Direct Online Marketing

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Biz Dev for a full-service Amazon Seller-focused Marketing and Advertising agency. We help brands make more money on Amazon...without breaking the rules.

For what projects/services did your company hire Direct Online Marketing?

We provide services in a very niche market, so we needed somebody who understands that to undertake the behemoth task of advertising and marketing our skills on Google.

How did you select this vendor?

We researched and looked at online reviews for 15 advertising agencies, then narrowed it down to 6 for initial strategy/discovery calls. After those 6 calls, we quickly narrowed it down to our top 3, then invited those three to meet with our Leadership team to make their pitch based on the proposals they'd sent prior to.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After beginning with a series of discovery meetings, they focused on where we could make the biggest impact, as well as the benchmarks provided for our industry and the expectations set forth by our Executive team. They met with our Leadership team, went through the scope in detail, and then came up with an advertising plan that included everything we were looking for + their own expert recommendations for ranking on Google and maximizing our ad spend on Google Adwords.

What was the team composition?

During the discovery phase, I worked closely with their digital marketing strategist and CEO to scope the project appropriately. I now have 5 subject matter experts assigned to my account, with a designated point person bridging the gap between them and us.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

In 60 days, they have quadrupled our qualified inbound leads, minimized the chaff, maximized our ad spend, and provided expert guidance that helped us identify a leak in our ad spend that was unnecessarily bleeding $700 monthly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I have weekly meetings with my account manager, and strategists to go over progress, address any outstanding needs from me, and plan upcoming week(s). We communicate regularly via Slack and email, and I have direct access to phone the CEO.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They always show up prepared, having sent the agenda and weekly insights beforehand. Jill's note-taking is comprehensive and precise, which allows me to listen, engage, and focus on the meeting itself rather than hoping I didn't forget to write something down that I would need later. Receiving those notes in a timely manner after each meeting helps me manage my time and tasks more efficiently, as well.

Matt's knowledge about the data and trends relevant to us is mind-boggling and so very helpful. He breaks complicated advertising strategies down into layman terms, is patient with my questions, and kind in his responses. When my anxiety is up over things I do not comprehend, they are collectively (and consistently) the calm voice of reason. The team has made recommendations that will save us money across the board and that alone is worthy of applause and praise.

DOM is truly the most transparent advertising team I've worked with in this industry, and I am so grateful. I know we made the right decision.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

I realize nobody and no company is perfect, but I am truly happy with the services provided. They have gone above and beyond, respond quickly, and do exactly that for which we've contracted with them. I have no complaints.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of sales and marketing for a company aligned with a solutions provider. We market a cloud suite industrial solution.

What challenge were you trying to address with C-Leveled?

We needed to update our social media strategy and marketing technologies to ultimately increase leads. We needed assistance with our website management too. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

In general, we contract them for social media management, campaign research, and campaign facilitation. A lot of their work involves LinkedIn. Their team manages our marketing and advertising campaigns, which includes direct mail and digital initiatives. Based on our prospective buyers, they create and market content too.

C-Leveled also recreated our website, modernizing the platform. Their team still manages it. They’ll also do periodic design work, such as creating new business cards or adding to the website.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager, Abby (Social Media & Digital Engagement Manager), and periodically deal with Denise (Chairman).

How did you come to work with C-Leveled?

We found them through our local network. We reached out to folks who we respect, and they recommended Denise’s company. She visited our office and explained what her team had to offer. We were impressed with the presentation.

How much have you invested with them?

On an annual basis, we budget around $40,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our relationship around 4–5 years ago, and it’s ongoing. We recently had our yearly planning session.

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

We periodically receive updates concerning our LinkedIn activities. Their team tracks social media and website engagement. Since hiring C-Leveled, our social media engagement has significantly increased. We also receive statistics on website hits, which have also increased.

How did C-Leveled perform from a project management standpoint?

We establish a plan for the year and then, we have quarterly reviews and update campaigns. My marketing director has routine calls with Abby. If we have any questions, we get great responses from her. The communication between our companies has been good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

C-Leveled wanted to understand us and our goals to address in their marketing campaigns. They research new technologies for social media and bring them to us as opportunities. They keep us focused in the right direction, moving us forward with the marketplace.

Are there any areas they could improve?

