Knowmad Digital Marketing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the VP - Marketing for an independent accounts receivable financing and equipment financing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Knowmad Digital Marketing?

We had a new product launching and needed a website update and refresh. Knowmad had created the initial website two years prior to this launch. We had been pleased with the original site and felt they had a great deal of knowledge about our company and our site so the project should be fairly easy and seamless.

What were your goals for this project?

Create new pages for the new product; update existing pages by creating pillar pages; stay on budget and on time.

SOLUTION

How did you select Knowmad Digital Marketing?

We had used them before so the selection was simple

Describe the project in detail.

Adding new pages, rearranging some information to create pillar pages.

What was the team composition?

A project manager from Knowmad, an outside writer, internal company project manager, senior management for content review.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project came in on time and on budget. We were able to update some pages based on some new functionality within the web hosting platform (Hubspot) and implemented a drag/drop page and email creation functionality. Within 2 months our domain authority jumped 5 points.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had no issues with workflow. Everything flowed quite seamlessly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were able to have the same project manager as we did when the site was originally built. This helped us build on existing relationships and knowledge base which truly helped keep the project moving forward rapidly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Carolina Traffic Devices is a rental and sales firm for products involved in road construction, traffic control, and construction safety. I am the vice president, so I oversee all of our sales and operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

We were seeing increased competition, particularly from out-of-market, coming in and using digital strategies to create awareness and garner interest in their products. We didn’t really have an online presence at the time besides a basic website, so we needed a partner to improve our CRM and analytics capabilities and then start running some digital campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project is still currently in the works, so the first phase involved building out our CRM and analytics capabilities to lay the groundwork for the advertising we wanted to do. They helped us to get all of those pieces in place, and they set up integrations with HubSpot for us as well.

From there, we plan to work with them to create specific content campaigns and then run them to try and improve our traffic and leads across a variety of digital platforms.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had direct contact with two people from their team, including William (Managing Partner) and Markelle (Account Manager, SEO & Content Specialist).

How did you come to work with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

I was looking for a digital marketing firm in the Charlotte area and sent out a bunch of contact forms and started interviewing potential candidates from there. William’s style and investment in really understanding our business and doing research sold me on them as a company.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the project so far has only been about $1,500 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first brought them on in June 2020 and are continuing to work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Now that we’ve finished a smaller scale project with them, we’re confident that they are the right partner to dive into some more in-depth work with us. Our employee feedback was a big factor in that, and everything we’ve heard on the sales side has been very positive, so we’re planning to expand it to our services as well. The product is being widely used and is helping our people to do their jobs better, which has been very satisfying to see.

How did Knowmad Digital Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They do an excellent job of managing the project and all of its timelines and deliverables. Their team is extremely organized, patient, communicative, and they always follow through on what they say they are going to do.

We mostly interact through a shared Slack channel and Zoom calls on a day-to-day basis. We have phone calls and emails here and there as well when we need them, but for the most part, the communication takes place on a more regular and informal basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The effort they put into understanding our business and what we’re trying to accomplish was very impressive to me. We operate in a niche within a niche in an industry, but they didn’t skip over any details or make any assumptions in fitting the product to our needs, which we really appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don’t have anything that immediately comes to mind that they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have an honest conversation at the beginning about what you’re looking for, and they will do a great job of fulfilling that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Manager of Communications and Marketing at a Healthcare Staff Provider headquartered in Charlotte, NC and with offices in the Philippines and U.A.E. We match experienced international RNs with hospitals and healthcare employers in the U.S. and in the Gulf region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Knowmad Digital Marketing?

Our company needed some website updates including plug-in review/removal as well as Google Search Console improvements (site map, tag clean-up). Our main goal was to add an interactive map on our website for prospective clients to download a nurse workforce report card for each state in the U.S.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to improve website efficiency, remove some errors in WordPress and Google Search Console and add the interactive map to grow website traffic and social media following.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I discovered Knowmad through internet search... good old fashioned Google! The positive online reviews led me to connecting with William at Knowmad who thoroughly impressed me with his industry knowledge and firm grasp on all things HubSpot.

