Fruition

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of Marketing at a healthcare staffing company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We had a website in place but needed help on various side-projects. Specifically, we wanted guidance on SEO, SEM, and web development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition worked on our simple WordPress brochure page, mainly focusing on SEO and SEM. They weren’t involved in the website’s original development, but they helped with content development and marketing, as well as with UX audits, bringing in recommendations around that. We use the brochure site to organize events, and they helped ensure it could integrate easily with other third-party tools like EventRight. It was a clear-cut project with a modest budget.

We do not engage them for email marketing.

What is the team dynamic?

We have quarterly business reviews and receive everything I would expect from a top-tier agency. I have worked with the director of SEO, a project manager, two support individuals and a pay-per-click and SEM manager. There are five people supporting the account, but I only communicate directly with the account manager on a daily basis.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I did some research, some with Clutch, and received referrals in town. We had already been engaged with an SEO agency, but I wasn’t satisfied with the results we were seeing for the budget. I got in touch with Fruition, and they seemed like a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend between $100,000 and $200,000 annually for their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Fruition in May 2016. The relationship is ongoing. We’re in the process of developing another WordPress brochure site with Fruition since they met our expectations on the first one.

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

It was a simple task, but Fruition exceeded our expectations on the web development project. Year-over-year, we saw an 87% increase in organic traffic compared with when we were working with the other SEO company. There are other metrics we look at, in terms of blog traffic and users generated from it. We’ve seen some good conversion increases from the recommendations they've made.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the things I look for in an agency is its internal workload, and whether or they communicate frequently. We can be high-maintenance at times, but Fruition is easy to get ahold of, and they work with us as much as we need in order to achieve what we want.

They’ve always hit deadlines, for both the brochure site and content creation targets. I haven’t had any concerns in this sense.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing I appreciate about Fruition is that they aren’t afraid to learn about our industry. This was a challenge I laid out from the beginning since we’re in a unique industry, and only staff on a contract basis. They put in the effort to learn about what makes our industry unique, and what works for the different individuals we staff. We have targeted content that required hours of research, in addition to the time put into the main project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve done a good job on the PPC side of things, but I’d only rate them a 4.5/5 on it. For everything else, I’d give them a 5.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner and principal of a boutique interior design firm. We specialize in high end and luxury homes, catering to clients throughout the greater LA metro area.

For what projects/services did your company hire Fruition, and what were your goals?

We are aiming to expand our client base, right now almost all of our business comes from word of mouth referrals from previous clients we have worked with, and while we are grateful to be recommended by our past clients we felt it necessary to diversify our acquisition efforts using digital channels.

To this end, our firm engaged Fruition to help us with search engine marketing.

How did you select Fruition and what were the deciding factors?

I was referred by a colleague whose opinion I regard highly. I spoke with a few members of their team over the course of a few calls during which they asked about my business and marketing objectives, I liked the questions they asked and the level of depth they went into as it demonstrated their experience and knowledge of the different factors that could influence how successful the engagement was.

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

My account manager kicked things off by learning about my firm, what makes us unique compared to other luxury interior design firms in LA (there are many of them here due to all the demand from homes in the Malibu, Bel Air, Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, and Manhattan Beach areas), and took the time to learn more about what types of clients were the best fit for our style and services.

After this was determined, they worked with my team to establish the relevant keywords and implement the campaigns accordingly.

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

One account manager, one paid search specialist, one organic search specialist.

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

We have only worked with Fruition for a month or two now so it is still early, but it has been a great experience so far, they are very responsive and knowledgeable, and the work product has been impressive. We have already received some new business as a result of the initiatives that Fruition has implemented.

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

Email mostly, which is what I prefer since calls are hard to fit in my schedule since I spend a lot of time on site at clients' homes, or in other meetings. They offer detailed reports which I like to review. As needed they are available for calls but as I mentioned this is not my preference.

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

The entire team at Fruition really took the time to understand what I am looking for in a client, and what makes an engagement a good fit for our firm, and has tailored the campaigns to qualify the incoming inquiries accordingly. They really impressed me.

