Forest City Digital

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Lingo Staffing

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a staffing firm that focuses on manufacturing, logistics, and administrative positions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Forest City Digital to accomplish?

• Increase Brand Awareness
• Increase Online Presence
• Increase Revenue
• Increase Automation

SOLUTION

How did you find Forest City Digital?

Referral

Why did you select Forest City Digital over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Forest City Digital were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We selected Forest City Digital as they are highly tech driven and well versed in many tools to help optimize Lingo's brand and online presence in our markets. I was impressed with their use of tools, AI, research, etc. that went beyond a smaller marketing agency approach where many build a product and just replicate. 

FCD did a great job getting to know us and our business as a new vertical for them. They are responsible for delivering on a marketing strategy that aligns with our company goals and executing on it. 

Forest City provides social media marketing, content, SEO, automation, website hosting, management, and revisions. We meeting monthly to review progress and revisions. There is a quarterly meeting to discuss new initiatives as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• 12 month stategy developed
• Mind mapping sessions
• Monthly content generation
• Weekly social postings
• Improved online presence
• Website revisions
• Campaigns
• Analytic reviews monthly

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

FCD has done a good job of managing projects on time. It is usually on Lingo if we do not get things done on time that holds up their deliverables. 

What was your primary form of communication with Forest City Digital?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Small team, however extremely responsive, great customer service. They're very knowledgeable and, in a short time, we are seeing results. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Forest City Digital could have done differently?

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Risk Officer of Cooperative Business Services

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Commercial real estate lending services with credit unions in 17 states, through originations, syndications, closing, portfolio management, software-as-a-service and collections.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Forest City Digital to accomplish?

• Marketing and brand awareness
• Software as a service product awareness
• Education and increased SEO and website traffic
• Increased lead/sales generation
• Revenue drivers

SOLUTION

How did you find Forest City Digital?

Referral

Why did you select Forest City Digital over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Industry experience

How many teammates from Forest City Digital were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

New CRM through Active Campaign; marketing email campaigns, blog posts, brand awareness; SEO through Google and Yahoo, press releases, Linked In Social media posts of products, services and culture of the organization. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Due to the email and social media campaigns, we signed four new clients and generated additional demo's of SaaS products and speaking/presentation opportunities. The four new clients resulted in increased client penetration, one new client, and increased revenue for the SaaS products. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The Forest City Digital team delivered items on time and created a good cadence of communication and social media/email campaigns through the Marketing Strategy and continued mind mapping exercises. They operated with continuous improvements for communication, facilitation and project management software to keep our team apprised and engaged with their efforts.

What was your primary form of communication with Forest City Digital?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The most impressive and unique thing about Forest City Digital is their agility and engagement with the team. They feel like they are a part of our organization, and seek feedback and improvements while delivering excellence. They are positive, upbeat and look for meaningful relationships within the organization. Change is never easy, but the FCD team was with us every step of the way making the transition of personnel, processes and materials stronger, more reliabile and delivering a consistent message.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Forest City Digital could have done differently?

Any areas of improvement were discussed on our bi-weekly calls and the FCD team listened and made immediate tweaks to the process. Our personnel did the same, and the end result was a cohesive decision, delivering on-time, professional marketing decisions and campaigns. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the owner of Jacob Burton Studios, a vocal coaching business. We teach voice lessons. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Forest City Digital?
I hired Forest City Digital to work on our SEO needs. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Forest City Digital uses AI to help with our blogs and enable us to understand Google’s algorithm.
What is the team composition?
I mainly work with Kenny (President) and another teammate.
How did you come to work with Forest City Digital?
I used Google and another website that let me meet different people. I interviewed a dozen or more organizations, and Kenny and his company were one of those. Ultimately, I hired Forest City Digital because Kenny was the most down-to-earth person perfect for where my business was. The size of his company was perfect to help me with my business’ SEO needs.
How much have you invested with them?
Our contract is $1,550 per month.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our partnership started in July 2023, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve seen a 27%–57% increase in my website traffic per Google Analytics. Overall, the quality of Forest City Digital’s work has been great. Kenny is open to change. For instance, he’s successfully made changes to make the AI-generated content meet my standards. He understands the power of quality over quantity.
How did Forest City Digital perform from a project management standpoint?
Their project management is great. They’ve met my timeline and budget requirements. Moreover, Kenny is approachable, sharp, and talented. He knows what he’s talking about, and we have real conversations — he’s a great listener and understands what I’m asking him to do. We’re always on the same page. To communicate, we use phone calls, emails, Zoom, and Slack.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their reports are truly comprehensive. They show me marked improvements in our performance. With those reports, we can look back at our progress in the last 12 months to ensure we’re going in the right direction. In other words, Kenny can produce reports that one wouldn’t expect from a business of their size.
Are there any areas they could improve?
There’s always room for improvement in terms of SEO. That’s the only obvious area where anyone can improve. To be fair, he’s improved our SEO performance quite a bit and exceeded my expectations.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Ask a lot of questions and communicate what you need for your business and website. Think of every possible question, detail, or need you might have. Kenny is honest, and he’ll tell you whether or not he can help you. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a Director at Hartville Migrant Ministry

