GoTo Marketers Inc.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing and operations at a company that sells enterprise architecture software. We also offer training and consulting services in North America to complement our software.

What challenge were you trying to address with GoTo Marketers?

We needed to build a set of marketing capabilities very quickly from the ground up. When I came in, we didn’t have a marketing function other than sending out emails. We needed a company that could provide the full breadth of marketing capabilities and also scale to meet the needs of a growing business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

GoTo Marketers implemented a marketing automation platform for us. We use SharpSpring, and GoTo Marketers is helping us through the process of figuring out what tools we need. The automation system allows us to drive effective marketing campaigns through the lead generation process. We can now track performance, which we couldn’t in the past. 

The GoTo Marketers team also took over the management of our website entirely. They assist us with SEO and content creation. Their team is also working with us on branding. They have helped us refresh our entire website and create a logo, among other design work. GoTo Marketers helps us plan and create new events. 

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with a project manager and with the founder of GoTo Marketers, who provided us with strategic guidance. We also engage with a team of 10 on an as-needed basis. I don’t need a full-time designer or graphics person because they have a full staff.

How did you come to work with GoTo Marketers?

I had seen some of GoTo Marketers’ past work with other companies and talked to some of their clients who had been really happy with them. In particular, there were some individuals who had engaged with GoTo Marketers at multiple companies when they switched positions. This repeat engagement showed me that they were a partner that knows their stuff and drives impact.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with GoTo Marketers began in February 2019.

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

The most important things we track are response time and turnaround time. It’s all about business agility. The amount of rework we’ve had them do for us has been very low, making the turnaround time low. 80% of the deliverables they’ve given us only needed a few minor stylistic edits to get it out the door. They get it right on the first time. Working with GoTo Marketers has allowed us to focus on our core competency of driving business.

How did GoTo Marketers perform from a project management standpoint?

GoTo Marketers is very good at meeting deadlines. I like the fact that they don’t provide me with a deep level of detail in the product delivery plan. I don’t need to see how they’re getting the work done, I just need to see the deliverables. They just take care of project management for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In addition to their marketing expertise, these guys have a deep level of content generation capabilities. They create content that we would expect industry experts to be producing.

GoTo Marketers has the full breadth of marketing expertise in-house. They’re able to put together a marketing function that would scale from a tiny company or startup to a hundred million dollar enterprise. They’ve got the ability to support the small guys and the big guys alike.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been a great partner. When we’ve encountered small things, they’re really great about taking feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

GoTo Marketers knows what they’re doing, listen to them. The best thing you can do is not argue with them, because 90% of the time they’re right.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The name of the company is called Cloto. We're a subscription-based laundry service provider. My position here is president of the company, and I’m in charge of operations.

What challenge were you trying to address with GoTo Marketers Inc.?

We’re a young startup, and we were missing key foundational pieces in terms of our marketing presence. We solicited the services of GoTo Marketers to help us in that area.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide an overall market strategy to help us target our key demographic. They conducted user research at the outset and then moved into branding support. Most of their branding services were for our website. 

The team completely revamped our site; it was almost as if they’d built it from scratch. It’s a WordPress site, and I know they added other plugins and frameworks, as well.

One of our main goals was to educate end-users about our services. To achieve this, GoTo Marketers developed a laundry cost calculator that is now available on our site. This lets users compare the price of doing laundry at home versus using a laundromat or using our service.

GoTo Marketers also designed a social media strategy that was geared towards a very specific set of users. They worked on the development of that strategy as well as the execution. They regularly pushed out posts and content with our branded material, along with test ads, to gauge the response in different market segments.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was Terry (Vice President, GoTo Marketers Inc.), and there were four or five others who worked with us. We had technical experts, a social media coordinator, a content creator, and William (President, GoTo Marketers Inc.), who was my initial point of contact. He helped with the higher-level strategy.

How did you come to work with GoTo Marketers Inc.?

We looked at several different marketing firms but had trouble finding one that was in our price range. We eventually made a pros and cons sheet with the companies on our list and interviewed each of them. Our goal with each interview was to see if they understood our business and could provide services within our budget. 

After that process, we felt that GoTo Marketers was the best fit. We actually added them to our list after we came across them on Clutch. It was clear that they would be able to support us while sticking to our startup budget.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with them in September 2018 and wrapped up in March 2019.