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

Sometimes the conversations are very tactical and technical, I am a more high-level, creative personality without a formal marketing background so having things explained in layperson's terms would be better for me to understand what is happening more clearly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing for an eye care center, which started in 1999 as a LASIK provider. After the first 15 years, we made the move to become an all-encompassing medical and surgical eye care provider, offering advanced treatments for glaucoma and cataracts. We are now positioned to become a national center of excellence and have started building regional centers of excellence with different brands and names across multiple US states.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

When the relationship started, our aim was to grow the business and achieve a recognizable brand in the community. We also needed to build a website that translated that same prominence in the market.

We recently changed names. We kept our first name variant for a long time. However, we knew that it wasn’t our future, and we needed to expand its scope. We needed to figure out what brand name could take us from our old name to the new one, while still carrying the brand equity and highlight where we wanted to go.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over time, Fruition has become an important partner for us. They have helped us in all facets of marketing, elevating our brand and positioning as well as strengthening our digital presence.

They have updated the site several times over the years to meet changing behaviors of people online. For instance, mobile wasn’t a thing when we made the first version of the site. When it became bigger, Fruition helped make our page responsive and adapted it to the changing landscape. They’ve never been happy with the website and always see room for improvement. We constantly test new features and items in order to make it more effective. This is a powerful piece of our relationship with Fruition.

In terms of more traditional marketing, Fruition has helped us with the design of internal and marketing print collateral and logos. We’ve had 4 versions of these materials as our name transitioned. They’ve helped update our brand and identity with each name change. There was always a large amount of research that went into the work beforehand. Fruition never delivered a logo because they thought it was pretty. There was always justification and data around how certain colors and fonts are relatable to our target audience. We need to be data-oriented in marketing, given the degree of softness in the industry. With Fruition, this is always in place when we are given change recommendations.

Our current logo and branding identity were developed through Fruition’s input. Fruition put together a complete branding and identity package that showcased all the research they put behind the logo, font use, colors, and general branding. It is strong and has many subtle pieces with multiple underlying meanings. We embraced and stood behind it, turning it into a strong brand. We suffered during the transition period, but we now have a name that we can all be proud of.  

Fruition also helped us fine-tune how we approached paid search campaigns. They made tests in order to determine the best return on investment.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

They were selected before my time with the company. I do know that we were both local companies, which definitely played into the decision. More likely, it had to do with Fruition’s expertise and ability to be a partner for us. We wanted to work with someone whom we know will be there for us and whose expertise we can trust.

How much have you invested with Fruition?

The cost has varied depending on the specific project over the years. Recently, we’ve paid $15,000 per month for Fruition’s services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2015, and the engagement is still ongoing. 

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I have to highlight the fact that people search for our brand more than they search for the general service we provide. This is a point of pride for me since it shows the value of our brand right there. Fruition was instrumental in helping us build that.

When we were struggling with different names and what we could call ourselves, people were still calling us by our old name in the community. Now, I can tell that our current brand is strong by checking out our branded searches. Since 2016, I have been seeing increases in searches for our new name. People are mentioning us because we are a big player in the Denver market, and we have many reviews referencing us in the right way.

Digital marketing is a huge factor in growing our site’s SEO [search engine optimization] value. The strengths we now have for our domain and brand surpass general category searches in our market. We have not only achieved this but managed to keep it, which is a difficult thing to do in the current changing digital landscape.

I don’t have specific numbers for other metrics. I do know that our organic search, website, and overall traffic continue to grow on an annual basis. We have beaten last year’s numbers every year. When I looked at the recent numbers for 2017, I saw a 50% increase in traffic compared to 2016. We have a strong growth, much of which has to do with testing and working out the right messaging and campaigns.

