Eucalypt Media

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

iTechArt is a custom software development company that partners with startups and enterprises alike to build products from the ground up; I oversee our content strategy and execution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt Media?

I needed a reliable vendor who could take the writing and editing of SEO-focused blog articles off my team's hands.

SOLUTION

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

I researched dozens of agencies online before determining that Eucalypt was the right fit; I liked that their writers came from journalism backgrounds and the reviews spoke for themselves.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Every month, we supply a basic brief with keywords and SEO considerations; their team goes to work; we receive perfect, high-performing copy back. Simple as that!

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

I work directly with Kathryn and Jeff (founders); they handle all of the writer communication on their side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our individual search rankings and overall organic traffic and spiked since we started our work together.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. We virtually have no edits! Everything is delivered in such great shape.

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

It's rare to find content marketers that deliver copy that's as focused on readership and engagement as it is on performance. Eucalypt does a great job of balancing both.

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

Nope! Great to work with!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

YAK is the parent company of various business units that serve as access solution providers in the energy business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt Media?

Because we have many different business units, it's challenging to create and keep up with the content needs of all of our companies. Between blogs, sales material, social media, and websites, we are constantly in a content deficit. We contact Kathryn and her group to help with small to larger projects including sales literature to the full content curation for our website.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to create content that aligns with our overall tone and worked with our SEO strategy. Her team had to work with our SEO firm to write content that helped with search while still maintaining our brand message.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I selected Kathryn through my Clutch search. Additionally, I assigned her and her team a small project to see how they performed before commissioning for a larger (website) project.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The large project we hired Eucalypt for is to write all the content for our newly acquired business unit. Her team interviewed key stake holders and individuals within the organization to gain a clear understanding of the business in order to write relevant content for the website.

What was the team composition?

I have personally worked directly with Kathryn Hawkins.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are nearly complete with the project but utilizing Eucalypt has advanced our ability to launch the site significantly sooner than expected.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Working together with Kathryn was seamless. Typically she ended up waiting on me and my team more than we ever wait on her. She is flexible with schedules for content interviews and is great for collecting the right information for development.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team developed the content quickly and accurately.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None. They are really a pleasure to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product marketing for an internet platform that serves as a question and answer community for developers. We have three products, focusing on collaboration and knowledge sharing software, advertising, and recruitment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eucalypt Media?

We were hoping to increase the frequency of our content. Our clients have a lot of different pain points, and we didn’t have the capacity on staff to handle everything robustly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided them with the briefing document, which included all the key points that we wanted our readers to walk away with. We gave them inspiration articles to help them understand the points we’re trying to make with our audience. The audience profile we were aiming for was also provided to them. Once we had a call to explain the tone we wanted the content to take, we gave them a brand messaging guide to understand our internal language.

From there, their team took all that information to create the content for our site. They create content for our resource center to educate our prospective customers. Our webinars and sales teams are also using their services to inform clients in one-on-one conversations. 

What is the team composition?

Kathryn (Content Marketing Strategy Director) is my point person and she allocates the work between her team. 

How did you come to work with Eucalypt Media?

I followed a recommendation through Advisable. We tested them on a previous project, and we were extremely pleased with how well they understood everything we were trying to convey so we increased our ad spend with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$15,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020 and our engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our clients have found these pieces to be very beneficial for not only educating their clients, but also from a sales perspective. Our content has a broader reach and shows the importance of knowledge sharing and recruitment. 

How did Eucalypt Media perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent at meeting every deadline. Kathryn is very communicative and timely in sending over drafts. She responds quickly, often within 24 hours, to any edits or changes we need. We mostly use email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are really able to understand what we're trying to communicate and our tone of voice. From day one, it’s felt like they’ve truly been part of our team for years. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything for them to improve yet. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them as much material around your messaging and audience as possible. Then, they’ll be able to better craft your story in the way you need them. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is a managed services provider with IT consulting, systems, network, collaboration, and cybersecurity practices. I am the head of Marketing Communications

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt Media?

For content strategy and writing.

What were your goals for this project?

