BlueHat Marketing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an importer of Leather goods who have been selling across North America for over 30 Years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BlueHat Marketing?

SEO, Web design, PPC

SOLUTION

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

Looked at a bunch of different companies and liked the examples and people that Blue Hat had.

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

Complete website redesign from scratch.

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

In total we worked with 3 people form an account manager, web design technician and then directly to the developper.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project manager was extremely helpful in making sure that the functionalities are exactly what we wanted. He never said no to something we wanted it was always we will find a solution. We have received and still receive compliments about the site.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager was easy to communicate with and answered questions quickly. We had many phone call meetings as well as Teams. We received ample warning if delivery was going to be delayed.

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

I enjoyed working with their team — who were always there to help and answer any questions. There seems to be a great work environment at Blue Hat!

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

At first there were too many middle men between us and the developer which caused somewhat of a broken telephone effect. Once we started working directly with the developer the problem was solved.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

UBACARE is a licensed pharmacy that vertically integrates with pharmaceutical distributors/wholesalers/pharmacies globally. UBACARE is designed and provides dispensary and telemedicine services the B to B marketplace with a particular focus on pharmacy benefit managers, TPAs, and health share companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

BlueHat was responsible for:

• developing a UX/UI website and developed various reiterations based on market strategy and user flow to maximize customer engagement.
• developing a strong SEO campaign to improve company online presence.
• developing numerous integrations within the website that needed to be coded, including a patient journey and differential diagnosis algorithm through programming - only one of three companies in the world can achieve this successfully.
• creating an e-commerce store to hold over 5,000 products.
• creating the best-designed shopping cart that has to be fully customized to accommodate ID verification, prescription upload, and healthcare data submission. Such a shopping cart design and plug-in were unavailable and had to be designed and coded.
• providing and maintaining HIPAA and PIPEDA compliance and installed various security features, including TrueVault, to assure best practices in online patient privacy security.

SOLUTION

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

BlueHat was benchmarked against 2 other competitors who rated highly on Clutch. BlueHat was able to develop an accurate budget that was also flexible for our ongoing changing needs. BlueHat was a truly turn-key business that could manage all aspects of our company's requirements, whereas most companies could only manage several of the tasks.

Their CEO was intimately involved in the project and traveled to visit us in person to confirm his commitment to launching our brand. BlueHat has been recognized Nationally and Internationally as one of the best web development and online marketing firms through various awards and publications.

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

The scope of the work used by BlueHat included but was not limited to the following steps:

• Website development from wireframe, branding, integration of plug-ins using Tray.IO, and e-commerce shopping cart all based on WordPress and WooCommerce. Technologies used Google Analytics WooCommerce PDF receipts and packing slips, Currency Switcher, Shipstation, WP Mail STP, Woo Funnels, LiveChat, NitroPack
• Custom development of customer sign-in and account generation.
• Custom development of online patient questionnaires, including AI differential diagnosis feature and product recommendations based on responses.
• Integration of various customer shopping features, including chat box, and AI security verification. SEO of the entire website and social media channels.

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

The CEO oversaw all aspects of the project, which the chief operating technology officer managed. There were approximately a dozen individuals that worked on our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BlueHat delivered on every single task and goal required and was highly responsive to feedback and made changes if and when required. Heatmap software was used to improve UX design and improve the user journey. BlueHat was able to advise on best practices and was available ATC to our needs. BlueHat also came in on the scheduled budget and timeline in all cases, which is rare in the web development field.

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

The overall project was divided into three areas: financial/budget, website development/e-commerce and digital marketing. Three distinct divisions of BlueHat and specific individuals oversaw the delivery of each task in an organized manner. Communication Tools: Email, BaseCamp, Slack

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

The dedication and commitment of the CEO, Fadi, were evident from beginning to end, which has been cultivated and built in the company culture.

BlueHat sincerely cares about their customer and prides itself on generating quantifiable, measurable outcomes to assure success for each and every customer. BlueHat has a wide scope of expertise and if a project is outside of their scope, they will do their best to find a suitable alternative or third party.

