Hive Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and founder of Poe Group Advisors, and we sell CPA firms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital?

We wanted to boost our search rankings and were looking for a company that specialized in organic SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They spearheaded our organic SEO initiatives. They conducted a site audit and monitored and reported upon our performance to help us improve it. Once we talked with them, we discovered that we could take advantage of their expertise in paid search. Since then, we’ve relied on them for Google Ads management.

What is the team composition?

We had two primary points of contact. Fred (Paid Search Analyst) handles our paid ads, and Tripp (SEO Specialist) manages our organic SEO.

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

We found them through a google search. We talked with several SEO firms, but we liked that Hive Digital was rated by Moz. This, along with the fact that they focused heavily on SEO,  compelled us to work with them. They didn’t try to upsell us on any extra services.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $3,000 a month, which comes to around $30,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked with us starting in January 2020, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen an increase in our total web traffic. By the end of July 2020, we’d already exceeded the traffic we’d seen in all of 2019.  

How did Freeport Metrics perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very responsive and did a good job, generally speaking. The results are there, and that’s most important to me.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They don’t try to hype up their results. They’re transparent, honest, and don’t fluff up their numbers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could’ve established a more consistent cadence of meetings and reports. I’d appreciate it if we could have brief check-ins once in a while. A little more communication and guidance would go a long way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to set a rhythm of meetings when you formulate an agreement with them. I strongly recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the brand marketing manager of a pet food company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital?

We were launching two B2C e-commerce sites to support third-party vendor sales. It was important for us to have foundational SEO work prior to launch in order to rank for keywords that could support our sales channel.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted them to pull competitor rankings to give our team an understanding of their SEO strategies. Additionally, I wanted to understand which keywords we should be targeting and using for our marketing strategy. Lastly, we also tackled blog post content and scheduling for the two sites. They advised on all the content and reviewed pieces after we wrote them in-house. 

What is the team composition?

We had a sales director, account manager, and two other SEO teammates. 

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

I created an RFP, looking for a partner that would be a good culture fit and could work within our budget. They popped up in a Google search I did for the work. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $20,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since May 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s still early into our engagement together, so I don’t have success metrics yet. However, their process is strong and they’re meeting all of our execution milestones. They’ve completed a search console reporting format that we’ll be using in the future to track our SEO success.  

How did Hive Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re an organized team that always made it easy to track progress, budget, and deliverables. That allowed me to conduct conversations with the project manager more efficiently, eliminating any confusion. We communicate through Basecamp and a weekly update email that details progress and next steps. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a thorough team that goes above and beyond when given a task. They offer quick turnaround times, even when they are tasked with a lot of behind-the-scenes work. It was great to know that they had e-commerce experience in the past, so we could rely on them for suggestions and direction.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

It may be helpful for them to break down their timetables more specifically, especially for clients who aren’t experts in SEO.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Align with them on key deliverables and timelines proactively.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and manager of CostaRica.org and My Costa Rica. We are a travel agency in the US and web marketing company, as well as a tour operator that does custom vacation packages in the capital, San Jose.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital?

We have a huge website with over 3000 pages that we’ve migrated across multiple domains in the 16 years we’ve been in business. We were having some site issues and needed help recovering and decided to purchase a new domain we needed expert insight on setting up our SEO and URLs the right way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us from start to finish on the process. There was a lot of work on our end putting the site together and restructuring the URLs, but they gave us a step-by-step process that we could follow that guided us through the entire process. Their insight helped us significantly with redirecting DNSs so that our website didn’t crash when we made the switch.

They also helped us set up AMP and securing https for our sites and a lot of other little things that we might have overlooked or just not known how to do otherwise.

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Dominic (Vice President, Marketing).

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

Their team was referred to us by someone else in our industry who vouched for the quality of their work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $10,000 on their work in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started around May 2013 and we’ve worked together on a variety of projects over the years since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The impact of their work on our business has been fairly transformational. We had the site vacationstocostarica.com and could never make it gather much traffic, but when we did the whole site redirect and meticulously set up all of the new links to costarica.org, we saw a huge spike in traffic overall. Our organic traffic went from around 20,000 to nearly 100,000 from the variety of changes that we implemented all at once.

