Brolik

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

Our sales rate has basically doubled since we started engaging with them. Also, our social media is much more effective. They are somewhat connected, as we are doing most of our sales through paid social media and advertising. 

How did Brolik perform from a project management standpoint?

They did very well. Initially, we were trying to find the best way to communicate and report. Because we’re a startup, we don’t necessarily demand a very structured feedback loop because things are relatively fluid. We ended up implementing some structure, including weekly calls with reports, actionable takeaways, and results.

They’re on time with their deliverables. I didn’t have any issues related to delays or overspending or anything like that. They are typically within the range of estimates and expectations that they provide.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I don’t really have a good reference point because I haven’t worked with many companies in Philadelphia. Number one, which is very important to me as a CEO, is they are very reliable and trustworthy people. They say what they can and can't do. Jason is a very down-to-earth, grounded person so he’s not an overpromise, underdeliver type of person. What he commits to doing, gets done. He manages expectations really well.

The most important thing for me in the very beginning was the willingness to work in a different compensation model. He implemented something that works for them and me, and to me, that’s a differentiator.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They’re a really solid, reliable, and trustworthy agency, which is not very common these days.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

In general, my experience with other social and digital marketing companies is they tend to say they can do everything, but they really can’t. Typically, those companies are good at something, but not at everything. My advice, which was a hard learning process for me, is that you really need to dig deeper when you’re researching those companies and talking to them to really find out what they’re good at. Sometimes, that requires conversations with other customers that have worked with them in a certain capacity.

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

The biggest piece of the project that Brolik put together, the biggest deliverable, was the content model. I worked closely with them on that at times. There was so much content to deal with, but Brolik did an impressively thorough job on the content model. Brolik distilled it down to all the minutiae that we would need to create content effectively and efficiently. I've never seen anything like it. It's a very comprehensive document that I know took them many months, much research, and much revision to put together. I appreciate that as it's something that they've put much effort into. Many other companies would definitely have glazed over it quite a bit. Brolik used that content model to start building a wireframe so everything is consistent across the board.

How did Brolik perform from a project management standpoint?

I think that they did a great job from a project management standpoint. We fell short on our end because we had several project managers transition during that project. The Brolik team was able to keep tabs and manage things when we were struggling a little bit on our end. I worked with them quite a bit on that stuff. There are so many moving parts to this project. They didn't ever drop the ball as far as that goes. I think on that end, the project management was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about Brolik?

I was very impressed with their work on that content model. I told them that as well. I also think that the research that Brolik did on the target segment side – on the personas – was impressive. Our industry is complex and unique and not many people know about it. When we work with an agency, we have to educate them. Sometimes, it takes quite a bit of time to get them to understand things. Quite frankly, the other agencies we worked with just don't get it. In contrast, Brolik worked very hard to understand our industry and did a lot of research. When they came back to us with the personas, we were very impressed because they were so close. We just made a few minor edits. It made us feel good that they understand what we're going for, and they understand our customer. They did that pretty much at the beginning before they did anything else. That helped them to have a good understanding of our customer and our industry, which carried through the rest of the IA project.

I've worked with many agencies in my career. My background, initially, was in design. I really felt that I had never worked with an agency that was just so comprehensive in the work that they were doing. For us, it was a little bit hard to keep up because they were giving us so much stuff to review at such a deep level. It was awesome. They're very dedicated to understanding the project, who their customer is, and who the customer's customer is. They have a really dedicated team of professionals there. The Brolik team is a collection of brilliant individuals. I'm grateful that they were able to work on that IA part of our project.

Are there any areas Brolik could improve?

From my experience with them, there was only one think that they needed to improve. When we got into the wireframe phase, I wish they had collaborated with us a little bit more. I think that some assumptions were made. We've had to deal with the most revisions on that part of the project. I think that's common with most agencies. I think that's how most of them typically work. We wished we had a little bit more communication and collaboration in the wireframe phase. That would have helped things go a little bit more smoothly.