WOB Studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Marketing for a tour operator specialising in educational trips for schools to destinations in the UK and abroad. We work with schools based all around the UK and internationally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We started working with Cabana in August 2021. After a difficult couple of years for our industry, we wanted to ensure that when travel restarted our search visibility was in a strong position to help the business capitalise on the surge in demand when confidence in travel returned.

SOLUTION

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

We knew that Cabana had experience working within our sector previously and we had seen the results they had achieved for other brands in the travel industry. After an initial meeting and proposal, we felt really confident that Cabana could help us to achieve the ambitious goals we had set.

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

Initially Sam and his team did a technical and content review, which identified issues or opportunities they had found and gave detailed recommendations on how to fix or optimise the content. From there we worked through the tasks collaboratively with Sam and his team getting feedback on the recommendations we had implemented ourselves. We receive monthly reports showing KPIs, what tasks have been completed, what they're planning to work on in the following month and any new recommendations they want to test.

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

We have worked almost exclusively with Sam. He's been fantastic, we knew he had experience within our industry previously and so this was one of the deciding factors in choosing to work with Cabana.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started working with Cabana, our search visibility has steadily increased from 18% to 28% and we now have over 100 keywords ranking positions 1-3, which put us in a fantastic position when confidence in international travel started to return in the spring. We’ve seen record sales over the past 3 months with sales 20% up on pe-pandemic levels, which our SEO efforts have contributed to hugely.

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

Most of our communication has been through email or via video call. They are always quick to reply and answer any queries we have, even if it’s not related specifically to our SEO work. The videos in the reports are a great addition, especially when sharing our progress with other stakeholders within the company.

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

The consistent results we're seeing speak for themselves. Working with the same person continuously has also been a really refreshing change. You’re not passed around to different members of staff like you are when you work with larger agencies.

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

I can't think of any suggestions for improvement. Really professional company and we look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a digital marketing executive at Gerald Edelman. We’re a mid-sized accountancy firm based in London. We provide a range of services, including deal advisories, transaction services, and asset management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were very new to SEO and PPC and we needed an agency to provide us with the guidance to get started and grow our knowledge and understanding of the area.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, Cabana handled most of the SEO work. They reviewed our website and provided a technical report highlighting their recommendations on how we can improve our ranking position. From there, we worked collaboratively in building landing pages, creating backlinks, and conducting blogger outreach — they even trained us how to do these activities on our own.

Following this, they also gave us a lot of guidance in managing our paid advertising efforts, specifically with using Google Ads. They walked us through the platform and shared tutorial videos on how to improve the performance of our ad campaigns and keep track of them. We’re actually about to launch a new PPC campaign soon.

What is the team composition?

We work mainly with Sam (Co-Founder), but we’ve also met some of the key members of their team.

How did you come to work with Cabana?

We found them online. After reading through their initial proposal, we were so impressed — they really seemed like the best partner for this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £12,000 (approximately $16,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2020, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a massive increase in website visits, traffic, and engagement. As for our PPC efforts, we’ve received a good amount of inquiries and have generated a substantial amount of business, which is fantastic to see.

How did Cabana perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great in terms of project management. They provide us with monthly reports, use Google Sheets to keep tasks on track, and hold regular catchups to ensure that we're always on the same page. They’re very easy to reach, too — we can always send them questions and concerns on anything about the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been impressed with the knowledge and guidance that they’ve provided. They’re always there to support us and point us in the right direction about anything that we aren’t sure about.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

They can make the entire process more seamless by liaising regularly with our development team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask as many questions as you can and listen to them — they’ve always pointed us in the right direction.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager at There Be Giants which is an international Objectives and Key Results (OKR) agency. It basically means that we are a global consultancy that enables businesses to work more effectively. We help companies set up a framework that not only aligns them with their growth or innovation goals, but also brings their internal teams together to work in one direction.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cabana?

We have a website that's a little bit old and hadn’t been looked after too well. Pages have been added to it over time so it has become rather haphazard. As we started to work with bigger corporate companies, we’ve begun to feel that we might need a much more professional and polished website. We’ve always used quite an informal tone and approach on the site, so we worked with Cabana to change this.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cabana has created a lead-generating website that aligns well with our activities such as HubSpot linking, gated content downloads, and booking of calls. Before, it was more of a brochure site and didn’t do much to attract customers, but their team has helped us make it more professional and easy to navigate while keeping its friendly tone. 

