Anvil Analytics + Insights

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing technology at a healthcare system. I oversee patient-facing web properties as well as different user experiences that intersect between new and existing patients and how they interact with us online.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anvil Analytics + Insights?

We had 15 years of legacy Google Analytics data that had grown to be an unmanageable beast. We needed to clean house with our analytics so we could start fresh with a new web property and collect data in a better way. It was pretty overwhelming to even think about doing this considering all the other work we had to do.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought them on to do a deep audit of Google Analytics, our web properties, all the data we were collecting, and our different user journeys. This entailed completely reconfiguring Google Analytics, event tracking, profile management, and so on. They completed that work in June. We quickly turned it around and onboarded them to implement their recommendations. We’re in the midst of that right now and expect to go live in August 2020, this entails our new analytics profile and configuration.

There were many phone calls and interviews at the beginning of the engagement as they tried to figure out who we were and what our goals were. Their team took note of what data was meaningful to us and what stories we wanted to tell. They took that information and dug through the giant mess of what we have with all that legacy data. Then, they gave us recommendations on what we should start and stop doing. They gave us everything we needed, hypothetically allowing me to hire an in-house consultant to do everything themselves.

What is the team composition?

For the audit, we worked with about six individuals including our client representative, project manager, and analysts. For the implementation, I’m directly working with one individual, he understands the nuts and bolts of how everything works together.

How did you come to work with Anvil Analytics + Insights?

I attended a talk at a conference and heard Jenny (CEO) speak. I was pretty impressed and wanted everything she talked about in her presentation to be a reality for our organization. So, I reached out and started a conversation.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in March 2020, and it’s ongoing.

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

We’re very satisfied with Anvil Analytics + Insights. They’re extremely professional and fun. I look forward to meetings because they’re great people. They’re a good company, and I’ve been able to observe how they treat their staff, are inclusive, and strive to be a good employer. It’s good to know we’re doing business with people we respect and are aligned with.

How did Anvil Analytics + Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is extremely thorough. They’ve been able to shine a light on how much room for improvement we have here on my team. They built a website that houses the content of the audit they performed so we could show it to other leaders. It was much more than a report, they delivered me a product as part of that initial audit. I was very surprised and impressed by this.

They did a ton of work in a short amount of time and over-communicated. They let us know where things were at and asked me a ton of questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Beyond their expertise, they’ve accumulated a team of really great people. They’re a pleasure to interact with and that goes a long way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ve been very impressed so far. There have been no issues in communication or accountability. They’ve gone above and beyond what we initially paid them to do.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There’s a common tendency for someone in my position to want to just pay someone to fix the problem. While Anvil Analytics + Insights is absolutely doing that, there is a little more required on your end. Consider the time you have to invest in thinking about these things. There are a lot of decisions to be made. They make recommendations, but they leave it up to you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of technology for a vision healthcare provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anvil Analytics + Insights?

We previously were a B2B business with a wholesaler model and wanted to move to a direct-to-consumer model. Our website became infinitely more important as a result. We needed help with implementing marketing automation and conversion rate optimization (CRO) and using data intelligently about how our site is performing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Anvil’s role was to help with analytics, attribution, CRO, AB testing, and light marketing automation. The first thing they did was taking over our paid search engine marketing. That grew into CRO as well as business intelligence and reporting analytics.

What is the team composition?

We work with 5–7 people, depending on the project. We have account managers that come and go, but we always have a central point of contact and are directly engaged with Anvil’s owners, who carried some continuity whenever we have to transition staff.

How did you come to work with Anvil Analytics + Insights?

I was fortunate enough to know Jenny (CEO/Founder) in advance. I ran into her at a conference where she was speaking on a panel about CRO and digital marketing, talking about a lot of things we were dealing with at the time. I caught up with her, grabbed coffee together, and ran from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $80,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started at the beginning of 2018. We still work together on analytics and business intelligence.

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

Anvil has been great to work with. They’re great at communication, which is one of the most important things in a client-vendor relationship. The team is also very open to new ideas and approaches whenever changes occur on either side.

From a technical standpoint, Anvil is good at the skills that they advertise. When they did our paid search, they had excellent performance and attention to detail. They’re also great out-of-the-box thinkers to think through our core business challenges. They’re involved in larger strategic conversations in our company as well, helping us move forward on certain things.

How did Anvil Analytics + Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

At our busiest, we’d have weekly status calls and monthly in-person meetings with Anvil. The monthly calls involved reports to go over our numbers and analysis, talk about results from the previous month, and working through obstacles to overcome. They also consistently had project management systems in place to be transparent about the work they’ve done and the results they’ve achieved.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When we were working together daily, I felt that Anvil is more progressive than other agencies I’d dealt with in the past. They innately understand the iterative nature of digital marketing, the need to constantly test and prototype, and the need to trust the data over your gut. Their technical skills are also solid when it comes to using data. They go through processes to make sure the data is clean and accurate so that our takeaways are reliable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve been a bit removed from it in recent months, so I don’t know.

Any advice for potential customers?

A high level of communication is the main thing I’d advocate for. Treat Anvil as a part of your team and communicate accordingly. We get the best results when we do that.