Digital Trails

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the CEO of a retail company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Retail website with an inventory of 1200+ collectible items

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Digital Trails to accomplish?

• Digital PR Campaign
• Media Coverage and Link Building
• Brand Awarness

SOLUTION

How did you find Digital Trails?

Upwork

Why did you select Digital Trails over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Digital Trails were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

I've hired Digital Trails to help me build media coverage for my startup. The end goal was to acquire organic links from relevant sites through a campaign that was supposed to take 2-3 months.

The main goal of the campaign is to get my website mentioned in articles that could bring organic traffic, which would help my backlink profile.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

TL;DR: The campaign promised by Digital Trails aimed to acquire organic links from relevant sites within 2-3 months, but it took 8 months and only resulted in 2-3 decent links with no organic traffic to my website.

Quoting what I was told when we signed the contract: they also made it sound like most of their clients would get organic traffic and sales to their website.

"We do guarantee a minimum of 50% of followed links estimated to be at least 8 in number. We aim to generate very high-value links (DR 70+ where possible) and the end results are likely to be a mix of values on the DR scale between 30 and 90. We also make sure there is topical relevance between your site and the ones linking to it."

Additionally, I was told that a normal campaign takes from 2 to 3 months.

In the end, what I received was completely different. They started working on the first campaign and, while they did good research, the article published on our website was entirely written by ChatGPT without even proofreading.

Then the outreach process started, and they completely failed to have anyone cover their story. They blamed external factors despite choosing the topic idea themselves.

In the end, they tried to add "links" to websites that sell guest posts just to achieve the number of links they promised, blindly following a metric like "Domain Rating," which any experienced marketing agency understands means nothing if the website doesn't have relevant organic traffic.

Moreover, most of the websites they showed me as "successful media coverage" had fake authors and almost no organic traffic.

Because the first campaign was a complete failure, they started a second campaign which was no longer "topically relevant." This got us 2-3 links that I would count as good and 5-6 others that are basic guest posts you can get for $100 each.

In the end, both campaigns took around 8 months and landed 8 links, out of which only 2-3 were decent with real authors and organic traffic. There was zero organic traffic that came to my website from this campaign.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The only good thing about Digital Trails was the fact that they always provided updates and got back to me in a timely manner. I wouldn't say they didn't try to deliver what they promised, but I do think they lack the experience they claim to have on their website, especially if you look at their "portfolio," at least based on my experience with them.

They outsource some of their work, which is why they have huge delays and never keep their promises. I believe that a Digital PR campaign should either get trusted backlinks from legitimate websites without blindly following a metric like "Domain Rating." These websites should be relevant to our site and bring some organic traffic.

Instead, they tried to offer me "guest post" links once they saw the campaigns had completely failed and there were no people who wanted to cover their story. 

What was your primary form of communication with Digital Trails?

Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They were always responsive to all my emails and kept me in the loop with their work.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Digital Trails could have done differently?

Digital Trails could have significantly improved their campaign by ensuring the quality and relevance of the content they produced. Instead of relying on automated tools like ChatGPT without proper proofreading, they should have provided well-researched, high-quality articles that genuinely resonate with target audiences. 

Additionally, focusing on securing backlinks from reputable websites with genuine organic traffic, rather than just meeting a metric like "Domain Rating," would have been more beneficial. They should also reconsider their outsourcing practices to avoid delays and ensure consistent quality. Better topic selection and a more strategic outreach process would likely have led to more successful media coverage and organic traffic.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Global Head of Digital and Social Media of Hult International Business School

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Global Business School offering undergraduate, post graduate and executive education programs across 7 campuses (London, Boston, Dubai, San Francisco, Shanghai, New York).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Digital Trails to accomplish?

• Reputational Change
• Google Search Ranking
• Performance PR
• SEM Strategy

SOLUTION

How did you find Digital Trails?