An important part of our relationship is reaching prospective buyers. Last year was difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have to work even more on attracting more prospective buyers to our platform and move them to the point where they’re looking for our solution.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that you communicate exactly what you want to C-Leveled. Tell them your challenges and goals for the relationship. If they fully understand those factors, they’ll be able to support you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director and part-owner of JV Manufacturing. We’re a tool and die shop. We make high-quality cookie cutters for the industries of consumer goods, fuels, energy products, and just about anything that can be stamped out of metal and plastic at a high-volume rate. We make different tooling and components for companies such as 3D printing shops and things of that nature.

What challenge were you trying to address with C-Leveled?

Primarily, all of our business has come through word of mouth. A lot of people — both locally and nationally — only knew of us if they had some sort of direct connection. We decided to take the opportunity to grow the company and wanted to start marketing ourselves.

We wanted to have a sales department because we had never had one before. We recognized the fact that we should brand ourselves, work on our website, and establish our digital presence. That’s why we engaged with C-Leveled to get that ball rolling.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, C-Leveled collected data and information of where we were at in terms of our social media and website. They looked into how many viewers we had and other things of that nature so we had a baseline to start with. Their team sat down with us and described where we were at in the digital realm and against our competitors.

At that particular part, C-Leveled developed a year plan to see the different marketing goals we needed to meet. The first objective was to establish a new brand. We didn’t really need a logo and everything was mismatched otherwise. Our teams worked on that and got a brand that we agreed upon. Next, we did a soft launch with the brand so specific VIP customers and employees could get a firsthand introduction.

As they were doing that, C-Leveled was doing behind-the-scenes work with our website and social media. Our social media accounts were a bit of a mess so they cleaned those up for us. They worked with us to get one site taken down and initiate a new one. Their team also brought photographers to take pictures of equipment, employees, and anything they could utilize in both social media and the website.

Once they compiled all that together, there were several meetings where we got to view the demo of the website. We critiqued and tweaked it as needed, providing background and content. The website grew from there and we were able to fully launch it.

C-Leveled also helped us with our sales department. They suggested Hubspot and worked with us to initiate it. Their team provided training to our staff to show how to utilize the Hubspot technology along with the new website.

By October 2020, we fully launched the new brand, sent out welcome emails, conducted introductions through Hubspot to our customer base, introduced our new website, and built our content on social media.

What is the team composition?

I work with Denise (President & CEO) and Janice (Client Services Director).

How did you come to work with C-Leveled?

I had heard great things about their organization. I’ve met Denise on more than one occasion from conferences to personal settings. After diving into what they do and hearing from other companies they’ve worked with, it was a no-brainer. I reached out to see if they’d be interested and available. We held a little meeting and things moved forward from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $50,000–$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around July 2019.

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

C-Leveled has performed beautifully. They’re incredibly impressive. I’m not tech-savvy, and they were able to work with us. We didn’t have the marketing background or finesse to provide them with the content. Their team was able to take all of our rough data and information and really present it in a professional and organized way. I absolutely love it. They understood us as a company and showed that on our website and social media. Their team is amazing at taking an idea and turning it into something living.

The website traffic has increased. Our social media has been the biggest impact. We’re trending slightly under our competitors but 2020 was more about getting it out there; 2021 is about ramping it up. We have campaigns in place that we’re working on with C-Leveled to ramp up. Those will help us get more followers and traffic.

It’s easy to track the customer base information we pull from the website. That’s extremely helpful for our sales department to reach out and learn about new customers, partnerships, and suppliers. Overall, there’s great community awareness. Recruiting has been easier too. We were previously kept a secret in our area, and now we’re starting to get more of a presence in our own community.

How did C-Leveled perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is excellent. C-Leveled keeps the client informed as to where they are in the process. Every step of the way, I’ve known where they’re at. I know if they have setbacks or are moving slightly ahead than expected. If anything, we’ve caused them to miss deadlines because we haven’t been able to get the information to them. They’ve been more than helpful in trying to find ways to support us in gathering that information.

