DIGITORM

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As a modern marketing consultancy based in London, Locals Talk has built a global network of designers, developers, writers, marketers and publishers which it leverages to craft and deliver bespoke marketing strategy for its clients and products.

This includes paid and organic search marketing, paid and organic social media marketing, content services, blogger and public relations outreach services, as well as email marketing and marketing automation. My role here is as its founder, CEO and chief marketing consultant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We've worked with Digitorm on a variety of website builds, some were as simple as a bespoke landing page for a VPN client, others were extremely complex e-commerce website projects with newsletter, payment, event management and courier integrations.

The goal for our company was to outsource the work to someone very capable offering good value, to make it profitable for our marketing consultancy - something we can both be proud of. What's more, we found out they had SEO experts in their team as well, so we engaged them as well to outsource parts of our work.

SOLUTION

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

We worked with various vendors in different parts of the world before partnering with Digitorm. These guys have very good technical skills as well as good communication, which made them stand out compared to all the other companies we tried. In fact, for one project we had awarded to another company, they were so bad at communication that we flipped that over to Digitorm after seeing their performance and commitment to doing high quality work.

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

Each project we've allocated to Digitorm has been different. But typically, we would give them a brief as detailed as possible, then have a meeting to discuss any questions and iron out details or peculiarities ("client loves blue for weird reasons, so please ignore what psychometric analysis suggests for this industry, just go with blue").

Digitorm would then send us an estimate which we would typically approve, or ask for changes if needed. Upon kick-off, we would decide the payment schedule and grant access to servers or control panels, etc., and get building. After each iteration we review, feedback and then the team would come back with changes. In the end, the website would be made live and all technical issues would be resolved by Digitorm.

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

We mostly deal with the founder for pricing and costing. Then one project manager who was as good as implementation as he was with explaining things and managing the project. We ended up adding 8 members of their team to our company Slack for better coordination on our projects, which included designers, developers, systems admin, project manager, and SEO expert.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since new website revisions have gone live, our clients have typically seen a 20% drop in bounceback rates, clickthrough rates have increased by 30% and the quality score of the ads we run for our clients has increased from 7 to 9, on average, because of the landing page improvements. For one VPN client, we only had Digitorm do the landing page which increased new user signups by 70%.

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

We use our company Slack with dedicated channels for ongoing communication. Bigger projects get their own Slack channel. We also coordinate and discuss things over Zoom and it has been useful to record some of these Zoom calls because things can get lost in note taking. We also use emails, Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, and Dropbox for file sharing.

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

The whole team has an amazing "can-do" attitude towards everything. But at the same time they will let you know the limitations of a certain approach or unreasonable request. Like, if a client has a new feature request, they will immediately suggest a way of implementing it, but then also let us know this will push the project forward by X weeks.

Apart from that, the quality of work and price point is a really good ratio, and I know with reviews like this it will likely change, but I hope their older partners will still get the same value for their work.

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

Since we do ongoing work with Digitorm, the only thing I can think of is if they were able to have financial tracking sheets so we know when certain payments will be due. I often have to dig through my inbox to figure out if there are any pending invoices, and I maintain a spreadsheet to predict when the next payments will be due so I can manage our company cashflow in a better way.

I do love their flexibility, but I have to do some legwork in terms of financial management, which I don't mind, but perhaps some improvement in this area would save me time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there?

I’m the CEO of Ajeeb Studio, a fashion and design collective.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digitorm?

We were already on social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, but we wanted a website to help us automate our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we explained our business, goals, target audience, and so on. Digitorm then created a website to help us automate our business processes and sell products. The website is live, but they continue to provide ongoing support and maintenance.

What is the team composition?

I interact with two people, but more teammates are working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Digitorm?

I found them through word of mouth. I knew they were flexible and helpful to small businesses, so I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent around $900–$1,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in February 2021, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site has a good UX design, and the automation has made it much easier to interact with our customers. The feedback has also been good. Overall, I’m pretty happy with what Digitorm has done for us.

How did Digitorm perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been a smooth process. Digitorm has done what I’ve asked of them and delivered on time. We use Slack and WhatsApp to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand my vision and communicate well. It’s easy to work with Digitorm.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing they could do better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Tell them precisely what you want. Be honest about what you like or don’t like throughout the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founding partners of an online business that started selling on marketplaces in Australia, such as Amazon among others. Then we launched our website yellowtree.com.au, as well as two others, with one being managed by Digitorm.

We’re planning to launch a third website very soon.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digitorm?

Digitorm manages our website and provides us with digital marketing services, including copywriting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do everything, from building the website from scratch, to doing the creatives and running Facebook ads. Currently, they're doing Google Ads for us and we’ve just started using TikTok, so they basically provide us an end-to-end service.

For the technology used, all the websites are built on Shopify. We've been doing this since February and we're constantly building different themes and apps to see which ones are going to work for us in the long term.

Moreover, they’re managing our social media pages and also working on our SEO.

What is the team composition?

I work with both founders and I believe they have a team made up of 25 people.

How did you come to work with Digitorm?

One of our co-founders is friends with Digitorm.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $100,000 AUD (approximately $71,500 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2021, and the partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This website started from zero, but now, we're doing well. There's exponential growth every month, and we have winning digital campaigns now on certain products. The high tickets are working really well and they're profitable, so the conversions are really good.

