Victorious

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

 I do digital marketing for Zegrahm Expeditions, an adventure and travel company. Normally, I work with SEO, content planning, and strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

We were hoping to clean up the backend of our website to correct technical SEO issues. That would help us focus on high authority keywords that we were lacking compared to our competitors. We also wanted to build more backlinks to our site, using the most optimal anchor text.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the first few months of our partnership, they ran a technical audit. In that effort, they combed through the backend of our website, making SEO corrections and providing us with a list of things to fix on our end. Then, their team made a list of 50 high-authority keywords that we wanted to target, also selecting five core pages to most heavily optimize.

The pages we designated as most important were the ones we focused on for backlinking. So, every month, they built backlinks to those pages and sent organic signals through our site’s content. This information was reported to us in monthly strategy sessions.

They also created content for us that showcased the keywords we selected. In the beginning, they offered us a list of ideas for content and keywords, giving us the choice to write it ourselves. We ended up using their resources to generate blog posts for the site. In fact, we just signed a new contract with them that gives them all content writing responsibilities. Our new contracts with them take us all the way through 2021.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Ben (Senior Customer Success Manager, Victorious), Chad (Enterprise Account Executive, Victorious), and Kenny (SEO Strategist, Victorious). They have a pretty big support team, and their company recently added two additional people to it.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

They reached out to our company and did a free site audit for us. Then, they spoke to my previous marketing manager and went through a walkthrough of their technical processes. I liked what they had to say, so we signed with them.

How much have you invested with them?

Considering both our current spend and new content writing contract with them, we’ve spent a total of about $55,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a growth of a cumulative 503 positions among our 50 selected high-authority keywords. Two of our most popular keywords are on page one, in positions seven and nine, which is a huge improvement. Those keywords were both expedition-centered, which makes us more competitive in the expedition travel business. Additionally, since January, they’ve increased our first-page ranking keywords to 1,343 different keywords.

There’s been high growth in traffic and paid trips on many of our major destination pages. Pageviews are up 3300%, and the average growth of those pages since the start of our collaboration is about 3000%. We’ve also seen a 25% increase in goal completion, which includes the number of people requesting quotes, joining waitlists, downloading brochures, or calling in. 

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

They hit every deadline, often overshooting the targets we set for them. We’ve never had a single month with bad results from them. That’s due to their organization, timeliness, and the flexibility of their management team. They’ll provide suggestions, but really listen and make themselves open to our input.

Their reporting is really clear and easy to understand. They also share all their deliverables with us as they work. That way, we can look back at it later and extend it to our executive team as well. In their work, they report using SEMrush and Asana. Our team is encouraged to track their work and examine their various checkpoints.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Obviously, the results are very impressive, but the team is also commendable. They’re enjoyable to work with and capture amazing results. We can tell that they’re actually invested in the success of our company in the thoughtfulness of their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could do differently. They’ve been really flexible, which is why we’re signing an extended contract with them. Victorious satisfies us with their hard work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have clear goals in mind, but also make yourself open to suggestions. No matter what, they always have the customer’s best interests at heart, so it’s worth hearing what they have to say.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Digital Marketing Director and am responsible for SEO, SEM and all of our brand websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

SEO Services

What were your goals for this project?

We operate a seasonal business and, prior to our engagement with Victorious, the majority of our organic website traffic came from branded searches or people searching for very specific product models.

Our challenge to Victorious was to help us attract leads earlier in the buying cycle by increasing our visibility in broader product category searches.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed numerous vendors and also looked at industry rankings. We participated in the complimentary SEO audit offered by Victorious and were impressed by the level of detail and specific recommendations they provided in this process.

Describe the project in detail.

We knew that the backend of our site was not well-optimized for SEO, but didn't know where to start in terms of improving the visibility of our content. Additionally, we were getting organic traffic from "early funnel" shoppers who were researching overall product category.

This project aimed to fix out tech SEO issues as well as optimize content for key product categories.

What was the team composition?