Management-wise, I couldn’t find a single complaint. C-Leveled has been incredibly professional and wonderful to work with. When I have my update meetings with Janice, I always tell her I want to come work for them. They’re just awesome to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work. Not only are they an incredibly pleasurable team to work with, but they also produce an outstanding quality of work. C-Leveled takes an idea or thought and gets to know the heart of the company as well as their vision and values. They were able to see that and display it in a way to our customers and candidates. Our website really shows who we are and what we’re about.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Providing additional examples of their past work with clients would be beneficial. I understand that sometimes clients aren’t willing to share that information. I was very green and didn’t fully understand some of the steps we went through along the process. Having examples of a past campaign or project might have been helpful early on so I'd have my head wrapped around what their expectations and needs are.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Prioritize and schedule things ahead for yourself so you have that available time to work with the company and ensure you’re providing what they need. Looking back, I wish had set chunks of time throughout the year to dedicate to working on the project with them and not get caught up on the day-to-day things.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director and associate vice chancellor of innovation entrepreneurship at the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, part of the University of Pittsburgh.

What challenge were you trying to address with C-Leveled?

We had marketing issues reaching the correct audiences. The programs that we offer are very different depending on the type of business we’re serving, so our marketing efforts are multi-channel. Also, our website was outdated, and it wasn’t very user-friendly.

What was the scope of their involvement?

C-Leveled redid our website and ultimately delivered an entirely new site. We had a kickoff meeting to discuss our needs and audiences, and our team provided them with all of our collateral. They developed wireframes and provided example mock-ups and a rough draft of the website. Then, they plugged in the content. 

They refined our marketing materials to better reach our audiences. This included redoing our newsletter and printed materials. We used HubSpot for inbound marketing. Our work together is ongoing.

What is the team composition?

Our project manager is Janice (Client Services Director), and she is excellent.

How did you come to work with C-Leveled?

A couple of our clients used C-Leveled, and they referred us to Denise (President & CEO). We liked that there was no commitment — we can opt out at any time. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began more than ten years ago. 

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

The site has a clean, fresh look with updated graphics. It's much more user- and mobile-friendly. 

One of the key metrics for the site and marketing materials is lead generation, and we’ve definitely seen an increase in leads and new business coming in. Other metrics that indicate new business coming in, such as click-through rates and read rates, went up as well. 

How did C-Leveled perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good at meeting deadlines. If we ask them to modify the scope in such a way that would change the deadline, they let us know in advance.

Communication is ongoing, and we have meetings as-needed. In the past year, they’ve pivoted to a virtual environment very well. They’re very fluent with Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

C-Leveled has a great team. They think outside of the box, and they’re very client-focused. Their services are also reasonably priced.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I really don’t — we’ve been working together for a long time, and I don’t see any areas of improvement.

Any advice for potential customers?

Remain open to suggestions and try to see ideas outside of the box.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing and e-commerce director at a children’s and family media company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Direct Online Marketing?

We didn’t have the expertise in-house to drive demand through paid search efforts. We needed to outsource the responsibilities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Primarily, Direct Online Marketing manages paid search efforts across Google and Bing. Their team has been hands-on, focusing on search engine campaigns, text ads, and retargeting display ads. They’ve also been working on custom intent displays. They've supported all aspects of campaigns from ideation to reporting. Their team has written ad copy—which requires our approval— and managed spending levels during campaigns. They've acquired a good understanding of our business and various products. Their team understands the profitability of our products, so they’ve been mindful of how we can use paid search to drive profitable revenue for the company.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had direct contact with three people. But, they have an in-house team that also handles our account. We’ve worked with a strategist, an account director, and the owner directly.

How did you come to work with Direct Online Marketing?

Direct Online Marketing had a relationship with a member of our leadership team and joined the company before I started. Our team understood that they had the expertise to help us manage these campaigns.

How much have you invested with them?

Usually, we've spent around $12,000 a month with Direct Online Marketing.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed an agreement with them in July 2018, and our work is ongoing.

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

Since beginning our work with Direct Online Marketing, we've been up year over year with equal or less spent in the market. Their team has made us more efficient. They've made significant improvements from a structural standpoint. Their team rebuilt our entire Google ads campaign strategy including how the account targeted keywords, which helped us understand how we were performing in different business units. They helped us set up a better framework to manage these campaigns and understand exactly what’s happening with them.

