Gripped

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a Director at a legal company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We offer a cloud-based legal project management platform built for law firms and legal professionals. Manage and collaborate on matters more effectively from one simple, secure platform. Our platform requires no training to get going. Stay on track. Stay in touch. Stay secure.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Gripped to accomplish?

• SEO Optimization
• Website redesign
• Improve analytics monitoring and user journey tracking

SOLUTION

How did you find Gripped?

Referral

Why did you select Gripped over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Gripped were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We've been working with the Gripped team for the last year to improve SEO optimization on our website, deliver a website redesign, improve analytics tracking across our multiple platforms and generally assist with our digital marketing efforts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• We've seen an improved bounce rate on our site, higher search results for specific keywords, and in qualified leads.

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

Gripped was timely in responding to our needs and accommodating with creative solutions as our needs changed.

What was your primary form of communication with Gripped?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The staff. Fabulous and friendly!

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

Honestly, I thought Gripped team did a great job with flexibility and managing our evolving ideas. Perhaps they could have pushed back harder on some of our more creative ideas - we were still finding our own voice when we started working together, so if I had to choose one area of improvement it would be that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Data Interchange is an Epicor solution which offers B2B Integration solutions and services to supply chain businesses across the globe, specialising in EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). I head up the Marketing function for Data Interchange Limited and work closely with Gripped to deliver on our business goals and targets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We originally hired Gripped to support us in getting our website completely revamped to ensure we could achieve in the future. OuSince then we have expanded our relationship as the companies marketing function grew in line with business goals. This now covers; website management, SEO, content creation, social media, paid digital advertising and most importantly collaboration. Our goals were to build brand awareness and a pipeline of leads for our sales team via both a balanced paid and non-paid approach.

SOLUTION

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

As a B2B business, we were really looking for an agency that understood our landscape. We also knew that finding an agency heavily experienced in digital was a must-have. Once we met with Gripped we knew instantly that they were the right fit for us both in capability and personality.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

As we onboarded Gripped into the business we were going through a rebrand. We tasked them with bringing that brand to life via the new website project. They created us a website that we could all easily edit and update via Word Press and Beaver Builder. After the website was up and running the next key deliverable was getting coversions on the site to begin to build our pipeline. This involved creating new content such as blogs and webpages but also paid advertising on LinkedIn and Google. In addition to this, they have supported us on our Marketing Automation journey within Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Pardot) to keep our existing customer up to date with regular communications as well as setting up lead nurture flows, scoring and grading within the platform. This has supported our evolving internal process and involved being insync with our commercial team and goals to enable us to achieve together.

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

Over the last few years we've had various Account Managers and Executives supporting us from Gripped (Charlotte and Ed) as well as their wonderful wider team of experts such as content writers, creative designers, and strategic positions, even the owners have met us face to face for key planning sessions and to support business changes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There has been many achievements, however, this last month we reach a new goal of 4000 sessions of organic traffic to our site within 28 days!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

At Gripped we've been able to work very closely, almost as one team with the same goals. The workflow between us has been very fluid and easy with great communication. Gripped are always keen to dig into our requests and requirements to ensure we are all on the same page.

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

With Gripped, we work as one team, collaborating, planning, bringing ideas to the table, and forming those. This is different to other agencies i've worked with who seem to push their strengths and ideas whilst not hearing our own. Gripped really take the time to listen to our ideas and feedback and look into each to size up the opportunity available to us. They advise based on their experience with similar companies they work for which is invaluable.

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

It would be great to have a shared 'working' board between us that we can all update to keep on top of the many items we have.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an executive at Video Arts, where we set out to make the most entertaining, memorable and effective workplace learning content in the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Gripped?

We initially hired Gripped to review our existing content and develop persona determined themes. Jointly we then defined marketing qualified leads and set this up in our marketing automation systems so the right leads were automatically classified upon conversion. From there we have worked on various content creation and lead generation projects.

