LYFE Marketing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of Super Lawn Technologies, which manufactures vehicles designed specifically for lawn and landscape contractors. Our patented Super Lawn Truck system has been adopted by landscaping companies in 44 states and Canada. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what reason(s) did your company hire LYFE Marketing?

We focused on traditional marketing for years, but this approach became less effective over time. We hired LYFE Marketing because we wanted to acquire more leads and customers for our programs at a low cost. After doing some research, we found that Facebook advertising was an inexpensive form of digital advertising with powerful targeting options.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to drive website traffic and generate quality leads. Our products are expensive with a long sales cycle, so we needed to get high-quality leads at a reasonable cost. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We did an online search for social media marketing services and found LYFE Marketing. We had several calls over a few weeks before we decided to hire them. During our initial conversations, LYFE Marketing clearly explained the benefits of social media and Facebook advertising, which helped us make a decision.

Describe the project in detail.

We hired LYFE Marketing to manage our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn social media profiles. They posted 7 times a day and managed our Facebook and LinkedIn sponsored ads. I shared our marketing videos with them, reviewed all of the social media posts prior to publication, and joined meetings to discuss the progress. The campaign started slowly, but within a few months, we were impressed with the results.

What was the team composition?

In the beginning, I worked with 2 people primarily: a social media manager who handled our posts and ads and a director who helped guide the overall strategy. Since then, we have added more services to our engagement with LYFE Marketing such as Google Ads and website maintenance, which meant more people were involved in our project.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our revenue grew after using LYFE Marketing’s services from 2015 to 2016. We received a steady flow of website traffic and leads, and our sales team converted those results into customers. We obtained exactly the results we wanted through using a skilled digital marketing company.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our collaboration was easy, and we hosted many conference calls. Once I felt confident that they understood our business and brand, I allowed them to handle all marketing activities without us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team is incredibly professional and knowledgeable. Our business has dramatically increased lead generation using their services. Sean [Digital Marketing Executive, LYFE Marketing] and Sherman [CFO, LYFE Marketing] are redefining what a highly specialized marketing company can be.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I wouldn't review them if I wasn't totally satisfied. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-owner of a small-town restaurant in Kentucky. We do some deliveries depending on how far away clients are from us.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

We’re fairly new to the environment and were trying to get expand our reach. We didn’t know how to do it, so we looked up social media firms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started the engagement with the management of our Facebook account. We wanted to post pictures regularly but didn’t know exactly what to say in order to attract the attention of college kids. Later on, we added Ad Words search-engine advertising to LYFE Marketing’s list of services.

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

I made a Google search and LYFE Marketing was one of the first results which popped up. I talked to a couple of others, but LYFE seemed to be the friendliest one. Another reason for choosing LYFE Marketing was that they didn’t charge us extra for advertisements.

How much have you invested with LYFE Marketing?

The cost of their services is around $1,000 per month, so the total spend has been a bit over $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with LYFE Marketing around the 4th of July, 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We’ve been working with LYFE Marketing for about a year and have been very happy with the results. College kids are constantly telling us how funny our Facebook posts are. Before working with them, we’d see a couple of people stopping by our restaurant from time to time and we used to go to local college bars and hand out fliers, but that obviously wasn’t doing it.

My husband handles numbers, and he’s been extremely happy with the results. We haven’t lost any money from this.

How did LYFE Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

My husband and I had some personal issues for about a month, and we didn’t have time to call LYFE Marketing and talk about what we wanted to be posted. We told them the situation and they continued to work for us without additional contact and did everything right on top of that. We thought that they would go in a completely different direction, but they did exactly what we wanted when it came to our social media and advertising. It helped us a lot.

Are there any areas LYFE Marketing could improve?

I’ve been very happy with them.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with LYFE Marketing?

