Tangible Words

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the VP of Marketing for a software firm that provides GIS data web tools for economic development and corporate site selection.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tangible Words, and what were your goals?

We wanted help integrating HubSpot into our marketing mix and looking for some creative new ways to reach relevant Canadian audiences.

SOLUTION

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

I met Alysha at a conference in early 2020 and was extremely impressed with her approach, which dovetailed perfectly our marketing philosophy.

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

We were extremely pleased with the marketing assistance we got with Tangible Words. They helped us identify those areas that needed support, devised a game plan that worked and assisted in content creation where needed. Tangible Words was patient and helpful in guiding us through the steps, answering questions, and offering help. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them!

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

We worked with Alysha and Vicky.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Helped us try out some new ways of using HubSpot, including Service Hub Pro and the sequences feature, develop a list of Canadian prospects, build some content and initiate outreach. We've expanded our list of prospects and clients.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

In-person meetings, emails and Asana - very effective.

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

Creative approach. Very knowledgeable.

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

Not really. There were a lot of buzzwords and terms that needed to be explained but otherwise, it was great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of Marketing at Fobi AI Inc., a cutting-edge data intelligence company that helps our clients turn real-time data into actionable insights and personalized customer engagement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tangible Words, and what were your goals?

We were doing both a complete company rebrand (using a different Branding agency), and a Website migration from WordPress to HubSpot, and a complete Website redesign and relaunch. We hired them to do the Website migration, HubSpot development and website design. Our goal was to launch a completely rebranded website that better reflected our positioning as an Enterprise organization, not as a startup.

SOLUTION

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

They were referred to us through HubSpot, however, I immediately got a good feel from them, and their pricing was fantastic.

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

The scope of work was to migrate the website from WordPress to HubSpot, restructure the website with 2 portal pages and a new theme, and redesign the website based on the output from the Branding Agency.

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

There were 3 key people we worked with, a project manager, a development lead and one of the principals.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have had incredibly positive reactions to our new website from all stakeholders. Our staff, customers, prospects and Board of Directors have all provided very positive feedback. They all love the new website.

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

We had regular meetings and they were very good about keeping us up to date in Asana, and finalizing tasks on time and on budget.

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

Despite the branding agency being incredibly late with their key deliverables (logo and key messaging didn't arrive until one week before launch), TW came through for us and exceeded our expectations. Given the tight timeframe due to the late arrival of the key deliverables from the branding agency, the initial plan was for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that would have just part of the site go live, however, thanks to the hard work of their team and our team working together we managed to launch over 90% of the site on time and on budget.

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

No, they exceeded our expectations, and in fact, we have already engaged them for another project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Operations Director of a Technology and Media company. We create and distribute content to help students, parents educators and communities with workforce development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tangible Words?

We needed to migrate our CRM over to Hubspot and Tangible Words helped us with that. They then helped us with marketing content, social media, help desk setup, automated systems and much more.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have a system set up that would automate many tasks. We wanted to have a robust reporting system so that we could analyze customer support, sales and user engagement. We needed assistance setting up a full marketing strategy to incorporate all types of communication tools available to us.

SOLUTION

How did you select Tangible Words?

Our CEO met Alysha in a private setting. Many conversations later we realised that Tangible Words could potentially fill a gap in our company and bring expertise we really desired.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

We scoped out the most important areas that we needed assistance with. This started with CRM migration. We then moved on to Help Desk setup, Sales Systems etc. We moved through each area one by one. Tangible Words worked with us as we had questions and challenges along the way.

What was the team composition?

We worked very closely with Alysha, Vicky and Ceilidhe. We also worked with a few on the content writers. The Tangible Words team worked with many different members of our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have automated systems running, chat bots handling some of the work and marketing campaigns setup. Among other things.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We all worked remotely which worked well. We had very regular meetings and worked in a project management system to track tasks.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their passion, knowledge, and teamwork were amazing. Tangible Words has opened our eyes to many new and exciting things.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We had some miscommunications between our teams which created unnecessary work but we moved through these obstacles.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager for the tourism and recreation side of Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve. We have two divisions, which complement each other: tourism and forestry. We have a wolf center on site, and we run dogsledding during the winter. We have accommodations on site including a restaurant and lodging.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tangible Words?