Referral

Why did you select Digital Trails over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• Other

How many teammates from Digital Trails were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The primary focus was to support the recovery of reputation damage across search and social media. A negative review by a former student was gaining traction across social and search which was having a direct impact on conversions. Digital Trails developed a comprehensive strategy that looked at performance PR, content marketing and on-site optimisation to drive search rankings and rebuild trust with the customer base. ne

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Improved search rankings 
• Prominence of proactive content marketing pieces to counter negative video review 
• Shift in brand perception Increased responsiveness to negative reviews

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Digital Trails are incredibly client-centric and understand how to operate in complex stakeholder environments. They were generous with their time and knowledge sharing over and above the day-to-day client servicing. Digital Trails are also highly responsive to delayed sign-off or authorisations, a particular hallmark of a large complex organisation, and adjust their strategy and output to continue to deliver results even when faced with client roadblocks.

What was your primary form of communication with Digital Trails?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Digital Trails are incredibly skilled not just in their disciplines but also in stakeholder management and client relations. I consider them a 'Gold Star' agency partner able to deal not only with complex challenges but demanding clients. Where other agencies scale back to meet minimum requirements of an engagement, Digital Trails stepped up as a true partner supporting the goals of their clients in a responsive and agile way.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Digital Trails could have done differently?

They were fantastic. The success of this first engagement and the experience with them as an agency has led me to engage them for other clients.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-owner of The Menagerie Collective LLC. I help manage our digital products and our physical products. We’re an incubator for playful ideas that help people connect more with themselves and others.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Trails?

We wanted to establish PR and external press for a card game we were producing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They got a press release finalized and put it out to news wires. They also established contacts with first-tier media and getting them exclusive access to the release. Additionally, we wanted them to set up interviews and media opportunities, as well as connect with influencers in our nice to spread the word about the game and procure giveaways.

They were mostly just our execution arm. The creative was already done on our side. The press release had also been drafted already, and they may have only tweaked it in a minor way.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Diana (Digital PR and Marketing Consultant) directly, for the most part. There was also Bodgan (Managing Director), with who I interfaced on the intake call, as well as in the weekly meetings.

How did you come to work with Digital Trails?

I found them on Upwork. Bogdan had an interest in our work, and I decided to use their services.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $3,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October until December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any metrics yet, but they helped us secure interviews and pushed forward other contacts we’d already made with other groups involved in regional news. They also connected us with influencers and bloggers interested in doing giveaways.

How did Digital Trails perform from a project management standpoint?

They used some things internally but we just used Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a friendly and professional attitude. Our Kickstarter didn’t perform up to my expectations, and they were able to maintain a spirit of encouragement. They were always willing to keep pushing. They also went above their estimated time allocation to make the project happen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Potentially I would have wanted more ideas around influencers or places to pitch for influencers. Part of their issue was because they had zero runaway. There were only two weeks before we went live. Our language and marketing around the game hadn’t been nailed down on our side, either.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They all have experience and work well together, in addition to being forthright. They were blowing smoke at us. If you’re considering a PR agency, then they’re definitely people to at least chat with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a marketing professional and I have a startup called Horses Middle East, a website marketplace for equestrians in the Middle East. We just launched a few months ago.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Trails?

We wanted to find an agency that could help us raise awareness and launch our brand.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At first, we needed to create exposure with our specific audience in the Middle East. Digital Trails’ ultimate goal is to improve our organic search and visibility through content creation and SEO.

What is the team composition?

I communicated with Bogdan (Managing Director) and Diana (Marketing & PR), but I talked directly with Diana and she would often give me updates every week.

How did you come to work with Digital Trails?

I researched using Google and came across several case studies. I saw that Digital Trails were experts in reputation management and increasing brand awareness. When I decided to inquire, the vendor seemed capable of doing our project.