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

Our click-through rate (CTR) from social media, as well as our overall number of website visits, dramatically increased. We’ve also been looking at heat maps, and the engagement on certain parts of the website has doubled and tripled. Part of this is due to the cost calculator—that’s been a very important feature for us.

How did GoTo Marketers Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was fairly effective. It did run a little bit longer than anticipated because the timeline got delayed, but that had to do with different requirements and requests that we made. Overall, the communication was great, and they were well integrated into our Slack team. The people from their end were always responsive to changes or ideas.

They feel less like an outside agency, and more like in-house partners. They were always trying to tackle the different business challenges that we were facing early on. It was a great experience working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of work was impressive, combined with their ability to manage various projects at the same time. Within an overall marketing strategy, there can be video production, branding, and other services. We appreciated not having to find multiple agencies for those different tasks. 

For example, we considered hiring actors for a commercial, and they offered to take care of that whole process. We ended up not following through with it, but it showed how flexible they are and how they're willing to work with your budget, schedule, and timeline. They can deliver across the board with assets for any marketing channel.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The biggest challenge we faced was communicating with their remote team members. There were times when we experienced gaps that could’ve been overcome with a local vendor. This could also be fixed by having regular in-person meetings or follow-ups. Overall, they did a relatively good job of this, but we did struggle to meet certain timelines and delivery dates.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The biggest advice I can give is to go in and lay out all of your problems. GoTo Marketers are very experienced in terms of marketing and general business knowledge, so take advantage of that. They’ll try to help you devise a business development strategy, because marketing isn’t done in a vacuum. Let them take that holistic approach and act as in-house advisors. It will definitely help your business grow.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m part of the marketing team at Freshworks. I handle content delivery and influence strategy.

For what projects/services did your company hire GoTo Marketers Inc.?

We hired them to supplement our staff in creating content for our website.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase our top-of-the-funnel traffic by driving visitors to sites and blog.

How did you select this vendor?

William Goddard, their president, is an influencer in the IT service management industry. Our company has followed his work closely for the past two years and have always liked what we’ve seen and heard. When this opportunity came up, we reached out to GoTo Marketers Inc. because they seemed like an ideal partner to help us reach our goals.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They created long-form articles for us that focused on a variety of topics related to customer support and IT service management. The content included articles, leadership presentations, blog posts, infographics, and additional pages on our websites.

What was the team composition?

We worked with William, plus two other members of their team.

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

Since we hired them, our top-of-the-funnel traffic has increased by 15 percent and we’ve significantly improved our SEO rankings.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They’re very responsive. William was directly involved with our project and the whole team had solid knowledge of the topics we asked them to write about. We have a very good working relationship.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re experts in their field and have the content knowledge to prove it. This partnership has been very beneficial to us, not only because they’ve created such great material for us, but because their management team has been willing to exchange ideas and help us learn. Not only that, they operate well independently while still delivering quality content.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t think of anything in particular.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a marketing director at MSPWorx, an IT service management (ITSM) provider that assesses customers’ existing IT infrastructure, launches new tools, and manages their technology. We’re a new division of Careworx, a senior care and managed IT support company.

For what projects/services did your company hire GoTo Marketers Inc.?

I was introduced to the ITSM space with the birth of this division. I needed expertise in the field to build messaging, blogs, and marketing assets like white papers.

What were your goals for this project?

This base of materials would help communicate our offering (and the problems it can solve) to customers, generating demand and leads for our sales teams.

How did you select this vendor?

I’d worked with some of their key stakeholders before. They showed competency in and a strong understanding of the ITSM space, which we found extremely valuable.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Initially, we had several in-depth meetings to discuss our content themes and messaging. They’ve authored numerous blog posts and six white papers that speak to our offering, along with the pains that we solve for our customers. This last part is important, as it shows we’re a key player in the space and have a clear understanding of our prospects’ needs.

What was the team composition?

I worked closely with both Terry (Vice President, GoTo Marketers Inc.) and William (President, GoTo Marketers Inc.) to produce the content briefings they required. My marketing department has also liaised with the writing and creative team to discuss approvals and changes.

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

The project forced my executive team to dig deep and clearly define our goals and go-to-market messaging, which we previously lacked. It aligned our marketing and sales efforts and brought in new customers by showing them we had expertise in the space.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was great on their end. Some projects took longer than expected but those were due to our internal issues and workloads.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re willing to take on anything, and they always ensure you’re comfortable with the outcome. They offer original insights and don’t hesitate to incorporate feedback. It’s almost like having an expert consultant.