In the beginning, their team will ask questions about how the client wants their social media to be seen. I would definitely recommend paying attention to those details, and once that is done, LYFE Marketing will know exactly what you want and bring results from it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a business in Georgia providing all types of massages, including full-body, Thai, and so on. I am the general manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

We wanted to develop our customer base and thought about social media marketing. We were doing well in our city, but we wanted to extend our reach.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

LYFE Marketing is helping us manage our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. Starting in 2016, they have also been providing SEO services. They are also managing our website and replying to customer messages. They post on our social media profiles, create fliers, and are responsible for everything else.

We have a meeting every month, during which we discuss our advertising. LYFE Marketing’s team has access to all our accounts, but they get approval from us before doing anything.

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

Sherman Standberry, their cofounder, sent us an email about the business. We found him to be honest, so we had an initial meeting, and decided to onboard LYFE Marketing as our social media team. We have collaborated well so far.

How much have you invested with LYFE Marketing?

The cost of LYFE Marketing’s services is around $1,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with LYFE Marketing in May 2014. The work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have a landing page in place for customers visiting the store, but the inquiries there are not necessarily equal to the people visiting our location. We receive around 30 leads per month from the site. We have reached top positions in Google search results.

How did LYFE Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

I have been in contact with Sherman [Standberry, COO and co-founder] and his partner. They are very responsible and have a lot of patience. They can provide creative opinions, and have a lot of knowledge on Google search, Instagram, and general social media. They’ve met our deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about LYFE Marketing?

I simply trust their team and have no complaints. Sherman has become a friend, and we talk all the time. I will continue working with LYFE Marketing.

Are there any areas LYFE Marketing could improve?

I don’t have anything at this point.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company does branding, marketing, and strategy. STIRR stands for strategy, tactics, ideation, research, and results. We offer our clients all of that primarily for packaged goods branding. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

I had clients with social media needs, and I provide those services, but I subcontract them. Social media is a specialty. What I do is marketing strategy, and social comes up, of course, as a part of the strategy. If I develop a marketing plan, social and interactive are tied to that, and I'm going to choose an agency that specializes in that, which is how I use LYFE Marketing. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I have worked with LYFE Marketing for at least three of my clients. I recommended LYFE Marketing to one of my clients, and I think they’re still working together. I work in health and beauty aids, so LYFE Marketing worked with two health and beauty aids companies, and then they worked with another customer service company. With one company, they worked directly with that client. With the other two or three, they worked with me, but they were totally responsible for all of the social media. They built two of the three cases from scratch. They took businesses that didn't have any social pages, and they built them some. One of them was a blog with a brand, website, etc. that they built from nothing. In three months, I think they had something like 50,000 followers and visitors. I think the most robust client they worked on was the one I recommended them to, but I don't have those details. That was the largest company, which had existing social; from what the client told me, LYFE Marketing did some nice building of their social pages and website visits, but I don't have those numbers.

With Regrow, LYFE Marketing worked to reface the brand. They gave them totally new packaging and built them a social presence. (They had none, although the brand had been out for probably 7 or 8 years.) I think LYFE worked with Regrow for about 18 months, and then the Regrow guy got sick, and the company closed. I gave Regrow a marketing plan, and they didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I said, “Here’s where you need to spend the money that you're going to spend on the interactive and social.” What LYFE Marketing did was update their look and give them a brand new website. They set up all of their social pages, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. For the monthly programs or promotions that we would execute, I would discuss those with LYFE’s team based on what we wanted to achieve. If we wanted to push a particular product that month—say a shampoo and conditioner or the Regrow product itself, which was formulated for African American hair—we would talk about the product push. LYFE Marketing’s team would come up with some ideas of how to push it through Facebook. They really integrated all of the social efforts. Facebook would integrate with Instagram, and then sometimes Instagram would integrate with Snapchat. LYFE Marketing would create those monthly social executions based on marketing strategy, and we would do monthly recaps with the client, who was always pleased with LYFE Marketing. That’s why I continue to recommend them. Regrow’s new website was developed from scratch and built on an entirely new framework and platform. The website was built either on WordPress or Joomla.

