Straight North

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of West Coast Classic Cougar

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Sell new and used car parts for the 1967-1973 Mercury Cougar

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Straight North to accomplish?

• Increase qualified leads to our website

SOLUTION

How did you find Straight North?

Online Search

Why did you select Straight North over others?

Pressuring sales team

How many teammates from Straight North were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Attempted to increase out Google ads efficiency 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Straight North has an incredibly persuasive sales pitch. Even though I initially doubted they were the right fit to improve my Google Ads account, their sales team convinced me that I would be making a mistake to turn them down, so I signed on. Over the next four months, I paid their agency fees and drastically increased my Google ad spend (which was essentially the only real recommendation they made). The results were disastrous: my overall conversions dropped significantly, and my Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) absolutely tanked. To make matters worse, my account manager acted merely as a middleman for the people actually running my campaigns. He couldn't provide any concrete answers during our check-ins and offered zero insight into why my account was bleeding money. Our meetings were entirely unhelpful because his response was always that he needed to "talk to his higher-ups" to get answers. When I voiced my frustration regarding the poor results, they made no substantial effort to make amends. I saw zero proof of any actual industry expertise. They seemed genuinely surprised that their changes caused a drop in conversions, yet they couldn't provide a single intelligent explanation as to why it happened. I requested a refund of their management fees, and they refused. While they obviously cannot get back the pile of money they wasted on Google Ads on my behalf, my offer stands: if they reimburse the agency fees I paid them to disrupt my account, I will remove this review. Ian West Coast Classic Cougar

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

I only spoke with a low down employee who was not able to answer my questions. 

What was your primary form of communication with Straight North?

Virtual Meeting

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

NA

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

Do not sell to accounts who you have nothing to offer to

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Sales & Marketing Manager of REUZEL

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Pomade, hair styling, & care, beard & shave, tattoo aftercare products with multiple D2C sites, sold in 90+ countries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Straight North to accomplish?

• Increase ROAS
• Increase conversion
• Own keywords and Google search

SOLUTION

How did you find Straight North?

Referral

Why did you select Straight North over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me
• AI technology

How many teammates from Straight North were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Take over paid search and social efforts with the goal of increased ROAS, conversions, and keyword strategy and searchability.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Increased ROAS for both search and PMAX, while maintaining overall growth.

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

The team met deadlines, shared real-time results and challenges, and provided reporting and forward-thinking recommendations. 

What was your primary form of communication with Straight North?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We’ve had a great experience working with Straight North. Their paid media efforts have been strong and have driven a meaningful increase in our return on ad spend. The team is incredibly easy to work with - responsive, collaborative, and proactive, consistently bringing new ideas to the table. We especially appreciate that they stay at the forefront of AI and emerging strategies, helping us think ahead and continuously improve our approach. Their reporting console is clear, thorough, and easy to digest, giving us strong visibility into performance. Overall, Straight North has been a reliable, forward-thinking partner, and we would absolutely recommend working with them.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Manager of Current Midwest

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

At Current Midwest, we help industrial facilities stay powered, operational, and prepared. We specialize in reconditioned industrial electrical equipment and cooling towers helping facilities restore power quickly, control costs, and extend asset life. We also supply new equipment when applications require custom engineering or long-term infrastructure planning.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Straight North to accomplish?

• SEO Expertise
• Content Assets
• Reporting

SOLUTION

How did you find Straight North?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Straight North over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Straight North were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Straight North has conducted keyword research, content gap analysis, target page performance analysis, optimization, keyword selection, mapping & prioritization; link building, content asset production, title page & Meta description recommendations, recommendations for conversion optimization, site speed recommendations, and structured data markup analysis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Straight North continues to provide a solid ROI year after year. 

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

My project managers have consistently delivered to the established timelines. Each month we have a zoom call to ensure our objectives align. When questions arise or goals change, we can easily reach our project manager either via phone or email. When necessary, technical support will also join the call to provide guidance.

What was your primary form of communication with Straight North?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The competency of my client service manager and SEO strategist is highly valued.

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

No. Straight North is constantly evolving their skills and works hard to keep up AI innovations (overviews, search), which is very difficult with this fast-changing landscape.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Revenova. We provide a cloud-based transportation management system built on Salesforce, enabling logistics companies to streamline shipping operations, manage workflows, and enhance efficiency across multiple transport modes with integrated AI capabilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We were looking for a budget-friendly vendor to establish the foundation of our SEO efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Straight North provided SEO services, including keyword analysis, optimizing our website for search engines and AI search, and developing new pages and assets for our website. The team also created graphics and optimized some of our blog posts while establishing new keywords for new web pages we developed.

What is the team composition?