How did Direct Online Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Typically, we have a concept for our next product. We’ll meet with Direct Online Marketing to discuss the idea. Then, they’ll take the ball, run with it, and implement a keyword strategy. In the beginning, we had a resource in our office. Every two weeks they were here for a week and sat in on our product team meeting. It was as if they were a part of our team, not an outsourced partner. They’ve been hands-on and delivered the results, so Direct Online Marketing has done a good job managing this engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to understand our business has stood out. Working with other vendors in this space, we’ve had to reiterate our business goals, budget, and products constantly. That’s not the case with Direct Online Marketing. Their team picked up on what we’re doing really quickly. If we have a new product release, it’s been easy because they know it, the business units, and the cost structure behind it. It’s easy to deploy a new product with their team because of their understanding of the business and the metrics we need to hit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s not a bad thing but I’m a really aggressive marketer, so I want to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. I want to cast the widest net possible then optimize from there and pull things back as needed. It's not a bad thing but they’re hesitant to do that because their team wants to hit our metrics from day one. Most business owners would say that’s a wonderful thing because they’re mindful of the dollars they’re spending.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get Direct Online Marketing involved. They’re smart. Their team knows what they’re doing. Involve them in the business. Help them understand your goals and the products or services you’re trying to sell. It’ll work out well.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an International wholesaler of Electrical, Plumbing, and Industrial products.

For what projects/services did your company hire Direct Online Marketing?

We hired DOM to supplement and strengthen our e-commerce marketing. Our e-commerce division was under-performing, and we needed SME's to guide our ongoing work.

What were your goals for this project?

To put together cross-platform marketing campaigns and ultimately, increase sales.

How did you select this vendor?

We recognized Justin Seibert as a thought-leader in this space. We were looking for a company small enough to have a personal touch, but with the experience of a full-service company.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

DOM designs, maintains, and strategizes PPC campaigns for us across multiple platforms. They have coached us on best SEO practices. They also design Geo-Fencing strategies for us to target specific geographical locations world-wide. DOM also provides traditional marketing services - such as newsletter publishing.

What was the team composition?

Over the course of our relationship, we have dealt with 2 different team leads. Both were excellent at managing our expectations and finances, and both proved capable and competent managers.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We have seen marked improvement in sales and customer engagement since we began our relationship with DOM.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management has been done at an accessible and organized pace. Their managers consistently make it easy for my team to utilize the tools we have at our disposal to meet regularly. We are up-to-speed at all times.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their internal reports and tools that far exceed the expectations we had. This depth of analysis was unavailable to us prior to our work with DOM.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little that DOM can improve upon given the constraints that we have as a customer. We are very satisfied with the services they have provided.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of a hydraulic sales and service company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Direct Online Marketing?

We hired Direct Online Marketing to manage our PPC campaigns and increase our marketing efforts.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Direct Online Marketing maintains our PPC efforts and compiles weekly reports with relevant analytics and information. They’ve enhanced our existing campaigns with keyword research, Google Ads, retargeting efforts, etc.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Nikki (Director of Operations, Direct Online Marketing). She serves as our account manager.

How did you come to work with Direct Online Marketing?

We followed a referral from someone and hired Direct Online Marketing for the project.

How much have you invested with them?

Our monthly spend is $3,500 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We’ve seen a significant increase in traffic, leads, and overall business. Looking at the comprehensive weekly reports, we can tell they are producing fantastic results for us across the board.

How did Direct Online Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m always able to contact Nikki. I communicate with their team several times a week, if not daily. They visit our location from time to time, and we primarily speak through phone calls and email. Their team also compiles informative reports to keep us updated on their progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the best things about Direct Online Marketing is that they’re easy to work with. Even on weekends, they’re available to solve any issues I have. I enjoy having one point of contact because all it takes is one phone call for my problems to be fixed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can think of for them to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring your ideas to them and work together. I’ve never had any issues with them and everything has worked out.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a data sensitivity and data loss protection (DLP) company. While there are several companies that offer DLP solutions, those tools often miss about 40% of sensitive data. Our solution helps to discover that remaining data and organizes it to ensure that the information stays in-house. As the digital marketing manager, I oversee search engine marketing (SEM) and SEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Direct Online Marketing?