What is the team composition?

We mostly worked with Jakub (Co-Founder) who is the managing director at Cabana.

How did you come to work with Cabana?

They were referred to us. The project manager and designer of the third-party agency we’d been working with had their website built by Cabana. I think the project has worked out well for us because of Cabana’s initial relationship with the other agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve paid £5,000 (approximately $7,000 USD) for the website which, to be honest, was a really good deal. The development work we got for that price is excellent. 

What is the status of this engagement?

It started around June 2020. The website went live in October 2021 and they have since been doing monthly maintenance for it. They have done several side projects for us since then as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from our corporate clients. Our brand stands out among other OKR consultancies whose websites have a very corporate look and feel. 

In terms of numbers and figures, the bounce rate has dropped on the website, and we now get a lot more regular downloads. It is hard to credit that to the website alone, though, because we had also invested in SEO. However, the website does look great and we are really happy with it.

How did Cabana perform from a project management standpoint?

They are the best development agency I’ve ever worked with. Cabana gets back to us really quickly and is really helpful. They don’t try to put a cost on everything, but will instead try to include it in the maintenance package where they can. I don’t have anything bad to say about them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say that their communication is really spot on and that they are very willing to find a solution. I’ve worked with a lot of web maintenance companies who will just literally do the basics, whereas Cabana will come to us each month and give recommendations for what we can improve on the site. We are really pleased with them.

We can always go to them for a problem and they will be sure to do their own research to find an answer. They’ve really done the legwork for us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t really think of anything at the moment because they’ve gone above and beyond what other web agencies have done for us in the past. I am really, really happy with their service. The only thing I suppose they could do is to give us formal reporting on a monthly basis, but it’s not really needed by us at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be open with the team, and they will push forward with you. Let them find a solution and be willing to share as much as you are comfortable sharing with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and director of a property development investment agency. We’re a real estate firm that focuses on selling off-plan developments on behalf of UK property home builders. We effectively offer a sales and marketing service to sell properties that are currently being built in the UK to investors worldwide. Therefore, we need to advertise the market to these investors to get them interested in the products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cabana?

We were trying to generate interest for the property development that we were advertising, so we focused on using Cabana’s expertise across Facebook, Google, and so on to generate leads and interest at a reasonable cost.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their services include PPC and Google Ads. Cabana has managed an SEO campaign for over a year, which requires various tasks and activities that they report every month. They’ve done extensive on-site optimization across multiple pages and added keywords to boost up existing pages. Also, they’ve done writing and structuring to the rest of the site.

Moreover, Cabana consistently does off-site optimization; they build backlinks, link outreach, and liaisons with third parties to get our brand name out there. They also transcribe our podcast, do blogger outreach, analyze competitors, plan the general strategy, audit all content and activities, and monitor performance.

What is the team composition?

Sam (Co-Founder) is my main point of contact, and we work with a web developer.

How did you come to work with Cabana?

I posted on Upwork, and Sam reached out to me. We had an initial conversation, and it went from there. I chose Cabana because they were able to demonstrate expertise and a good record in that specific sector. Secondly, they did an audit of our current activity and displayed relevant skills and knowledge, which showed that they knew what they were doing. They also had a fantastic value for money, which is why we’ve used them for multiple services and why they’re our longest supplier by far. Finally, it’s just nice to have one point of contact to have all the services under one roof.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay about £14,000 (approximately $19,000 USD) a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in April 2020, and it’ll hopefully continue for a lot more.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of Facebook, Google Ads, and PPC, everything is number-based. For Google Ads and PPC, we look at conversions, cost per lead, impressions, conversion rate, click-through rates, the average cost per click, and the backend deals produced from the marketing activity.

Facebook metrics are slightly different, but they have a similar principle. We have the cost per lead, amount of clicks on the answer, conversion rate, and more. The volume of leads is measured across all channels.

Lastly, we have the keyword rankings for a specific niche, conversions, and sessions — how often people visit the site, what’s taking place, and by which users.