We worked with an account manager who communicated between our team and theirs.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

We found them through an online search. We chose them because they were close to my geographic location, their pricing fit our budget, and they offered good value for the cost.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $40,000 over two years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March 2024 to March 2026.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website impressions grew from roughly 13,000 per month to peaking at 212,000 per month. Website traffic also rose year-over-year by about 15%. When we started, we had roughly 10 keywords where we showed up on the first page of search results. By the end, we ranked for more than 100 on the first page. Our leads increased roughly 30% as a result of our SEO efforts, which turned into 10% business growth.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via in-person meetings, virtual meetings, and email. They always delivered on time, but the deliverables almost always needed some editing and review. At times, it seemed like their copywriter was not communicating with our account manager regarding our brand guidelines and messaging.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with our overall impression growth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, the copywriter would include phrasing that was not aligned with our brand. This happened multiple times even after providing feedback on different deliverables.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Director of a manufacturing company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company manufactures specialty fenestration solutions from transaction windows to security window and door systems that protect from blast, ballistics, forced entry and storm impact.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Straight North to accomplish?

• Increase Keyword Performance
• Increase Traffic Volume to Websites
• Optimize Ad Spending to Increase Conversions

SOLUTION

How did you find Straight North?

Online Search

Why did you select Straight North over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Straight North were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Straight North managed our SEO and PPC compaigns with oversight into the technical performance of the site to optimizing the content to ensure our website achieved top performance in Google through keyword rankings and lead conversion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Continous month over month and year over year improvements in targeted and overall keyword rankings with overall increase in traffic, leads and conversions.

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

Timely delivery of content development, responsive to emails and active on investigating issues as needed.

What was your primary form of communication with Straight North?

Virtual Meeting

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

The results spoke for themselves and they worked to provide timely responses to questions, thorough investigations and proactive recommendations to improve performance. Liam was a phenomenal Account Manager which made a big difference in how our account was handled.

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

Proactive and more communication on how they address declining results (dur to forced out of their control) and how they expect to combat and overcome these obstacles to recover our performance.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Marketing Lead of a business services company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are one of the fastest-growing, woman-owned and led talent and consulting firms, with an expanding roster of Fortune 1000 clients, Best-of awards, and a relationship-first approach to hiring.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Straight North to accomplish?

Expand the business value of our website by increasing targeted organic search traffic that converts into sales leads

SOLUTION

How did you find Straight North?

Online Search

Why did you select Straight North over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Straight North were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

Straight North was engaged to execute a comprehensive SEO strategy for our staffing company across two consecutive 12-month contracts. The goal: drive qualified organic traffic and increase conversions through targeted content, technical improvements, and authoritative backlinks.

Key Deliverables:

1. Target Page Optimization and Content Creations
2. Link Acquisition
3. Technical SEO
4. Keyword Research and Gap Analysis
5. Conversion Tracking
6. Reporting and Campaign Management

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since kicking off the campaign, we've seen steady improvements in website traffic, keyword rankings, and a positive shift in conversions. Month-over-month traffic and conversions are both trending up, and several of our key pages are starting to rank more competitively. Overall, we're seeing meaningful progress and momentum!

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

Calli has been fantastic to work with—she's timely, extremely knowledgeable, and always willing to jump in to help. Communication has been clear and consistent, and deliverables have been completed on schedule. She's made the process feel seamless and has been great a responding to our questions and needs along the way. We're extremely grateful to work with her and the team!

What was your primary form of communication with Straight North?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What stood out the most was how thorough and strategic the entire approach has been. From day one, the team came in with a clear plan, strong attention to detail, and a deep understanding of SEO best practices.

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

Not at this time! 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Musicians Made

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a local music school that teaches private lessons to all ages and abilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Straight North to accomplish?

• Improve our SEO
• Increase ROI
• Optimize our ads & GMB profile

SOLUTION

How did you find Straight North?

Online Search

Why did you select Straight North over others?

• Great culture fit
• Other

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

Straight North has helped us improve our overall local SEO and optimize our ads and GMB profile. They have build out multiple pages on our website, written articles to get high quality backlinks, and helped up optimize our digital marketing presence in the community. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have increased our monthly lead count which in turn has helped us to increase revenue. Our biggest goal was to have a great ROI and Straight North has fully delivered on that!

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

Items have been delivered in a timely manner and they have responded to our needs and concerns very well! I am very impressed with their level of care and dedication to our goals!

What was your primary form of communication with Straight North?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They are very experienced in the digital marketing feild. I initially hired them because they had so much industry experience and even marketing experience in my specific business!

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

Straight North has delivered at a high level for everything they cover for us in digital marketing. I think my expectations were just off a little when it comes to haow far their service would go. I.E. when building out pages they kill the seo copy and build out a very basic page. I should have understood that design/layout of new pages was not included in that service. So overall the only improvement would just be more clarity in onboarding. I am overall very pleased!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Vice President Marketing of Bernina of America

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

BERNINA of America has been one of the world's leading sewing and embroidery machine manufacturers for more than 130 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Straight North to accomplish?

• Improve Direct Mail Promotions
• Raise the Creative Bar
• Increase Dealer Participation

SOLUTION

How did you find Straight North?