Fruition has done a great job of adapting to trends and whatever is happening with search. They keep our site relevant, strong, searchable, and lead-driving. The latter is a huge piece of our direct-to-consumer business, and the site has been constantly worked on to improve conversions. Fruition has even helped us attract a private equity investor, which enabled us to grow at an exponential speed and expand to different states. This happened through the work Fruition has provided over the years.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication has been stellar. I know that I’m a demanding client, but Fruition has always been available. We are attended to by multiple members of the team, and they listened to our ideas and suggestions. When we have brainstorming sessions together, it feels like Fruition is an extension of our team. I don’t think that one day goes by without contacting them, but we exchange emails as much as needed around pertinent projects. There would be weekly updates to help us keep track of projects. If we threw them a project that could affect a previous deadline, they would communicate that to us. We also have a monthly sit-down meeting to look at results.

What did you find most impressive about Fruition?

Fruition’s technical expertise stands out because they deliver results at the end of the day. When things need to be tweaked, they do so. This is the simplest but most effective way of assessing them.

Secondly, the idea that we have an all-encompassing team available to us is a strong attribute. We don’t have to go to different agencies for different parts of our marketing. The fact that we could go to Fruition when our social media work started was a valuable thing to have. It’s hard to manage multiple partners and have everyone speaking to each other. If we can lean on one partnership for all of this, it will be ideal.

Are there any areas Fruition could improve?

I’m sure I’ve had constructive feedback for them at some point, but everything works well overall.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development for a scientific consultancy. We specialize in risk management of occupational health hazards. We help other companies identify and manage chemical, biological, and physical health hazards in the workplace and surrounding community.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We needed help with web development and SEO. Prior to working with Fruition, we worked with another web development company and their customer service was disingenuous.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done a bit of everything. They completely redesigned and rebuilt our website. We provided content for the majority of our engagement, but I recently gave them. More freedom to write ad copy and they’ve totally nailed it. They also do our quarterly newsletter. They manage a PPC campaign to drive traffic to our site, and our corporate LinkedIn page. They provide a monthly report of what is working and what’s not.

What is the team composition?

Since day one, Jeff (Founder & CEO) has been my primary contact for 95% of the time. I correspond with one other person sometimes. The fact that after all these years, I’ve worked with one person who understands the big picture and knows what we’re doing, is incredibly valuable. I never have to re-explain things.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I brought in about half a dozen firms to interview. We were impressed with Fruition and moved forward. Technically, they’re very competent, but they have that intangible piece in place—communication and customer service—there’s so much value to that.

How much have you invested with them?

Our monthly spend is $2,500 (approximately $255,000 in total). It’s mostly for the PPC campaign, but that includes site updates, LinkedIn work, and our newsletters.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2012 and it’s ongoing.

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

We’ve definitely seen an increase in the number of clients that come through the website. We wanted a very small number of qualified leads, not just masses of phone calls. We’re a small company, and we're driven by our technical capabilities. Fruition bought into that and was able to deliver. We do a small number of proposals, but they’re for big projects that will keep us busy for a longer period of time. That’s our corporate model. We’ve seen better clients come in, and more qualified local leads. We also geotarget and they help us filter out the leads that ultimately would be a waste of time.

They also help us with our branding, the new website is more consistent from page to page.

They listen to our needs as well. One of our former partners argued that we needed to use certain language to drive traffic, but we that language has been twisted by lawyers in the past when our scientists have been called to court for a case. We couldn’t have that, but our partner wouldn’t listen. In contrast, Fruition always listens to our needs and are willing to try something new.  

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good. They provide breakdowns of what they’re trying to do. They’ve even noticed that some of our content has been outdated since Google updated their algorithm, so Fruition wrote out the steps needed to get us back on track.