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

There is no room left for improvement as in every case, they delivered what was agreed upon in the contract.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Manager for Canadas leading Fintech in small business lending Lendified

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to see more out of our organic efforts with a clear understanding of wanting to create a foundation for lead generation. SEO became a large part of our strategy and BlueHat played a huge role in delivering that.

SOLUTION

How did you select BlueHat Marketing and what were the deciding factors?

We hired BlueHat through talking to other people that have used them in the past.

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

We began with a complete audit of our technical SEO. Then, we also required webpage optimization and creation, content creation, and web page ranking. We had a complete blog migration with BlueHat we repurposed and refreshed our homepage.

They also did an amazing job getting the citations and backlinks that were appropriate to our business and providing 3 new blogs a month. We built out about 15 new webpages to attract traffic to different high volume search terms to bring in new business that had we had never tapped into.

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

We worked with about 4-5 different people ranging in expertise. From our great SEO Director to their CTO, it was a very personalized experience with individuals that truly care about the success of their clients.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Increased overall organic traffic through SEO efforts from 31% to 40%
• Increased our conversion rate from 2% to 4%
• Ranking on the first page for almost all our key search terms

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

Timelines were always met and their team would respond within hours of asking any questions and never hesitated to get on the phone with you!

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

Their genuine curiosity to learn about your business as if they were a full-time employee impressed us. Never lose that touch!

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

I do not believe there is for us, we had a great experience over the past year!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CPA & marketing manager for a personal injury law firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueHat Marketing?

We’re trying to build our online presence and rank higher on Google via SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BlueHat Marketing oversees various aspects of an ongoing effort to expand our web presence. They primarily focus on managing our website and developing its backend to boost SEO. Regarding content creation, BlueHat Marketing writes four blog posts a month that we review and publish on the site. They also manage our Google AdWords and social media marketing (SMM) campaigns. The SMM campaign currently utilizes Facebook and Instagram, but we’re considering expanding that project to include YouTube as well.

What is the team composition?

Avery (Digital Marketing Manager, BlueHat Marketing) is our main point of contact and acts as our account manager. We also work with their social media director.

How did you come to work with BlueHat Marketing?

I wasn’t involved in the hiring process at the time, but I believe we found them through a google search.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay them $7,500 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2017 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been working with BlueHat Marketing for almost a year and the engagement has evolved during that time. Their involvement in our SEO and social media efforts have increased significantly in just the past couple months. As a result, I don’t have specific statistics available at this time. However, our social media pages receive more likes each month. We’re seeing a similar upward trend in our google ranking as well.

How did BlueHat Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

BlueHat Marketing functions as an open-minded partner to us. Avery keeps me in the loop and fields any questions or feedback I have. They’ve done audits on our website and will recommend improvements. They’re attentive, eager, and passionate about our business growth. We usually communicate via email, but also use the phone for brainstorming sessions or meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their greatest strength is how attentive they are to us as clients. If we need to change something on the website, they complete the task within 24-hours. They’re also productive and initiate our campaigns without requiring hands-on management. For example, I’ll make an organic post to Facebook and they’ll boost it without being explicitly requested too. We never feel like we’re throwing money at an unknown company to do the bare minimum. They enthusiastically communicate both new ideas and results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The quality of the blog posts could be improved. As a law firm, our topics are technical and often require a writer with specialized knowledge to deliver engaging copy. Additionally, utilizing a project management software to track ongoing issues would help us to organize things on our end.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask to work with Avery if possible. He’s great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and a co-owner of The Sweet Basket, a gift basket company. We've been in business for 14 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueHat Marketing?

We encountered a fiasco in 2017. We wanted to move our outdated website with numerous pages onto an e-commerce platform. A different developer in Ontario had created a new site. When it was time to go live, we discovered they’d outsourced work to a company in India who only did half the redirects. All of those were incorrectly done. Having averaged about CAD $1.5 million per year in revenue, our sales plummeted to 0-1 orders per day.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were concerned that Google would ban our site due to 2,000 404-Error pages that had resulted from the incorrect redirects. The first step was correcting all those errors.