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We support Hartville's migrant farmworker population.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Forest City Digital to accomplish?

• Redo our website

SOLUTION

How did you find Forest City Digital?

Online Search

Why did you select Forest City Digital over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Forest City Digital were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The Hartville Migrant Ministry has been wanting to redo our website for a while now. We received a grant to cover the costs of this service, and decided to hire Forest City Digital to complete the job. We completely redid the look of the site, and added quite a bit of content as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The website is just now getting ready to go live, but we expect to see in increase in online traffic as well as an increase with online donations.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Kenny was very easy to work with. My favorite part about working with Kenny was that he was very intentional about moving at a pace that was right for us. He was always available, always patient, and the quality of his work is top notch.

What was your primary form of communication with Forest City Digital?

Virtual Meeting

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

I appreciate how personal the company felt. I did not feel like just another client. I knew Kenny really cared about this project and wants to see our organization succeed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Forest City Digital could have done differently?

I'm not really sure there's anything to list here. The only thing that comes to mind is sometimes I wish Kenny would have more explicitly outlined what he wanted us to complete from our end, and when. But at the same time I know he was not trying to stress us out given our already crazy schedules.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive of an advertising & marketing company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company focuses on helping ecommerce brands and local businesses grow through SEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Forest City Digital to accomplish?

• Develop an email campaign for 420 to generate more sales.
• Develop all standard ecommerce email flows (welcome series, abandoned cart etc)
• Design all the email content for all the flows.

SOLUTION

How did you find Forest City Digital?

• Digital Marketing Community Slack Group

Why did you select Forest City Digital over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

What was the size of Forest City Digital’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We hired Forest City Digital to execute a comprehensive email marketing campaign for a CBD brand, with a primary focus on developing and launching a 4/20 sale series. Despite the tight deadline of just a week before the event, Forest City Digital efficiently built and executed a total of 8 email flows, which included abandoned cart reminders, customer thank you messages, review requests, and a welcome series, among others.

To ensure a seamless customer experience, they integrated all necessary apps used on the client's Shopify store with the email flows, and set up dynamic coupon codes as required for each flow. In addition to these core deliverables, Forest City Digital also established over a dozen customer segments, allowing the CBD brand to send highly targeted campaigns in the future.

Overall, their services were crucial in successfully promoting the 4/20 sale and laying the groundwork for future email marketing initiatives.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• The 4/20 email campaign generated roughly $5,000 in sales which was amazing compared to last year's $1,200. That alone paid for the services. The rest of the flows will all be ROI for the CBD brand as they begin to capture reviews, and encourage more sales.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Their project management was very organized as they uses a mixture of ClickUp and Slack integrations to keep all parties updated at all times as to the status of each task. Kenny was always available for a quick if needed to sync up.

What was your primary form of communication with Forest City Digital?

• Email or Messaging App

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

Forest City Digital make the whole process super easy. They were a breeze to work with. The most impressive part of it all was hearing the Shopify ding all day for a few days.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Forest City Digital could have done differently?

I don't think so. We now have a go-to for all of our email marketing needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive for American Caniner, a dog training company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Forest City Digital?

We needed an update on our website and wanted to hire someone local.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Forest City Digital built our website from scratch using WordPress and Elementor. We initially outlined the scope of work, and they gave us a budget. We negotiated, and they sent us a proposal. After we paid a 50% deposit, Forest City Digital started to work on the project.

The website’s purpose was to attract people and allow them to submit requests for behavioral evaluations, see our services, and connect with our social media. Forest City Digital added a calendar and designed the website.

What is the team composition?

We only worked with the owner.

How did you come to work with Forest City Digital?

A local business didn’t want to take our project because we were a small business. They referred us to Forest City Digital, which was also an affordable local business.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in January 2023, and they launched the website in February 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everybody likes the website, but it hasn’t been enough time to judge metrics yet. Forest City Digital made the site modern, easy to navigate, and interactive.