How did Hive Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Our workflow for the project was excellent. I have an inhouse developer, so they just gave us to-do lists and we went through them one by one. When we actually pulled the trigger to make the switch, they guided us through the whole process, which helped us to be really successful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve looked into other SEO companies in the past and gotten terribly burned, gaining nothing from the engagements. With Hive Digital, it feels like they are accountable for what they say they’ll deliver, and they really care about you being successful.

They pick their clients wisely, and it’s important for them that they are invested in the projects they work on because it allows them to deliver a much higher quality of service than you find at most other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our most recent engagement didn’t feel quite as productive in terms of developing a game plan to recover some lost rankings and really singling out the issues that we had. I got some good ideas about ways to improve, and SEO can be hard to get specific with a lot of the time, but I do wish it could have been a little bit more directive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think being clear about your goals while still managing your expectations and understanding that you’re making a long-term investment is the best thing you can do for yourself in a situation like this. It’s so important to be patient and understand that legitimate tactics take time to show results. If you trust the advice that they give you, the results will pay out in a big way eventually.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own a real estate firm with about five realtors. We do about 150 sales per year.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital?

We have a website, but I wanted to increase the number of people who were finding me online, so I hired them to help me with improving SEO and conversion.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided a range of services for us, from helping to create content or hiring a third-party company to create content for the site to providing technical SEO work by changing the formatting of the code on our backend. Their team also adjusted titles and meta-descriptions on the site to make them more appealing.

On top of that, they conducted a couple of blog linking campaigns in which they would write blogs and link to other people in order to encourage them to link back to us. Overall, they have been able to provide a lot of different recommendations for tactics to improve the site.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with a number of different people from their team, but my main point of contact is Tripp (Sr. SEO Consultant & Product Manager), who has been there consistently along the way.

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

Tripp was actually looking for a house, so we met him through our business originally but then got to know him and decided we could make use of the services he provided.

How much have you invested with them?

My best estimate is that we’ve spent around $40,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2014, so the relationship has been going on for quite some time now. We usually loop back every six months or so to do some improvement work with them, but we’ve been doing that regularly since the beginning.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started working with them, my website has gradually increased in visitors and grown the number of leads coming in through that funnel by about 10%-15% each year. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact results of their work, but part of that continued success is absolutely due to what they’ve provided for us.

How did Hive Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

At this point in the relationship, project management is incredibly easy for me to handle because they are able to take care of pretty much everything on their own. They come to me with a plan and I’ll sign off on it, and then I check in with them in a couple of weeks to see how everything is going.

Whenever I contact them to start on another initiative, we usually have our first meeting in person, and then the rest is done over email. They check in with me if they have questions and vice versa, but in general, it’s a very productive but laid-back process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their whole team is incredibly knowledgeable and always comes up with good ideas. Every time I meet up with them, it’s clear that that they have a great handle on what they do. And beyond that, the fact that they’ve kept up that level of creativity and service over so many years is a true testament to their ability.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really have any particular things I wish they would improve. If anything, a little bit of extra communication around updates on what they’re doing or what has changed along the way would be nice. They do all of that and I’m not unhappy by any means, but everyone could always communicate a little bit more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You really have to know what you want. In any web development or improvement project, the most important thing is to have an idea of how you want to improve. Even if you came in with no idea, they would still be able to help, but to get the most out of the engagement you should be able to translate to them how you want to stand out from the competitors in your industry.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a branding consultant. I was tasked by a financial services firm to bring more traffic to the website in 2016. I've been working with that client for years prior.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital?

I hired them to do SEO and linking strategy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided an inbound linking strategy. Their organic team gave us pointers on how to write the pages. Their ad team also set up all the ad campaigns. When I needed it, they could even go into WordPress and do something I didn't know how to do.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 7-8 people from their team.

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

I went to Moz.com and vetted three vendors from their list. To me, Hive was the most transparent and the most confident in what they were selling. They also offered a more collaborative approach.

How much have you invested with them?    

We've invested roughly $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in May 2016, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our ad spend is always becoming more and more efficient. We also landed in the top results for our keywords, and we stayed there for years.

