Formulytic

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of growth marketing for a restaurant management software and technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Formulytic?

We wanted to improve our lead conversion rate through paid online advertising. We didn’t have an in-house person, so decided to outsource.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They managed our entire paid advertising budget and all the tools associated with it. They oversaw our Salesforce account, recorded our market integrations, and provided third-party advice. We tracked our spending, conversion rates, traffic, and cost per lead. They provided overarching digital marketing support and helped with some ad creation for Facebook, Google, and Capterra.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with the owner, who acted as our account manager. He had two other individuals under him that assisted with maintaining our bandwidth.

How did you come to work with Formulytic?

Some of my colleagues had worked with them and I knew the owner from a previous company. I was familiar with their skillset and capabilities and decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $7,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together November 2016–June 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our leads increased about 500%. We started very small and they helped us build up from scratch.

How did Formulytic perform from a project management standpoint?

We had no issues with communication. They joined our Slack channels and were always available to chat. They were flexible and willing to attend last minute meetings. They were very responsive with email and were willing to take on a lot of work.

We met weekly, got weekly reports via email, had some video conferencing and used Teamwork as our project management tool. We also had a shared Google Drive for any documentation and assets they needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their certifications and their tech stack really stood out, as did their knowledge of the industry. I’ve never worked with a company that was so invested in us and easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can be more proactive in their recommendations; they don’t have to wait for me to ask for them. That’s an opportunity for them to grow; otherwise, they did a good job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them access to any tools they ask for. They're knowledgeable in a broad tech stack and can provide a lot of value.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CMO of Automox. We provide a cloud-based cybersecurity software platform to clients mainly in the IT, system administration, and security industries. Our program lets these professionals keep all of their operating systems, software, and devices secure and safe from hacks and data breaches.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Formulytic?

We were a small team based in Boulder, Colorado. As a startup, we were looking for a marketing team to supplement our internal team of three. We needed help managing and optimizing our digital advertising efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Formulytic supports a wide range of our digital marketing and advertising campaigns. Built on WordPress and hosted on a WP Engine, our website uses HubSpot as a CRM. The platform uses Google AdWords and Google Analytics to track advertising efforts.

Since the start of the engagement, Formulytic has worked on maximizing both paid and organic search campaigns. They’ve implemented strategies to retarget our ads in communities like Spiceworks and Stack Exchange. The team optimized our AdWords account for key search terms in the security industry, putting us as the first result in some searches. They improved our website’s backend and created content to help drive traffic. The team also built a lead attribution system for our paid and organic efforts and integrated it into the HubSpot CRM to track lead generation. The program distinguishes between traffic from referrals, social media, email campaigns, and other outreach channels.

They continue to support these efforts while providing additional services. We hired another firm to redesign our website, but Formulytic is helping on that end as well. They manage some elements of our backend development, performance analysis, and download rates. The team uses Google Analytics to collect data, but I don’t always have time to review those metrics. To help, Formulytic created a separate software platform that filters the data into reports for me to directly review. With this system, I stay up to date on our cost per click, cost per impression, and conversion and clickthrough rates.

In addition to those services, Formulytic is a general support team for both marketing and website operations. If we encounter a problem or find we need to complete a task that falls outside our internal capabilities, they step in to fix it. They’ll assist with anything ranging from swapping out elements on our website to posting blog content.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people from Formulytic. The founder mainly acted as a strategy consultant and the senior digital marketing manager helped with the technical details and provided daily updates. These two have been with our company from the start.

How did you come to work with Formulytic?

In our company’s initial phase, we leased office space within another firm who was working with Formulytic. Our partnership began there and we continued to use them even after we moved into our own space.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since partnering with Formulytic, our website traffic has more than tripled and we are performing very well in terms of organic rankings. Their team suggested we create more blog content, which really helped drive leads. The leads generated from organic searches have a higher deal value and close faster, which increases business for us. Before working with the Formulytic team, about 12% of our leads were considered ideal. Now, 30% of the leads we generate are ideal and valuable for our company. Looking to Google AdWords, we’re consistently performing above average. Even the web designers we’re working with praised the performance of our website and advertising strategies. We plan on increasing their team’s role within our company.

How did Formulytic perform from a project management standpoint?

We have standing calls scheduled several times a week, all other communication is done through email. The team is extremely responsive. We track all of our projects using boards on Trello. The Formulytic team is self-starting, they don’t need to be reminded to work on a specific task. They hold themselves accountable for the standards of their work. The team comes to meetings prepared with solutions to problems and areas we could improve. I find that they don’t wait and ask questions, they take initiative, which makes us more productive.

Because Formulytic works with a lot of people in our industry, they have a unique perspective in assessing our performance. They compare our numbers with industry trends to help inform decisions. I trust their team’s judgment.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are real experts in what they do. I have an extensive background in marketing myself, but their level of expertise goes way beyond our capabilities. It’s clear that we haven’t even scratched the surface of their potential.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CMO for an Active Directory replacement company. We’re a service that connects employee identities with devices and servers while keeping the data private and secure.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Formulytic?

We needed to expand our growth through paid outbound channels.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Formulytic worked on any kind of paid media, from DoubleClick Bid Manager to Google Ads. They also handled the data behind those programs and other custom programs through different publishers. We worked with them heavily on data analytics for our website, business, and paid media. They ran our SEO and strategy behind how to increase demand generation and bring in more customers.

Formulytic didn’t create content, but they guided us in what kind of content we should create. They provided the strategy behind our content choices. They conducted lots of audits and tracked various different keywords and other term placements.

What is the team composition?

We mainly interfaced with the founder.

How did you come to work with Formulytic?

I’d worked with Formulytic’s founder before and knew him to be sharp and data-oriented, so I hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $5,000–$10,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2014, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Over about two years, we grew our lead generation by around 700 times. Organic search also increased by around 600 times. Formulytic found cost-effective pay channels that had an impressive ROI.

How did Formulytic perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always organized and on top of things. They took initiative and made sure tasks were always accomplished.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their grasp of technology and data differentiates them from other agencies. They understand how to apply technology solutions to solve your problems.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re best if you want someone to help with your data and strategy behind demand generation and content.