ELMNTL

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of a private events company. We have some retail operations but we mostly operate in the catering space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ELMNTL?

Our goal was to maintain our social media presence and improve our business through better branding and customer awareness. In terms of metrics, we wanted to generate leads.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an event space in New York and an event space, steak house, and spa in Myrtle Beach. The services ELMTNL provides differ between the retail and event pipelines, but, in general, they handle social media posting on Facebook and Instagram, Google Ads for the catering space, a bit of localized ad work, and Facebook marketing. They also run a blog for our New York City location and our spa.

We speak with them monthly and give them points that we want to change. They also provide SEO for us, and even though they’ve offered web design and one-marketing campaign help, we haven’t utilized those services yet. They’ve done the bulk of the work around finding kewords for SEO. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 1–2 people.

How did you come to work with ELMNTL

We did some online research and came across their brand. The final decision came down to them and one other company, and ELMNTL had a more competitive strategy. The other vendors just wanted us to spend more money.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost is around $200,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had success in terms of our Google rankings and revenue from lead generation, as well as seen increased engagement in specific areas. I don’t have exact numbers, but we went from being buried low to appearing in the top five results of spas in Myrtle Beach. That was something of a goal of ours, and ELMNTL has hit it. It’s hard to compare numbers right now, as COVID-19 has ruined the standards, but the relationship is going very well.

How did ELMNTL perform from a project management standpoint?

They used to be better; I think they’re suffering from a resource gap at the moment, as reports are coming in a bit late and questions are being answered a little less quickly. It’s not a question of effort, though, just of resource availability.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are responsive and care about our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s been some turnover.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a plan of what you want before you begin working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of Mad Radish, a multi-unit quick service restaurant (QSR) concept.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ELMNTL?

We needed to build our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborated with ELMNTL to develop our website. They built the website on WordPress and primarily did most of the custom work for us because we already had an in-house art director to do the design. They also provided maintenance support after completing the website.

What is the team composition?

I mainly worked with Marc (Founder & Head of Strategy & Operations), and there were other members from his team interfacing with our in-house designers.

How did you come to work with ELMNTL?

We found out about them through a referral from the company we use for our white label app. We decided to work with their team because we liked their previous work so much and were able to articulate our brand visually very well.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000—$25,000, which includes the maintenance cost.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from June–July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received several compliments about our new website: very beautiful, stunning, and functional. Our website included a franchising section, which was well-received as well. The website was also helpful in terms of converting catering sales. 

How did ELMNTL perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very professional in handling the entire project. Their communication skills were strong — they followed up consistently, which made us feel like we were their partner rather than just a client. Overall, I enjoyed working with their team better than any of the companies I worked with in the past.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What really stood out to us was the quality of their work, customer service, efficiency, and reasonable pricing — they were the total package.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

Not really; I don’t have any complaints about the project.