They’re able to drive our activities and they proactively ask where we want to grow. They don’t just wait for me to tell them what to do; they help me identify where the opportunities are on a conceptual level.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of firms know their stuff, but they can’t balance it with customer service. With our previous partner, we were clearly one of their smaller accounts and it was hard to get their attention. What sets Fruition apart is their ability to build customer relationships.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re lucky to have them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You still need to take ownership of what you want and understand your own marketing objectives. If they’ve ever tripped up, it’s because we’re talking about a new marketing initiative and it’s formulated enough on our end.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Tru Family Dental, which is a practice support organization for dental offices. We provide back-office support to dental practices with whom we’ve affiliated. We have seven offices that are currently under our umbrella, and we provide operational, IT, marketing, and onboarding support. Pretty much everything that helps the office run smoothly, we handle on the backend - anything but the delivery of care.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We needed to attract new patients and have a consistent presence online.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition built out the entire website, from the page for Tru Family Dental to each individual practice location. We’re in different geographies, so there was the main site, and also one for the all the subs. We grow through affiliation, meaning we buy other offices. When we do that, we’ve got a model to get that practice up to speed pretty quickly. We have a professional photographer come by, drop those photos in, create the social media pages across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc., and then get off and rolling with a PPC campaign. We immediately start tracking our keyword SEO ranking across a span of 75 or more keywords, and then it’s off to the races. That’s how we put it all together out of the gate.

Tru Family is three years old, and Fruition was here from the beginning. We had three or four offices at that time. Once we figured out the brand and everything, Fruition went out and built the website and all the pages. For any new office we acquire, it’s now a temple. You just change the city, location, photos, and team member information, and you drop it in. That helps us to scale efficiently.

There’s a social media manager who spends time with us. We’ve got a dedicated development manager, and then a dedicated PPC manager. So, all those channels are handled; social, online, and then the PPC. Additionally, there’s a fourth team member who is a business manager, making sure we’re looking at our spend per patient acquisition online through different channels. That’s the whole package, and we get full access to everyone. We have to continually evolve, so as we change the way we monitor calls or new pieces of collateral going out either in practice or mail, Fruition is there, helping to design and set up the correct analytics behind it. Once we send it out and capture data, they review that.  

We really wanted to have a lot of access to data from a dynamic number insertion perspective, with the different properties we have. That technology is in there. We’re able to pull reviews from our individual Google+ pages to the web chat automatically with a plugin. We have a practice management software that we use. As a medical provider, there’s insurance, billing, all these other things that are connected together. That captures the patient information once they come. The leads are directed to a call center. We’ve actually built a plugin into the website to allow patients to complete their health history online versus having to print out the papers and then scan it. Those are some of the little bits and pieces in terms of tech that’s placed in.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I’ve known of Fruition for a period of time through friends. I knew of their experience in multi-unit health care marketing. Once we got this thing off the ground, I wanted to reach out to them early. I wanted to make sure we were getting a provider that knew what they were doing in multi-unit health care.

How much have you invested with Fruition?

When I look at what I spend with them for support, ongoing SEO monitoring, and development, then what my PPC spend is, we’re best-in-class for our industry. I know what our industry dynamics are for the cost to get a patient in the chair, and the ROI is favorable to a high degree.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January of 2015, and our relationship is ongoing.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The volume and year-over-year growth have increased. All the metrics are exceptional. Our site is clean, elegant, and responsive. Everything we hoped and dreamed, Fruition has delivered, and they keep delivering as we continue to expand. I’ve never any issues with the reliability and functionality of the website.

My cost to get a patient in the practice is less than the industry average. One practice we affiliated with used to see one or two new patients a month. They now see 20 to 30 new patients a month.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

There haven’t been any problems with the time zone difference or getting in touch with them. They’re accessible by phone, email, and Skype. They have an emergency support number, and it’s all good to go.

What did you find most impressive about Fruition?

Across the board, they’re really committed to the organization. I have an office that’s going to go live in June, and we got billed in May for it. I sent an email to the billing department at Fruition, and a minute later it comes back with that invoice change, no questions asked. I’ve tried to fight other vendors on stuff, and I get nowhere with them. They’re very much client-facing, and whenever I have a question on an invoice, they get it done immediately. With all my other vendors, it’s like I’m trying to pull teeth, no pun intended.

Are there any areas Fruition could improve?

I know they’re working on building some business intelligence tools that will drive more reporting data. You can get anything you want now, but version 2.0 is going to be interesting, once they get a BI tool in there that populates and pushes.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital media at Ontario International Airport in Southern California. I’m responsible for managing social media, the website, and all digital integrations. We have about 5.1 million passengers each year and host nine airlines that travel to 21 destinations.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We hired Fruition to provide website support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition is our sole web agency, and they do everything from backend development to day-to-day maintenance. We collaborated on a website refresh, which Fruition began by analyzing data, UX audits and reports, and site usage. They continue to revamp high-traffic web pages, such as our parking page. We recently added a feature that allows customers to book parking in advance, and Fruition ensured that this was available on the site’s homepage and various other pages.

