsive, and they did a great job of keeping me abreast of the project's development and providing realistic time and cost estimates.

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

We had to go through a broad set of revisions late in the process, resulting in some significant changes to the site structure. Resources were readily made available to ensure that these changes were executed swiftly and accurately.

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

Not really, this was what I'd hoped for from a project of this scale.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the regional sales and marketing manager for DuroVac, an industrial vacuum manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We were trying to optimize the resources we were spending on SEO and PPC. We were using a third-party marketing firm before, but our ROI was minimal, so we needed someone who specialized in that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Straight North dived into our business and asked many leading questions to understand our challenges and core markets — specifically what we wanted to see as our top five keyword searches. From there, they gave us strategies to go back to our web development team to wave the keywords into the language, messaging, and branding we use.

Initially, they did a free audit and told us some of the things they found. Straight North helped us prioritize tasks and came back with a budget. They gave us different options to build our pricing modules and were clear about the results we’d receive in exchange for those fixed fees.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been in contact with three core people.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

We initially found them through Google. They came up at the top, so our logic was that they obviously knew what they were doing from a marketing standpoint if they appeared at the top of the list. Additionally, the team was responsive from the beginning, and they were always on time and committed.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $16,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021 and have a 12-month contract with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our click-through rate has risen significantly, so now we’re actually above industry standards, which is huge. Also, the number of leads has increased about 10% per month just in the two months we’ve had the campaign live and running.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve given us a customized dashboard, and we can access it 24/7. It has live built-in reporting, so we can always go into the system and take a look for ourselves. Also, we have routinely scheduled calls once a month to go over the data.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very responsive and detailed. The team gets back to us quickly and stays on top of things. Also, they structure everything to respect the challenges that we have. Straight North provides us with a checklist of what they need from us and the dates, which is incredibly helpful because everything is summarized and laid out, making it more manageable from a time perspective.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, their service has been delightful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The free consultation is worth doing. Their team provided us with real-time information about things that we hadn’t even noticed, and the things they brought to our attention were amazing. It was immediately evident that we had to make a change.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the growth marketing manager for Airtame, and we basically create hardware and software that allows people to share their screens on different screens, both digital signage, conferencing, and screen mirroring.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We hired them to manage all of our paid media strategies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Straight North team began by creating Facebook ads and a little bit of Google Ads. Due to OUR previous experience and several pieces of research that we had done, we determined that we needed to do more Google Ads, which included Google Search and Google Display ads. We did have some older campaigns, but we didn’t have a lot of data related to Google Ads. They continue to focus on driving our PPC advertising strategies by creating our ads and optimizing them.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with Katie (Account Manager) and 2–3 other people from their team.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

We left our old agency because they weren’t up to par with what we needed them to be. We then reached out to 12–15 agencies asking them about their services, costs, and structure. In the end, we felt that Straight North was the best fit for what we were looking for.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in November 2021, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been able to quickly get us off the ground, and we’ve been seeing great results from their work. Since they’ve managed our paid media strategies, we’ve had no downtime in our ads, and they’ve allowed us to efficiently switch to various platforms.

On metrics, our overall site traffic has increased, and we’re getting better conversions and sales. In addition, the work that they’re doing exceeds the industry benchmarks. Overall, they feel like an extension of our team. 

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a top-notch project management process. If they don’t know the answer to our questions, they quickly get back to us as soon as they have a solid answer.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re confident that they’re going to get things done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything critical to share at the moment since it’s still quite early in our engagement to see any areas for improvement. In fact, we’ve been able to get everything that we need from them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand what your product is and the target market for those products. When you have that, Straight North will be able to produce a lot of things and optimize from there. If you have existing market research and keyword research, that will certainly speed things up.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of marketing at a software medical device manufacturer that develops pre-operative planning solutions for orthopedic surgeons.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

One of our in-house engineers had developed a website a few years prior, but we weren't getting any traction or new leads with the site. We wanted to use the website to showcase our products in a professional way to improve our lead generation. Coincidently, around the time we wanted to update our site, we launched a new product and thought it was the perfect time to try a new online marketing strategy with it. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Straight North designed and developed a new website for us from scratch. We requested that the design be more user-focused to help users identify the products they could use and guide them down a path towards a demo request. We provided use cases and user stories to appeal to our core audience: surgeons, surgical staff, and implementing facilities. 

They also helped us create site content to improve our SEO using keywords we provided that focused on orthopedic surgeons. I also sent them our competitors' sites to see where they were positioned. In the end, about 80% of the content on the new website was new, with a few holdovers from the previous site. 

Once the design and content were finalized, Straight North began development work in WordPress. They added a targeted request form for users to fill out connected to our sales pipeline and Slack to ensure we're not losing potential leads. They also improved our website speed and connected us to a hosting platform. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with a project manager, Matthew (VP Sales), and a larger backend team of 5–6. 

How did you come to work with Straight North?

One of our market researchers looked locally for a firm and did more general Google searching to find several firms. Once we added Straight North to our shortlist, one of our employees realized they'd worked with them and gave them an internal referral. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $15,000 with Straight North. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Straight North from May–December 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're currently reorganizing internally, so I haven't looked at our Google Analytics metrics yet. Anecdotally, however, we're getting more site traffic and more demo requests than before — we get an average of two demo requests a day. That means that users are coming to the new website, sticking around, and asking for more information. A few customers who have seen the new site have given positive feedback. Internally, we've gotten good feedback from our employees because the company's story is clearer and looks more professional. 

The contact form Straight North developed evolved into a new channel for our current customers to use to communicate with us instead of calling. We're now considering expanding that online channel with Straight North's help. 

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

I was pleased with Straight North's project management; they stayed within budget. I worked with the project manager almost exclusively, and he was responsive and easy to work with. Since we're a federally regulated company, we have firm project deadlines since we have to pass everything through our compliance team. Straight North's project manager ensured we met those deadlines and was always clear about what we needed to provide to hit them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really like Straight North because their offerings are à la carte; if they don't have something, they'll connect us with a partner. We're a B2B company in a small market with a high-lifetime value proposition and don't need regular updates to our site. However, the fact that they offer those services outside of our contract is excellent. 

I also appreciated that, as a tech company, Straight North was open to us working with other firms. It was comforting to know that we could take full ownership of the deliverables and manage our own content after the project was finished. Their team was also very transparent about the work they were doing. Other companies gave us complicated proposals that made it hard to understand the costs, but Straight North was very open about what they were charging us, which aligned with how we run our business. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The content sign-off document that Straight North provided was confusing, which led to me putting content in the wrong spot. We then spent a lot of time going back and forth to iron out the issues, setting our timeline back. It would've been great if Straight North provided more clarity on those documents and their uses.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Straight North requires customers to sign multiple documents that their copy editors use to build site copy. I'd advise customers not to assume anything about how those documents are used; customers should set up a call with the Straight North team to explain them.