We had an account manager who we spoke to frequently during the initial on-ramp period and when we were addressing issues found in our tech SEO audit. After this phase was complete, we had monthly calls with our account manager and they provide reporting to us on that call.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We wanted to pull in shoppers who may not have been familiar with our brand yet but were researching the overall product category. We saw positive and measurable results in six months.

At the beginning of the engagement, none of our target keyword phrases were on the first page of SERP and within 6 months we had numerous target keywords ranked in the top 5 positions of SERP and over 20 category-level search terms on the first page of SERP. More important than just visibility, the program drew qualified traffic to our site.

While we do not sell direct to consumers, we are able to track leads. Looking just at traffic from Organic sources, we saw a 40% lift in leads to our ecommerce partners and a 60% lift in leads to our buy local dealers over the same period the prior year (due to the seasonal nature of our sales it is important for us to compare like months).

Our program with Victorious included technical SEO and link building; we were able to uncover and resolve many structural faults in our site as well as develop a strategy to promote our target search terms. The Victorious team is attentive, thorough, and skilled at what they do.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Victorious has a very defined process for working their clients and I appreciated the discipline they imposed on the project. They kept us accountable for our side of the project and reported regularly on their deliverables. The Asana tool was helpful in keeping tabs on the tech s

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their industry knowledge and defined process set this company apart.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Small matter, but I wish the account manager would have emailed me the monthly reports. I sometimes found myself hunting for the Google drive link to review past report data.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager at Simco Restaurants, which operates four restaurants and one coffee shop.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

We hired Victorious to improve our online presence and drive more business through SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Victorious started by conducting a crawl of our website and correcting some of the gaps we had in SEO. We had no SEO strategy beforehand, so we rely on them to research keywords and write relevant blog posts. They also secure two links per month for each restaurant.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with just two people, but they have a larger team behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

I found them through a Google search of the top firms in San Francisco. We wanted to improve our local search results because San Francisco is a competitive SEO environment, and the SEO firm at the top of the results seemed like a logical partner. We met with Pete (Sales Director, Victorious) and thought they’d be a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $20,000.  

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in August 2018 and remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have seen increases across the board in organic traffic, clicks, keyword positioning, organic phone calls, and organic group reservations. The results have been outstanding.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly communicate through emails and Asana, but we also have monthly calls to go over our data. They’re always mindful of our deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They gave us confidence in their abilities, and they’ve had excellent customer service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been awesome. We’ve had no issues so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep open channels of communication and ask the right questions so that you learn about all of the nuances of SEO. The better you understand the results in the recap meetings, the more you will know about what you’ve accomplished and where you’re headed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing director at a leading designer and manufacturer of custom home building materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

We were trying to increase the rankings for our website on search engines, primarily Google, for specific keywords.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Victorious features a comprehensive SEO program. They conducted various site audits and made technical reconfiguration suggestions, along with on-site optimization work. They devised our strategies from scratch by taking into account our objectives and the specific pages we wanted to work with and optimize.

What is the team composition?

I work with two people. I have an account rep, and the other person is her supervisor.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

I think one of their sales representatives reached out to us. We were already doing some internet research, so we checked out their reviews, as well. We were comfortable with their abilities, so we decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $3,400 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in March 2019 and remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our site speed has increased, so our ranking in that regard has gone up, but I haven’t seen a significant shift in the other metrics yet. There are still quite a few technological matters we have to iron out, so we are delegating those tasks between Victorious and a third-party web developer.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very organized and detailed. They use Asana to track all of their work, and they have a structured outline of deliverables each month. Victorious has a good project management system in place.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like the fact that they focus exclusively on SEO. We’ve worked with other companies in the past that stretch themselves too thin by building websites, doing SEO, and having a host of other responsibilities. I find that those companies don’t always have the best tactics or understanding of how SEO works. Victorious, however, has made some valuable insights and contributions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We do not see results yet, but I think that’s more because we have additional foundational work still to do first. It has been a challenge to coordinate things with them and a separate web development team, but I can’t blame Victorious for that. It’s just a matter of doing several things at once.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Future clients should be prepared to follow through on Victorious’ suggestions. They can be very worthwhile in helping address specific needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a digital media strategist and SEO manager for a digital commerce solution provider. We enable digital businesses to sell online, but we only work with digital goods, not physical ones. We handle software, games, e-books, videos, over-the-top media services, and so on.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