We’ve had challenges in the past using various marketing companies that promised results but didn’t deliver. We were one of the best-kept secrets in all of Ontario, Canada. We weren’t great at marketing ourselves and doing it consistently. Our shareholders wanted to see growth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our relationship with Tangible Words had multiple tiers to it. The first thing that they did was to develop a new company website. It allowed us to have more up-to-date content and pictures, and it brought us into the digital age of online booking. It was a challenge to find an online system that would work for such a diverse company, but they found one that matches what we need almost entirely. Tangible Words built the site from scratch, including the backend system. They had to decrease the content we had while ensuring that the new one covered everything we offer.

We were so pleased with the website and technology that they brought us, that we decided to sign on with them afterward for the development of blogs, social media posts, and more. We started focusing on how to draw traffic to our site and get more bookings. They use HubSpot for our social media.

They saw a hole outside of the scope of the contract in how we marketed ourselves. We had all these pieces, but we never connected them to make it easy for customers to book. Tangible has recently created packages with us encompassing all the add-on pieces. Instead of just booking accommodations, customers can also get family fun passes. The aim was to earn more revenue from customers who were already coming to our reserve. We’re looking forward to seeing how this will perform.

How did you come to work with Tangible Words?

I met Alysha (Founder and CEO, Tangible Words) during the Ontario Highlands Tourism Summitt (OH! Summit). I did a workshop with Alysha, and I was quite impressed with what she had to say. I knew that the stakeholders at my organization wanted exactly what she was talking about. I appreciated the meetings she held with us to explain the process before signing on the dotted line and paying. It gave us the confidence to move forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

Their monthly fee is just above $3,000. Their services for the year cost $75,000, including the technology they hooked us up to—HubSpot and Checkfront.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the relationship in the spring of 2017 and launched the website in December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The fact that Tangible Words put our system together and made it look professional definitely helped. It hasn’t just saved us time and operating expenses, but it’s increased our bookings. Campsite bookings were a 100% phone-based system, and now they’re 80–90% online. Campsites that would’ve likely been empty are now full for the whole summer. This is the first time I’ve seen this in my nine years with the organization. The biggest benefits we’ve seen up to this point are online bookings and driving people to those bookings.

How did Tangible Words perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a great system in place, featuring reminders and constant emailing. They’ve been patient and professional and kept us organized. A huge hurdle on both sides was maintaining constant communication. They didn’t give up on us after not answering their emails.

We used to be inconsistent at maintaining our blog and social media, but now they have us well organized with the technologies and their team. They’ve created some outstanding blog content for us, and the call to action graphics they made are visually stunning.

Tangible Words’ strongest point is that they are a well-organized group. They use great tools, which make our work so much easier. They’ve trained me on these new technologies so I can use them in my everyday work as well. It’s easy for me to edit, approve, and move forward with projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m truly pleased with Tangible Words. They always hit the mark when they promise something. It’s outstanding to see the financial rewards of the work given that we’re not even a year into the project. Our name is getting out there, and people are booking. Our expectation was to increase our sales by $100,000 this year. The goal isn’t that high, and I think they’ll reach it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have a hard time with their social media posts when it comes to Facebook. Facebook seems to fall flat for us. This is partly because they’re using HubSpot, which doesn’t allow videos or multiple pictures; it’s confined to one picture per post. This said, the posts from the last week or two have driven quite a bit of traffic for us. We can communicate with them when we’re not happy about something.

The whole idea behind hiring Tangible Words was to decrease my workload, but I feel that the opposite is true because we’re at the beginning of the relationship and I have to feed them a lot of information. I hope that in the next year or two, they’ll be able to do things without me, and I’ll simply approve the work.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should be prepared for a tight, quick turnaround. It’s a matter of 1–2 weeks to get the ball rolling. If you’re going to jump on with Tangible Words, be ready for the ride; it’s going to go crazy, but in a good way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Quinte Economic. We're a regional economic development office, working on attracting new industries to our region and supporting our existing industrial base. We focus on the industrial food processing and technology sectors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tangible Words?

