CommonMind

Please describe your company.

It's a family business. We're a company that sells high-end door hardware and plumbing fixtures.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am a jack of all trades: Sales, marketing, everything.

What was your goal for working with CommonMind?

I hired CommonMind to help us get more results out of our AdWords campaign.

Please describe the scope of their work.

CommonMind optimized our AdWords text ads, which were pretty messy. I had been doing it myself during the last 10 years. It was kind of chaotic. CommonMind came in, organized that, and got some better results for us. In the same timeframe, Google transferred from the text ads to the PLA [product listing ads]. They were very helpful in implementing the PLA strategy, getting the feeds ready, understanding the advertising on that part of it, what we need to advertise, what we don’t need to advertise, and results. It was a big transition for us.

What was your process for selecting CommonMind with which to work?

I wanted a local company, and I saw CommonMind was in the Boston area. We like to keep it local since we're on Cape Cod. I did a lot of research on AdWords and people who offered those services. I got a better feel for how they went about it and what they did. I made a few phone calls, and CommonMind seemed the most qualified for what we needed. The work is ongoing.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

The dollar amount is confidential. I don’t know the work hours CommonMind spends on it.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

The campaign has been very successful for us. When Google rolled out the PLAs, and we got involved with it, about 50 percent of our online orders come from PLAs. That was a very large transformation for us. As far as the efficiency goes, they have probably increased our online business from 10 to 20 percent.

We are very satisfied with the work. They are professionals and know what they’re doing. They’re readily available if something pops up, which usually does since we're a small family business. When we see something happening, we want a quick reaction to it, and they have done that for us. They’ve driven down here for monthly or bimonthly meetings to discuss what we do and where we should go next. They are very helpful to us.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

Efficiency. They are very good at what they do, and they get to the heart of the matter very quickly. It's not a matter of waiting days or weeks for results. If we tell them what we're looking for and ask how to achieve it, they come back with answers if not that day, then the next day. They are very efficient and responsive to our requests.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

We prioritize things fairly well since we have a lot to do and accomplish. I wish we had more time to focus on it ourselves. We've rolled out 11 websites in the past year. CommonMind has been a part of it, setting them up and organizing campaigns. I can’t think of anything they can change.

Please describe your company and your role.

I am a marketing and business strategist and adviser. I work with businesses in a number of different ways. For some clients, I function as an outsourced marketing department. In other cases, I serve in an advisory capacity.

I have a company of my own and work on a freelance basis. I’m the co-founder of an organization in New York called the Growth Team. The company mainly serves in an advisory role, and I’ve been working in marketing on my own for the last 35 years.

What was your goal for working with CommonMind?

It depends on what we were working on at any given time. If there is something I don’t understand, they end up with the question. The response that I get from people is that they like them and that they explain things in a way they can understand. They handle pay per click as well.

I have a situation right now with a client who is trying to deal with closing down an old website and replacing it with a WordPress site. The client is adamant about wanting to put it on an old AS400 server, so I called CommonMind for help. I call CommonMind to get them in the right direction. I don’t know the technology, but I'm logical about it. It seemed like a lot of backpedaling to do something that didn’t need to be done, particularly given the fact that the client was looking for a tremendous amount of security. CommonMind comes to the rescue, and that’s how I work with them.

Please describe the scope of their work.

In many cases, I introduce them to my clients. In my marketing efforts, I talk about the value and the importance of lifetime relationships for the vendor. Once they start working with somebody, they never stop. In terms of putting a value on CommonMind, I wouldn’t know where to start. For a couple thousand dollars, they can do a project, but my experience is once they start working with them and get to know them, it becomes an ongoing relationship. You can't put a value on that. I’ve never sent anyone to CommonMind who came out of the experience with a negative comment. It's nice to have someone that I can rely on so completely.

The other thing I appreciate about them is that they are absolutely gracious when I call them, with no idea whether it will turn out to be a $2, $2,000, or $20,000 value to them. They always take the time to talk to me and my clients. That is rare.

What was your process for selecting CommonMind with which to work?

I became acquainted with them in about 2007, when I moved to New York. I brought my own resources with me, but I was working with a client here who suggested that I talk to CommonMind for their project. I started working with them at that point to put together a website for my client. Since then, they have been an incredible advisor to me on everything from search engine optimization to Google AdWords to websites. If it happens on the Web, they’re the first resource I go to for myself or anyone else.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It varies greatly depending on the project, but the frequency of the work is consistent.

When was the last project completed with CommonMind?

I don’t personally have any current projects with CommonMind, but they have completed many recent projects for me in the past six months. We're just starting to deal with this AS400 issue. We have a call scheduled with them to see where it will go.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

I don’t have specific metrics. I know of CommonMind’s success with other clients that they shared with me because that’s what I use when someone asks me whether they are a good company to work with. I relate a story about a brass fittings business that CommonMind worked with. They migrated the client from SEO [search engine optimization] to Google AdWords, lowered their costs, and increased their response and revenue incredibly. He really helped them grow their business.

Is there anything unique about CommonMind that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I don’t use any other firms. Rarely do I feel the need to go to anybody else. In my business, I need to trust the people that I’m working with. If that means I’m obligating my clients to spend 10 percent more, I want to know that they’re protected and that they get the best job for the money. I have to trust them, and I trust CommonMind completely.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No. I haven’t had an experience where I would be able to give constructive criticism.

Please describe your company.

