BlueHat Marketing

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.

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.

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.

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.