We were looking for a company to help us with strategy development and content marketing for our website and social media platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they assessed our customer base and the audience we were trying to target. Then, they developed a strategy and started producing content and other promotional items that we can use for our website, social media, blog, or give to the local media stations. We have regular meetings with them where we discuss the messages that we want to get out and work collaboratively to identify the topics and the local companies that showcase why investors should consider our region. We introduce Tangible Words to those companies when needed and they take over from there.

How did you come to work with them?

We met them at an economic conference where Alysha (Co-founder, Sales and Communications Specialist, Tangible Words) was speaking about content. I attended her workshop and many of the things she said resonated with my idea of content development. After several follow-up meetings, we realized that they would be a good match for our needs. We also bring them in for the projects that go beyond the scope of their work. For example, they helped us with a large labor market project for which we were doing a detailed report.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $15,000 a year, but that varies from year to year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2012 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They produce very strong content that is driving more traffic to our website, while our social media feed gets more hits. They did a lot of research to make sure they understand our industry and the sectors we focus on, so we were very pleased with that.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They're doing an excellent job and keep the information flowing. Sometimes, we're slow on our end, so Tangible Words has effectively helped us manage the workflow. They've provided us with an access to an online system where we can quickly make edits or leave our comments. We also get reminders through this system. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate that they help us get a strategy in place and give us fantastic content.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We're very pleased with the results we're getting from them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive VP at a consultancy that specializes in economic development. We primarily work with municipalities, regions, provinces, and states to identify ways to improve their economies. In particular, we help them position themselves to be attractive to new business investments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tangible Words?

We’ve developed four tools that are packaged solutions for our clients. By collecting unique local market intelligence on our clients’ behalf, we can use it to provide discrete services. This was our first foray into selling a packaged product that wasn’t a consulting service, so we needed a way to inform people about our new tools. As such, we approached Tangible Words to lead our inbound marketing campaign.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

From a strategic perspective, they helped us clarify our target markets by developing personas. These personas broke down our target market’s needs and showed us how well our tools addressed those needs. In essence, they’d helped us identify our competitive advantage and cemented our sales proposition.

In terms of execution, they’re helping us build a sales pipeline. It’s no longer a question of identifying leads; rather, it’s about following up appropriately. When we started the project, we didn’t have an internal sales structure and lacked a process to be proactive in the marketplace. Traditionally, we won work by reacting to calls for proposal, so we weren’t used to dealing with inbound marketing campaigns. Now, they’re working with us to improve our internal workflows so that we can respond to new opportunities. They also develop communications for our social media channels to reach our contact base.

What is the team composition?

I work with their two co-founders who specialize in sales/communications and inbound HubSpot campaigns respectively.

How did you come to work with Tangible Words?

I’ve known one of the co-founders for a number of years through our mutual network in economic development. I’ve seen her at conferences and know people who’ve worked with her company. Once we decided to pursue inbound marketing, I knew that I needed to talk to her.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $4,514–$5,266 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work began in January 2018 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re currently receiving a huge uptick in opportunities thanks to their marketing strategies. From their efforts, they’ve noticed a strong interest in our services and tools. As such, we’ve targeted that market and have quickly gotten to the point where we have to manage the number of incoming leads. It’s now our responsibility to close them.

How did Tangible Words perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve recognized some of the challenges that we’ve had and are working to make sure that we’re not missing out on opportunities. I communicate with their co-founders on a daily basis, and we have a good relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I can tell that they’re 100% committed to our success and are doing all that they can to ensure it. Even when the process doesn’t run as smoothly as we expect, they’re reactive to all of our concerns. No business relationship will ever go perfectly all the time, so it’s important to address problems as they come up. Tangible Words is responsive, and we always get the attention we need.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had a couple of concerns about some of the content they’ve written, but they’re dealing with that. We’ve been satisfied with their response to our issues over the past few months, so I wouldn’t highlight this as a negative. Rather, it’s part of the learning process when working with a client.