To have ongoing content for our digital marketing platforms that provides our audience with true value and exemplifies the power and importance of the work we offer.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

This vendor was recommended to me.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Content writing. One weekly article. Three short and one long per month. 2400 words.

What was the team composition?

I work closely with Kathryn in setting the strategy of the content about once a month. After that monthly cadence, she completes the work and I rarely even have edits for her. However, if I do need something, have questions, or ask for edits, she is very responsive.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've grown our social media following +1,000 in three months using and repurposing the content from Eucalypt.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Kathryn is always responsive and we both tend to go with the flow and it's been very successful so far.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by how knowledgeable the content writers were (or appeared in the content) on the subject matter they were discussing (in this case, IT services).

Are there any areas for improvement?

Perhaps the platform they use could be improved by making it more clear where to insert titles and keep working drafts in there. There is a chance, however, that this already exists in the platform and I just don't see it. In that case, maybe a walk-through the platform would be helpful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We’re a multinational electronic design automation (EDA) software and engineering services company headquartered in San Jose. As a technical marketing engineer, I'm responsible for creating engineering content to promote key/benefit features in our products as well as overseeing some of our blog content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt?

We wanted to outsource some of our content creation to an external agency, mostly for writing technical blogs (e.g., high-level top-of-the-funnel content).

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to improve website traffic, user engagement, and web presence. Our objective was to be seen as an expert or thought-leader in the industry.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online for technical writing agencies in and around our area, contacting some of them based on the writing/SEO services they offered and their reviews. After receiving initial outlines and reviewing some writing samples, we selected Eucalypt based on the quality of their content, flexibility, and willingness to research into our industry.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Their work is focused on writing both technical and high-level engineering/technology-based blogs for us. We provide them with topics and feedback based on our campaigns to make sure they adhere to both our branding and SEO standards. At times, they also come up with their own topics.

What was the team composition?

I mostly work with the principal of the firm.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The content Eucalypt provided has helped increase our web traffic and decrease bounce rates. We've been able to increase our social media presence, which is why engagement is up and followers have nearly doubled.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The principal that we work with is easy to reach and communicate with. We've connected via phone and email, and they’ve also held WebEx meetings to go over our content strategies so that they align with our product campaigns. They report all of their work in a centralized project management portal, which is super easy to use and helps keep us both on schedule. Overall, Eucalypt has a great workflow for our needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have team members who can write well-thought out, easy-to-read, and succinct articles about engineering/technology. Not to mention, they put in the effort to research our industry.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that I can think of at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the marketing director computer software company with a development focus on software as a service (SaaS).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt?

We needed SEO services for our website. We wanted to develop key-word focused web pages.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to see an increase in traffic through improved SERP rankings. We wanted pages we created to be helpful for our users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We evaluated several content marketing agencies, and we wanted one that was comfortable with our aggressive timeline and had a high-quality team. We chose Eucalypt for these reasons and due to their experiences successfully creating SEO pages before. Additionally, we could tell they were a remarkably organized team from our first interaction. 

Describe the project in detail.

The entire project included drafting copy for over 75 pages targeting specific SEO keywords within three months. My team provided a Clearscope link and some context for each page. Then, Eucalypt performed their research and drafted the copy for each keyword. They did this for over 75 pages on the site.

What was the team composition?

Our point of contact was Kathryn (CEO, Eucalpyt). She provided several other writers and an editor, as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any statistics or metrics that speak to the quality of their work and impact of the engagement?

When we began the project, we had 80 pages ranking on the first page of google. After Eucalypt’s work, we have increased to 180 in less than six months. We couldn’t be happier with the results.

How did the Eucalypt perform from a project management standpoint?

They impressed me with their organization in managing the project. They had a system that allowed them to keep track of over 75 SEO pages and moved the project along. They assigned specific tasks to different members of the team. Kathryn was extremely responsive via email;  all of my questions were answered generally within a day.

What impresses you about the Eucalypt?

I found the Eucalypt team to be incredibly creative in their keyword process. They were able to craft high-performing pages that seem natural. Everything, from their communication to the deliverables, was flawless.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Atlassian is an IT company that builds software to help teams collaborate and communicate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt?