Describe the project in detail.

There were several parts to our project request. The first was reviewing all website plug-ins and deciding which ones were redundant and could be removed since several 3rd party website agencies had managed our website at different times. A clean-up was overdue.

New plug-ins were added as well to improve SEO and ability to share our blog posts on social channels. We also wanted an interactive map of the United States where each state clicked on displayed a nurse workforce report card with a letter grade for that state. There were also some Google Search Console errors that needed addressing.

What was the team composition?

I worked mostly with William, owner, and Markelle, Project Manager, at Knowmad.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The interactive map was finalized, although we did discover a problem with a plug-in used for the map on Safari and iOS. We discussed and planned a change of web host provider should resolve the issue. SEO improved with the addition of new plug-ins and application of them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was easy working with William and Markelle. Both were very pleasant to work with!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was most impressed by William and his approachable demeanor combined with HubSpot and digital marketing knowledge. William and the knowledgeable team at Knowmad prove that customer service is alive and well!

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was impressed by working with William and his team. Great job!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Barefoot Professional Investigations. We do all types of investigative work throughout North and South Carolina.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Knowmad Digital Marketing?
I was previously working with another vendor. However, that company’s primary focus wasn’t SEO; they were trying to get into it and grow. Because of this, I kept getting passed around from rep to rep and was never able to establish a good relationship with them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Knowmad Digital Marketing handles my SEO efforts. They also maintain my website and assisted me in getting a better web host. Their team hasn’t done any developing, but rather they’ve improved our platform.

Prior to COVID-19, we met monthly as our needs changed. My company covers a variety of types of investigations. We talk about different aspects of the service line and focus on those at different times. Knowmad Digital Marketing would assess where I’d appear in searches and where I needed to improve.

What is the team composition?

Formerly, I was primarily working with Chris (SEO Strategist). I really liked that arrangement because he was really getting to know me. We had enough meetings so he became familiarized and knew more about my business.

Around January, they started incorporating Matt (PPC/SEO Strategist). Since then, Chris hasn’t been as nearly involved. I’m a little disappointed in that and to learn that Chris is still around but I won't be working with him. I’m not sure what happened to the relationship. Of course, COVID-19 has made that muddier because we haven’t been able to meet in-person.

How did you come to work with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

I conducted a Google search and stumbled upon them.

How much have you invested with them?

I pay them $1,500 a month, I’m on a monthly maintenance contract. In the past, I’ve paid them for other things such as side projects; but that doesn’t happen often.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership began in July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When I met with Chris, he’d be encouraging with how things were trending. However, for me, it was hard to feel the same way. I feel things should be increasing faster. In my mind, when I appear in 50 searches in a month, I feel I should be close to the top results in all 50 of those. I’m just trying to learn the process and how it works. Chris has been positive and reassuring.

In terms of our business, COVID-19 has been a mess. We had a very productive 2019. But naturally, our business is very up and down. It’s not necessarily seasonal trends, but we just switch between busy and slow periods; it’s the nature of our work.

How did Knowmad Digital Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, it’s been really good. The first six months of our engagement were great. However, they’ve since fallen off with the onset of Matt coming in during the month of January. Then the coronavirus pandemic happened. Matt’s been sending me emails about content so I’ve been getting the information. But, I don’t feel like they’ve continued. Neither Matt nor Chris has reached out to me to establish how we’d resume meetings in this remote setting.

I also don’t feel that Chris has continued maintaining my account. Initially, he was doing it and I was very pleased. But since January, I haven’t been getting a lot of attention or feedback. That’s not to say they’re not posting for me because they are; they’re doing a lot of content. As I said, Matt sends those emails. However, I feel I haven’t had any real interaction with them in the last several months.

We used to meet in person and now it’s a lot less; it’s basically fallen off. Again, this isn’t my world. If I don’t meet with them regularly and we just meet every six months, I won’t know what SEO stands for the next time we do. If I don’t meet regularly, then they have to educate me on everything all over again, if that makes sense. However, if we were meeting regularly and going over the reports then I’d be able to see where my business is at; I’m not getting that now.

