Jacob Tyler

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

In the first 30 days, we had almost 10,000 sessions on our site and about 7,500 users. That's a brand-new audience that we've captured. We’ve been able to do this because our new site has allowed us to educate our market and our clients, which in turn has allowed sales to focus on truly qualified prospects rather than cold calling.

According to our team, the new website is unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. We can now connect with human elements in our marketing, and it’s been very exciting to see something of that nature.

How did Jacob Tyler perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management went well. Our communication was open and I received status updates either weekly or biweekly. They gave us an overview of everything that was happening and the timeline of events. We used Basecamp for project management and communicated through email and conference calls on BlueJeans.

We did struggle to coordinate eight people's schedules with a couple of stakeholders on our end. That became difficult at times, and it’s just the nature of working with a lot of people. However, it was something we overcame.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really liked the size of their team and their specialization. A lot of other marketing vendors that we've worked with we had a project coordinator who served as our main interface. With Jacob Tyler, having direct access to the copywriter, the design team, and the creative team was a great way to streamline communications and eliminate those potential barriers for miscommunication. Jacob Tyler offered feedback and group discussion directly with their experts, which made a difference.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would love to be able to come up with a better long-term strategic plan. Right now, we are not at the point where Jacob Tyler and our team are both contributing to content, whether that be social media posts or new content that we can create. As a marketing director, I feel a little bit at the mercy of a vendor right now because we don't have access to the website. If I need to go make a change, I have to submit it directly through them.

That's a Catch-22. We want to preserve the integrity of the site, but if I have to make some changes, I want to be able to just do it. Moving forward, I would like to improve how can each side contributes and how our involvement can scale in that sense.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get all of your stakeholders involved. I pulled in our products team, our sales team, and a variety of different resources to really make sure that our vision was communicated, not just the marketing vision. A lot of times, a marketing team has one vision, product has another vision, and operations and sales all have different points of view. Having all of our stakeholders commit to the time investment upfront made for a much more successful and seamless launch as well as a better buy-in from the entire team.

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

In terms of exposure, the impact is difficult to quantify. We were working with some massive international companies, so the exposure with any of our campaigns was in the multimillions. Their card art, which integrated branding that was constantly changing, went out to tens of millions of people.

I can’t speak to the profit margins that we experienced, but the exposure from dealing with well-known brands was extremely high. This came not just from the media, but also through the cards that people were carrying around in their wallets.

How did Jacob Tyler perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a clear, concise methodology that they used to hone in on what we were looking to do. They were committed to following that structure, which was comprehensive and integrated with all facets of the business.

As I said before, they eventually became our creative department and served as an extension of our company. It was as if we had an in-house creative team. We worked with them almost every day on daily or weekly deliverables

They used Basecamp, which helped us track various tasks and served as our main communication channel. The team was great about answering the phone, especially when I had questions or concerns. They were always helpful and responsive. We eventually started to do weekly or monthly status update calls, depending on what our focus was for that month or quarter.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Number one is their consistency in hiring exceptional people. Everyone from Jacob Tyler performed as if they were part of our team. True partnerships like that don’t seem to exist anymore. There’s usually a delineation between the outsourced team and the internal team, but I never felt that when working with them.

I love that Les holds his team to a high standard in terms of work ethic. No matter how busy they were, they finished their work and did it well. With every single person—every account supervisor, every account director, every project manager, everyone that worked on the digital assets—I was so impressed with their work ethic, which was something that I didn’t believe existed anymore.

The team was also very respectful and appreciative. No matter who it was coming into a project, it was always obvious that they wanted to do right by us and do right by the work. That consistency, along with the high quality of the creative work, was impressive.

I also appreciated that, although the team had creative integrity, they understood that some tasks didn’t require an extensive design phase. They were willing to make the process quick and painless when they needed to, especially when we didn’t have time for a sophisticated creative brief. Even when the scope of the project was small, they were willing and able to do an excellent job.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only area of improvement—and they did improve on it when we pointed it out a couple of times—was the turnover within different departments. Most agencies experience these types of problems, with people moving up or moving vertically, especially within the graphic design field. There were times when we felt like there was a slight loss of integrity, and we had to retrain people on rules, regulations, and guidelines.

There was a tremendous amount of regulations that we had to deal with because our clients were big financial institutions. We had to be extremely careful about performing within those guidelines. The rules that we had to adhere to were very stringent, so the stakes were high.

Thankfully, we were able to work with Jacob Tyler to create some documentation for new people. It only took a couple of instances of us noticing the problem until we resolved it. They were able to remedy it quickly once we identified the gap.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would let them know that Les is accessible even though he's an executive. Also, Jacob Tyler has great talent and resources, so make sure to utilize that. Know that you can trust them because they’re great partners. You definitely can count on them and their process.

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

By thinking through how different users would navigate the site, Jacob Tyler helped us accomplish meaningful improvements in visitor flow.

How did Jacob Tyler perform from a project management standpoint?

We had in-person meetings since Jacob Tyler was local, but we mostly interacted over weekly calls. They did creative presentations during scheduled milestones, either by phone or virtual meeting. We used Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They created a web-based user journey with different personas in mind. Jacob Tyler maintained high standards for their creative work. The team strove to understand our business and test new ideas to add value and bring outside objectivity.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Any advice for potential customers?

A client should think through what their goals are. They should also set expectations with internal stakeholders so that they have the proper context when Jacob Tyler presents their creative ideas.

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

The results have been very solid across the board. On Google Ads we’ve seen a 2-cent cost-per-view across our TrueView campaigns. We’ve also seen a 7-cent cost-per-click across our display campaigns; based on my knowledge and experience in the industry, these metrics are incredible.

One of the main goals of working with an agency like Jacob Tyler is to increase brand awareness. We launched our initial campaign in June 2017 to increase consumer brand awareness for our company; Jacob Tyler has been instrumental in enabling us to do so across social media, Google Ads, landing pages, sales collateral, and most recently our new website that set to be released in late September.

How did Jacob Tyler perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate very routinely via email. We have weekly status calls for both social media and account management in general, which shows how responsive their team is. We also work in their internal BaseCamp platform, which helps with a lot of the heavy files we transmit back and forth. Everyone on the team can see them, comment, and share the information.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We like that they have numerous services under one roof. It’s a one-stop-shop, and if they don’t do it in-house, they have partners that they work with that can assist with social media. For example, we just signed with their PR partner for a 90-day campaign. It’s nice to have referrals from a trusted word-of-mouth source and valued partners we can turn to.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While nothing is ever perfect, we’ve made a lot of gains, in terms of improving our collective communication skills, and sharing our input. If we, as the client have any thoughts or opinions, we’re able to come to a mutual understanding to make sure everyone is happy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is crucial. It’s important to make sure that everyone is on the same page as far as expectations. It can be a challenge for both sides to understand priorities. The routine check-in-calls we have are important, especially since we have so many projects going on at once with them; it helps us know we’re achieving our deadlines and our goals.