Dandy Marketing

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the growth marketing manager within the marketing team at Yieldify. Our current marketing team consists of 3–4 people including an events manager and content manager. We just added a VP of marketing to whom we report directly to. The organization consists of sales, customer success products, engineering, and more. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Dandy Marketing?

We were working with a different agency on SEO. However, the results and approach weren’t satisfactory. In the end, we decided to switch agencies. Then, we hired Dandy Marketing to handle our SEO and other advertising campaigns. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we started working, the first thing we tackled was all of the technical SEO questions. They did an audit, identified areas of improvement, and worked with our web development agency to solve the technical issues. From there, we created a strategy for our onsite SEO, including an audit of our existing content and pages to find points for optimization or complete exclusion of some items.

We’ve also expanded to off-page SEO campaigns, and they've started effectively building links to our website, outreaching for guest post opportunities, and helping us build our web reputation. Whenever we agree to create content on a certain topic, they do keyword research, prepare the content outline, and outsource it to a writer. Sometimes, the writer also comes from their internal team.

Our strategy has been to develop a quarterly roadmap, which we tweak month by month. Within that process, the team also shares their insights into what should be improved on the website, content, outreach strategy, and more. Ultimately, we only pick the top strategies because we’re a small team. We also consider what will drive the most impact, and more often than not, they execute those because they have the resources and ability to do so.

We also run paid advertising campaigns with them. They identify how SEO, SEM, PPC, and paid marketing channels can best work together to achieve our goals. They also constantly monitor our organic rankings and always look for growth hacking ideas on how to get to the top position faster and with fewer resources.

What is the team composition?

We work with Daniel (Director) and Andy (Co-Founder). Recently, they brought Nikki (Content Manager) and we closely collaborate with her. 

How did you come to work with Dandy Marketing?

Dandy Marketing was referred by our current content marketing manager. She had worked with them before. When we met up, we had a couple of initial discussions and it seemed like they could support us in developing our strategy further and help us execute it. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend approximately £2,000–£2,500 (approximately $2,700–$3,400 USD) monthly.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in February 2020, and we continue to collaborate. 

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

So far, the team has effectively optimized the pages that we’ve identified in the research process. For our organic traffic and in terms of everything that they’ve done with our SEO, we’ve been able to grow our organic traffic by about 500% in 2020. To give a better idea, we started with 3,000 organic sessions per month in January, and in December, we've achieved a 45,000 mark. That was quite a big leap. 

When we started in 2020, we were only ranking for about 3,000 organic keywords, and in December 2020, that number has jumped to 15,000. The team has also improved our domain rating by three points in that year. In terms of backlinks, I can’t tell you exactly how many, but we’ve had a lot. 

Overall, we’ve had a good experience with Dandy. They are able to work with our constraints and demands and accommodate all of them. They’re a really good partner. Moreover, they’re very easy to talk to. The team is also proactive.

More importantly, they don’t merely tell us what to do, but they do what needs to be done. The problem with our previous agency is that it was all just consultancy. Lastly, from a price perspective, they’re pretty affordable for what they offer. 

How did Dandy Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

We have monthly meetings with Dandy to provide the overview and strategy we need to do the next month. We also communicate heavily by email and almost on a daily basis. 

The team has always been willing to help even working on our last-minute requests, although we really try to avoid that. We’ve also told them that deadlines are important for us, and they’ve been able to keep up with that for the most part. There’s just one occasion where we probably missed a deadline by one day, but it’s nothing major. 

From a project management perspective, they’re good. In terms of reporting, they always prepare performance reports for our monthly meetings. We run through the numbers and we’re able to say what data we think is important, and they’re able to shape the reports based on our needs. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We are impressed that they can provide consultancy services and have the ability to execute the plans they present. I haven’t had many experiences with agencies before, so that’s what stands out the most for now. I also appreciate their ability to come in and explain things in simple terms where we don’t have to be an expert to understand what’s going on.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve liked a bit more structure as we began to work with them such as having a shared spreadsheet or project management tools such as Trello, but we have it now. I also think they can improve their paid advertising strategies. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a dedicated person on your team who’s going to manage the project. Dandy Marketing can execute a lot, but it’s best if you also understand what’s going on. Have a main point person on your team to accumulate that knowledge and sign off on certain things. Personally, I wouldn’t like to have an agency to just go and run with things. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a content marketing agency focused on tech B2B. I’m a founder and managing director of the business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Dandy Marketing?

We wanted to become more visible online and get more traffic and inbound leads through our website. The site was stagnant, and we weren’t doing a good enough job of attracting traffic.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We went to Dandy Marketing for the entire gambit of SEO services, specifically to increase the traffic to our website. They work with us in a systematic manner month to month, to optimize the website and create backlinks.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with Andy (Co-Founder) and Daniel (Director & Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Dandy Marketing?

We did a bit of a search around the place and found a few candidates. I didn’t want to work with an agency that was too clever for its own good and would overcomplicate things. A lot of SEO agencies gave us technical gobbledygook and talked a lot, with the intent of making us feel like we were too dumb to understand the field.

Dandy Marketing wasn’t like that. They were straight talkers, honest, and didn’t overinflate the complexity of what they’d be doing. I found them to be relatable and trustworthy.

How much have you invested with them?

We have a budget of about £500 (approximately $658 USD) per month and we’ve spent about £12,000 (approximately $15,800 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Dandy Marketing in November 2018, and it’s ongoing.

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

They give us monthly reports, and, from the time we started working with them till today, we’ve more than quintupled the traffic to the website. We’re ranking first on three of our organic search terms, which is pretty good for us, as a small agency with a limited monthly budget. Our goal completions are quite good, and we’re getting a lot of customers.

The website has become a strong source of inbound leads for us. Two of our biggest clients today came from the website, after finding it through a relevant search. We’re getting exposure on high-authority websites.

How did Dandy Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re quite responsive. Dandy Marketing is a relatively small team, and we have a relatively small budget, so we have to be realistic. We’re paying for a small but systematic campaign, and Dandy Marketing is very responsive within those parameters. They’re straightforward and come up with good ideas all the time. I have absolutely no complaints.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very good at driving organic search and results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wouldn’t go to them for website design or copywriting. Having said that, Dandy Marketing would be perfectly adequate to write copy for a small B2C company, but, because we offer a specific, niche service, and we’re a content marketing agency ourselves, we’re very particular about our content.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Dandy Marketing is extremely proactive, and I’d just make sure to listen to their advice on keywords and content structuring. They will keep sending the client opportunities for exposure, so it’s important to put in some time and fulfill those.