Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an awning company that’s a division of the larger textile manufacturer from Philadephia. We’ve been operating here for 146 years since 1874. I joined two years ago as a marketing manager, and I run the marketing for all the divisions of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC?

We had been working with another SEO consultant for five years before I signed on.  I was the first internal marketing professional that they had hired. Since the relationship didn’t appear to be working very well for us with our previous SEO consultant, we mutually parted ways. As a result, I looked for a new SEO company that could grow our traffic instead of just continuing things at a flat level.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did on- and off-site SEO. The team also performed keyword research and managed our Google Ads and PPC efforts. Furthermore, they did technical audits which we passed along to our developers who made the changes. 

What is the team composition?

Sebastian (Senior SEO Account Manager) is our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC?

I found them because they were one of the only local SEO firms on the most recommended vendors list. I looked into them as well as a couple of other firms. It was a fairly hard decision because another firm seemed like they would be a good fit too. 

However, we ended up with Greelane because they were a bit less corporate. Our previous SEO vendor was a very corporate and high-end agency, so I decided to go in a different direction.

How much have you invested with them?

Before the pandemic, we’ve been spending $8,500 per month, $7,000 for SEO, and $1,500 for SEO. In April 2020, we dropped down our budget to $1,500 per month for PPC.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began collaborating in November 2018, and we’re still working with them, although in a reduced capacity.

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

I was mainly looking at traffic growth. We were specifically looking at SEO and how much traffic we were bringing in and we grew quite a bit in 2019, which was the first time in several years that we had grown. To be clear, in 2017 and 2018 our growth was flat, and then in 2019, we grew 25% year-over-year (YoY). 

How did Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve used Slack quite a bit and Google Drive to organize weekly reports that they write for us. We also have weekly calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s a relatively small company and it seems like they have a really good rapport with the company. They also have an office environment that lends itself to everyone. We appreciate that they’re very helpful.

Sebastian is the most knowledgeable person in terms of identifying people who can answer our questions. He will talk to them and come back with answers, so there’s a lot of collaboration.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are improving on this, but they can definitely get better at demonstrating results. At first, their reporting was fairly rudimentary. I do think we’re getting good value from the work we’re doing with them, but they can do a better job of highlighting it and showing the value they’re providing. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a very friendly agency. They know their stuff. I would recommend them. I’ve been happy working with them and I haven’t been looking to jump ship to other providers. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I head up content for a media and publishing company that leverages our audiences to help sponsors sell product D2C.

For what projects/services did your company hire Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC, and what were your goals?

We were growing a new publishing site from scratch while marketing our content on behalf of multiple sponsor/advertisers.

How did you select Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC and what were the deciding factors?

I have hired Greenlane on similar projects at past companies, over and over again for the last 10 years and always been impressed by the results. Some examples:

• They helped my team implement a fix of an undetected tech issue which led to 30% MOM growth right off the bat (this represented around 2 million additional visits per month);
• They ideated a topic center that brought a new audience to our sponsor's pages;
• They partnered with my team on navigation changes that led to a more targeted audience and better conversion.

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

This project included a full site platform tech audit, hands-on QA of our new site, initial strategy work on the information architecture of the site and pages, consulting on international content strategy set-up, and content topic research for launch. Some mix of these elements is now done on an ongoing basis.

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

Partner, Account Director, Content Strategist Technologist, Analytics Expert.

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

With Greenlane's help our site went from 0 to 150,000 unique visits per month in under a year...and growing.

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

I have always found their team to be WAY above average in this area. I honestly treat them like an extension of my own team. We move very quickly and are always throwing new challenges and ideas at them and they love it!

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

They don't stop at doing the work request, the proactively look at ways we can do better, not just on organic traffic, but in or business on the whole. I love that they take the time to understand everything about how we operate.

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

I'm working with them on streamlining the way different channels within my company access our account director. Everyone wants to use them, and I find myself needing more visibility into how my own company requests their time when I'm not copied directly.