Our biggest challenge was figuring out a way to drive more bottom-of-the-funnel leads into our pipeline. We wanted to target leads that were ready and sophisticated enough to use our solutions compared to other high-level leads from white paper resources. Direct Online Marketing joined the project to support our digital marketing efforts, including paid ad campaigns and Google Analytics tracking.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rather than just relying on them to give us marketing information, we’ve maintained a mutual relationship. I report on what’s working and voice ideas that I think could work, and then Direct Online Marketing provides insights based on past data from B2B industries. Through that collaboration, we develop paid ad campaigns that target sophisticated leads. Currently, we use three ad platforms, including LinkedIn, AdWords, and Bing. To track our efforts, we use Google Analytics in addition to the AdWords’ conversion data and a CRM.

What is the team composition?

I initially worked with a more senior individual but realized that I needed someone who could look at our account daily. They’ve since assigned a more agile resource, which has worked well so far.

How did you come to work with Direct Online Marketing?

My boss had used them previously and recommended them during the vetting process. After evaluating numerous vendors, I felt like they were the best bet.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $25,000 on their services thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work started in July 2018 and is ongoing.

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

In general, we’ve noticed that some of their competitive campaigns have helped drive more bottom-to-late-stage traffic to our site, and they’ve helped us identify new trends. For example, we’ve seen that people often search for popular industry terms when news outlets report on law changes to data security. Leveraging this insight has proven valuable to driving lead volume while keeping a low cost per lead (CPL).

How did Direct Online Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

While I can’t see task progress in real time, we discuss the majority of our items during weekly meetings. They also send agendas that show us what we’ve covered the week before and what we plan to do for the following week. This allows me to judge which deliverables will make it to the next meeting.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of Direct Online Marketing’s main strengths is that they learn about your product to tailor their solutions. There’s a huge difference between an agency that targets numbers compared to one that takes a qualitative approach. Their team tries to understand how an end user would resonate with your product before developing the message. I appreciate the time they take to do their due diligence.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is no glaring area of improvement needed. If anything, the client should be doing a better job of specifying needs, goals and mutually work towards a plan of action.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide as much detail as possible during the onboarding process, and be transparent about what’s working and what’s not. Then, look at what the data says compared to your broader, executive goals, and create a plan of action to achieve them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing VP for Corporate Visions, Inc. We’re a marketing, sales messaging, and skill-training consulting company. Everything we do is based on a unique decision-making science. We work with universities to help us understand how the brain works in response to marketing and sales components. Using that knowledge, we help companies build their sales pipelines and close better deals.

What challenge were you trying to address with Direct Online Marketing?

Despite having a compelling story to tell, our website wasn’t getting the amount of traffic we intended. Also, the lack of web traffic limited the number of worthwhile leads we’d receive. We needed a digital marketing agency to solve those issues by managing our SEO campaigns.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Jonathan (Digital Marketing Manager, Direct Online Marketing) understands that I don’t have time to manage every aspect of the SEO effort, but I do need results. He and his team function as an extension of our company.

Jonathan started the engagement by recommending various strategies to drive more traffic to the site and, thus, generate more leads. He also communicated tasks we could do on our end to improve our overall score. However, his team does as much as they can, knowing that I don’t have an internal SEO specialist. They aren’t afraid to dive into work without putting pressure on us to help them.

They only do SEO and are continually going through Google Analytics. Jonathan takes screenshots and puts them together into regular reports for me. This saves me the headache of trying to analyze the data on my own.

What is the team composition?

Jonathan is our primary point of contact.

How did you come to work with Direct Online Marketing?

I first discovered them while working for another company. Justin (Founder, Direct Online Marketing) worked with that company’s CMO, and I remembered the excellent work they did. Once this project came up, I wanted to bring them in for an interview. We hit it off right away and they understood what I wanted from an SEO agency. As a result, we decided to hire them.

How much have you invested in them?

Initially, we spent about $3,000 per month. We’ve since increased our investment due to the measurable results the previous campaigns have produced.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in July 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

When we first started working together, we were averaging somewhere between 15,000–17,000 people visiting our site each month. Now, the site’s consistently seeing 22,000—24,000 hits per month. As a result of this significant bump in web traffic, I’ve put some lofty goals in front of them. I look forward to seeing record-breaking traffic flooding our website in the future.