We have a small in-house marketing team that consists of about nine people. To this point, we’ve done all of our SEO in-house, but we were recently acquired and set loftier goals for ourselves. We needed an SEO partner that could help with our current strategy and expand our research and technical optimizations. We hired Victorious to be an extension of our team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on Victorious to conduct keyword research by looking into markets and verticals that we had traction in but had been unable to make movements in the way we would have liked. We gave them the keywords we were targeting, but, based on the initial discovery phase, we also asked them to suggest keywords that we hadn’t considered. They also helped migrate our blog from HubSpot to our own domain. Additionally, they worked on our site crawls and site optimizations, changing our meta descriptions and title tags and building out a strategy for particular themes we were going after.

What is the team composition?

Sydney (Customer Success Manager, Victorious) is our project manager and primary point of contact. We also work closely with Kyle (Customer Success Director, Victorious) and a technical analyst and strategist.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

Our VP had worked with them at her previous company, and she loved their work.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost so far is over $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our collaboration with Victorious began in August 2018 and remains ongoing. We plan to extend our contract with them at the end of July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since our blog migration, we’ve seen a considerable increase in impressions of our domain. Thanks to their help with our strategy, we’ve experienced an almost threefold increase in non-branded clicks, not just impressions. We had a 6–7% click-through rate when we started with them, but 21% of our organic traffic now comes from non-branded clicks.

Furthermore, we’ve decreased our invalid organic leads by dropping off desensitizing, non-relevant queries and directing them to better transactional pages. We’ve saved our sales team a lot of heartache by producing more relevant leads more frequently and ridding ourselves of false leads.  

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

 “E-commerce” is a relatively broad term, and people generally think about physical goods, but there’s a much larger spectrum of possibilities. We only deal with downloadable products. We had a few hiccups in communication in the beginning, but our project manager was quick to shift people around who would perform better for us.

We use Asana for project management, and we also communicate via phone, email, Google Hangouts, and Zoom meetings. Because we are in Santa Barbara, California, we can also easily visit them in San Francisco.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve developed a strong, collaborative partnership, and we’ve been able to learn a lot from each other. We’ve worked with other agencies before, and people can get ahead of themselves. This is what we do. We drink, eat, and sleep this all day, and we understand our business. Victorious has been considerate of that fact. They adjusted their strategy to our niche market.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would suggest that they understand our business more, but I would say that about anyone. I’ve been with the company for four years, and it took me a long time to learn the business. It would be misleading for me to say that they need more knowledge of our business, given that it’s a very niche market.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If those future clients already have a working knowledge of SEO, I’d suggesting outlining what has or has not worked so far. They should have their KPIs mapped out so Victorious understands what they’re working with. If those clients don’t have much background with SEO, I’d recommend listening to Victorious’ guidance because they’ve got an outstanding team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of Oji Vape, a vaping wholesaler and hardware manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

I hired Victorious to manage our SEO campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Victorious assigned me a project manager, and we went through the process of keyword research together. He asked me to identify which terms worked and which didn’t. Once we had the keyword strategy in place, Victorious talked up the importance of having more relevant content on our pages. They added that information and placed more links on specific pages. I quickly gathered that Victorious doesn’t have a cookie-cutter process. Everything seemed tailored for us.

What is the team composition?