Are there any areas for improvement?

A line card of sorts would help backend budgeting.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the manager of corporate affairs for a provider of commercialization services, early-stage funding, and deal-brokering with industry and private investors. Our mandate is to drive the commercialization of our member institutions' most promising research breakthrough.

For what projects/services did your company hire GoTo Marketers Inc.?

We were building a new website and needed assistance with the technical and design aspects.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a well-designed, easy-to-navigate website, and an ongoing consulting partner.

How did you select this vendor?

We canvassed our industry contacts to source a few reputable companies. After interviewing the top 3–4, we chose GoTo Marketers.

Describe the project in detail.

We had extensive meetings with Richard Rudy (Senior Partner/Creative Director, GoTo Marketers) to define the scope of the project and arrive at a final layout and color scheme. GoTo Marketers steered us toward the correct design option and participated in knowledge sharing. Since completing the project, Richard has continued to hold our hand whenever problems arise or a change needs to be made.

What was the team composition?

We only work with Richard.

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

We’re happy because the new website attracts more hits than the previous version did.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Everything went smoothly. GoTo Marketers worked well with an external design consultant and ensured that our internal team hit deadlines. I’m quite pleased with GoTo Marketers quick, professional response time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They understand the financial restrains nonprofit organizations face. Additionally, they're knowledgeable, personable, and responsive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. They did everything to our satisfaction.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Virima Technologies, a fast software company that specialized in IT management solutions.

What challenge were you trying to address with GoTo Marketers Inc.?

We needed more marketing resources to augment our small team, but we were struggling to find a partner who could produce great results. It became our goal to find a company with verified success within the tech industry.

What was the scope of their involvement?

GoTo Marketing was initially brought in to work alongside our in-house team, but we eventually decided to expand their role as our sole digital marketing provider. Their scope includes content creation, demand generation, and social media management. They also perform website support and maintenance.

What is the team composition?

Their president serves as our primary contact, but we often work with his partner as well.

How did you come to work with GoTo Marketers?

We were introduced to them through our former director of marketing. Their familiarity with the software industry majorly influenced our hiring decision.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, we’ve spent a little more than $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They became our official digital marketing vendor in January 2018.

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

The increased site traffic and conversion rate are a positive sign that our target audience is responding positively to their work. Our following across critical social media platforms has improved significantly, and our sales funnel is three times larger than last year’s records. Business has grown exponentially since GoTo Marketers came on board.

How did GoTo Marketers Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They followed through with their promise to lessen our workload. We have weekly calls to discuss completed tasks, outstanding items, and impending initiatives. Our two points of contact also correspond with us daily via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

No one understands how to navigate the software industry better than GoTo Marketers. Their knowledge often surpasses our own regarding competition and domain space. Their multitude of fresh perspectives supports our business growth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only improvement that can be made to our partnership is increasing our budget for demand generation. Fortunately, GoTo Marketers knows how to work with our reality and allocate our funds in the key areas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

A clearly defined vision is essential to every successful project, but flexibility is equally important. GoTo Marketers have a lot of brilliant ideas, so consider their suggestions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of sales and marketing for Valsoft Corporation, an ownership group that owns and manages numerous software companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with GoTo Marketers?

We needed a full-service digital marketing partner for one of the companies we own.

What was the scope of their involvement?

GoTo Marketers worked on a variety of assignments: SEO, website optimization, social media, AdWords, blogs, keywords, case studies, and email marketing. They created better and more effective ads to increase conversion, improved our landing pages, and enhanced our social media engagement. Their insight has helped us change our landing pages and adjust the content on our website.

For SEO, they discovered 70–80 areas where we needed to dramatically update our website’s structure to enhance performance. They also sent a press release out to increase awareness and traffic to our site. They set up an automated email marketing tool called SharpSpring that more efficiently manages our sales process, customer database, and other aspects related to our email marketing campaigns. It allows us to better track and follow who we engage with and how well our efforts are working.

We’re currently going through a testing phase on AdWords. We run different types of advertisements to see which convert the best. As they’ve managed this process, we’re learning what gets clicks and how to improve our website and landing pages to get higher conversion rates.

What is the team composition?

They provide a full team. We interact with the president, vice president, senior partner, director of digital communications, and an animation associate.

How did you come to work with GoTo Marketers?

