XploraBG

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Manager of KER TOKI POWER

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Toki.bg is the first fully digital platform for providing electricity services in Bulgaria. With flexible offers, exceptional customer service, and a commitment to sustainability, TOKI is the perfect partner for any company looking to optimize its energy usage and costs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire XploraBG to accomplish?

• Optimize performance marketing
• Improve analyses
• Improve social media presence

SOLUTION

How did you find XploraBG?

Referral

Why did you select XploraBG over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

What was the size of XploraBG’s team?

6-10 Employees

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

Goals: We wanted to create more awareness for TOKI and support the positioning of our company. And yet, we are results-oriented. Therefore, the priority for us in this project was to increase the number of leads and the opportunity to expand customer aqusition. The KPIs for the campaign: 

• Number of site visitors/cost per visitor for the period 
• Number of contracts generated online/cost per contract 
• Number of inquiries received/price per inquiry - via the web forms and by phone 

Target audience: Small and medium business owners and managers and local entrepreneurs 

Deliverables: 

• digital campaign strategy 
• creative concept and production of necessary materials 
• landing page content instruction 
• initial settings, including conversion tracking 
• campaign management 
• reports and analyses

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• We have a significant improvement in the cost of acquisition for new clients and a much better reporting of digital campaigns' results.

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

Always on time and really quick to adapt. Due to industry turbulences, we've had to either hold off some campaigns, rush others or change course completely. The XploraBG team's commitment and ability to react are integral to our effort to stay on top of the market situation and deliver the right offers and messages at all times.

What was your primary form of communication with XploraBG?

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

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

The ease of communication with the team and the fact that we can always rely on them for professional advice and direction, even beyond the scope of a specific project.

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

I can't say I would change anything so far.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Sr. Integrated Marketing Manager for Industry and Sustainability at Microsoft CEE

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire XploraBG?

There was a business need of an experienced agency to create a strategy and boost Microsoft presence in social media for Bulgaria.

SOLUTION

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

We organised a pitch and invited 5 agencies with proven track record on the market. Explora were the distinct winner with clear vision and strategy on our business for the next 12 months, marketing view on what is realistic to be achieved in terms of KPIs, timely proposal and great presentation during the pitch. Reasonable agency fee and experienced team was another advantage.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Explora handled Microsoft Bulgaria social media from day one as their own with professionalism and right digital approach. The forecasts were overdelivered in the first 3 months in terms of traffic, reach and views. Promos of events and other activities which came ad hoc were also blended into the initial strategy and constant ideas were proposed on how to upgrade our social media presence. Reporting and analysis were provided on a monthly basis with clear call to action points.

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

We worked closely with a team of 3 to 4 people.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Traffick, reach, views, clicks were doubled in the first Q and all KPIs were overachieved in the end of the fiscal year.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Extremely effective and efficient team. Apart from the written communication and monthly reporting we were on a daily chats and calls. We loved the human approach and proactiveness of the whole team.

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

Know their business very well, digital is in their DNA:) Very quick and proactive. Flexible.

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

There is always area of improvement, but they are open to constructive feedback which is great!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Easy Asset Management, well known as Easy Credit is a non banking financial company, leader in Bulgarian market with around 40% market share. My name is Silviya Alexandrova, and I am responsible for Marketing as of October 2015.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Xplora back in 2016 to create digital strategy for Easy Credit and to manage online budgets. The goals were to make the company more visible in online market, increase online leads.

SOLUTION

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

We did have tender, and knowledge, strategy proposed, clients approach were the main factors to chose Xplora.

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

One of the best agencies, I have ever work with. Yearly strategy, weekly even daily tracking of the KPs set,

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

Account, Social media expert, Google expert

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All necessary tracking tools were set, strategy followed, leads increased in times. Increased number of fans o social media, engaged with a lot of posts, shares, reactions

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had in person meetings every month, and phone calls every week. If needed we were always welcome.

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

The way they are working with clients, clear, detailed strategy, friendly staff, if they find room for improving, they always ask for it. I liked that they were constantly improving their services.

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

I cannot say that something is missing, they always surprised me with added services to their clients.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Heating, cooling, ventilating: Viessmann creates living spaces that meet the very highest standards. This applies to comfort as well as to climate protection and efficiency. Our range of heating and climate technologies in the Climate Solutions business area sets the standards in the industry.