I work with a project manager and four other people.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

Coincidentally, we once worked across the street from each other, but I didn’t know that until after we relocated our office. I wanted to work with a local SEO firm because we had trouble communicating and getting good results from offshore companies in the past. I read through the goals Victorious has on its site, and I spoke with their customer service manager. I met with a few other companies, as well, but Victorious seemed like the right fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $42,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2018, and our project remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I went from ranking for very few keywords to more than 100 now. Additionally, our online sales have grown since we started working with Victorious. We used to rely on different types of leads, but the website upgrades and enhanced SEO strategy have created an extra revenue stream.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very organized. I appreciate their transparency regarding their process and the results because we haven’t always been afforded that kind of honesty from offshore companies. Victorious provides timely updates and roadmaps for the next steps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Victorious has gone above and beyond to provide exceptional service. They are on top of all of their responsibilities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ve worked well together. I plan to continue working with them because the results are phenomenal.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s essential to have an idea of what your goals are and what pages and products you want to drive. The sooner you have that, the more you’ll get out of the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Stitch Labs is a B2B company that provides inventory management software for high-growth brands. As the digital marketing manager, I oversee many aspects of the digital funnel, including SEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

We hired Victorious because we were seeing a decline in organic traffic, while our competitors were growing in comparison. They helped us recover that traffic and grow the channel.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We signed a twelve-month agreement that was divided into two six-month periods. 

During the initial discussions, we spent a lot of time strategizing. They met with us to understand our goals, specific requirements, and target customers before devising a content-based SEO strategy to get us through the first months. They also ran a technical audit, making recommendations to improve our site speed and scalability. 

Most of the onus was on us to implement their strategy and recommendations. We had to prioritize our efforts in-house to make sure that we allocated the adequate resources to be successful, which involved producing content and executing technical fixes.

At the six-month point, we had a meeting to reevaluate our strategy. They sought to understand how our business had evolved, checking if our goals had shifted and adjusting our content strategy based on that. As we wrote new content, Victorious would deliver high-quality links to our site in addition to conducting periodical technical audits.

What is the team composition? 

I regularly communicated with Alwin Wong (Customer Success Manager, Victorious). There was also an SEO expert assigned to our case, though I didn’t interact with that person much. Victorious tries to keep their resources consistent so that they don’t have to retrain people on particular business profiles.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

Our former VP of Marketing found them.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our contract lasted from May 2018–May 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had built-in benchmarks throughout the engagement to keep us on track, however, this was largely driven by our internal team’s ability to execute Victorious’ strategies. So, if we couldn’t uphold our part of the plan, they couldn’t meet their key performance indicators (KPIs).

Within the first six months, we were instrumental in driving a 20% increase in organic traffic based on the data from the trailing 12 months prior. We expected that number to go up to 50% by the end of the contract, but we were not able to dedicate the same level of attention and did not see that return.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management had some room for growth. When they devised their SEO strategies in the beginning, they were very hands-on and provided a comprehensive plan to move us forward.

From there, we’d have monthly video conference meetings to go over a slide deck, review our performance, and look at the metrics.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We gained a lot of knowledge about SEO strategy by working with Victorious. Working with Victorious was an extremely valuable learning experience; it was a way for us to get our bearings, and we learned a lot about SEO best practices. Eventually, we decided to hire an internal SEO strategist to optimize our efforts.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve liked a more hands-on relationship that focused more on accountability, especially when I realized that our team’s effort was so incredibly impactful in how successful Victorious’ metrics would be. In the last six months, we were unable to deliver due to internal bandwidth and suffered as a result.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Anyone who’s considering working with Victorious should be prepared to invest the in-house resources needed. If you don’t have the bandwidth to execute on their recommendations, you won’t see the ROI that you’re looking for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of the company. Our company provides a search engine for social networks. I am responsible for marketing and operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

Our company underwent a huge setback when we lost our domain due to an error, we had to start regaining our traffic from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

To recuperate the lost traffic.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Found it on Google, shopped around but they seemed to be the most capable.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They were able to regain 60-70% of our traffic within a few weeks, and we are in the process of surpassing traffic and revenue we had before we lost the domain. They went above and beyond to provide solutions for the long term problem as well as the immediate fixes we required to regain our footing. It was truly a whirlwind situation we couldn't have gotten through without them.