My company is Tanner Fasteners & Industrial Supplies. We are based in New York City and have been in business since 1979. We sell fasteners and industrial supplies to mostly the construction trade in the New York metropolitan area as well as safety equipment and security products all around the world.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am in the marketing and e-commerce department.

What is your goal for working with CommonMind?

CommonMind manages our AdWords campaign. The overall goal is to increase sales conversions and revenue.

Please describe the scope of their work.

CommonMind mostly runs the AdWords campaign, and they do some consulting on the workings of our website if we run into issues there. They have a lot of knowledge about website operations, so we use them for that as well.

What was your process for selecting CommonMind with which to work?

We found CommonMind through a mutual business associate about eight years ago. We’ve been working with them that long. This is an ongoing engagement, and we’ve been doing business with them nonstop since 2006. It has been fairly consistent work with perhaps a few months with no work.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

Our AdWords budget is about $5,000 a month.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

CommonMind has been with us for about six years, optimizing our website. In approximately 2008, we got everything ramped up. Since then, the traffic on the website has increased substantially, and part of that is because of their work. In 2008 and 2009, revenue increased 44 percent. In 2010 and 2011, it was 36 percent and 52 percent, and the last two years, it's been around 22 percent a year. Not all that is attributable to their work, but they definitely contributed to the increases in revenue.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

CommonMind’s willingness to be very hands-on in all aspects of their company is unique. They are very responsive to our requests and very knowledgeable about SEO [search engine optimization]. They spend a lot of time adding to their knowledge base and are willing to pass that knowledge along to their clients. They’re smart, and we like working with them.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I have no complaints about our business relationship during the last six to eight years. They have expanded a bit, which makes it easier to complete projects more efficiently, which may have been one issue earlier on, but isn’t anymore.

Please describe your company.

We are MongoLab, and we do MongoDB hosting. We are a MongoDB partner.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am a developer advocate, and I cover all marketing, some sales, and partnerships. I work with CommonMind directly because I oversee SEO [search engine optimization] and SEM [search engine marketing].

What was your goal for working with CommonMind?

CommonMind has worked with us since before I started with the company. I’ve only worked here for about nine months. They engaged CommonMind to set up our entire online marketing campaign. Everything was set up before I took over.

Please describe the scope of their work.

Right now, CommonMind is retuning our campaign; it's all AdWords. We did some experimenting with some display ads as well, such as for our target demographic. It didn’t work very well. We decided not to go down that route.

We meet every other week and go over performance, and they create reports. There is ongoing support as well that they provide. This is an ongoing project with no plans to stop. Within the next few months, we might do quarterly reports as opposed to the biweekly or monthly reports.

What was your process for selecting CommonMind to work with?

I’m not sure. If I had to guess, it was a reference. That is how our COO chose all our vendors.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

Our monthly AdWords spend is between $3,000 and $4,000.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

I know that since working with them, our conversion rate has gone up. Our number of conversions has also gone up, as has our revenue. I think the conversion rate is the most interesting metric to look at that has improved. We have more qualified leads by the time they reach our sales force.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I haven’t worked with other SEO/SEM vendors, but one thing that is helpful is that they have a lot of insight into different verticals that may or may not be able to be related to our specific industry. There have been a few instances where we have applied what we’ve seen from other software vendors and also from other retail vendors to experiment with the messaging for ads. Some of them worked, and some of them didn't, but it was nice to have options and choices for the campaign. They also know a lot of the tools that are out there, which is very helpful.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

That’s hard to say. If there was anything we could improve upon, we'd be doing it. Nothing comes to mind now.

Please describe your company.

The company is a computer software firm based in the United States. Most of our customers are in R&D [research and development]. Our target audience is very particular. It's not very standard, so it presents its own set of challenges in SEO [search engine optimization] and SEM [search engine marketing]. It is mostly B2B [business to business].

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am a project manager and analyst.

What was your goal for working with CommonMind?

We signed them last year and have been doing a lot of things with them. Last year, we were focusing on more SEO-type efforts. They did a whole keyword analysis project with us. Obviously, there was a lot of back and forth because we needed to determine the relevancies and that sort of thing. They did all the groundwork in terms of finding the keywords and so forth. There were a lot of them. It was a very big project. Based on that, they wrote up a lot of recommendations. It was fairly standard. Now, we're focusing on AdWords. The goal is to bring traffic to the website.

Please describe the scope of their work.

CommonMind has done several sub-projects for us. They’ve been a good resource for us because there are a lot of tricks and issues that we don’t know how to deal with, so we can always ask them. They’re valuable in a consulting and advising capacity. The work is ongoing.

What was your process for selecting CommonMind with which to work?

I worked for them a few years ago, so I trust how they work. We reached out to some other places and tried some other tools. We were trying to decide whether to go with an agency or a tool. Ultimately, I simply trust them more and figured they’d be able to help us out more than a tool would.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

They are there whenever we need them. However, the actual cost range is confidential.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We're not a public company, so we try to keep that confidential. We have definitely seen improvements in terms of additional traffic to the website.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

They are very flexible. There is not a lot of red tape. If I need something right now, I can either email or call them, and they will get to it right away if it's urgent. If it's not urgent, it will be fairly reasonable.

They are very honest about everything. If we quote a certain amount for a project, then we estimate how long it will take. If it takes longer, we won’t get billed for it. They are very honest and efficient.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No, I don’t think so. We’ve been working through all of my goals, and it's been going well.