I operate as a sales service manager for the Viessmann subsidiary in Bulgaria. I am also responsible for the marketing strategy, advertising and communication activities of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for a long term partnership with a reliable, creative and high professional team in order to develop together our marketing strategy, apply our digital marketing activities and online campaigns in the best way in order to meet the end customer needs in the field of heating and cooling solutions for their homes.

Specifically, we needed support for creating new content, SEO and PPC/Paid social services to help with brand awareness and lead generation.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed 5 digital agencies looking for 5 important characteristics:

1. Willingness to work to build a long term partnership
2. Result driven approach
3. Creativity and innovation, backed with evidence
4. Reliability
5. Flexibility and short response time Xplora understood in the best way our goals and specific business processes.

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

First, we started our partnership with the management of a lead generating and awareness campaign for heat pumps (a very expensive solution for heating and cooling with limited market share). The impressive results of the campaign and the significant increase in inquiries from homeowners convinced us to choose Xplora as our partner for the full range of digital marketing services.

In the next 5 years Xplora supported us by developing and improving our marketing strategy including media plan and online campaign optimizations based on real user behavior, lead generation campaigns, social media channels, creating of emotion driven visual and video content, landing page optimisation, live chat integration, analysis and consolidation of findings etc.

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

I work directly with the Account Director, the Social Media Team, the Team Lead Google Performance and Content & Creative specialist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Year over year, the overall lead generation has increased several times since we started working with Xplora. We have also seen an increase in traffic from AdWords and other paid media. Constant growth of our audiences and very good results in terms of CTR and budget efficiency.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication is very easy, comfortable and seamless. They have very short responsive time and strictly observe deadlines. All the conversations are productive and I genuinely feel like they understand our business and want to help. We meet regularly to discuss the ongoing activities and analyse the results, then we plan the next steps, changes if needed and upcoming tasks. I would say the communication process is very effective.

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

Тhe most impressive thing is how quickly and accurately they understood what we really needed and proposed a suitable action plan based on their vast experience and on real user behavior data.They also proactively propose new solutions to improve our services, for example a live chat tool for better customer service from our site, new opportunities to reach our audience. Тhey are well-organized, goal-oriented, and flexible to meet the challenges. And last but not least I appreciate very much their human approach and the really successful partnership during the years.

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

I can only recommend them to keep doing their job this way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire XploraBG?

We wanted to do an audit of our marketing tools to understand whether or not we are tracking everything correctly. Together with that, we were looking for ideas on how and what to do to increase the conversion rate of ticket purchases for our annual event.

SOLUTION

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

The team at Xplora very quickly pinpointed some major issues in our "infrastructure" as they call it. Because of that we were not able to track conversion correctly thus we didn't have a clear picture of what and how successful we are. What's more, the team at Xplora created a strategy for us / series of campaigns / that we were able to execute afterwards.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Xplora first did an audit of our tools. Once everything was set correctly (they have given us the instructions for this and audited it again), we moved on to discuss what audiences we should market to and how. The team there created a very comprehensive plan on what needs to be done and how that was later on executed by our internal marketing department.

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

I am not sure about the exact number but easily there were at least 3 people involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We weren't able to do as much as we needed because we were very limited on time. We had just a week or so to experiment with Xplora's strategy. However, I am sure that if we had to do a deeper dive and spend more time and resources there, the results would have been there.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Absolutely flawless.

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

That the team looked at marketing efforts as something that drives business strategy and true business results.

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

No. We just needed more time. We engaged them too late.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Eurasia communication director for AES, a Fortune 500 global energy company. Our main focus is accelerating the future of energy with our customers by offering greener and smarter energy solutions, which the world needs a lot at this particular moment. We operate in 14 countries around the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with XploraBG?

We wanted to reflect the market, and with the decline of the popularity of traditional media, we needed to switch to social media to be in more active dialogue with our customers. We started a discussion on how we could optimize our social media channels to better reflect what we were doing, boost the narrative with our customers and stakeholders, and gain more exposure.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

XploraBG helps us with social media marketing (SMM) through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They’re focused on helping us achieve our predefined metrics for social media presence. At the start of the year, we set KPIs for the rest of the year to measure where we are and what we’d like to achieve. 

Based on those measurements, we discuss with XploraBG what can be done, what new channels we can leverage throughout this period, and how to achieve the KPIs. Then, the team works with another provider of ours that is focused on the communication side. They collaborate to create assets that will drive more engagement in terms of content, structure, and format. We’ve implemented new post formats to see how they work, such as video narratives. Our other provider is the one that then publishes the content. 

