Arc Intermedia

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at CLSI, the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute, and I'm the VP of marketing and membership. CLSI is a standards development organization that develops standards and best practices for medical laboratories. We also have a membership base of 1700+, three quarters of which are organizations and the other remaining members are individuals. These organizations and individuals have a vested interest in helping to develop best practices for the laboratories around the world that help to improve patient care.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arc Intermedia?

We started with Arc around 3 years ago for SEO work. They've been a very active partner of ours to not only implement and manage our SEO program,  but also helping to define our digital marketing strategy

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arc helped us to look at how we we can create market awareness and increase our transactions of selling our standards. Arc was also involved in designing a new website we launch in July. They assisted with both development and design.

In terms of the website, Arc help us with the whole outline, including wireframes and a requirements document. They worked on the actual designs. Basically, the helped us with everything outside of the physical coding. They’ve also done technical audits of the site, and implemented all of the SEO keywords and tags to ensure a smooth transition from the previous site.

They helped us implement a new marketing automation platform. They provide general strategy, and help us with some marketing campaign ideas as well.

What is the team dynamic?

We have an active relationship with multiple members of the Arc team from David Sonn, who is the president, to the SEO lead Ron, to our project manager Matt, as well as other specialists that are involved with various products. ARC is very successful in their strategy of how they handle clients. Matt helps to to map out all the assignments and action items across the team, and ensures that everyone is following up and coordinating their efforts.We have a monthly SEO call where we review all of our data and stats based off of prior months. Arc is very good at driving the work flow across not only their team but across the CLSI team here.

How did you come to work with Arc Intermedia?

We had some word of mouth references, and  did some local searching here in the Philadelphia area. I also had a prior relationship with the president at a previous organization that I worked with.

How much have you invested with them?

I find ARC to be very affordable and efficient for your ROI based on what your spend. A lot of the project work ranged from a couple of hundred dollars to a thousand dollars or fifteen hundred dollars. And the the ongoing SEO is a monthly fee that we invest in. And so that can range from 3500 – 4500 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've  seen  growth in online transactions for the organization and our site is ranking very strongly. We are on the first page across Google for all of our keywords. We’ve seen all of our metrics increase, from traffic, to leads, to organic search, to online transactions. We’ve even seen increases during our typically “quiet” quarters.

Arc has a very good understanding of what their customers need once they really get involved. If vendor resources are needed for particular work, Arc will help us validate potential vendors to make sure that they are the right partner to help us with a particular project.

How did Arc Intermedia perform from a project management standpoint?

Excellent. They they are very straightforward and honest about deadlines and timelines, and they’ve met them all. They were very accommodating, and put in extra effort and hours. We have not run into any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge. The way they think past a single project, looking at the whole picture and how your business ties together, is great. They incorporate long term goals with their expertise. Other vendors that we work with are very focused on the project and they don't necessarily look at the whole picture, or how our brand flows across campaigns. Arc was very cognizant of our customers perception.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Theres nothing that stands out.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital marketing at a company that owns and operates 22 continuing care retirement communities up and down the east coast.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arc Intermedia?

One of the biggest business challenges we faced was an outdated website that was built on a desktop platform. We needed a modern website that would help obtain more leads and, in turn, drive sales. We also needed a positive paid search and SEO plan, display advertising, and retargeting efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the new website from scratch on the same system as our old website, namely Umbraco. Their HTML editors built it, and we could not have done it without them. As time went on, we needed a responsive website that would be great across the board for mobile, desktop, and tablet. They [Arc Intermedia] also do content creation and content distribution.

We needed an expanded way to house some content important to other departments within the organization, such as social accountability and corporate compliance. We also have a mission foundation, so we needed a space for them to continue some of their fundraising efforts for us. That’s not as prospect-driven as it comes from our current residents, who are their target.

How many resources were assigned to your project?

In the process of building the website I always had 2 main contacts, the owner of the agency and the director of client services. After the website was built, the project expanded quite a bit as we began strategy and implementation of some of these advertising efforts. I’m now regularly in contact with 5 to 6 individuals at Arc Intermedia who support us in any way we need.

How did you come to work with Arc Intermedia?