How did Digitorm perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. Because of the difference in time zones, there are people working 24/7 — so if we have any requests or we need something done urgently, it pretty much gets done quickly.

Additionally, we don’t use any project management tools, so if we need reports, we just tell them to send us a report. Because of the distance, we have this WhatsApp group for different functions, so we communicate and talk regularly there.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We like that they're very hardworking and they’re always thinking of the business. It’s hard finding the right partner and an outsourcing partner who treats your business as their business. They're always thinking about how to improve our business, how to increase conversion, and how to bring more traffic. 

They come with a lot of ideas which we then go and refine — it's a pretty close relationship, I would say.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they're doing a really good job, so I can't complain about them.

Any advice for potential customers?

I think they should give them a go and wait for the results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run a blog about businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs. We do content marketing with the blog articles on our website and our posts on social media platforms. We are trying to promote a business-centric culture and educate people about the startup culture and how they can benefit from it. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digitorm?

We started our blog more than a year ago, and while we were good writers, we weren’t familiar with SEO and its best practices. As such, we needed help to rank for specific keywords on Google, increase organic traffic on our blog, and build our social media presence. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Digitorm writes SEO-friendly content for our website, and they are building our online presence through posts on Instagram and Facebook. Additionally, they are providing guidelines on how to maintain our website.

Digitorm conducts keyword research, and we work closely with their team to come up with topics relevant to our website and brand. We discuss trending topics and plan content for the coming weeks, so we don’t scrape for keywords at the last minute. 

They are doing both on- and off-site SEO. As such, they provide work with keywords and content optimization, and they also build our backlinks through blogger outreach. We use Google Ads for some PPC campaigns, but we don’t focus on that. Instead, our focus is on building organic traffic. 

What is the team composition?

I am in contact with Sarim (Founder), and he handles our project. I think a few other people are working with him. 

How did you come to work with Digitorm?

I found Digitorm through a mutual connection. At the time, we only started our blog, and we were looking for someone who would provide their services a little cheaper than other companies. 

Initially, we had some calls with Digitorm, and I asked them how they would approach our project and measure its success. I also asked what type of content they got before and if they could handle our volume. Sarim assured us that anything they would do, they would run by us. 

We tried them out for three months, and if their performance were up to the mark after those three months, then we would continue with them. We’ve been working for over a year now. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $500 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2020, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure Digitorm’s success with how many keywords we were ranking for in Google for our SEO campaign. We’ve managed to rank for about 1,600 keywords on Google, and from that, 15–20 are on the first page and within the first three results — that’s a pretty big deal. 

For our Facebook campaigns, we measure their success by the engagement we are getting and the number of posts they have created. For that, we have about 3,000 followers, and they produce 1–2 posts every day. 

How did Digitorm perform from a project management standpoint?

Digitorm is very involved with our project. The communication is smooth, and they provided a dedicated project manager. In addition, we have our own WhatsApp and Slack group, and they’re in constant contact with our team. 

Additionally, Digitorm has a very proactive approach — they share trending content and websites with us and tell us how to adapt other people’s strategies to our campaign. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with Digitorm’s communication skills. They communicate every single change they make, and we haven’t encountered any delays in their responses. In addition, they are readily available all the time — while they have their operating hours, they go out of their way to help us, even beyond official hours. Sometimes, we ask silly questions, and they have the patience to deal with that. 

Digitorm communicates everything quite perfectly. We aren’t well-versed in SEO, but they share details smoothly and effectively explain what they’re trying to do and their end goal. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can improve their focus on social media. They are great at Facebook — we built around 3,000 likes on our page, and their creators are amazing as well. However, because we are not focusing on social media, we could not use that as much as our website. If we focused more on social media, we probably would have gotten better results. That said, our budget was limited, and we couldn’t ask them to focus on anything beyond our website. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d say go for it — Digitorm’s team is pretty good. They will resonate with you, and they will understand and adapt to your needs rather than insisting on their opinions. They’re good communicators; they will know what you want. They are up-to-date and know exactly what’s trending in the market. You wouldn’t be just a client, but a partner — they will help you grow.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of a Tech Startup. I focus on marketing and outreach for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Digitorm to do our Onpage and Technical SEO. Our pages were not being indexed on google and our content and on-page SEO was all over the place.

SOLUTION

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

I personally knew one of the co-founders, and once I pitched the problem to him, he became completely invested in the project. Their dedication and attention to detail really impressed me.

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

Our pages were not being indexed and there were problems while submitting our sitemap as well. The SEO team at Digitorm first set out to fix our Sitemap and resubmit it on Google Search Console. Then, they edited our Robots.txt file. The pages were now being indexed and a sitemap was now valid. Lastly, they went about fixing our on-page content and tags and structure for on-page SEO.

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

I was in contact with their SEO lead, who was working with another person from his team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After implementing their changes, our pages were finally being indexed and our site started appearing on google results.

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

We communicated mostly over Slack and Whatsapp. Their communication was on-point, and they were always available. All deliverables were completed on time.

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

Their professionalism and attention to detail really impressed me. They communicated seamlessly and solved all of our problems. The quality of their work was exceptional as well!

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

Not really. They were nearly perfect in all aspects.