How did Hive Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job. They always had the chops to surpass my expectations. I even challenged them at times, but they always justified their actions. They met with us weekly to describe what was going on based on what they were seeing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The ability to understand the industry we were in well enough to make informed decisions is invaluable. The other SEO firms I've worked with are in a silo; they're good at specific things, but they don't see the big picture.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They brought in someone with deep experience in analytics, who I wish they brought on sooner. It rounded out the whole offering.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to know what your business goals are and be open to the hypothesis that Hive will come with once they've seen the data. You have to know how much money to make off a given client, but you also need to be adaptable.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at Symphonic Source, a software provider. We deliver a full range of Salesforce data-quality tools and services, such as data cleansing, integration and migration, and deduplication, so that users can realize the full potential of Salesforce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital?

My company hired Hive Digital to improve our PPC campaigns. We’d been working with a freelancer who was not delivering satisfactory results. We needed a vendor that could improve our ROI and increase our exposure through Google Ads.   

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hive Digital initially did an SEO audit, but they have primarily focused on optimizing our Google Ads account.

What is the team composition?

Dom (Director of Business Development, Hive Digital) was our initial point of contact, and he helped establish the partnership. Our first account rep left the company; for the past year, we’ve worked with Fred (Paid Advertising Specialist, Hive Digital).    

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

I searched for vendors that specialize in Google Ad and received quotes from three companies. Hive Digital’s services, communication, and pricing set them apart.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in March 2017, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Hive Digital’s work has improved our Google Ads campaign performance and boosted user engagement. The number of trials that people do drives our business, and we have seen an increase in trial numbers that directly correlates to our Google ads.

How did Hive Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Hive Digital is phenomenal, and it is clear that they are experts at what they do. The team responds quickly to our questions. We have monthly progress calls that are very fruitful; we also communicate via email. Fred is continually proposing new ways to improve our PPC campaign.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Hive Digital’s communication has been on point. They provide crucial expertise and guidance on Google Ads, which we don’t know much about. The team thinks outside of the box to offer tailored solutions that benefit our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything; they’re great.

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure Hive Digital understands your business and your customers. I wasn’t clear enough in this regard, so it took some time to figure out how to customize our campaigns to the appropriate audiences.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

 I’m the owner of Bare Tattoo & Hair Removal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital?

We needed a partner to help with our SEO, paid ads, and social media ads.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hive Digital manages our digital presence. They started with keyword research then moved into SEO and paid search on Google, Bing, and Yelp. They also work with our social media, mainly Facebook ads. Beyond those services, they also provide consulting services; we collaborate on different digital marketing ideas.

What is the team composition?

We work with about seven people.

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

I wanted a firm that specialized in small businesses and multi-location brick and mortar stores. They appeared fairly high on my search, so I thought they’d be a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working in November 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The past four months alone have exceeded prior years, and our sales have been much stronger. We’re extremely happy with their work.

How did Hive Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We have monthly phone calls to recap progress and regularly email one another. They’re highly responsive and always follow up on projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do a lot more work than the freelancers I used to work with. I feel confident knowing that I’m working with professionals who are experts in their field.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their rates could be a bit better. For the money we spend each month, I’d like to see more getting finished.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the National Marketing Manager of Summit Financial Resources. We’re a commercial finance company that does accounts receivable and helps companies get cash through the assets that are tied up in their unpaid accounts receivable.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital, Inc.?

We launched a new website several years ago and internally ran our Google Ads without managing them fully. At a later point, we wanted a vendor to do both paid advertising and SEO for the site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have the two SEO and ad branches in place, but we’re no longer managing them ourselves. Hive Digital, Inc. does the keyword changes, targeted marketing, and budget management. We talk every week and they provide reporting and feedback on what we should adjust. For SEO, the team changes pages perpetually to include items such as downlinks. They’ve also partially integrated our CRM and fully integrated our online forms to make analytics tie into those documents. They use Google Analytics, Google AdWords, and a heat mapping tool.

What is the team composition?

We primarily interact with ad and SEO specialists, but have other contacts as well. The exact dynamic has changed over time. We also interface with Jeffrey (President and CEO, Hive Digital, Inc.).