Arc was already a client of ours when I came on board. I’ve been with the company now for about 4 years. I think we had been using their services for a couple years before that. Before that time, they never had a direct point of contact here. When my position was created, they then had somebody they could go to directly. My purpose is to be in charge of the digital area.

How much have you invested with Arc Intermedia?

We spend between $20,000–$25,000 per month with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

It took about a year and a half from start to completion. What I will say is, that the timeline has nothing to do with their work. They were always very quick and responsive as far as getting to the next step. It only took that long because of getting confirmations and approvals on our side. We were also working on rebranding at the same time, so we were waiting for the new branding and new logos to come through. I would say that they could have had that website up within 6 months, but because of all the approvals from our end it kept getting pushed back. They were very patient.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

After the website launched and through the online marketing efforts of Arc Intermedia, we literally doubled the amount of monthly leads we received, and we’ve seen views increase greatly through paid searches. We’ve seen an increase in sales directly related to people who have visited the website. The percentage of these prospects who initially came to us as a lead through the website and then moved into one of our communities is getting higher and higher as we continue through our process.

We put the onus on Arc because we have a senior audience, which is not often as website-savvy as a younger audience might be. We tasked them with the idea that we wanted to be ahead of the curve as far as the industry goes, but we didn’t want to be ahead of our audience. We needed to create a website that was user-friendly but also modern and responsive enough to achieve what we needed, and I think we found that balance. We have a website that’s very user-friendly. We’ve got a lot of great digital assets that get our prospects right to where they need to be as quickly as possible.

How did Arc Intermedia perform from a project management standpoint?

They are always very up front about the deadlines and how long they anticipate a certain project will take. They have never missed a deadline for us that I’m aware of. The only time a project has been held up is if the approval sits in our hands. We tend to take a while on our end for the red tape to clear and for things to go through, but they’re always on top of their deadlines, making sure they’re doing what they need to in order to, move forward as quickly as possible.

What did you find most impressive about Arc Intermedia?

We used another marketing agency, and I have found Arc Intermedia to be so much more down to earth and friendly. You know that if you send them an email, you’re not getting charged for the time it takes them to read it. They’re more than willing to help you at any time of the day. Typically, we receive an immediate response. If, however, they can’t get right back to you on a response for whatever reason, they always get back to you within at least in 24 hours. They’re just such a client-friendly group of guys and gals to work with, and we don’t always see that with every marketing agency we work with. As far as cost goes, I would say they’re very affordable, very competitive with the other agencies against whom they compete. They always provide an upfront cost, and they stick to that cost. There are never any surprises when it comes to any of the projects. I’ve really enjoyed working with them.

Are there any areas Arc Intermedia could improve?

The only area of improvement I would mention would be potentially increasing their staff so that they could handle more bandwidth at one time. I’m always careful to make sure that I don’t give them too many projects at once. We have 22 communities so we’re a fairly large corporation, but on their side I understand that they might not be able to handle 22 projects from us at a given time. I would love to see their staff increase so that they could handle more projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Tag Strategies, a brand development firm that helps organizations identify what’s unique about them. We then figure out ways to amplify it in the marketplace and internalize it with employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arc Intermedia?

Our client was Crossroads Hospice, a hospice network with 14 locations serving customers across six states. The main purpose of the website was having a though leadership position. Our biggest challenge was their website, which was really lacking. It had no real search engine optimization to speak of nor a good pay-per-click program. We felt like all our content development for social media and publicity needed to be synced up. The client also wanted to develop location awareness to consumers at critical times of need.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My client markets to both consumers and health care professionals, so we needed a strategy to be able to reach both of those audiences and generate leads. In health care, it’s important for clients to be able to recruit new employees all the time. There’s always a shortage of healthcare professionals out there. It was important to have an area on the site where people could find what positions were available and be able to apply, so we needed to plug into the interface their HR team was using for recruiting.  

Arc Intermedia first built a website and developed a content strategy for it. They developed a responsive website that allowed consumers to easily get answers and assistance. Their work included SEO, paid search, social advertising and content direction. We worked with a team of five from Arc. My team did the frontend, and their team did the backend. They gave my team wireframes on what they needed to do and then built out everything from there with their team. Arc Intermedia really spearheaded the whole initiative. They helped us figure out what we needed on the website, our sitemap, and all the functionality. We were able to and prioritize what was most important and talk about future features.