BlueHat Marketing manages our WordPress e-commerce platform directly. We upload images and text, and they take care of everything else. Our company works on a seasonal basis with accelerated periods like Christmas and Easter. They just updated our homepage with images for Valentine’s Day. The team writes excellent content and always gets our approval before posting.

The Sweet Basket's company website is linked to a corresponding French version. When the English website crashed, their CEO suggested resurrecting that independent site, which had a different domain. That helped us significantly, because it generates a lot of orders. They're currently in the process of redoing a French language e-commerce platform on WordPress.

The team also sets up and monitors the ads we run on Facebook and Google. It's a slow process, but we see that our business is coming back.

What is the team composition?

I deal directly with the CEO, Fadi Azba. I don't have contact with anyone else from BlueHat Marketing.

How did you come to work with BlueHat Marketing?

After these problems occurred, we were in panic mode. We thought the website and our business were completely finished. I narrowed my Google search to local SEO companies and came up with three potential options. The first two I called quoted enormous costs and couldn't guarantee their ability to deliver.

My third option was BlueHat Marketing. When we spoke, they said "you've come to the right place. If anybody can help you, it certainly would be us." Sure enough, they put me directly in touch with their CEO. He explained the cost, project length, and specs. Fadi gave me a sense of reassurance and promised to be with us every step of the way.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid $5,000 per month for the first 90 days. Currently, we're paying $3,000 a month for their ongoing services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've worked together for one year as of next month, and our partnership is ongoing. They took over the project at the end of February or beginning of March 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The growth we’ve seen has exceeded our expectations. As is common with retail businesses, we do about 80 percent of our annual sales during November and December. We had a very successful Christmas. There was a small loss of about 10 percent. For us, it was a huge success because last year we didn't know if we’d even make it to 2018.

BlueHat Marketing has shown us our increased sales potential. Our company had been doing very well, so we’d never thought we needed SEO services until this incident. Since the prior SEO company had sold us a similar line, we had trust issues with contractors. It felt like we were walking on eggshells during this trying period. We didn't know what to expect. BlueHat Marketing ultimately delivered and we trust them. We haven’t 100 percent recovered, but we're getting close.

How did BlueHat Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

I interact with the CEO by phone and e-mail. I have his personal cell phone number and can reach him at any time. If he can’t respond, he’ll call back within the same day. They're very quick to respond. Tasks are done within hours of sending requests. We learned a lot from each other, because they hadn’t initially known much about our industry. Their team and our company worked hand in hand.

What did you find most impressive about them?

BlueHat Marketing has kept our company alive. They've done an amazing job and I tip my hat to them. They were there for us every step of the way. I have absolutely no regrets about working with them and I highly recommend them. The team is true to their word and maintains high standards. If they say they're going to deliver, they do so. Conversely, they’re honest about things they can't execute and provide an explanation in those cases.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They've given us access to our rankings on different search engines and send us general reports. I’d prefer to receive a detailed report of the exact work performed each month.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Our situation was a very trying period. Results don't happen overnight. You have to ensure that you're working with the right people and are in good hands. Know that it just takes time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and owner of a company that repairs and installs garage doors and overhead doors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueHat Marketing?

I own three businesses and work with three different companies for SEO [search engine optimization]. I wasn’t happy with the pace of our original vendor for one of my businesses, so I was looking for a company that could give me more aggressive results faster.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were supposed to provide SEO. It’s hard for me to give you a formal scope because it was such a bad experience. I had signed up for a contract for four months since they told me this was what they needed in order to show me results. However, nothing really happened. The only thing they did was one page of internal linking, which was not even centered. I’ve asked them to fix it, and they haven’t fixed it. The onsite stuff was supposed to be done in the first month, but they weren’t able to complete it in the past four months. Another red flag was that I didn’t receive the monthly reports that they promised.