Fruition added map and destination features to our site, enabling customers to click on a location to determine which airline can take them there. Fruition helped rolled out Spanish and Mandarin translations to accommodate our Belarussian and Chinese customers. They’ve helped make our brand more digital, and they provide SEO. The team updates our metadata ties and oversees our landing pages and search engine rankings.

Fruition is in the discovery phase of building out our Internet. Our company has never had an internal employee Internet, and we’re looking forward to every team and department having their own site.

What is the team composition?

The primary team that we work with is Jonathan (VP of Digital Strategy, Fruition), Erica (Lead Technical Project Manager, Fruition), Tony (Service Desk Lead, Fruition), and Jon (Developer, Fruition).

How did you come to work with Fruition?

Fruition was already onboard when I joined my company, so I’m not sure how they were selected.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $150,000–$350,000 over the last fiscal year.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company obtained new leadership in November 2016, but Fruition was working with us before that. Our relationship is ongoing.

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

The website refresh provides our customers with a friendlier user experience. Our concessions and destinations pages are more interactive and modern, which distinguishes our site from other airport websites. Fruition’s digital and SEO services have not only improved the customer experience but have also educated us internally on taking a more digital approach. Most airports don’t have a robust digital team like Fruition.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

The Fruition team is agile, responsive, and collaborative. We try to have in-person meetings at least once a quarter; my team has traveled to Fruition’s office in Denver to have brainstorming sessions, and they’ve come to our office.  They’re very open to exchanging ideas and facilitating a back-and-forth partnership. We have one or two weekly calls and interact every day via email.

For a few projects, Fruition has had to work with external vendors; for instance, to enable pre-book parking, they engaged with our parking contractor. They’re flexible and open to working with different parties.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our relationship isn’t just transactional; Fruition is part of our team. Fruition treats our brand as if it were their own. We have an in-house graphic designer and photographer, but we don’t have the capacity to build the website. Because of Fruition, we’ve brought our vision to life.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any that I can think of.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be as collaborative as possible and ensure that Fruition understands your brand. Having such a strong working relationship improves the quality of the work and can even expedite results.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a controller at SCB International, Inc., an e-commerce company focused on nutritional products. I also oversee marketing and manage the website and IT.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We had two main websites: a blog-based WordPress site and a Magento 1 e-commerce site. An inexperienced developer had poorly executed our most recent iteration in 2013. Custom core code modifications made the Magento 1 site prone to bugs and difficult to patch. Also, our blog site had thousands of articles and ineffective navigation, which was causing an information overload problem. By 2018, we had outdated graphics, bad visual layouts, poor performance on mobile browsers, and slow load times. Although we had high traffic on the blog site, our conversion rates on the e-commerce site were below the industry average. Finally, we knew Magento 1’s end of life date was 2020, so we wanted to update our site to Magento’s newer version. My company hired Fruition to help us with these challenges.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition rebuilt our websites from scratch and integrated the two. They did front- and backend development and all of the design work. Initially, the team did mood boards, mock-ups, and theme redesign. Then, they used FishPig to integrate our WordPress and Magento sites. They also integrated all of the third-party modules that we needed in Magento, such as Mailchimp and Mandrill, ShipStation, and PayPal. They analyzed our user flow and made improvements based on a concept called progressive disclosure, so that information would be presented to users as needed instead of all at once.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact was Erica (Lead Technical Project Manager, Fruition). My team also worked with Chance (Technical Sales Engineer, Fruition) on backend development and Nathan (Senior UX Designer, Fruition) on frontend development. We engaged with a user flow expert and another web designer who helped with the layout, frontend, and graphics.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

Fruition happened to contact us when we were actively looking for a web developer. We liked their work and the fact that they had a full team of experts; we didn’t want just a one-person team working on such a major overhaul. After a few quote revisions, my company hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–December 2018.

