Hierarchy Inc

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a partner at a landscape architecture firm that is based in metro Atlanta and serves the southeast US. We started our business in 2013 and went full-time in 2014.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hierarchy Inc?

We were a new business at the time and needed to redo our logo as well as come up with a brand voice that would reflect in all of our marketing materials and website. We brought in Hierarchy Inc to help elevate us from a marketing standpoint.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hierarchy Inc did several things for us. On our initial campaign, they evaluated all of our competition, conducting a SWOT analysis on them as well as on our old brand. Their team then put together a list of all the different platforms that we would be selling from and discussed how we could market ourselves. 

They provided us with logo designs along with samples of how they would look like on our marketing materials. We were also given options for our brand voice, each having its own value proposition and ‘why’ statement. As we narrowed our choices down, they prepared a complete brand package with all of our logo suites, fonts, company colors, and instructions on how to use these elements on our materials. It also included designed letterheads and business cards, among others.

Hierarchy Inc then prepared multiple concepts for our website. Through their initial SWOT analysis, they pulled up the websites of other firms, which we compared and used to gain foresight on how we would move forward. They made a copy of all the content we would provide, and even identified our key project solution through multiple interviews. Their team refined what projects we would put out there and handled photography as part of creating content.

The content Hierarchy Inc created also spanned our newsletter and social media platforms, which they managed. I gave them authority to run paid ads for some of our high-profile projects, but those were usually on B2B platforms since our FaceBook and Instagram pages were primarily for getting content out there and not for reaching clients. Besides taking care of those tasks, they also managed our marketing calendar. 

We recently branched out into another company whose name they helped us come up with. We went through the same branding process and they’re now looking into updating our second website. 

What is the team composition?

They had a bunch of people who I never met working behind the scenes, but we regularly worked face-to-face with around four people. David (Founder & Executive Creative Director) was hands-on the whole time. Depending on what we were doing and what phase of the project we were in, we would have a person managing our social media, a copywriter, and a content creator.

How did you come to work with Hierarchy Inc?

We had a referral from the owner of a company that was in the same industry. We thought their website and marketing materials were fantastic, so we asked who did it and they connected us with Hierarchy Inc.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested somewhere between $150,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2015. The whole project took three months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measured how we ranked in search engine results, how many clicks we got on our network messages, and our website traffic. When we started out, we were on page 12 of Google search results, but we’ve moved up. Our newsletter has also gotten us some projects, so we know that the marketing has really paid off. 

Before it was really difficult to cold-call people, but now when we mention our company name, they recognize us based on the projects we’ve done. There’s a brand awareness that we didn’t use to have.

How did Hierarchy Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, I was pretty pleased with how they worked. They really changed how they approach us. We had a lot of bottlenecks in our campaign efforts, so they became creative in how they ask us for content. They did some things to make it easier for us and speed up the process, like interviewing us to get information rather than having me fill something out. 

I was always up to date about where we were in the process because Hierarchy Inc was very good at communicating that to me. There was also a lot of back and forth to make sure that the outcome was exactly how we wanted it. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Hierarchy Inc really shines when it comes to their willingness to understand our business. They got to know who we are and who our clients were. They weren’t landscape architects so there was a lot of discovery that had to be done. We were also speaking a different language and using different terms, but we were able to work together.

I was really pleased with how they approached the brand. They aligned with how we envisioned our company image to look like and what results we wanted, and showed us how to get there. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were instances when we were stretched a little thin in terms of staffing. It was difficult to get things done, but they fixed it relatively quickly so it was more of a short-term problem. They always addressed any issue we had, especially if we felt that they weren’t meeting our expectations on a deliverable or a deadline.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a good handle on what you want and what you’re asking for. Hierarchy Inc is really fantastic at coming up with a lot of ideas, so make sure to put guardrails for what they put out there. Some of our ideas didn’t pan out and took too much time to develop. Even when we eventually reused those ideas, it just wasn’t the best use of time. Define when you need something so that they don’t over create during certain phases.