SOLUTION

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

We developed a shortlist and found Gripped through a personal recommendation from a former colleague who had worked with them. The culture and size of the business was a good fit for us as well as the flexibility they offered on the range of deliverables we could select.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After the initial phase of discovery and discussion on strategy and approach had been approved, Gripped took the content and moved to layout and design in line with our brand and visual identity. To support the delivery and lead capture they created forms, landing pages, thank you pages, and CTAs for each content piece, including revisions. We created a lead hand-off process and jointly decided on lead scoring criteria as well as lead handoff details. The Gripped team scheduled update calls and meetings with Video Arts key team members every two weeks for status updates. Equally, they were available for questions/training/support as needed.

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

They have assigned an Account Manager to work directly with us through the whole period, as well as period input from senior management or specialists at key points.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Traffic to our website has improved in lead quality as we developed Video Arts’ organic presence with a view to begin seeing steady increases in organic (and thus, total) traffic numbers. We have seen growth in form fills (both new and known) due to the variety of offers in the learning trends campaign.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Regular meetings and communication have helped to keep an effective channel between both teams despite the limitations of the pandemic and changes in personnel on both sides.

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

The team has always displayed a commitment to understanding our business and brand and are particularly helpful with our recent migration to HubSpot, offering advice and support to integrate effectively with the new service.

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

We are still working to improve the process for the development of copy to avoid too many revisions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the digital marketing manager at a data and analytics consultancy. We help businesses derive actionable insights from their data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were ready to really start growing our company, and so hired Gripped to help us kickstart our marketing activity through a multi-channel approach to drive demand and lead generation.

SOLUTION

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

I was not part of the selection process.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Gripped have been supporting us with website development (including migration and design work), content creation, creative asset development, paid media activity and the overarching growth strategy to help drive demand and lead generation.

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

We've worked with an account manager, growth strategist, account executive, SEO specialist, content writer and indirectly the design team and dev team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've seen over 100% year-over-year (YoY) increase in website traffic, mainly driven by paid activity. This has gradually increased since we launched paid activity. Our website page views, average session duration and no. of pages viewed per session are up by around 30% MoM, indicating that the website work and blog creation conducted by Gripped has helped us to increase the quality of our traffic as well as encouraging that traffic to spend more time on our site and visit more of our pages. Lead generation has been somewhat slower but we're hopeful this will improve based on the great website work Gripped have been doing for us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We meet with Gripped virtually every other week, and then in-person once a month for a more in-depth strategy / reporting discussing where we look at the previous months performance and deliverables for the upcoming months. We liaise via email almost every day.

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

The team at Gripped is very attentive, responsive, and results-driven. Our account manager, Charlie, has great communication and ensures that we're aware of top priorities and deliverables on a week-by-week basis. I'm also very impressed with their design work - once we'd nailed the new look and feel of our assets, all design work since then have been very consistent, engaging and fresh.

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

On the whole Gripped have really grasped who we are and what our service offering is - it feels like they understand our business and as a result are creating content that works well for us. As an area of improvement, some of the blog content feels a little 'light' and we're keen to add as much value and thought-provoking content for our readers as possible and so challenge them to dig deeper on some topics.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Head of Marketing for an IT Support, Services and Consultancy specialising in the Apple ecosystem.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to find leads to fill our sales pipeline and reposition ourselves in the marketplace. We were looking to move away from the SME market and more into the larger, corporate space. We were looking for a full-service digital marketing agency who could scope and deliver a content and advertising plan to drive those leads.

SOLUTION

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

We searched online and shortlisted 3 agencies. After meeting with Steve and Scarlett we knew we wanted to work with them. They spoke our language and understood our challenges.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

• Indepth "understanding your business" sessions
• They then delivered a Growth Roadmap
• The Growth Roadmap had a step-by-step, week-by-week, set of deliverables under key areas of content, advertising, and SEO.
• They provided us with a training schedule for HubSpot

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

The number of experts I had access to was amazing. My day-to-day was an account exec and account manager. But I also had meetings with the strategy team and, when needed, 121's with the Account Directors. Their willingness to engage, across all levels of the business, is one of their huge strengths.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Improvements on rankings for keywords and leads from Google Ad campaigns. SEO plan and SEO-rich content were delivered.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Access to the team was second to none. Although we had regular bi-weekly meetings and monthly reporting meetings, I spoke to the team on a daily basis.

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

They took an intelligent and strategic view in executing each task and had impressive content strategy experts. They have a methodical approach to delivery and track this alongside a well-thought-through and bespoke Growth Roadmap.