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

We saw a 1% increase in the conversion rate, which brought us closer to the industry average. Fruition also resolved our information overload issue.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

It was evident that Fruition had experience managing complex, high-level projects. Erica was one of the best project managers my team has worked with. She held weekly follow-up meetings, had a keen attention to detail, and was capable of solving unforeseen challenges. She was easily accessible via email or phone. Having a detailed quote that was representative of the work helped ensure that we adhered to the timeline and budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their graphic designers were top-notch. They did such an excellent job with our website that we had them redesign our logo.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue we ran into was Fruition’s lack of experience with our ERP system, Sage. However, they can’t know every system. They did great from project management and technical standpoints.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the brand strategy manager at Kaneka Nutrients. We’re a wellness company that manufactures nutritional supplements.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We needed their team’s expertise in marketing and website design.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We’ve initially engaged Fruition to handle our consumer marketing efforts as our company has branched out in the B2C space. They’ve developed marketing tools to heighten our presence and helped us optimize our content to reach out to our target audience.

As part of Fruition’s efforts to optimize our online presence, they’ve helped us refurbish our website by developing solutions that improve the quality of our shopping carts and implementing client-specific features. They continue to generate Google and Facebook ads to help us get the word out about our new offerings.         

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of 10 resources from Fruition, including an account director, content and social media analysts, web designers, and developers.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

They were already working with our company when I was onboarded. We never found the reason to hire a different team because they successfully delivered our needs for several previous projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Fruition in January 2012, and our collaboration is ongoing. I’ve been actively participating in our engagement with them for about five years now.

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

We’ve seen evident business growth since Fruition has taken over our marketing efforts — this includes a 600% increase in lead magnet conversion, a 200% web traffic growth, and a lowered acquisition cost for our customers. 

Additionally, we’ve also had higher conversion rates through the paid social media ads by their team. Overall, I can confidently say that Fruition is a reliable partner that continues to reward us with lucrative results, and that’s why we’re still working with them after all these years.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly check-in meetings and conduct quarterly in-person meetings to examine our progress. Fruition is a highly proactive and responsive team. We’ve encountered a circumstance wherein one of their resources has accidentally posted an update on our social media channel instead of her own —  Fruition has quickly addressed this by removing the post and issuing a retraction. They drop everything to fix any problem and get us back on track.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fruition works like an extension of our team — they integrate themselves well into our processes and employ a seamless process that leads to high-yielding results. We’re simply glad to be working with such a responsible partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Fruition is a productive team that willingly asks for our suggestions on how they can improve their work. We’ve already relayed our feedback to their team, and they’ve already worked on the areas that need improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to communicate effectively with their team and present a clear project brief to make the most of your engagement. Fruition is always willing to implement solutions that address their clients’ needs and expectations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I have been the owner of SMB Sales Inc. since 2002, and we are located in Sumner, WA. I oversee all aspects of our online businesses, including buying, selling, and web management. We run two e-commerce sites.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We needed an SEO friendly website and a clear, concise direction on how to implement and retain an SEO strategy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I gave them a basic outline of what I needed. Fruition took it from there. I knew we needed help with respect to a decline in organic SEO. I had no idea how deep the problem was until Fruition brought it all to my attention. They saved us!

How did you come to work with Fruition?

Fruition was a reference I received from a trusted source.

How much have you invested with Fruition?

It is in the $50,000-$200,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been with Fruition for about 6 months, and I plan to retain them for as long as they will have me. Since SEO is constantly changing with Google algorithm changes, it is absolutely necessary for us to have a company of people that has this knowledge as Fruition does.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Over the past 6 months, we are going nowhere but up!  We see detailed positive results on a continual basis. Their focus on improving our business is second to none. Only a business owner themselves would have more focus and dedication.

I'm also absolutely blown away by their technical skill and the ease in which they implement it. It's almost hands-off, which is exactly what I wanted. Don't get me wrong; you can be as involved as you want and learn everything they do. I just needed someone to take the bull by the horns and run it for me, and that is exactly what they did.  