How did you come to work with BlueHat Marketing?

I found them on Clutch, and I went with them because they had a lot exposure on the site.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial contract was for four months, at $1,600 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I first started working with them in July, and the engagement is about to end. Even though I’ve wasted a lot of money, I can’t waste time, so I’ve already found a different company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

They charged a premium price, but they didn’t meet my expectations. While I don’t mind paying a premium price to get a premium service, this was not the case with BlueHat. I’ve learned that sometimes expensive does not mean good. I didn't receive any service whatsoever. Instead of optimizing the whole thing, I now have negative results. My rankings have dropped, but it’s not because of more competition—I’m targeting the same area with a different company, and I see improved results there.

During the first month, there was a huge drop in every aspect of the optimization. While I’m not an expert, I know a little about SEO. When I started voicing my concerns, either by email or by phone, they said “Oh, that’s natural. It’s supposed to be like that.” They told me there would be a little drop and then it will increase, but it just kept on dropping. Towards the end, things stabilized near the point where it was before, but lower. My overall visibility is down. My rankings are down. The keywords that they worked on are down. They acknowledged everything that I told them, but they didn’t do anything about it.

It comes down to reports that they didn’t send and their failure to give me answers. They kept saying I should see results and that “It’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.” However, as I was getting closer and closer to the end of the term, their answers started to change. They said they did a lot of work and needed more time. This was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had—it was like they just sold me stuff over the phone.

How was project management handled?

In the beginning, they would say, “Yeah, you’re absolutely right,” when I had issues or complaints. Later, it became difficult to get hold of them. Nobody called me back, and there were no emails. In the end, I’m still waiting for an answer from a person who works there. He didn’t get back to me. He doesn’t reply to any of my messages. They took my money and that’s it.

My contract was only for four months, but they charged me for five. When I called them about it, somebody from billing said, “I need to check it, and I’ll get back to you.” Nobody got back to me, and I’m still waiting. I’ve called several times and the next time I called, the whole billing department was busy. I’m just being ignored completely. The fifth month was pre-authorized, so I haven’t been able to recover that money. Since they’re not doing anything, I’ve taken it directly to my credit card company.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

During our initial conversations, they were really pleasant. Their sales guy was really good and convincing. Throughout the whole thing, their sales team was good, but I guess that’s the only thing.

In what specific areas can they improve?

They portray themselves as such a good company, but I had a horrible experience. I’ve been doing business for quite a while now, and I just can’t believe that I’m the only one with this feedback. I did manage to find some bad reviews with similar feedback. I’m in the service industry as well, and I’m baffled how they have only good reviews.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

I just want people to not have the same experience that I had. That’s the only reason why I’m doing this review—I’m trying to prevent other customers from getting burned like I got burned. If somebody was just starting out and looking to raise their business, that person would go bankrupt.

Company Responses

Dear Client,

As explained in our numerous correspondences with your respected company, four months is an unrealistic timeframe for any SEO campaign to deliver significant results, and especially to achieve top three positions. For this reason, we signed a 6 to 12 months term with your company, the same as we do with any of our customers and partners.

We sincerely apologize if you feel you had a negative experience with BlueHat. If there is anything we can do to remedy this, our team is at your service!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and managing partner of a law firm in British Columbia. The firm is focused exclusively on criminal defense.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueHat Marketing?

I had contracted another company to do my Internet marketing and search engine optimization. Unfortunately, I noticed that my ranking was falling behind. It was certainly not getting any better in terms of Google ranking in various searches. That was my concern, and that was why I approached BlueHat.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I asked BlueHat to help improve my ranking and increase the traffic and leads to my website. Initially, BlueHat redid my whole website and got it up and running. It had been hosted by another company, so they did all that from scratch. We also do periodic updates for recent cases or client reviews, so they keep making changes to the website as needed.

BlueHat continues to provide SEO services. They also help me with AdWords but not with pay-per-click. They continue to provide content, specifically blogs, for my website.

How did you come to work with BlueHat Marketing?