We hired Eucalypt to help us create a series of fact sheets. We required copywriting and design work for our articles and team member profiles.

What were your goals for this project?

This was our first time working together, so we wanted to test Eucalypt's design, copywriting, and interviewing skills. We needed them to take complicated topics and distill them down into easily understandable and digestible content. We needed specific tones and voices for our internal and external content respectively.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After reviewing their portfolio and client reviews, we felt comfortable hiring them.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Eucalypt first conducted a discovery phase to understand our company and writing style. Then, they designed and copywrote our internal and external content, focusing on how different audiences would perceive our company. Their team rewrote our complicated topics into more layman's terms to be easily digestible.

What was the team composition?

We primarily worked with an account lead. She pulled in different design and writing resources as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're still waiting for substantial metrics to be gathered.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was quite effective, we were never held up on our progress. They were responsive, and we communicated back and forth.  They reported all their work in a centralized portal, which was easy to use and excellent at tracking our progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Eucalypt's ability to effectively and quickly adapt our writing style was really impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Some of the early designs we saw didn't push us out of our comfort zone enough. I think that working with them again in the future will help with this issue.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the head of marketing at a software development consultancy. We serve venture-backed startups, large corporations, and various nonprofit agencies. I oversee marketing strategy, budgets, customer acquisition strategy, and brand awareness programs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt?

We wanted to outsource content creation–eBooks, blogs, case studies–to an external agency.

What were your goals for this project?

To maximize sales revenue, we wanted to accelerate our content marketing strategy by increasing output with a partner firm.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We did an online search and narrowed down our selection to three potential agencies. Eucalypt stood out because they had transparent pricing and their team understood our market niche.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Eucalypt started with a deep dive into our company’s vertical and competition, as well as how topics trended. We then did a kickoff call to discuss content ideas. They distilled those conversations into content themes–based on our buyer personas–for the upcoming quarter. Next, the team created an editorial calendar and has executed work on a quarterly basis.

What was the team composition?

We work directly with the company principals.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The content is successfully generating qualified leads. Blog pieces rank on Google’s first page and continue to drive qualified traffic to our site.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Eucalypt builds out detailed roadmaps to keep us informed about deliveries. We use email, monthly calls, and project management software to keep the partnership effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their overall responsiveness and communication are fantastic. I've worked with a lot of agencies, but Eucalypt stands out. They process requests thoughtfully and prioritize follow through on our concerns. Eucalypt feels more like an additional team member than an external agency.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They’re top-notch for content marketing. It’s nitpicking, but they could have more technical reporting and insights for SEO thought processes.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the senior SEO manager at Zendesk, a customer service software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt?

We hired them to help write new product marketing pages as we had limited bandwidth to write so many pages within a short time period.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to write 100–300 pages, have many of them rank well on search engines, and encourage trial sign-ups.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Eucalypt was recommended to me by a co-worker. After reviewing some writing samples, we chose them, as well as two other companies, to help us write the product marketing pages.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Their work was focused on copywriting for product marketing pages and geared toward boosting search rankings. I gave them guidelines, feedback, and tools for their work to make sure they adhered to both brand and SEO standards.

What was the team composition?

I believe one or two people were involved on this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to successfully complete the project within the time period required. The project doubled or tripled traffic to the new pages and, in turn, increased trial sign-ups. As a whole, it was a huge success.  

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I trained them on specific software to enhance workflow, so it was an effective process. We also collaborated via email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of the writing and the ease with which they worked within our company's guidelines and with our tools was extremely high—so high, in fact, that they are a team I would recommend working with again in the future.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of any at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior content marketing manager for Iterable, the growth marking platform that powers "omnichannel relevance" - at scale. I’m responsible for all marketing related content for our blog, our social platforms, and our resources such as our white papers, ebooks, and other long-form content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eucalypt?

When I started at Iterable there were only about 30 employees. We've grown rapidly in the first year, but we only had a small team for marketing. I needed assistance managing content for our editorial calendar, doing market research for long-form projects, and repurposing already available content.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For this particular project over the course of six months, they helped us with our overall content marketing needs. This typically involved creating blog posts and doing market research for our vertical industry guides. They did research for our guides on entertainment and recruiting, and worked on several customer case studies. 