What was the team composition?

We have direct contact with our account manager and at some points during the process the leadership team, however behind the scenes there is a lot happening that we only see in results.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This is an easy answer, we went from having a steady revenue of say $100, to practically $0 in the blink of an eye, we had 0 new traffic.. Within a few days we went back to say $40, within a couple months we were back at $60, and in a few months at the same steady growth we will be at around $140.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management from Victorious is very straightforward, they tell you what they're gonna do, they do it, then they tell you what they did and what it accomplished. We haven't missed a date or report, it's a basic turnkey situation.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to attend an emergency situation that they didn't cause themselves.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It could be considered pricy by the standard of someone who might not be sure what kind of return they would get. That was our case. They've definitely earned their pay and then some, but committing to adding that cost to your project does take a leap of faith.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of online marketing for a telecommunications company. We provide IP- and cloud-based services for small, medium-sized and enterprise level business (SMEs).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

We hired Victorious to help improve our organic site traffic and conversions for critically-important demand generation. This effort supplements our paid media, search engine marketing (SEM), and social marketing programs. It’s a valuable part of our overall revenue growth for direct sales.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to revisit our targeted keywords to improve rankings, quality of traffic, and on-site conversions into the demand funnel.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After evaluating 3-4 other agencies, we selected Victorious based on a referral from a reliable peer and their demonstrated past performance.  They had a set process in place and strategic approach to their work. Another factor in our decision was their focus on SEO work over other aspects of marketing.

Describe the project in detail.

Initially, Victorious conducted a keyword analysis. They created back-links and offered recommendations for on-page and off-page SEO content. The team provided technical site audits, recommendations, and development. Lastly, they supported site migration.

What was the team composition?

An account manager handles most of the planning, project management, and action item follow-up. They also assigned us a senior SEO specialist. The team of resources includes specialists for each type of SEO work, including content, links, and analysis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any statistics or metrics that speak to the quality of their work and impact of the engagement?

Victorious has excellent process and takes a proven approach to SEO. They increased organic traffic multi-fold and tapped into new techniques we had never used before in the past. 

Overall, Victorious has been a valuable part of our team. They work well with our internal resources who are also devoted to SEO and other online efforts to drive growth.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

Victorious has an easy-to-use project management method and excels at following up. Action items always get taken care of. They’re flexible about making adjustments depending on new discoveries, needs, and opportunities.

What impresses you about Victorious?

I am most impressed by their performance improvements, efficiency of work, knowledge, and SEO skills. They have the right level of flexibility to adapt and modify as needed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are no significant areas to improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the marketing strategy manager for a sustainability SaaS company. I lead multiple corporate initiatives such as marketing strategy, demand generation, campaign management, go-to-market activities, and analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

We need help to improve our link-building program.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase the number of new backlinks and diversify our keyword portfolio. The overall goal was to increase our organic web traffic and leads, especially for our new and existing software products.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found them during an online search for an SEO firm. What really drew us was their track record in improving results for other tech and SaaS companies.

Describe the project in detail.

They focus on optimizing our keywords and link-building efforts to acquire new leads and customers. We started with a series of meetings to go over the entire campaign lifecycle – from SEO planning and execution to KPI tracking and analytics reporting. The team performed a detailed SEO audit that helped us uncover underperforming areas. They also provided us with an organized list of keywords to target, along with recommendations on what website and landing pages to optimize for search engine marketing.

What was the team composition?

We worked with an account manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any statistics or metrics that speak to the quality of their work and impact of the engagement?

Victorious helped improve and maintain our search rankings for some of our most valuable keywords. Additionally, since partnering with them, our organic search traffic has increased by over 65%. Our backlinks have increased, directly impacting our website and lead generation growth.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

Our account manager, who continuously delivered on our campaigns, showed a high level of expertise and professionalism throughout the engagement.

What impresses you about Victorious?

Their data-driven approach to SEO has given us detailed insight on our program. They have helped us make better content marketing decisions using their data.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, we’re very satisfied.