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

Could have been quicker to react when some of the activity wasn't driving quality leads.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Marketing manager. KPro Software was built based on the experiences we had helping housing associations and other affordable home ownership providers list properties on Keaze.com.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To assist in the design and build of our new website for KPro Software, as well as managing and executing all B2B content including marketing campaigns, social media content, newsletters and ebooks.

SOLUTION

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

Referred by a colleague who had a positive experience with Gripped in the past.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

The first step of the project was to design and build the new website for KPro Software, ensuring the site was optimised to reflect our product offering while encompassing a user-friendly interface. Following the successful web build, we began the process of our first marketing campaign across our B2B social channels, utilising Hubspot email marketing within the flow. The goal was to achieve 15 top of the funnel leads per month, which has been achieved if not exceeded since month 1.

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

We worked with several members of the Gripped team, including account managers, content writers, paid media specialists and web specialists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our initial goal for the marketing campaign was to achieve 15 top-of-the-funnel leads per month, we can safely say that the team at Gripped has exceeded our expectations and is continuing to deliver above target.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, organising regular weekly/biweekly catch-ups to ensure the project remained on track. They’ve been extremely attentive and communicative throughout the entire project, utilising clear road maps to track progress and deliverables whilst always being on hand to assist us with any queries.

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

Their professionalism and quality of work have been extremely impressive. Working targets have always been achieved and exceeded in numerous instances - partly a byproduct of clear and concise action plans / roadmaps.

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

Tendency to overload presentation slides with too much-written information. Clear and concise bullet points are easier to absorb with a supporting narrative provided by the presenter.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an owner of H2X, which is engineering design and calculation software for MEP professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Gripped to improve our digital marketing and bring in more leads.

SOLUTION

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

They had an impressive track record with a similar business and competitive pricing.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

At present we've just finished two months of onboarding/ auditing. We've got to know the team and they have been doing deep discovery into our business model, customers, processes and current digital strategy. We've started to implement the findings and have been impressed with the insights provided.

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

Day to day we work with a senior account manager, an account manager, a content writer and social media specialist. We've also met a couple of other senior team members early on.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven't got started on any of the targets just yet but we've been happy to see goals set to increase website traffic and the number of online leads generated.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great communication - we kicked off with an in-person meeting and then proceeded to have bi-weekly teams calls and a slack channel for day-to-day stuff.

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

They are experts in what they do - they have a knowledgable and friendly staff that can deliver a full suite of digital marketing services throughout the diverse team.

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

No complaints so far!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Nozzle provides a software tool to brands who sell on Amazon. Nozzle helps these brands understand their customers on Amazon. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Nozzle.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The goals were to increase awareness of nozzle which would ultimately result in more customers. We started from a base of near-zero. Gripped focused on content marketing to grow qualified traffic to our website as well as sales enablement processes within Hubspot (lead management, lead scoring, etc).

SOLUTION

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

Gripped had experience working with B2B clients, early stage technology companies and one of the founders was known to one of nozzle's founders.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Scope included a regular publishing cadence aligned to growth targets (traffic numbers), keyword research, ebooks, etc. For the sales enablement on Hubspot, it required understand how we handle leads according to which product someone was interested in, how we would score a prospect and who to route the lead to. We also defined marketing qualified leads vs sales qualified leads and we used the number of MQLs as a percentage of total traffic as a KPI.

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

2-3 resources from researchers to account managers to writers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Traffic exceeded targets. Our customers regularly gave unsolicited feedback on the quality of articles.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Sign off process was clearly defined and adhered to, QBRs were followed.

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

How quickly they developed domain expertise in the Amazon selling arena.

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

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I lead the marketing. We make an investigations platform that allows organisations to use open source data quickly, securely and accurately to address problems like financial crime, terrorism and trafficking.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We initially hired Gripped to refresh our website. The visuals and content needed to be improved in order to optimise lead conversion. Once we'd seen what they could do, we also began to use them for support with digital marketing as we didn't have the resource and expertise to do everything we wanted to in-house.