What is the team composition?

They’re a boutique firm, so I primarily worked with Kathryn [Founder and Managing Director, Eucalypt] and one of their employees. They were my two primary points of contact, and then my employees worked with them on separate pieces as well. 

How did you come to work with Eucalypt?

I've known Kathryn for several years, and I’ve worked with her in a variety of different companies and positions. Our CMO was interested in scaling some of our content marketing efforts, and she asked me for recommendations on agencies. I recommended Eucalypt because of my previous work experiences with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together June 2017 and finished working together December 2017. We had signed a six-month contract on a monthly retainer, so we could receive 60 hours of work per month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I hired them before hiring people internally, which allowed me to scale up my efforts. They produced gated and ungated content for us, and they produced our white paper on how to gamify the e-commerce experience. We received hundreds of downloads of that white paper that they created since it was published in July 2017.

How did Eucalypt perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very structured in the way they work with content marketers. They have technology and platforms that allowed my editorial calendar and their calendar to sync up appropriately. It was easy to understand what their deliverables were, when they were going to be produced, and how to track and monitor their work. They were transparent about the hours it took to produce a certain piece. For example, even though we had a six-month contract, I was working with them after our last month because we had rollover hours. At certain points, I could have had a more refined content strategy, so I would be able to prioritize them effectively.

They're very flexible in working with the client and always put the client first. I enjoyed working with Kathryn in particular. She's a pleasant, positive person, and I would recommend her because of the energy and attitude she brings to a project. They have a great sense of voice and can easily fit into an existing workflow. They manage projects and deliver content in a timely manner. Whether it's creating new content or repurposing existing content, they make sure to produce big results. Our work experience makes me inclined to work with them in the future.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've worked with individual freelancers for content marketing, but I appreciate their ability to understand a company's particular tone, voice, and messaging. They've been extremely professional and take feedback well. It was easy to mold them into an asset for us; it was as if they were part of our internal team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of their strengths is top of funnel content such as blog posts, thought leadership pieces, or listicles. They’re better at creating nonproduct related content that gets people interested and clicking, and they’re better equipped for handling thought leadership content. They could use improvement in handling customer case studies or content relying heavily on product messaging.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s better to provide as much information as you can at the frontend. They appreciate clients that do the legwork by providing messaging documentation, brand guidelines, and information. If you have a sense of what your company stands for and how your company should sound externally, then they're going to be able to create better content on your behalf.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on November 22, 2019 by Joey Ta (Senior Manager, Iterable). New content is below.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Iterable is a cross-channel marketing platform that is built for marketers, trusted by engineers, and designed with intelligence. I'm the Senior Manager of Website and Digital Marketing here and I'm responsible for our website and SEO strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eucalypt Media?

We needed to develop a new set of Solutions pages that would help us rank for our priority keywords and hired Kathryn and her team to write all of the SEO content for these pages.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to rank for our priority keywords as well as give our website visitors useful educational marketing content around our solutions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our Director of Brand worked with Kathryn and her agency in the past and referred her with very high recommendations. I had an initial call with her and it was clear she and her team were well qualified for the job.

Describe the project in detail.

We started with a kick-off call to go over the scope of the project and what her team would be delivering, which was 7 pages of content written specifically for SEO. Each page needed 1,500+ words or more.

What was the team composition?

We were in direct communication with Kathryn through the entire process, while she managed her team to deliver on the content.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We immediately placed in SERPs for the 7 pages a week after launch, and now need to work on improving our backlink profile to increase our position.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I really enjoyed working with Kathryn. She was responsive and flexible and made every effort to deliver quality work.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive aspect of this project for me was how well written the content was upon initial delivery. I expected to go through an extensive review process with many edits, but it turned out that 90% of the content was ready to go and required very little edits.

What's even more impressive is the fact that I don't think her team was extensively educated in the content they needed to write, but clearly did a lot of research to make sure it was as valuable and accurate as possible.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No areas of improvement from me.