How did Fruition perform in terms of project management?

They performed perfectly.

What did you find most impressive about Fruition?

They first impressed me with their consistent ability to work unsupervised. I gave a general direction, and they ran with it. They continue to show us results that blow my mind; I just get to sit back and write a check once a month. It could not be easier.

Are there any areas where Fruition could improve?

No improvement would be possible. They really are exceeding any expectations I had, especially Courtney; she is amazing!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small software reseller. We resell contact center solutions for Interactive Intelligence. They’re a company based out of Indiana recently acquired by Genesys Technologies. I’m the owner of the company. We’ve got 5 employees, and we do everything when it comes to Interactive Intelligence products—from sales, to support, to custom development, implementation, and training.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We always came up short on our new logo sales piece, so we went to Fruition to help with marketability and branding in order to win new business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Overall, we wanted them to give us a full marketing identity which we never had before. So, Fruition wrote a new web page for us. They had some quiz-type of content asking questions, with automatic quotes being generated. Fruition also developed new artwork for us, spent some time looking at our competitors, and worked out our SEO [search engine optimization] to help us come out on the top of search lists.That was phase 1.

Phase 2 was a long-term retention where we managed our social profiles. They’ve got a few folks dedicated to us. Fruition is dedicated to us for about 20 to 30 hours a month, and they always look for better ways to write articles for us, promote different sections of our site, or make updates to things because it’s a really fast changing environment that we’re working in.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I think I just googled “marketing agencies” in Denver. I visited them and one other organization. We went and did a preliminary meeting with each and asked them to give a high-level estimate budget on website redesign and rebuild project. The other company was more than twice the cost estimate of Fruition. The Fruition team seemed a little more current, certainly faster, and more dynamic. They fit better with us.

How much have you invested with Fruition?

If I remember right, I think we were around $30,000 for phase 1. The monthly retainer has been $3,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2016. We have a monthly recurring engagement where there is a social media calendar built out for the next 6 months with posts, articles, and blogs that they’re going to publish for us.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They didn’t know anything about contact centers when we hired them, and now they’re writing articles where it sounds as if they have been in it for 20 years. They are doing a great job of becoming experts in the space. They’ve done everything we’ve asked of them, but it takes a long time to actually start seeing the results. We’ve only had the website up for 5 months now, and the social component has only been about a month in, so we haven’t seen any real uptick in new business, but we have seen a lot of uptick in traffic. There is no hard bottom line, but that’s to be expected at this point. To a larger extent, what we were looking for in this first phase was to give our customers a place to go where they can validate who we are and what we provide.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, I think I did a pretty good job. I’m more of a developer by nature. So once the project manager connected me with the development resources, she got out of the way, which worked for all the people that were involved except for her. She was left out a little bit, but she stayed on top of it. She made sure we hit our dates.

What did you most impressive about Fruition?

I really dig the team spirit. Everybody that worked on our project was energized about being a part of it. They were excited to be working on our stuff. They’ve always been complimentary of how we all work together. It’s been a nice group to work with. They feel very much like an extension and not just a vendor.

Are there any areas Fruition could improve?

Not really. Like I said, Fruition hit every mark we asked them to. Everything has gone really well. Fruition met all their timelines and hit all their deliverables. Fruition continues to do good at writing and are becoming experts in the space. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with how quickly they’ve adopted our technology and learned how to communicate on our level for being in a space they have never worked in before.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Fruition?

The only thing I can say is that it’s a customer’s nature to be scrutinous of a contract and to look for how they're going to come out on the short end of the stick with this type of arrangement. I didn’t do that with Fruition, and they have proven to me that I never needed to. They just did a really good job. We all had a gentlemen’s agreement on the things that were loosely worded. We agreed to figure out a good path to make sure everybody was happy here, and we absolutely did that. Once the project team got rolling, nobody ever went back to the contract and said, “I don’t see this or that in there.” That never happened. To trust them is my biggest piece of advice. If you’re going to hire them, go ahead and put your trust in them.