When I did a Google search on Internet marketing companies, I saw that BlueHat was very well ranked in that category. I thought I would give them a try.

How much have you invested with BlueHat Marketing?

It's about $4,000 a month. There was an additional expense for the website to start with.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started with them in July 2016 or a bit before that. Aside from providing SEO services and content, they do updates to the website whenever changes are needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After their work on the website, AdWords, and SEO, I noticed a change within 3 months with respect to my rankings. Now, I show up as number 1 on several of the key Google searches, and I haven't dropped back from number 1 ever since I retained them. That’s certainly helped me gain clients. I detected an immediate increase in my client volume, and I’ve maintained consistently higher volumes ever since.

How did BlueHat Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

We never have any issues with communication other than the ones due to time zone differences. The lines of communication are always open, and they always take my calls or respond to emails. There is constant email back and forth from the various members of BlueHat and their various specialties. I also get monthly reviews and the whole ranking. There are no difficulties.

What did you find most impressive about BlueHat Marketing?

My previous vendor was Yellow Pages. The difficulty with any vendor like Yellow Pages is that they're also marketing some of my competitors’ websites as well — using everything they learned from marketing my website. I very much wanted somebody who would specialize in marketing my website out there and not my competitors’ websites. I don’t know the details about what was done for keywords and that type of thing; all I know is that whatever BlueHat is doing is obviously way better than what Yellow Pages was doing. I get a level of loyalty from BlueHat since they’re focusing on my website.

Are there any areas BlueHat Marketing could improve?

Not that I know of.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a medium-sized security company. We provide security guard services, concierge, loss prevention, and event security services. We’re not publicly traded. Our company relies on technology for monitoring the staff. Our overhead is very minimal and most of our work we charge the clients, we pay for the security officer which makes us very unique, and we have very high-end services. We’re known in Vancouver and have a five stars rating. Now we’re in the process to be accredited with BBB, and we should be accredited this week.

I’m the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueHat Marketing?

Before BlueHat, I had been dealing with multiple SEO companies and each SEO company provided me one thing, not everything. One of them was able to only do my Google My Business. They rated high, then the other stuff, they’re unrated. The other company told me they’re going to do everything. I waited three months without results. I tried GoDaddy but they promise so much and then disappear. They don’t address the concerns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I wanted somebody to help me with social media, with Google My Business, with ranking my website, and with making the website sell more. I don’t want to just rank high and the website doesn’t sell. There’s no point in having a website ranking high and people go there and bounce back. They’re trying to fix the issues on the website, not only making it rank high. BlueHat gives me suggestions and they work on it. They suggested articles instead of blogs so that more people will look at them. What makes it great is that it’s a lot of small things. A lot of small stones build a building and they’re so focused on the small details and the big image. They are concerned. When I tell them a concern, they fix the problem.

How did you come to work with BlueHat Marketing?

I did research on Google and I tried to see the companies that are actually on top of Google and are capable of getting there. I went to the Clutch website and saw the top three companies. But the top three companies, none of them except BlueHat, are on top of Google. If they’re not able to help themselves, they’re not going to be able to help me. I found a few companies and some of them were located in Canada. BlueHat attracted my attention, so I reached out to them and talked to them. I got quotes from all five companies that attracted my attention.

There were multiple reasons that I chose BlueHat. I felt they were trusted. They kept following through with everything. I approached other organizations like WebPageFX. They told me a price then just before I signed up, they increased the fees when I read the contract. At BlueHat they told me I’m not going to be able to get a commitment and they gave me everything they told me. They stuck to it. I talked to everybody, and they had the same wording. They don’t have gaps in communication. The other ones you feel are just sales and they’re just trying to sell you something and they don’t care what they commit. Whatever they say that will make a sale, they will say it. They’re not focused on the goal at hand. BlueHat was consistent with what they promised.