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

My web designer found Hive Digital, Inc. on my behalf through a combination of online searches and word-of-mouth. We chose Hive Digital, Inc. because they had the right amount of support for both paid advertising and SEO at a price point that made sense for our team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2015 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our page rankings have gone up dramatically. That metric impresses me the most because it’s not a pay-to-play scenario; Hive Digital, Inc. accomplished those results with inbound links, keywords, and rewritten web content. We’re above the fold now for the keywords we want to use; previously, we had been page three or four. In addition, we’ve experienced more and better-quality traffic and leads. We used to get odd results for search terms that didn’t relate to our business, that happens less often now. I review those numbers because calls are difficult to track with analytics. Their team tracks forms and email leads.

How did Hive Digital, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We have direct access to Jeff, who is an invaluable contact for us. I know I can email Jeff for anything, but I’ve never had to. As a whole, the team is fun, responsive, and proficient. They have good mechanisms in place for customer service and tracking. Whenever I email Hive Digital about something specific—such as SEO—they copy customer service on everything and then track internally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The results are better than I expected. The team has improved our rankings significantly while accommodating our budget. We’ve had more than one project manager, but Digital Hive, Inc. handles the turnover exceptionally well. Their small team and lean approach created a seamless transition enabled to me to email anyone on their team and get a quick response. I don’t think another company could match their performance.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The team already makes everything so easy. They can jump in and get to work with no issue.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the executive director of the Bartender Company, a provider of high-end private bar event services in the Bay Area, Calif.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hive Digital?

We hired Hive Digital to provide marketing services, including SEO and social media strategy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hive Digital provides a broad range of digital marketing services, including SEO, social media strategy, and digital advertising. They've conducted a website audit to help improve SEO, and utilize a variety of Google tools to track progress, including Analytics, Search Console, Tag Manager, and AdWords. A specialist is assigned to each specific type of digital marketing task as we take on new projects. 

What is the team composition?

I've worked directly with five or six people, depending on the task. In addition to working with an account manager, we've worked with specialists in SEO, social media, web design, and so on.

How did you come to work with Hive Digital?

We thoroughly researched the top SEO companies we could find that were applicable to a company of our size. After calling upwards of 30 vendors, we narrowed our options down to five and reviewed presentations from each. Hive stood out for three reasons: they're experts in their field, they value the social component of our mission, and they take a consultative approach in their working relationships.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Hive Digital's efforts have increased our website traffic by about 30%. We're extremely thrilled with their results. We're also seeing some improvements in our social media engagement.

How did Hive Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager we work with has been incredibly helpful in ensuring deadlines are met. They generally reach out to me every week to keep me updated on their progress, which makes me feel like they're constantly making improvements and our continual spend is worthwhile.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of knowledge in their industry and approach to project management sets them apart.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hive Digital offers a paid reporting service, an in-depth analysis of your company's strategic marketing approach, that I highly recommend taking advantage of. We were hesitant at first to make a commitment to utilizing it, but we've found it to be extremely worthwhile in the long run.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a strategy associate currently managing our social media platforms, email marketing, and Google Analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Hive Digital?

We hired Hive Digital to help administer our Google AdWords grant and improve our SEO.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to make the best use of our available funds to increase awareness of the programs and events we offer. We have focused so far on Flash Drives for Freedom, a program that disrupts the North Korean regime through information, and the Oslo Freedom Forum, our flagship human rights conference.

SOLUTION

Describe the project in detail.

The Hive representative regularly checks in with me over email about the status of our advertising campaigns and asks for any information she needs to effectively administer them. We also have phone calls as needed.

What was the team composition?

The team consists of me and a project analyst at Hive.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any statistics or metrics that speak to the quality of their work and impact of the engagement?

Our campaigns are running at the levels needed to maintain our grant, which is an improvement over our past performance.

How did the Hive Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Our Hive representative is very timely, professional, and helpful.

What impresses you about the Hive Digital?

Their team is well-organized and happy to help with any aspect of the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The Hive team could be more proactive, since they are the SEO experts, rather than waiting for our direction about how to proceed with the campaign. We would like to receive more strategic input rather than just implementation based on our vision.