Another thing — in the middle of the pandemic, something happened with the tracking number on our website. I hate tracking numbers because the only one I have is easy to recall, and I want to only have the one. I didn’t want any other numbers associated with my business.

I didn’t even know there was another tracking number until a client said they were trying to get through to me but couldn’t because of a different tracking number. Overall, in the last six months, things haven’t been great and I don’t know if it’s related to COVID-19 or not.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From July–December they did an excellent job of cultivating our relationship and seemed to give it a lot of attention. Since then, they’ve not.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There may be a reason why I’m getting passed off and nobody told me. I asked Chris if Matt was my new account rep, and the answer wasn’t exactly clear but it was basically a no. He explained that Matt writes the content so he had been helping him anyway. If that’s the case and Matt is Chris’s assistant doing the behind-the-scenes work, then Christ has just completely fallen off the radar.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s very beneficial to have regular meetings and feedback sessions. That’s how you’ll get the most out of what they can do for you. Feedback is essential because it helps you track and understand what they’re doing, how it’s going, and how it can improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing coordinator for Meridian Kiosks, a self-service kiosk manufacturer. We do hardware and software and produce finished kiosks and ship the final solution to the customer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

They were brought on to provide SEO support for our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team works on SEO for our website, including being heavily involved in the redoing of our site. Any time we need to add new pages or update the website, they go through and help optimize and look at keywords. They optimize our content, including reviewing the blogs we post and making keyword suggestions and edits. Their team also helped us when we went live. For our previous PPC efforts, we collaborated and they advised us. 

What is the team composition?

I pretty much work directly with Matt (PPC/SEO Strategist), but I’ve also worked with William (Managing Partner) occasionally. 

How did you come to work with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

I wasn’t with the company when they brought Knowmad Digital Marketing on. However, they’re somewhat close to our location, so that’s a good factor.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $3,000 per month on their services, so we’ve spent around $150,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Over the course of the four year period, the growth has been incredible. We’ve seen a large increase in our presence and organic traffic. We’re a completely inbound lead organization, so all of our interest is generated from our presence on our website, partner organization’s website, and social media. Because of this, appearing in searches and optimizing our keywords is a big deal for us. The growth over the two years that I’ve been here has been significant, too, so it’s been beneficial. 

How did Knowmad Digital Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

We have monthly calls with Matt and we have in-person meetings with them once a year, which is nice. For our engagement, we use Basecamp. They give us weekly metrics, showing us the search visibility, domain authority, and traffic compared to the previous month and year, along with goal completion. 

Matt provides us with an in-depth report on a monthly basis, too, with a lot more data and factors included. We walk through those reports in our monthly call, along with letting him know our priorities and getting filled in on what he’s working on for us. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re an integral part of our web presence and they provide a personalized experience. I’ve never met Matt in person yet I feel like I have because he’s very personable and knows what’s going on with our project. We always feel like a priority with them and their people are great. Also, our questions never go unaddressed for very long because they’re very quick to respond. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not necessarily. I haven’t worked with another SEO and PPC company before, but I’m really happy with what they bring to the table. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having monthly calls is beneficial since it's easy to get caught up in daily to-dos and forget what’s going on in the background. Utilize them as a tool. Their team has more knowledge of how SEO and everything works than I do, so they are a good sounding board for ideas and have suggestions. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are Mallard Creek Polymers, and we are a chemical manufacturing company. We are located in Charlotte, North Carolina,

What is your position?

I am a sales and marketing analyst for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

The main reason was that we needed an updated website. Knowmad did our first website for us but, in time, the goal has been to generate new customers and qualified leads and to grow our visits to the website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They do web design services, development, SEO [search engine optimization], digital marketing, social marketing – basically everything.