A friend recommended them. We also interviewed four other companies and reviewed their proposals. We felt GoTo Marketers understood our company the best and had the most experience, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

By the end of this project, we’ll have spent around $54,000. We plan to renew the partnership again, though.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since February 2018.

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

We’ve seen an increase in all of our numbers and analytics. Our social media has absolutely skyrocketed. A year ago, our company was floundering, but now we’re doing great: our impressions are up 6,900% on Twitter, 98% on Facebook, and 229% on LinkedIn. Our retweets on Twitter have increased by 35,000%. Everything is trending upward, and we’re thrilled with what GoTo Marketers has accomplished so far.

Whether it’s blog content or recommendations for the site, they’ve delivered a better understanding of our keywords and have optimized the content we post. They use the proper tags, structure, and writing to achieve the best results. Their SEO changes will have a significant impact on how we’re perceived, and the press releases make us much more accessible in the marketplace.

How did GoTo Marketers perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re a world class team. They use a Gantt chart and project management tool to track progress. We meet weekly with their whole team and review the project in their software tool for maximum transparency. They’re incredibly detailed and track which team member is responsible for which tasks. I also have numerous meetings throughout the week with their president and vice president.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They think long-term. They know you can’t change a company overnight, so they build a comprehensive strategy to accomplish your goals and sustained market growth. Unlike many other companies, GoTo Marketers is honest and straightforward about their limitations and how they fit into your overall plan.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Trust them and understand their work won’t improve your marketing right away. It will take time, but it will work. Do your due diligence and ask lots of questions about every category and deliverable you’re interested in them working on. Their capabilities and experience really stand out when you compare them to others.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global vice president of innovation for a consulting and training company. We work across various industries, focusing on problem-solving, decision making, project execution, and improving the operational performance of businesses. I’m also responsible for one of our service lines.

What challenge were you trying to address with GoTo Marketers?

We were going through a rebranding exercise and wanted to enhance our marketing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

GoTo redesigned our website and built a more operational marketing engine to continuously develop new content. It allows us to effectively distribute content out into the market via digital, visual, social media, etc. They provide design, content creation, marketing, social media management, etc. Now, they’ve moved onto a more global and broader marketing support role.

What is the team composition?

We have a team of about 5–7 people.

How did you come to work with GoTo Marketers?

We’d already worked with GoTo in a smaller role, so when we began interviewing potential partners for this larger project, they were one of them. They developed a strategy concept, and we had several conversations about their plan. Based on our past experience with them, their strong digital content marketing expertise, and their proactive and responsive team, we chose them. We wanted a partner that could deliver results and not get caught up in the creative, and they seemed like the right fit.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership for this larger project began in January 2017 and is ongoing.

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

Ever since partnering with GoTo, we’ve produced vast amounts of content across various channels: blogs, white papers, videos, case studies, articles, etc. We’ve probably doubled our output from last year. All of these materials mark us as a thought leader in consulting and training.

Our web traffic is up by 10%, social media referrals have increased by 50%, and block page views are up about 30%. In our North American region, we’ve seen a large increase in revenue created from generated leads. That’s due to multiple factors, not just GoTo, but they’ve been instrumental in getting higher quality leads in North America.

How did GoTo Marketers perform from a project management standpoint?

GoTo manages the work well and is proactive. They’re responsive, responsible, and have an effective marketing engine to create content quickly.

We mainly communicate via phone or email. They use Tom’s Planner, which is a project management tool that provides a Gantt chart and other resources for communication and documentation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re incredibly skilled in digital marketing; they have outstanding domain expertise. They understand the channels well and consistently produce good content. They move fast and get things done quickly, which is very much in line with any small to medium-sized business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We needed a bit of time and effort to sync up our long-term marketing plans/schedules as well as resources on both sides. That’s a learning curve with a new partner. Their design skills are solid, but I would say that they absolutely excel in digital marketing and content creation.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

GoTo will challenge your views and perspective, which is a strength. They’ll provide new insights that will help you build the best product, but be prepared for their pushback. They’re honest and direct, so be willing to engage with them in that form. Have a plan and don’t become the bottleneck. They act quickly, so give them the input they need to do their job.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m co-founder and CEO of Navvia Inc., a software company that builds and markets a process design product. The product allows organizations to document business processes and publish them for others to see.

What challenge were you trying to address with GoTo Marketers.

