The Brand Stand

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner, and medical director, of Glow Medical Aesthetics. I run strategic planning, daily operations and patient care for a busy aesthetic practice in a vibrant neighborhood of Houston.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Brand Stand?

Initially I needed help with the branding, and introduction, of our business into the community. They created a look that reflected our passion and potential. Communication with clients was enhanced by updating our email platform. As the business matured, we engaged the Brand Stand to update our website, enhance SEO, and integrate an online store.

What were your goals for this project?

Although were locally known and respected, we wanted to expand our reach regionally to new potential customers. The business had matured, and they were able to capture the growth and look while giving us the digital paltforms to spread our influence.

How did you select this vendor?

I wanted to work with a team that was able to get to know us on a personal level. Our business thrives, or dies, on an intimate connection with our patients. As such, I felt that whomever we chose needed to make that connection with our team. Brand Stand was recommended by several small businesses that I know. I had an opportunity to see their work, and hear good reviews before we made our final selection.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The process began with a number of scheduled meetings with the lead designer. She listened carefully to what we do and how we want our clients to feel. She had pointed questions to extract important information that ultimately allowed her to reflect exactly our stand in this industry. After many meetings both in person, and remotely, we were delivered an excellent logo, color scheme, web layout. The package included many versions of each image. As our business matured, we continued face to face meetings so that they knew our goals as they developed. Years into our business, they were able to seemlessly update our website and integrate an online store.

What was the team composition?

Initially, I worked directly with the Brand Stand project manager. During the updating phase, I was able to incorporate an administrative assistant to work with their team. The communication was smooth and effective.

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

The Brand Stand gave us a unique, fresh look in our industry. We stand out. We have received compliments for eleven years. The logo has never looked dated. It has stood the test of time. The newer updates with our website and online status has broaden our reach and allowed the business to grow. Thank you Brand Stand.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The Brand Stand team was organized and effective. A schedule of meetings was directed and fulfilled. Results and key points were communicated in a timely manner. The team was available and responsive to our questions and input.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was very impressed that they visited our business many times as it launched and grew. They wanted to understand our goals and business environment. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

I think as they add to their team, they will be able to offer a broader array of services. The expansion will allow for many other businesses like mine to enjoy an easy and fruitful launch, or expansion, of their business.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time that I worked with Brand Stand, I was the CMO of a cybersecurity company.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brand Stand?

When I joined my former company, we effectively had no branding, no merchandising strategy, and no backend system to do any type of contact marketing or even a basic CRM.

They were introduced to me as the company managing our existing website, and I worked with them to build out a new strategy, and vision for how we designed and built out our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team helped us not only to build out the architecture and pages on the website, but also the copy, content, and overall strategy of the brand and how we presented it online. They developed messaging functionality for the site as well as videos, merchandised products that we promoted on the site.

Beyond those initial efforts, they also helped us to implement marketing automation, develop marketing campaigns that aligned with our SEO, PPC, retargeting, email, and digital marketing strategies. They kept up with daily social posts and managing engagement there, as well as layouts and content for our email marketing as well.

What is the team composition?

The Brand Stand has a large team in place handling all of their various services, including a content team, an editing team, executives who handle MRN and CRM systems and marketing automation, and SEO specialists as well.

How did you come to work with The Brand Stand?

They worked with another organization that one of our board members was on, and they were very impressed by their work on that project and decided to bring them on here as well.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of the project was around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2019 and wrapped up in March 2020.

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

Just in the last quarter of the year, we delivered more than 600 qualified leads with an estimated pipeline value of $60,000,000. In the first quarter, we focused on implementing our CRM and redesigning our website, which allowed us to spend the second quarter developing content and calls to actions. That, in turn, allowed us to deploy and send emails and optimize conversion rates to over 66% in some cases, all of which drove revenue and eventually allowed us to sell the company.

Their collaborative, unified approach is unlike anything I have ever experienced in the digital marketing space. They are able to operate across all of their teams so that you get the effect of the content development capability across the rest of their work, and you see the cohesive calls to action and demand generation in social and email and advertising as well. All of their efforts are incredibly strategic at all times.

How did The Brand Stand perform from a project management standpoint?

We used a variety of tools to manage communication and collaboration throughout the project. Predominantly, we held weekly conferences, but they were effectively part of our internal team, so we would use texting in urgent situations when something needed to get done right away. Their flexibility in providing rapid response times regardless of how we needed to communicate whatever request or question we had was fantastic.

They also made use of design tools like Sigma to allow us to collaborate on website redesign initiatives, which was really great, and we obviously make use of HubSpot for email forms and templates. I love the process they set up for any campaign where we could review all of the assets that would be a part of that campaign, from PPC ads, to submission forms, to landing pages, before any of it actually went out into the world and was completely optimized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Customer service is their greatest asset without question. They will act as part of your entire team far more than as a contractor. The dedication that they are able to provide as an organization is by far the best I have ever seen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. They have a great system of tracking and improving any effort that doesn’t go as well as expected, so any improvement you might want is already built into their system.