Meanwhile, XploraBG monitors our social media statistics. They help us optimize our reach and enable us to provide the newest content to our predefined key target groups. We continue exploring new wares of improvement and target areas with them.

What is the team composition?

Usually, I deal with an account manager. However, when I want to change something strategic or explore new opportunities, I contact one of XploraBG’s managing partners.

How did you come to work with XploraBG?

I asked for agency references from colleagues working in the Bulgarian market. Based on these references, I shortlisted a number of companies, and XploraBG was on this list. After meeting with all shortlisted companies, I narrowed down our options to a top three and ultimately decided to pick XploraBG.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July of 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to XploraBG’s work, we’ve more than tripled our social media engagement in the last year, based on our KPIs. My team feels quite comfortable working with them, and I’ve never received negative feedback. On the contrary, working with XploraBG makes our team happy about knowledge and know-how exchange.

How did XploraBG perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management point of view, they’re quite accurate. I haven’t had any issues with them regarding deliverables or deadlines. 

Given that I’m very busy and usually have back-to-back meetings, the most convenient way to communicate has been to give them a brief phone call daily. If we’re talking about strategy or programming, we schedule meetings through Microsoft Teams. Before the COVID-19 pandemic started, we used to meet in person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What’s most impressive about XploraBG is that they go beyond the scope of their work. Their expertise in social media is really impressive, too. I also see a clear trend of them promoting their knowledge. They’ve established Xplora Academy, through which they share their expertise, teaching wide groups of people how social media works, its benefits, weak points, and strategy. 

XploraBG interacts with social media developers through the academy, which is highly valuable. After such close contact with the source, they will provide better services and estimations or forecasts about how trends will develop. Based on this information, we’ll be able to adjust our strategy. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there isn’t anything they need to improve; they’re doing great. Of course, XploraBG is facing the challenges all companies are suffering at the moment, including reassessment of communication budgets and having to rethink social media presences. However, I believe they’re doing great and looking ahead at what’s coming. My only recommendation would be not to lose their speed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First of all, I would 100% recommend XploraBG as a potential partner. This depends on the company, so you should have your goals clear to see whether XploraBG can enable you to achieve them. Although the team is extremely professional, they’re not a silver bullet; you should provide the narrative and the visual aspect. 

Having clarity about what you want to achieve will facilitate quite a lot of work on both sides, and it will give you the chance to go beyond the results you’re targeting. If you don’t have clarity, you lose speed and focus. I recommend having solid KPIs to know how XploraBG is performing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the fundraising manager for WWF Bulgaria, which is a nature conservation organization that is part of the WWF network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with XploraBG?

Our individual donor fundraising program in Bulgaria mainly relies on digital advertising, so we hired XploraBG for strategic and creative support with those campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve supported me in building our digital fundraising campaign with their expertise in marketing and advertising strategy. We gave them a brief with our objectives, our target audiences, and basic guidelines about how the advertisements should look. We also gave them quite a lot of stock photos owned by WWF.

Most of the time, we just provided guidelines and relied on their expertise as a digital marketing agency. They’ve helped with the creative assets, including banners, and have managed the Facebook and Google Ads campaigns. They’ve built a couple of landing pages for us where we can lead the traffic from our ad campaigns online. We also work with them on a number of other projects relating to youth, innovation, and education.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with two people, including Kalina (Project Manager), who is our account manager, and a Google Ads specialist.

How did you come to work with XploraBG?

I’d heard of their agency before and met their manager on a couple of occasions — he’s a well-known digital marketing and advertising trainer here in Bulgaria. We decided to reach out to XploraBG and offer them the partnership.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about €7,000 a year (approximately $7,700 USD) with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since beginning work with XploraBG, we’ve seen quite an improvement in traffic from Google Ads and Facebook Ads. We’ve also seen higher performance from our fundraising campaigns, with an increase in donors and more income collected from those donors. They’ve produced very nice creative assets, including banners.

How did XploraBG perform from a project management standpoint?