How did Forest City Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They met deadlines and stayed within budget. We mainly communicated through Google Meet, text messages, and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Forest City Digital’s customer service was outstanding. Communication was excellent, and they were flexible and knowledgeable about what they were doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I had no constructive criticism.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be personable with them. Treat them as human beings; once you build a relationship with them, people are more willing to do extra work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a CMO and outsourced marketing executive working with local clients needing marketing strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Forest City Digital, and what were your goals?

Forest City was hired to work with one of my clients to provide SEO services to help them be found better. This was focused on more SEO-friendly blog writing and more strategic website copy to help them rank better among their competitors.

SOLUTION

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

He is a local SEO and PPC provider who was found while as a member of the Northeast Ohio chapter of the American Marketing Association.

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

His company completed the following:

• SEO audit
• Strategy and milestones
• Goals and monthly deliverable outline
• Keyword ranking and competitive tracking
• Recommendations for blogging, website copy, and content topic
• recommendations based on what keywords they wanted to rank for

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

1 person (possibly someone outsourced)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to drive keyword rankings for the main words up by 25%. Traffic on blog increased by 32%.

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

They used Google Sheets for project mgmt and many great tools to keep transparency and visibility into their work.

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

We were impressed with their level of knowledge on the subject and the ease of working with them.

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

I would just say them learning the business side of my client could be improved, but that being said, they were an outsourced resource for me.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a marketing and production company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Forest City Digital?

We hired them to help us with the SEO and optimization of marketing campaigns for our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Forest City Digital provides SEO and marketing services for one of our clients. They’ve set up an email marketing campaign and flows for an e-commerce client using Klaviyo. The team is helping us optimize the SEO on the same client’s website. We work together to come up with keywords, and the team validates the ones we suggest. Their focus is on achieving better conversion rates and sales. 

Additionally, Forest City Digital is assessing our marketing efforts on Facebook and setting up and overseeing our Google Ads campaigns. They’re transferring our previous email customer base from MailChimp to Klaviyo and setting up a lot of different email flows. The team is also starting to improve our site’s SEO.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with Kenny (Owner), and he has a team under him. 

How did you come to work with Forest City Digital?

We met through a client that we both work with. I connected with Kenny, and we discussed working together for another end client. We chose to work with Forest City Digital because their skills were perfect for our needs. 

How much have you invested with them?

We started working with them in June 2022, and the engagement is ongoing. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve spent between $5,000–$10,000. I expect we’ll spend another $6,000 with them by the end of the year. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re pretty happy with what Forest City Digital has been doing. Their email marketing efforts are already generating traffic to our website. We’ve also seen interesting traffic and new customers coming from Google Ads campaigns and SEO. 

How did Forest City Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good at project management, and they’ve met every deadline so far. We communicate through phone calls, text messages, and emails. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with Forest City Digital’s great analytical skill set; they’re very good from a user analytics standpoint. They also have a technical understanding of Google rankings and SEO. Moreover, I enjoy working with Kenny, who’s very knowledgeable and has a great track record working with great companies and projects, making me trust his opinion and experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re doing everything right. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hire them as soon as possible! Working with them will bring a professional outlook to your work. Even if you’re knowledgeable within the area, talking to somebody else is great because they’ll think about different things than you. In this scenario, Forest City Digital pointed out things we hadn’t thought about, so I wish I had had a conversation with them earlier so we could have been more efficient earlier.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and president of an online automotive parts company, and we mainly provide aftermarket auto parts to the trucking and off-road community.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Forest City Digital?

We needed someone to improve our online visibility in the e-commerce industry.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Forest City Digital provides us with SEO and digital marketing. The project started with a discovery phase where we provided them with our data, website performance, and analytics to understand what we need to implement.

We then moved to fix immediate issues we had on the platform and once that’s done, they’re going to be developing content for us.

What is the team composition?

I’ve only been interfacing with Kenny (Owner), but I know he also has a team that I don’t directly work with.

How did you come to work with Forest City Digital?

I was introduced to them by a mutual associate, and we chose to hire them based on their total transparency and honesty — which are quite rare to see in this particular space.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably invested around $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a significant increase in our Google Analytics feed and started seeing good engagement thanks to Forest City Digital.

How did Forest City Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very organized and detail-oriented when it comes to project management — there’s transparency in their development performance and the project’s progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Aside from their transparency, we’re quite impressed with their authenticity and results-driven approach.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One thing they could improve on is having more consistently scheduled meetings instead of having to play it by ear.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say be honest with what you want and educate yourself on how this industry works, so you can appreciate the value that a company like Forest City Digital can provide.