Other notable things that they did were releasing a quote, providing details through emails, and having a concrete plan for our business which convinced us to hire them.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with Digital Trails from July–August 2020. The project has been completed but we will probably hire them again for our future project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team enabled us to track all the content and other deliverables. They were able to show reports about how our organic search and online reputation tremendously improved with their tactics and techniques. To be specific, Digital Trails was able to hit the keywords we wanted to rank for. Overall, they were very professional.

How did Digital Trails perform from a project management standpoint?

Digital Trails provides great communication, it was definitely one of their main assets. Even at the start of the project, they were always quick to respond and were always available. 

From the very beginning, they were very quick in responding to any queries, were always available, and very professional.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I liked the most is that they were able to understand what my needs were. I gave them a background of my future goals and the type of business. They understood what I wanted and where I wanted to get. They understood the background of the business and what needed to be done. 

Digital Trails collaborated with me as partners rather than an external agency. The team really felt like a part of our business. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

For what they have done for us, I cannot say there was an aspect I didn’t like. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as clear as possible when explaining what the goals are. If you just focus on how you want the job to be done, it is difficult for someone who is not part of your organization to understand what your long-term views are.

It is best to give your entire background and vision so that they can understand your view completely and give you an overview of the plan that they have in mind for your business.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the performance content director at a media planning agency. In my role, I head a content team that consists of content strategists, insight specialists, and copywriters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Trails?

We lean on Digital Trails as digital PR experts. They’re responsible for sending out our content to publications to earn backlinks and coverage.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Digital Trails supports us with end-to-end content marketing for a variety of clients. Essentially, we work together to brainstorm concepts before my team writes up the pieces and presents them to the client. 

Once we have approval, we work with Digital Trails to come up with a media list, and they conduct the PR activities themselves. They’ll aim for a target of X amount of coverage in publications at a certain value or higher, depending on our requirements.

What is the team composition? 

We work with two people at any given time, but there have been three people in total.

How did you come to work with Digital Trails?

I know their managing director personally and knew that his company would be a natural fit. They had services that we struggled with, so I approached him for help.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re approaching about £23,000 (approximately $29,500 USD). The work is on a project-by-project basis.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them consistently throughout April 2019. Obviously, this year has been different because of COVID-19, so we’ve had to pause some of our activities until recently.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen astounding success with Digital Trails’ work. They generally hit our targets within a reasonable timeframe, and we can measure those results in terms of keyword rankings.

For example, we recently completed a project for a UK-based telecoms brand and saw a 70% increase in daily clicks to a given landing page. As for our clients’ key terms, there was a 67% increase in average ranking positions for a set of 20–30 keywords, the main set landing third overall for a highly competitive term.

How did Digital Trails perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re pretty prompt to responding to our emails, and the project management is fairly light. We have an activity tracker in Google Sheet, which they update on a weekly basis. Each Friday, we’re able to see what they’ve done and the success that they’ve had.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Digital Trails always delivers results. We’ve never been in a position where we had to tell our clients that we couldn’t hit our targets. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO pf ChefPassport. We provide livestream interactive cooking classes with chefs worldwide. We are a platform where customers can book cooking services and select a slot with a chef they want to book for a specific cuisine of a specific country.

When the live streaming starts, they can cook along, discover more about the chef’s cultures, passions, cuisine, recipes. It is a way to connect chefs worldwide with cooking bloggers in interactive ways, especially during the pandemic.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Trails?

We officially launched in February. We didn’t start because of COVID as we spent the last year setting the foundation of the company. It happened by chance that we launched commercially a couple of weeks before lockdown here in Luxembourg.

We were looking for an SEO partner because we started very low in budget like all start-ups so we were attentive to our expenses. We would have liked to push the organic traffic, which is why we were looking for a reliable partner that would help us increase traffic and grow the company in general through organic SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We really appreciate the services because it is fully account managed. In the space of digital marketing, there are so many different activities and sometimes you lose focus, you don’t actually know what to do, or what is the best thing to do. I have to say that having a person that was on call for us during the project really helped us a lot because we had a lot of questions.