SOLUTION

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

I had already seen Gripped's work at another organisation and was really impressed with their approachable, can-do attitude, their flexibility and their data-driven approach.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Gripped ran initial discovery sessions to understand who our target personas are and how our product is relevant to them. Then, they presented and implemented a complete digital marketing and content strategy, including:

• Implementing the HubSpot Marketing Hub system
• Running LinkedIn Ad campaigns
• Creating a content plan to target key search terms and designing premium content pieces
• Running Google Ad campaigns
• Continually optimising our website for conversion and SEO
• Creating email newsletters and nurture campaigns

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

We have a great account manager and have also worked with account executives, social media and website design experts, customer success managers, graphic designers and developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Gripped's work has had a significant impact on the scope, quality and outcomes of our marketing. Since working with them, we have seen growth across all of our metrics. For example, we now receive 5x more marketing-generated leads.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Gripped communication is fantastic. They are always clear about what they are working on, where time is being spent and what the expected outcomes are. They are flexible and respond quickly when we ask for a change. The way we work together is one of the best things about working with them.

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

Gripped have made an effort to get to know our business really well. They understand our priorities and are proactive in their suggestions to meet these. Most of all, they understand that data is crucial to their and our success.

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

It took a while for them to understand how to write content for us - but this was to be expected given the very niche area we operate in! They worked really hard to address any concerns and we now get brilliant feedback about content they've written.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director and founder of an IT services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Gripped?

We found that our old method of marketing was giving us diminishing returns. Over a period of five years, our traditional cold-calling campaigns were getting us fewer leads. We hired Gripped to help us address this problem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Gripped came in and spoke to us about moving to a more inbound method of marketing using blogs, PPC, and calls to action on our website. This way, we could drive more traffic to the site, get people to fill in forms, and engage in the live chat. Their team put together a proposal to update our website and put them on a monthly retainer to write our content, manage our PPC, and, effectively, give us an outsourced marketing department.

We began by helping them research topics within our industry and what we do as a business. It didn’t take them long to work independently from there. We gave them a bunch of blog titles that we think might be well-aligned with our services, and they went off to do their own research and create a blog based on that. 

Gripped did branding for us as well, helping us develop a new logo and a new message for the website, which they built on WordPress. The team catered to ad hoc activities since we were always coming up with new ideas. Away from the main website, they helped us build microsites to drive more targeted traffic through different subjects. They also helped us engage with our vendor partners to extract marketing funds from them.

What is the team composition?

I think we are one of their very first customers so there were two guys there initially. We work with Ben (Co-Founder) and Steve (Co-Founder) but over time, they’ve recruited more and more staff. We now have an account manager.

How did you come to work with Gripped?

They were recommended to us by someone we know within our industry but we were very skeptical about what they were saying because we’d heard it from other companies before. We were nervous but we went with Gripped because of the fact that they had a personal relationship with a person that we trusted. We stuck with them and are glad that we did.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £250,000 (approximately $348,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

It started in January 2018, and it is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Last year, we invested about £20,000 (approximately $28,000 USD) on a specific campaign and got a return of about £2 million (approximately $2,783,000 USD). We are satisfied with the branding work and everyone seems to like it. We’ve just spoken to the team about another refresh because it was probably about 18 months ago when we rebranded the website. We are going to stick with them for that as well.

How did Gripped perform from a project management standpoint?

They do really well. Our account manager makes sure that things are done according to the timeline and budget. I would say that’s part of their strength. 

We use Google tools, and we approve blog posts via Google. We have a call every two weeks to discuss our progress and where we are against our 90-day rolling plan. On that call, we speak to our account manager, the web developer, and the copywriter about new ideas.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about Gripped is how they constantly monitor what they're doing, particularly with PPC. They will try something, monitor the results, tweak it, and monitor the results again. If anything goes awry, they will revert to the old way of doing things. We have used firms in the past that would just set it and let it run, but Gripped does not do that. They are quite analytic and scientific about what they do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wouldn’t say so. They are pretty much a perfect organization. The price could always be lower, but the same could be said for things like gas and electricity too.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust Gripped and be patient. It is very easy to embark on a different endeavor, do things differently, and get the jitters when you’re three months in and not seeing a result. Trust in what they say and give them time to prove what they say they are going to achieve.