How did Cabana perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s easy to get on with them. When they communicate, they explain in detail and in a simple way for us to understand. 90% of our communication is via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Firstly, their fees have been fair and haven’t increased dramatically. Secondly, they’ve produced actual positive results over this timeframe, which is why we’ve stayed with them. Finally, it’s great to have a lot of services under one roof.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, Cabana is faster at responding than 90% of other agencies, but we move in a fast-paced industry, so I like to get prompt responses. Due to the nature of their work, they probably have to research something or look into the account before they’re able to move ahead, but if I had to improve one thing, I would like slightly quicker response times.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear and transparent about your objectives. Make sure you’re upfront about what you want to achieve, how much you want to spend, and what is success to you. Then, Cabana can tell you how they can help you, how fast they can be, how realistic it is, and how much it’s going to cost.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and director of Alternate Experiences. We provide games and gamification services to create better experiences in the B2B space.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cabana?

We initially approached Cabana to ensure we were taking optimum advantage of online advertising opportunities for our new virtual team-building products. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cabana focuses on our PPC and Google Ads campaigns, and they’ve taken on a number of online team-building-focused tasks. Their work has branched off to various projects, but the bulk of it is related to team building. Over time, they’ve also conducted new PPC campaigns that focus on face-to-face team-building programs. Meanwhile, their main deliverables are leads that should then convert into bookings for our games. 

Cabana also helps us with our marketing strategies. They survey the market and consider how we can grow our offerings beyond the company’s usual products and into broader gamification services. On top of that, their team has built a new website on WordPress for us, which also reflects our broader service offerings.

What is the team composition?

I work with their three co-founders and directors, including Jakub (Managing Director), who focuses on website development, and Sam (Co-Founder), who focuses on PPC work. We also interact with Ricardo (Operations Director), but he’s been less involved in the actual delivery of the projects. 

How did you come to work with Cabana?

I was a part of a certain WhatsApp group while I was with another business. I put a message there and asked whether anyone could help me with website development and online advertising, particularly PPC. Cabana responded to that inquiry. At that time, they were outside of my price range for the website development project. However, they were within my range for the PPC work, and that was initially why we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £7,000 (approximately $10,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2020, and the partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Measuring the success of Cabana’s PPC work is easy because we can clearly see how many leads are coming to us and how much conversion is occurring. Meanwhile, our goal is to increase our lead generation rate across a range of services, so any success around that is difficult to attribute to their web development work; we simply hope the professional-looking website and its features can generate more interest in our company. 

However, we’ve had more conversions and leads in certain service areas. Some leads haven’t converted yet, but conversions have certainly gone faster than in the past. It’s possible that Cabana’s work on our website and digital strategy has contributed to this improved performance. 

How did Cabana perform from a project management standpoint?

For project management, Cabana performs reasonably well. They’re a bit stretched when facing a deadline, and the project occasionally drifts. Some tasks take a bit longer than I expect, but it’s probably because of the other projects they have. This reflects the size of their company. 

Likewise, it’s difficult for our firm to cover any project management function; I don’t have dedicated managers, so project management is often neglected. That being said, this is reflective of how busy Cabana is in doing actual work as much as managing the project. 

In terms of tools, they use Google Data Studio to present reports. They’ve also used Figma to map out different ideas around our customers’ journey on the website. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their most impressive quality is their openness and transparency, and they don’t pretend that they’re doing rocket science — their resources simply focus on being good at what they do. For comparison, other agencies promise wealth but don’t deliver. Personally, I’d rather work with an agency that’s honest and open. Ultimately, Cabana has helped us improve our marketing ROI. They’re also transparent about the challenges that we face. Because of that, I enjoy working with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Keep an eye out around timelines, especially for larger projects. Make sure that everyone is aligned around such timeframes. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and honest with the Cabana team, and recognize their skill sets. If you do that, they’ll also be highly open and honest with you in return. Moreover, if you’re looking for a solid and dependable marketing agency, Cabana is the right company to approach. They’re data-driven in everything they do. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Partner of a law firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Cabana to improve our SEO and website generally. We wanted to generate more client enquires.

SOLUTION

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

We looked at how Cabana's own website ranked and liked their approach.

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

The work is a ongoing SEO project with monthly reports and check-ins. It has also incorporated a complete website re-design and wider marketing efforts.

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

Roughly 5, mainly the founders and directors.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our rankings have greatly improved and for the first time last month we generated more than 200 new client enquires.

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

We have monthly meetings pre-empted by a written report. They are very approachable, responsive and easy to deal with.

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

We feel that Cabana know what they're talking about without being preachy or overly prescriptive. They have helped us to grown our enquires organically without pushing PPC or other more expensive marketing routes. We feel that they understand our business and are working hard to achieve our goals.

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

Not that I can think of.