I approached one of the companies that promised me four months or three months. I called to make sure three months was correct. I’m not trying to argue with him. I know he doesn’t have control over it 100%. Part of it is Google and what they do. He changed it and told me it would be one month. Once I saw inconsistency, that was a red flag for me. They’re dishonest. I’m an honest person, and I like to deal with honest organizations. If I feel there is dishonesty, I will actually back off. Even the sales person who I dealt with (his name is Patrick) told me, you’re one of the hardest sales I sold. Even before I called them, I searched 10 keywords on Google and each keyword it gives me different results. The same company that was on top of Google for six keywords of the ten keywords I chose, that was the top three that I approached, and BlueHat was one of them.

I made sure BlueHat didn’t deal with any of my competition in the same city. Also, they have to charge the same amount every month and there are no errors. You know how companies sometimes increase it and then tell you it’s a mistake? I don’t have that problem with BlueHat. They deliver what they promise. I don’t care that they promise so much, but whatever you promise me, just deliver it and BlueHat always delivers more than what they promise, which is impressive. Every time you get more, you feel it’s a bonus. I don’t like somebody to promise so much and deliver less. These points made me feel satisfied with their services. However, their contract is for a year and I have a right to terminate it if it didn’t work out for sooner than that, but I’m not thinking about anything except staying with them.

How much have you invested with BlueHat Marketing?

I’m paying $1,300 a month. The first month, they charged me $500 for set up. Most of the companies didn’t charge the extra $500.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They told me they were going to do 12 keywords and now they gave me 16 keywords, four more than what they promised me. They told me I would be on top of Google in three months. I’m on top of Google for ten keywords in the first position on the first page of Google in the 14 keywords out of the 16 keywords. It’s a very competitive business and some of my competitors are $600 million companies and they use SEO and update it weekly.  

How did BlueHat Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Every deadline they gave me, they finished it before. Every time they told me that I would be on top of Google for a certain keyword in a month, in two weeks I was there. They always beat the timeline by a few days or a week. I don’t know if all the clients get this treatment, or if I’m a special client. They make me feel special, which is a very good thing.

What did you find most impressive about BlueHat Marketing?

I’m impressed by how they’re handling all these accounts. I’ve learned a couple of things from them. I talk to the sales person a couple times and ask him how they run stuff because I like how they operate. It’s high value, especially with social media for certain accounts. I want to know how they handle it and the business. It’s very organized. Other organization, I talk to a person and it gets lost. The other thing is, your account manager doesn’t show up and all your information is gone. I don’t have that issue with BlueHat. They’re reliable. I’m very impressed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the business development manager of an accounting firm. We do year-end tax accounting, bookkeeping, and management consulting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueHat Marketing?

We were trying to get as much traffic as possible directed to our website. We weren’t being found through Google and needed help with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We subscribe to BlueHat’s SEO services. We started off with certain keywords which we wanted our site to rank for, both organically and in any other way we can be searched for. We gauged the traffic on the website, and how long people stay on it. BlueHat gives us a dashboard where we can see all this information.

When our website was developed, it used another framework that wasn’t effective for SEO. BlueHat basically rebuilt it so that it would perform better and more fluently. Since then, we have updated our staff and financial calculator sections. Our website is mainly informational.

They also work on our blog for us and host the site, making any changes and updates we require. BlueHat has access to our social media, but I’ve continued to post most of our content there myself. We’re not using lead generation at the moment.

How did you come to work with BlueHat Marketing?

I googled them, and they were highly ranked. BlueHat wouldn’t have been good at what it does otherwise. I tried to find local companies, but there was no one out there with an even remotely comparable product. When I called them, BlueHat gave me an audit of the website and made a very good first impression.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with BlueHat Marketing around one year ago. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We weren’t ranked for any of the keywords we wanted. Now, we’re on the first page for all of them. Typically, Newfoundland is a bit behind the trends, and we didn’t have a lot of competition in terms of SEO, but the original site wasn’t built with this in mind. BlueHat did enough to it in order to get it working and allow us to compete with big national brands which were coming up higher than us locally.