They come to us all the time with new ideas for digital marketing: different kinds of lead generation or programs that would incorporate email into it. Whether it’s a fit or not for this particular client depends on whether we adapt that new piece into it, but they’re always helping us push ourselves to be better.

How did you come to work with Arc Intermedia?

I’ve known the owner for many years and worked with him on different projects over time. I knew that Arc was the right partner to choose when this client needed a complete rebuild.

How much have you invested with Arc Intermedia?

Over the entire course of our relationship with Arc Intermedia, we’ve paid between $200,000 and $1,000,000. But for this particular client, it’s between $150,000 and $200,000 yearly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the relationship in 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Since day one of launch, the website performance has been amazing, and it continues to get better all the time. In January 2016, our website visits were 17,273 and went up every single month until December 2016, where we were up to 62,722 visits a month. In April 2017, we were at 72,450 in one month. That’s just one piece of it. On the PPC front, we started January 2016 with 2,000 a month to 4,965 by the end of the year. Our clickthrough rate is low to high 3%, which is good. We had 163 unique callers in January 2016; by December, we had 343 a month. In March 2017, we had 825 unique callers a month. Every single month, it just goes up. None of this is anecdotal; it’s all documented all the time.

How did Arc Intermedia perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re extremely professional and great at follow-up. They have a great workflow system. Our program has a lot of moving parts to it, many deadlines, and different partners, so we really rely on Arc. They are the foundation of our content program, keeping all our social PR and any other content that we have our client developing on the technical side. Arc is always there and on their game.

What did you find most impressive about Arc Intermedia?

They are really good at what they do and extremely thorough. We work with them all the time to figure out how to make our program better and kick up our SEO. They do a fantastic job of analyzing the site and suggesting moves to make if we have this kind of content or if we have these things we can link to it. They are really on their game.

Are there any areas Arc Intermedia could improve?

No, and I’m pretty tough to work for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a large deathcare company who owns cemeteries and funeral homes nationwide. I am the digital marketing supervisor, and I handle all things digital for our consumer brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arc Intermedia?

Arc Intermedia was already hired when I came onboard. Our relationship grew because we were trying to increase leads. I work with lead generation. We worked with Arc to develop a website that would help us increase lead generation and improve the user experience. We don’t have any developers on staff.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arc Intermedia built a few sites for us, and the two main ones they built from scratch. I’ve worked with Matthew [Director of Client Services, Arc Intermedia] for years. He and David [President, Arc Intermedia] are great assets. I can call them at any time. They solve my issue quickly if not immediately. Regarding project turnaround, they’re always on top of projects and getting them done in a timely fashion. The CMS [content management system] we use is Umbraco. They built a landing page optimization system in the CMS. I can do any landing page optimization or A/B testing that I want. I can test a headline, an image, or button colors. We have a lot of properties, and if a promotion or an event is going on at all the locations, I can create that content one time and select all the locations that it applies to. The system has a lot of variables in it because there are many locations, so Arc Intermedia had to customize the system. They’ve also been doing SEO [search engine optimization] for the site since it was built.

How did you come to work with Arc Intermedia?

Arc Intermedia was hired before I started at the company.

How much have you invested with Arc Intermedia?

We spent between $50,000 and $200,000 for the one website.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working here in 2008, and Arc Intermedia was already involved. The site I’ve been talking about was launched in 2013. The relationship with Arc is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We’ve seen great amounts of growth from their SEO efforts. Traffic and lead generation has increased well over 100%. If we look at form fills purely for SEO generated leads, from now compared to the baseline, we’ve increased by 168%, and that’s only for organic leads.

How did Arc Intermedia perform from a project management standpoint?

Arc Intermedia always meets deadlines, and normally, they’re ahead of schedule. They scale it out so that they don’t ever go beyond the deadline. The only one that’s delayed the projects has been me.

What did you find most impressive about Arc Intermedia?

The communication is always there. That has been key because I can pick up the phone or email and know that they’re going to get back to me right away. I’ve been in situations where you email, and you don’t hear from the vendor for a week. Arc Intermedia is all about communication and to me that’s a big deal. I can get an issue resolved in minutes.

Are there any areas Arc Intermedia could improve?

I can’t think of anything. Arc Intermedia has been able to do everything that I’ve ever wanted. There has never been anything lacking.