eMarketing Concepts

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of Ocean Breeze Party Rentals.

What challenge were you trying to address with eMarketing Concepts?

We hired eMarketing Concepts to optimize our Google listing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

eMarketing Concepts provided SEO.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three team members.

How did you come to work with eMarketing Concepts?

eMarketing Concepts found my company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $200 a month, so just over $1,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together about a year ago, and the partnership ended in August 2019.

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

At first, everything was great. eMarketing Concepts optimized our search engine ranking. However, when they changed our company representative, our ranking fell. We didn’t see our company on Google anymore.  

How did eMarketing Concepts perform from a project management standpoint?

Our partnership was great in the beginning, but it declined when we began working with the third representative. Although the first two were really nice, the third one was not friendly and acted like she didn’t have time for us.

When we began complaining, eMarketing Concepts blocked my calls. They didn’t answer my voicemails or emails, yet they continued to charge my credit card. They didn’t offer any explanation or ask me how they could improve. It was like they vanished.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

We were happy with them at the start of our work together. The first two representatives were nice and did their job.

In what specific areas can they improve?

eMarketing Concepts should listen to their clients. They should try to fix the situation and see what they can do better instead of disappearing.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

You should communicate at least once a month to keep track of their services. They were really nice at first, but then they stopped providing services.

Please describe your organization.

I am a dentist operating two dental offices in the New York metropolitan area. There are associates working for me in both locations.

What is your position?

I am the owner of the clinics.

What business challenge were you trying to address with eMarketing Concepts?

I needed digital marketing support for my site.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

eMarketing Concepts has helped me with SEO [search engine optimization] management and built my website. My package with them includes pay-per-click campaigning for my offices, social media marketing, SEO, and press releases. Basically, I have an all-inclusive deal.

How did you come to work with eMarketing Concepts?

I found them by searching Google for good SEO companies for dental businesses. eMarketing Concepts's website kept showing up. I spoke with a few other companies as well, but their portfolio looked better than the rest.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I pay $1,200 per month for their services. The estimated yearly cost would be around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since November 2015. 

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The website is still fairly new, but I've gotten many reviews through a product they offer called ereviewbuilder. It's an online platform through which patients can give feedback on either Yelp or Google+ easily.

The website's traffic is building up, but I don't have any exact numbers yet. I don't employ a large pay-per-click campaign with them anymore because I am in a very competitive and saturated market. The cost-per-click is too high, and it's not necessary for me to spend a lot of money. I mostly focus on SEO, which has worked well.

How did eMarketing Concepts perform from a project management standpoint?

I work closely with their chief executive officer [Jeremy Dickson]. He manages my portfolio and has done a good job of managing his team and getting the work done. For the most part, I'm very happy with my results, and I don't intend to change anything. SEO work requires time.

The one thing I liked about eMarketing Concepts is that they did not set my expectations too high as far as my website ranking was concerned. I was specifically looking for a company that would not tell me that they would get me to rank high within the first 10 days. That would have signaled that they were doing something wrong. I like eMarketing Concept's honesty, compared to other companies that promised impossible things.

What distinguishes eMarketing Concepts from other providers?

They hold themselves accountable. They get right back to me on the phone and get things done fast. As a client, I need someone whom I can reach when I have a need to do so. eMarketing Concepts is there for me.

Is there anything eMarketing Concepts could have improved or done differently?

There's always room for improvement. I am a dentist, so I have a low understanding of technical elements. So far, the relationship's worked well. I may gain more experience in six months but, for now, eMarketing Concepts has done a good job. I would definitely give them a top rating.

Please describe your organization.

Geeky Clean PC is located in San Diego, California. We're a simple company offering IT [information technology] support for small businesses, residential customers, and some larger businesses who have local satellite offices and need some quick work done. I like to tell customers that we cover everything that would be too insignificant for a full-time IT support staff, from simple repairs to business support. We have fewer than five employees.

What is your position?

I am the owner of the business.

What business challenge were you trying to address with eMarketing Concepts?

I needed help with digital marketing, including SEO [search engine optimization], pay-per-click, and other online reputation work.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We're currently only working on SEO. I undertook social media marketing, but we both came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be the ideal route for my company. Using that money for something else would have made more sense, given the returns I was seeing.

How did you come to work with eMarketing Concepts?

I did some research a couple of years ago. I came across some less-trustworthy companies that locked customers into long, subscription-based agreements. eMarketing Concepts told me that I could cancel the services at any time. This was an important point for me since I was just getting started with this kind of service. 

I remember getting a call from them after visiting their site and requesting some information. They had a national presence, being ranked highly on many SEO-specific review sites. Most importantly, they offered a pick-and-choose service plan. I could simply hire them for SEO and add on social media management, pay per click, and so on. When I first took over the company, I was trying to figure out what it would take to take care of that on my own, but it turned out to be a never-ending rabbit hole. It was nice to work with a California-based project manager whom I could call and bounce some ideas off of.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The average annual cost for their services in the first year, including the social media marketing, was around $4,000. Their services, not including social media, were closer to $2,400. I opted for the lowest package in both of those areas.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together for around a year. The collaboration is ongoing.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

My main goal was to improve my keyword rankings with organic searches. I started with some less-than-ideal keywords. After working with my manager, we generated a plan and I ended up changing some of them. I jumped up by 40 to 50 spots on some of the less-competitive terms, but, for ones like "San Diego computer repair" or "San Diego IT solutions," we are still improving steadily.

How did eMarketing Concepts perform from a project management standpoint?

They gave me access to a web portal on which I could see ranking reports and similar data. I was happy with the work done by them.

What distinguishes eMarketing Concepts from other providers?

I've only worked with one SEO company, so I have no terms of comparison, but I did speak to many SEO agencies. The one thing that made eMarketing Concepts stand out in my mind was that they're confident enough in their business to not to lock customers into six or 12-month contracts like other digital marketing firms do. They realize that a smaller company may not be capable of making that type of commitment. This gave me a lot of confidence in them.

Is there anything eMarketing Concepts could have improved or done differently?

The one thing that stuck out in my mind was that, when we first started, they asked me for a keywords list. I had a big list that I came up with during my early SEO research. I kept documenting myself on the subject and it became apparent that our current options were not the most efficient way to go. I don't recall if they tried to consult with me on the keyword list but, once I asked for help in choosing better ones, eMarketing Concepts offered it. It may not be a negative point, but it's the only issue I can think of regarding them.