How did BlueHat Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

There has been some give-and-take on deadlines. We’ve been late in giving things to BlueHat, and vice versa, but there was nothing serious. Deadlines go missed on both ends, but there was no misunderstanding on when things should be delivered. Overall, the communication has been superb, and our rep is a great person. I have no complaints in this sense. We used email and phone for communication.

What did you find most impressive about BlueHat Marketing?

They had good processes for communication. I could call BlueHat and reach someone on the front line and was assigned an account manager. The group is a well-oiled machine; everyone does their part. BlueHat was the highest-ranking SEO firm on Google, and I was looking for the same thing for my company. It made sense to call them.

Are there any areas BlueHat Marketing could improve?

The person who performed the audit on our website didn’t recognize that it had been done in another format. I’m not sure if this was because of a flaw in their process, but it did cause a delay. I can’t think of anything else.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Senior Vice President of sales and marketing at an asset management firm. We partner with some of the largest asset managers around the world to bring investment ideas to Canadian investors. We specialize in emerging markets, but we also do mutual funds and institutional products as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueHat?

We compete with some of the largest banks in Canada, so one of our biggest challenges in branding. If you think of a large bank, for example, they’ll have mutual fund solutions, but they also have an extended distribution network through their retail channels. We don’t. We have to be able to do a lot of branding, and one of the most effective ways to do that is through our website. We have some limitations in what we can do since we’re essentially a B2B, so branding is important. Everybody knows the big brands; we have to build our brand using technology in an innovative way to pass our competitors. Having a good marketing team and a good SEO strategy is key.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We do paid search; we do social media. We also do all the traditional stuff, PR and all that. We started working with them two years ago and at that time our website wasn’t well maintained. We didn’t have any SEO strategy. My goal was to get them to put us on the map, get our rankings up, get us some authority and in effect train us. For two years they set us up so we could compete with our peers. Now we have specialty in-house, but they were instrumental in setting us up.

How did you come to work with BlueHat?

We had about four or five different companies present to us, and some of the questions I was asking those questions weren’t being answered in a satisfactory manner. When we got the proposal from BlueHat, it was really what we were looking for. From a business side, they were ready to bill in the way I wanted them to, and also in terms of the reporting side, they were willing to do the things that I was looking for and to match our expectations for how the campaigns would go and what we wanted them to fix.

How much have you invested with BlueHat?

The way we looked at it is, it costs less than hiring an internal person but it’s five or six times the value because they have more people and more solutions and different expertise. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in 2015. We don’t currently have an agreement with BlueHat, but they put together the framework that we’re working with today.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My intention with BlueHat was to use them to get us up and running and then do this work in-house, but if we hadn’t developed our own team we’d certainly still be using BlueHat today. We were probably something like 20-millionth in the Canadian space, just not recognizable at all. Within a couple of months, we were going up and up, and I think we ended up in the 400,000-500,000s, which is totally acceptable. Traffic-wise, we went from 300/month to 12,000-17,000. We could do more, but part of our problem is that we can’t go retail. We have to stick with that B2B area, which isn’t a large universe. But it’s still decent, 17,000. Our visibility went up in terms of keywords rankings. People aren’t as excited as they used to be, but we’ve got a lot of the keywords up there.

What did you find most impressive about BlueHat?

They went to great lengths to understand our business at first. They team does come around; they do understand your issues. They have expertise on their end.

Are there any areas BlueHat could improve?

It’s like with any company: there’s a lot of attention in the first part and you want that kind of attention more. It always comes at a price and you always get to that discussion at some point. But if you know that your base is going to be $20,000/month and you know what you want to get for that amount of money, you’ll get it.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with BlueHat?

I would say that if you have a good understanding of the process it’s better because you can’t guide a team to work with you unless you understand it. You probably won’t get enough out of it. If you do your homework, it’ll go a lot better. Understand your expectations. If you want to get in millions in website visits per month, it’s going to be expensive. If you can geographically target, you can be very successful. And I would also say to puck back if you don’t like the quality. Tell them you’d like it to be reviewed.