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

I cannot remember who recommended LYFE Marketing to me. What I was looking for was a group of young men or women who were just starting out and understood the landscape better than I did. This was about 8 years ago, and at that point I didn't know much about social. I met with three social media companies, including LYFE Marketing, which had the most infrastructure. The founders are two brothers, and they had a team of people working with them. They had the design elements for all of the creative pieces. Out of the three companies that I met, LYFE Marketing had the best infrastructure. I had the best energy with them, and I thought they were the most hungry, to be honest.

How much have you invested with LYFE Marketing?

I think LYFE’s fee was something like $1,500 a month, and building the website was a separate fee.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think the Regrow project lasted for about a year. I think we started working together in December of 2015, and the project ended around December of 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

I know in the first month with Regrow, LYFE Marketing got something close to 8,000 views driven through Instagram and Facebook, which I thought was phenomenal. Facebook was around 6,000. I thought that was great for the first month for this specialty area. Sometimes, people don't want to address issues like hair loss. But, LYFE Marketing performed phenomenally. Regrow’s following continued to build each month, though not at that rate, of course. To me, that was a good sign. Each month would pick up 1,000 to 1,500 additional views, visits, or followers.

How did LYFE Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

LYFE Marketing is good with project management, which impressed me. They’re young, not that that matters, but they’re also guys, who are not the timeliest or most organized. They were never late for an assignment, ever. I can't ever remember when we were supposed to have something, and they didn't have it ready. They were good on following through.

What did you find most impressive about LYFE Marketing?

I think what LYFE Marketing does particularly well is listening to the client. I work with a lot of social companies, and there’s so much chatter in a room sometimes that I think I'm in the midst of social media. I've worked with two other social media companies, and I think what LYFE does best is listening. They listen, and then they assess. They didn't just say, “Well you need to do this.” I thought that they were good listeners, which led them to be good strategists. Whenever I worked with them, they always delivered what the client wanted.

Are there any areas LYFE Marketing could improve?

No, I don't think there’s anything LYFE Marketing could improve, based on my work with them. I thought their creativity was pretty strong, but they’re not a creative shop. I thought it was appropriate. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Home Team Apparel prints promotional products including garments, embroidery, banners, stickers, buttons, etc. I’m the founder and president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

I wasn’t doing anything consistent on social media. I wanted to figure out a way to advance the company as far as Web presence. Sean and Sherman [Standberry, co-founders] put together a plan that I believed in and they believed in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Originally they started managing our social media content on a monthly basis. They started making sure that we had regular daily posts. If there were certain things that generated a certain type of buzz, or they saw that we needed to really push, they would kind of step in and push those. They also focused on generating sales leads for the company, which is something that I had never thought about before. I don’t come from a sales background. I come from a grinder background. I do the work, I execute, and that’s it.

From there, they redesigned the website for me. Now they’re doing all of the SEO for me. They optimized the site and got us in a position to start really taking advantage of organic searches and the proper search engine results that we need. We’re going to start by targeting the local market and then we’ll expand that to more popular keywords to approach a national scale.

For the website redesign, LYFE came up with the ideas. I didn’t really know a ton about how the site should be designed, basic optimizing and things like that. Sean gave me a skeleton of what he thought would be great. And from there, I would put my input in, and we would just kind of bounce back and forth off of each other, but they spearheaded it for the most part. The agreement for content was for them to post on three platforms: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. They post to all three of those social media sites once a day. They created the actual content based on what we wanted. They scanned over what I had already been posting and put content together for the month. They also looked into what competitors were doing, and made sure that we were competitive. Seven to 10 days before the new month starts, I get the month spread so that I can go through it, check it. If there’s something that might need to be changed, I can submit it back.

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

I was familiar with them from their college years. We would talk periodically about social media marketing because I was doing LYFE Marketing shirts for them. I was getting insight on what they were doing, and I knew that they were sharp. I already had confidence in what they would do for me based off of their track record from school.

How much have you invested with LYFE Marketing?