We wanted to improve our social media presence and generate leads.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided several services. The team develops content for our website and Twitter feed, which they also manage. GoTo Marketers’ content creators publish articles relevant to our industry space on the site. These creators work both independently and in collaboration with our team.

They also produce videos that feature me and others in the company, which are then used as collateral in various marketing campaigns. Additional marketing areas include landing page development, advertising, brochure development, and advisory services. More, recently they’ve assigned a dedicated specialist to do SEO and improve organic search results.

What is the team composition?

I interface with William, the president. My team works with his employees.

How did you come to work with GoTo Marketers?

William is a vocal thought leader in our industry. His innovative Twitter activity led me to follow him and eventually reach out about the services he provides.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend approximately $60,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started April 2013 and is ongoing.

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

Our Twitter account attracts followers in the professional communities that we target. They do a great job managing that feed and our other social media accounts. Those results not only reflect William’s responsive leadership, but also his initiative to help us network at trade shows or with potential partners and clients.

While it’s hard to judge individual collateral, we are now better connected in our industry space. We can attribute their overall marketing efforts to the growing share of lead generations from our social space.

For a boutique firm like ours, they became an invaluable extension of our marketing department. Likewise, their SEO work is very exciting, but it’s too early in that process to have results yet.

How did GoTo Marketers perform from a project management standpoint?

William responds in minutes through text or phone calls; his team hasn’t missed a delivery deadline. Their performance is particularly impressive because they also juggle other clients’ needs. His ability to make us feel like their only client is an important aspect of our relationship. In addition to phone and texts, we use Asana to assign them tasks and track their progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer service has a unique personal touch. William brings new technology to my attention when he believes it could save us money. Often, he doesn’t benefit financially from these recommendations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had a few avoidable course corrections. Although minor, these errors were preventable with a clearer understanding of our requirements. A little more preparation and clarity are needed to resolve this issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront and clear about goals and objectives, but also keep them engaged. It’s the client’s responsibility to make them an active partner.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Blazent is a data quality management applications developer. I was their VP of marketing.

What challenge were you trying to address with GoTo Marketers?

We needed a full-service agency with domain expertise and writing ability. Our work was very specific and dense, with a broad range of content requirements at a high volume. We needed a team with detailed knowledge, who wouldn’t need much explanation of what we were trying to accomplish.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They covered the entire range of our marketing needs, including our website, content, social media management, PPC, events support, video production, and lead and demand generation, all at a very high quality.

They also went through our old marketing lead databases in Marketo and HubSpot. They hadn’t been touched in years, so they were padded with a lot of bad leads we were being charged for. They parsed through and reduced the databases to the 8,000 or so good leads, which saved us both time and money.

What is the team composition?

William Goddard [President, GoTo Marketers] and Terry Brown [Vice President, GoTo Marketers] were our two leads. They also have a stable of high-end IT experts who write well.

How did you come to work with GoTo Marketers?

I first connected with them at a previous company. I thought their work was awesome, so when I moved to Blazent, they were the first people I called. I told them my budget and the need, and it took them two or three weeks to get everything set up. They’ve been working nonstop since then.

How much have you invested with them?

We set a large portion of our marketing budget aside for their services. On average we spent about $15,000 per month, which was money well spent.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them early in 2015. I have since transitioned away from Blazent, but they are still working together on projects.

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

They’ve really improved our lead volume. Their marketing operations are very strong, and they immediately began optimizing our operational execution. With their systematic approach to lead generation in Marketo, utilizing Salesforce and all the available technology platforms, we went from effectively zero leads to close to 1,000 leads per month. That’s a lot for a company our size.

How did GoTo Marketers perform from a project management standpoint?

We spoke with William sometimes twice a day or more, which we appreciated. Sometimes the principal will sell you on the partnership, but then disappear from the day-to-day work. That wasn’t the case here. We also had weekly updates with them as a matter of routine, mostly via Skype. William is very hands-on, and is determined to keep up with things, with full transparency. I sometimes spoke more with him than I did with my own employees.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This company is a gold mine. Their domain knowledge plus their writing capabilities were pretty close to perfect. It’s unusual to find a team who has their level of domain expertise who can also create operations and content to string the whole thing together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I’ve worked with agencies my whole career, and they are top-shelf. I never had any problems at all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear definition of what you want to do. It’s easy to fall into scope creep, but if you align your teams ahead of time with realistic expectations, the process will run smoothly. I didn’t have problems with them, but the more specific you can be, the better.