We measure the effectiveness of the work that they’re doing not just by the traffic, but also by the quality of that traffic. We gauge the quality by the number of people that fill out our contact form. Before engaging Direct Online Marketing, 20–25 people filled out the contact form each month. Now, we average somewhere close to 40 submissions a month, and that’s a huge statistic for us. 25% of people that people that fill out that form go directly into our pipeline, so it’s our most reliable way to generate new business.

How did Direct Online Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

We meet every other week, and I’m the one that ends up rescheduling on them most of the time. But we talk a lot more than that and will email each other back and forth. They’re consistent in the way they deliver exactly what I need. I get a detailed weekly report from Jonathan letting me know how we performed the week before. If I don’t have the numbers but require them to reveal the results of this program to my CEO, they’re fantastic about getting those to me immediately. I don’t have to wait more than 30 minutes before everything is in my inbox.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Direct Online Marketing knows what they’re doing, evident by the results they produce. But it's not always about business. Every time I meet with them, we have great personal conversations. They’re great about looking to improve and still come to me with recommendations on how we can do better. A lot of SEO agencies like to boost performance once, and that’s good enough for them. Instead, Direct Online Marketing constantly pushes the envelope. They’re great communicators and are fun to work with, too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m somewhat demanding when it comes to results. Some of our competitors have double the web traffic that we do, and I would eventually like to be there at some point. That isn’t solely on the agency, but the results could always be better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s okay to ask for help in understanding the various aspects of SEO, but there’s also no shame in letting the experts handle it. Allowing Direct Online Marketing to own a piece of the project has been a successful approach for us. We work well together because I’m extremely clear with what I want from them. Foster that kind of relationship with them, and they’ll deliver the required results.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of corporate marketing for an AI software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Direct Online Marketing?

We use a variety of marketing techniques to promote our company and the products we make; digital marketing is one of the most lucrative methods. We needed a partner who could improve our online visibility, and in turn, help us hit our sales and revenue goals, keep our customers engaged, locate new partners, and contribute to the overall success of our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

After changing the name of our company, we felt that it would be appropriate to revamp our website and change our domain name as well. Every new website experiences a decline in traffic. They implemented SEO best practices into the new site to help grow our audience.

Google isn’t cooperative when pages are missing, so a significant scope of the work involved reconciling all of the pages on the old site on the new site. They ensured that the descriptions and keyword strategies aided with our overall goal to drive more traffic to our website. Current Google Analytics metrics are compared to the previous week’s measurements and the pre-launch stats. They also examine keywords to confirm that the appropriate audiences are being directed to relevant pages. Some websites still have our old domain listed on their pages, so they’re coming up with link reclamation strategies to reach out to those companies and request changes.

We usually have several Direct Online teams working on multiple projects at a time, which include running our online ad campaigns, managing SEM initiatives, and making sure we're spending the right amount of dollars for the right keywords.

What is the team composition?

We initially had one point of contact during the early stages of our partnership. Now that their team has grown, we have designated contacts for digital marketing projects, SEO and SEM initiatives, and general project management.

How did you come to work with Direct Online Marketing?

Our CMO introduced me to Direct Online eight years ago, and I have been using them for our digital marketing needs ever since. Their status as a trusted Google-partner is comforting, but we’re loyal to them because the quality of their services is unfailingly effective.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on the SEO project in March 2017, and they continue to measure the impact of their work via Google Analytics.

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

They planned all of the SEO strategies months before launching the new site, which has made it easier to rebuild our audience. There was an initial dip when we debuted the new site, but traffic is increasing by 15%-20% each week.

How did Direct Online Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

After our weekly meetings, they send a follow-up email to ensure that both of our teams have a clear set of deliverables. For good measure, documents are also shared and managed on Google Docs. Whether by phone, email, or Skype, they’re always available to answer our questions and provide immediate assistance. They’ve even traveled from West Virginia to sit down with us at our California office and get a better understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish. Their willingness to literally go the extra mile is one of many ways they’ve shown their commitment to their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Working with Direct Online is like working with colleagues who have our company’s best interest at heart. I recommend their services to any business looking to enhance their online presence.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We wouldn’t change anything about them because they always bring us spectacular results. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be willing to put in the necessary work on your end to make the engagement worthwhile. Direct Online has specialized in digital marketing for decades, so take advantage of their knowledge.