How did you come to work with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

I wasn't around when we started working with them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It's in the range of $60,000 to $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship started five or six years ago, and is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We use marketing software called HubSpot, which Knowmad got us onto a year and a half ago. We have seen that our traffic has probably doubled since we launched the new website. Every month, we have growth. Our visitors continue to grow, our leads also continue to grow, and they are qualified leads. The SEO they offer helps to ensure that we get qualified leads into the website. We do like to track metrics and our goal is about five customers per quarter and, on average, we are meeting those goals.

Knowmad Digital performed great. I love working with them. They understand us, which is a challenging thing to do for a marketing company. They do a great job, and I really enjoy working with them.

What distinguishes Knowmad Digital Marketing from other providers?

Because Knowmad is located in Charlotte, we have an advantage. They also work globally and have a few accounts in Europe, but our advantage is that we can actually go to their office and sit down and meet with them, sometimes every two weeks, to make sure that we're all on track. I like having that face-to-face interaction in order to get things done quickly.

Is there anything Knowmad Digital Marketing could have improved or done differently?

One of the main challenges we have with them is, even though they understand us to an extent, there's always that part where they want to do more than what our objectives are. They do a great job of realizing when something is not a right fit for us, but I think that's one of the things that's always challenging, in terms of what we do socially and what we kinds of content we put on the website.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a healthcare network.

What is your position in the company?

I oversee the senior living services division of the company. That includes two senior residences, which are independent, assisted and memory care services. I also have another community that provides supported living for seniors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

I recognized the importance of having a stronger Internet presence. Consumers and their adult children are looking to the Internet as a place to learn about senior living services before they make a decision as to which ones they want to visit. I engaged with Knowmad to help increase leads to our website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Knowmad engaged in Google AdWords and did some SEO work. We implemented HubSpot as a way of tracking. We’ve also implemented monthly blogs and consumer educational guides, which allow me to capture information.

How did you come to work with Knowmad Digital Marketing?

My Chief Information Officer [CIO] had worked with them in the past, so they were the only company I talked to.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I spend between $5,000 and $7,500 a month working with Knowmad. That does not include Google AdWords or any website redesign, which would be a separate project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship started towards the end of 2013, and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

I think Knowmad has done a very nice job. They have a very comprehensive team. In spite of a lot of turnover, they put together, in a relatively short period of time, some excellent resources to support my initiatives and goals.

I keep track of how many people have downloaded our guides from our website and how many “contact me” forms we receive. From there, I look at how many of those contacts are converted to legitimate leads for my sales counselors to work with. In 2014, from January to September, 321 guides were downloaded, and we received 87 forms. In the same time period for 2015, those numbers increased to 425 downloads and 225 forms.

What distinguishes Knowmad Digital Marketing from other providers?

The thing that I appreciate the most is that they have some writers who really understand our business and the mind of our consumer, even though we were a new type of business for them. This has allowed me to do very minimal corrections to their work. I have also had to do very little education for the writers of the blogs, and all this has saved me a tremendous amount of time.

Is there anything Knowmad Digital Marketing could have improved or done differently?

I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Marketing Communications/Public Relations Manager for Sumitomo Electric USA Holdings. We are a holding company for several Sumitomo Electric Group subsidiaries in North America.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Knowmad Digital Marketing?

Design and coding of a microsite for one of our US subsidiaries.

What were your goals for this project?

To get the microsite coded and ready for delivery to the parent company as quickly as possible.

SOLUTION

How did you select Knowmad Digital Marketing?

We worked with Knowmad on a different project for another Sumitomo Electric Group company a year ago, and that experience had been a good one.

Describe the project in detail.

Knowmad provided design consultation and coding services for this project.

What was the team composition?

The primary discussions consisted of a small team of 1 to 2 people from Knowmad and 3 project members from our side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

No demonstrable outcomes at the moment.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow was effective. Sarah at Knowmad is an excellent project manager.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

From my experience, I can say that the people I worked with at Knowmad are knowledgeable, dependable, and trustworthy.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It was a small project and we got it done in within the desired timeframe, so there is no cause for complaint.