XploraBG has been very well-organized, and they’ve strictly observed deadlines. They send reports quite often. We send them a brief for each project, and then we usually join them on a call or a meeting to discuss the agenda, deadlines, media budget, and other main points. XploraBG has delivered everything that I’ve asked for — I’m very happy with our partnership.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed with how quick they are to find out what we really need. We don’t need to explain much about nature conservation or what we need to do to succeed — they are pretty quick at grasping this. They can almost immediately understand our needs and how to reach our audience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no areas for improvement to suggest for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a very clear brief with your goals, audience, approach, and branding guidelines so that they can understand your specific needs and tailor their deliverables accordingly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Internet Service Provider and Cable TV company, ranked in top 5 in Bulgaria, where I was Marketing Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were changing the marketing strategy, switching from traditional marketing channels (such as print, outdoor and radio) to digital and needed a trusted and capable partner to facilitate the process and help the internal team.

The main business goal for the company was to improve the online sales with over 100%. We needed an agency to set up the digital infrastructure, validate our strategy and channels, and most importantly - to manage the ongoing digital campaigns.

SOLUTION

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

I have had an excellent experience with Xplora at my previous job as a Group digital marketing director, where they won the pitch for 3 of the companies and managed to deliver outstanding performance and proved to be a reliable partner.

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

1. First, we have introduced Xplora to our business goals, the market and our new marketing strategy. Then, together, we considered the current digital infrastructure (i.e. websites, tools, social profiles, etc.), budget limitations and set-up the main and secondary KPIs.
2. Moreover, we decided which will be the top channels and target groups to achieve the goals. Once we had everything mapped, they have:
3. installed Google tag manager, and set up events, goals, and linked all other accounts (i.e. Search console, FB and Google ads) altogether with tools such as Hotjar (heatmaps, surveys, UI), Sumo (pop-ups for additional leads), Google Optimize (for running A/B tests and optimize the conversion rates on the website), Livechat and One signal (web push notifications).
4. After that, Xplora have set-up all the needed audiences for outreach and remarketing. Using all the additional information gathered through the tools, we had more valuable insights and structured data, which enabled us to improve greatly our creatives, communication messages and target groups.
5. On top of that, we took advantage of Xplora's team exceptional ad optimization capabilities, and thus, we managed to over-achieve our initial goals for online sales.

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

We worked with an account manager and two digital experts - one highly profiled for Google ecosystem, and one for Facebook (Meta).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We managed to deliver over 100% increase of online orders in the first 6 months and over 300% in the first 24 months.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our workflow was quite straightforward - we had 1 meeting to deep dive each month - to analyse the results and to plan the next steps and we were collaborating weekly on the ongoing and upcoming tasks. I would describe the process as very effective.

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

The most valuable thing is their human approach as they are always trying to understand the challenges that we have. And then to suggest a solution, based on their vast experience and knowledge. Moreover, they are straightforward, friendly and easy to talk to and work with.

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

Maybe there is, however, I haven't found it yet.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Marketing of State opera Stara Zagora

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an opera house with an international presence in Europe. We create classical and modern performances such as opera, musicals and symphonic music 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire XploraBG to accomplish?

• Digital Marketing
• Advertising Strategies
• Email Marketing

SOLUTION

How did you find XploraBG?

Referral

Why did you select XploraBG over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from XploraBG were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Extremely correct, fast and professionally focused. The results are extremely good and exceed our expectations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

More interest in our social networks and achieved financial results.

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

 They met all my needs.

What was your primary form of communication with XploraBG?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting

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

XploraBG's young and fresh team with creative thinking was impressive.

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

I don't think so at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the country HR manager of Kalmar Bulgaria EOOD, a business services company. Our global company provide sustainable material handling equipment and services for critical supply chains worldwide, focusing on electrification, automation, and digitalization to help customers improve safety, productivity, and sustainability.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with XploraBG?

We needed help with employer branding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

XploraBG has helped us build and execute an employer branding annual plan in compliance with our global EVP strategy. The team has also created social media content and monitored the results on those platforms. Regarding content, XploraBG has created job ads, employee experience posts, and company culture-related posts for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from XploraBG.

How did you come to work with XploraBG?

We found XploraBG on Clutch. We chose them because they had high ratings, were close to our geographic location, had pricing that fit our budget, offered good value for the cost, were referred to me, and had company values aligned with ours.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2025, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to XploraBG's work, we've seen an increase in impressions and clicks. For example, our Instagram views have increased by 18.8K, and our reach has increased by 11.1K and our Facebook impressions have increased by 123.6K, and our reach has increased by 53.5K.

How did XploraBG perform from a project management standpoint?

XploraBG has a great level of ownership of the activities and delivers them on time and with very good quality. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

XploraBG's communication is very good, and they understand our needs and propose respective activities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything for XploraBG to improve.