One of the things I liked the most was that it was a very scientific approach. First of all, they did a deep audit of our website to understand the areas of opportunities for improvement, where we were lacking, and building our keywords. For one week, they ran this audit and partially manually and partially through coding or some automated service.

They then delivered a very detailed report organized by priorities with very specific actions and recommendations on how we should improve things, what could have been done short term, and what we should have kept in our mind in the long run. It was very helpful, and we started applying all those recommendations over time.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was Bogdan (Founder and Managing Director).

How did you come to work with Digital Trails?

It is a little bit of a long journey. I am part of a company that is called the Founder Institute, and we actually help people start businesses. It is a business accelerator based out of Silicon Valley and I am the representative for Luxembourg. I run my company, and as a side project, I run this business incubator. One of my colleagues in the Founder Institute recommended Digital Trails to me.

What is the status of this engagement?

We opened the discussion when we were planning the launch in late December 2019, and we got the report and started optimizing the SEO at the beginning of March 2020. It was not a full-time project, but their efforts spanned around three months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This is the thing I like the most. We now have around 3,000 users, and we have at least a 20% to 30% month over month increase in terms of additional users to the website.

How did Digital Trails perform from a project management standpoint?

I would say that goes back to the account manager. I am sure they have a team of people that do the groundwork, but it was super convenient for us because it was seamless. We had Bogdan who was our point of contact and he took care of communicating with the internal team.

They met all the deadlines, the report was delivered on time, and we had several calls and they were always punctual. They would follow up with clear actions, deadlines, actionable items, and ETAs and the entire project management was very good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really appreciated their ability to break down all these different needs and recommendations into actionable items. Even before that, Bogdan was super dedicated and attentive to detail. We had a two-hour-long meeting where we went into very deep detail.

I would say their ownership and customer obsession in terms of how they treat their customers, as well as the level of detail in the information they provided us, was impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, I am really satisfied. The keyword search happened, but we had a previous company that provided us with that keyword research, and we used the previous research to base this work upon. I believe that is one thing that could have been a little deeper. It worked in any case, so it is really trivial.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Gift Universe Group Ltd. Our main trading brand is called Menkind, and we're a gift and gadget retail business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Trails?

We wanted to increase our online presence. We’re a multichannel business so we have 60 permanent brick-and-mortar stores, and that goes up to 90 at Christmas. However, the online part of the business wasn’t contributing adequately to our total sales.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do PR with the aim of getting backlinks into the site to improve our rankings. They also handle some on-site SEO and outreach. They do a lot of keyword research for us.

What is the team composition?

I work personally with Bogdan (Founder) as well as Diana (Marketing & PR).

How did you come to work with Digital Trails?

They were a personal recommendation.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their efforts are helping us increase our online presence. Our organic traffic has increased substantially. They provide reports that show us all the coverage we receive. My technical team members look for keyword rankings.

How did Digital Trails perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good at meeting deadlines and communicating. We correspond through emails and phone calls. They’re very keen on ensuring that information is flowing backward and forward. Their team is conscientious.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Digital Trails is very responsive and engaged in our project. It feels like they’re part of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of SEO of an international company specialized in Affiliate Marketing, currently active in 10 different countries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Digital Trails, and what were your goals?

We hired them to create an impactful multi-countries PR campaign to drive high-value editorial links.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I worked with their managing director in the past, and I knew that their services would fit our needs.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

The agency bagan with a discovery phase and found interesting insights and trends relevant to our markets. They created a cross-national ’index’ that aggregates several publicly available data sources. We created dedicated landing pages for each countries and then they manage all the outreach phase.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had an assigned project manager. Each country had an in-market PR, but we did not work directly with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

we improved the overall value of our sites; some countries performed better than others, bringing high-value backlinks.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had weekly alignment meetings. The campaign took much longer than expected.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their level of professionalism and dedication was impressive

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Probably, better campaign planning