Referral

Why did you select Straight North over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Straight North were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Monthly Direct Mail Programs supported by digital assets for Social Media and online marketing for B2C and also providing assets to our dealers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Participation amoung our dealers saw an increase of 11% and consumer sales were increased by approximately 20%.  Both Dealers and consumers enjoyed the beautiful and engaging creative product.

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

Straight North from day one exceeded our expecations not only with on time and on budget, but the quality of the work.  They are very much an important part of our extended team.  They picked up our brand and voice so quickly and you can tell they all love what they do and it shows in the product they produce.

What was your primary form of communication with Straight North?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The people.  They are a joy to work with.  They care so much about each assignment and put their all into it.  They are a wonderful partner and my team loves working with them.  It's seamless and we work with several different creative partners and Straight North partners with everyone.  It's about the work and doing the best to get the results. 

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

Nothing.  We couldn't be more pleased with the product and service we receive. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Content & Communication Manager of Whip Around

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Whip Around is a fleet inspections and maintenance B2B SaaS software platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Straight North to accomplish?

• Improve SEO rankings
• Optimize and maintain website health from SEO perspective
• Improve and optimize PPC performance

SOLUTION

How did you find Straight North?

Referral

Why did you select Straight North over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Straight North were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The scope of work for Whip Around's National SEO campaign conducted by Straight North includes a comprehensive set of activities aimed at enhancing the business value of Whip Around's website by increasing targeted organic search traffic that converts into sales leads. The campaign targets the USA and involves both on-site and off-site SEO strategies. Below is a summary of the key deliverables and activities:

Goal: Expand the business value of Whip Around's website by increasing targeted organic search traffic that converts into sales leads.

Content Optimization:

Objective: Mitigate content decay and ensure continuous improvement of target page content.
Activities: Iterative optimization of target pages to maintain relevance and accuracy.
Technical Optimization:

Objective: Ensure the technical structure of the website supports SEO performance.
Activities: Diagnostic checks for issues such as manual actions, security issues, indexing, HTTPS, mobile usability, and page speed.

On-Site Optimization:

Objective: Optimize existing pages and create new content to improve SEO performance.
Activities: Analysis and optimization of target pages, content creation, and publishing.
Content Assets and Link Acquisition:

Objective: Develop high-quality content to acquire valuable inbound links.
Activities: Content creation, publisher outreach, and link acquisition targeting relevant publisher websites.

Keyword Research and Content Gap Analysis:

Objective: Identify relevant keywords and uncover content gaps compared to competitors.
Activities: Crawling the website, keyword research, and competitor analysis.
Target Page/Keyword Selection, Mapping & Prioritization:

Objective: Develop a strategy for target pages and keywords.
Activities: Selection, mapping, and prioritization of target keywords and pages.

Technical SEO:

Objective: Identify and address technical SEO issues.
Activities: Diagnostic checks and recommendations for technical improvements.
Backlink Profile Audit:

Objective: Ensure a healthy backlink profile.
Activities: Audit of the backlink profile and disavow file submission if necessary.

Objective: Capture and analyze conversions generated by the SEO campaign.
Activities: Implementing form and phone tracking technologies.
GoNorth! Reporting Dashboard:

Objective: Provide a detailed, real-time view of campaign performance.
Activities: Access to a reporting dashboard with various metrics and insights.
Navigation Improvement Recommendations:

Objective: Improve website usability and dwell time.
Activities: Analyzing user behavior data and providing navigation improvement recommendations.
Conversion Optimization Recommendations:

Objective: Increase the conversion rate of the website.
Activities: Analyzing user behavior data and providing conversion optimization recommendations.
Monthly Campaign Management & Communication:

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have seen increases in SEO website conversions and visits along with improvements in rankings for critical keywords since embarking on this project with Straight North.

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

Weekly meetings are very helpful, to the point and action oriented. Projects are delivered on time and reporting is provided each month (and more frequently if requested). 

The team will go above and beyond if something outside of the ordinary is requested and are willing to adjust to meet our needs. We are very satisfied with their work.

What was your primary form of communication with Straight North?

Virtual Meeting

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

Their friendly, adaptable demeanor and emphasis on continually analyzing performance to fix issues that may arise as we go along.

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

None at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the accounting and office manager at an HVAC installation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We needed their team’s SEO expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Straight North helps maintain and optimize our website and tracks our Google hits. Every month, they show us our Google hits progress, whether it’s been up or down. They come up with strategies and give us suggestions for blogs for our website. 

What is the team composition?

I deal with one teammate, Katie (Account Manager)

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Straight North has met every monthly goal each month; the quality of their work is top-notch. All their suggestions have been awesome. We were very impressed with their initial presentation.

How did the company perform from a project management standpoint?

Straight North has met all the deadlines, and Katie is always in communication with me. We communicate through email and Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do everything well. The prior company we worked with didn’t take the initiative that Straight North does.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I recommend having an initial meeting with them.