We spend an average of $500 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

When they took over the Instagram, we were at about 900 followers. We’re actually close to 10,000 now. On Twitter, we have around 4,000 to 5,000 followers now and we were in the hundreds when we started. They grew Facebook as well because I wasn’t doing much on there before and didn’t do it the right way. They grew all of our platforms exponentially. It’s been great. We get a lot of leads and we’re having constant engagement daily. The majority of the posts that LYFE does are not calls to action. They majority of the posts are like jab, jab, jab, right hook. We’re able to see a lot of interaction.

How did LYFE Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They execute. I don’t have to have a lot of dialogue. In most cases, I call Sean and tell him what I’m thinking or ask him a question and if he says go, I had him the keys and let him go. If he says don’t, I think about the next thing. I trust this team wholeheartedly.

What did you find most impressive about LYFE Marketing?

The way their team is built based on what they actually can bring to the table is way different from a lot of other firms. They have the actual school background for what they’re trying to do. They are studious. It means something to be a student of the game, and they are students of the game. They study hard. They’re always reading and in the know. They’re always trying to figure out the next steps. If they don’t know it, they don’t mind studying up on it to get to know it. There’s a lot of vendors that say they’re marketers but it’s very easy to put a title on yourself. When it comes time to prove it and back it up, there’s not a lot of people that can. But LYFE Marketing can.

Are there any areas LYFE Marketing could improve?

Not really. I haven’t had anything that bothered me.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of our company. We offer a very specific type of candle made from ghee without any wax.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

Our product is new in the market, and a lot of our effort right now is in product education and awareness. My original thought was that if the product is good, it’s going to do well. However, over time, I realized that people won’t even think about buying it if they don’t know about it. So I decided to engage a marketing company to help me get the word out. I tried doing some Facebook ads on my own, but I don’t have the required talent and skill, so I went to the professionals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

LYFE Marketing is helping us get the product in front of a wider audience. They create content for our Facebook ads. I generally provide the pictures, and they create the content around that image. We target different events and holidays. We’re now targeting Father’s Day, which is coming up in a month. We keep track of events like that, and then target those on Facebook. We did try a few experiments on YouTube and Google AdWords, but we didn’t see much success, so we’ve paused that effort for now.

It’s a pretty good collaboration, and we chat once a week for 10 to 15 minutes. We catch up on how the ads have performed for the past week and decide if we want to make tweaks or turn an ad off completely that’s not doing well. We also brainstorm new content, so it is a very collaborative effort. They go back and create the content, and I review it before they put it up on our page.

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

I found them through Google and interacted with them a few times. I had conversations with quite a lot of companies. I was attracted to LYFE because they actually gave me a concrete plan of what they’d like to do, and their pricing was competitive for what they had to offer. It seemed to fit into my budget and what I was looking for. I understood what they had to offer, and we started off with a three-month engagement. Once I started seeing results, I continued using them.

How much have you invested with LYFE Marketing?

We spend about $1,500 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our collaboration in August of 2016, and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

On the Google side, we tried AdWords, YouTube, and the shopping ads, but we saw barely any results. We got impressions and views, but they didn’t convert to sales. On the Facebook side, we’ve seen more. We definitely see conversions. We have a widget installed on our website, so we can track how much money we spend. The cost to acquire that customer is very low. We also track the amount of the sale generated and what the customer bought.

In general, I think sales and visibility are increasing. We see peaks when there are festivals or events. Indian festivals tend to have a bigger impact because the audience knows about the problem we’re trying to solve and the usefulness of our product. We’re also trying to reach a wider audience in the meditation and yoga community, and our audience is expanding slowly.

How did LYFE Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

I have two people at LYFE with whom I work directly: one manager and one ad expert. I speak to both of them on a weekly basis. The call is set up for one hour, but we typically get done in 10 or 15 minutes. They are prepared when they get on the call. They have all our ad pages loaded up so they can show me exactly what happened in the last week, the last month, and then the lifetime. This helps us make decisions about what we want to do in the upcoming week.

When they’re going to create a new ad, they typically tell me they’ll send the content in about two days, and I definitely get it in two days. They’re very prompt about that. We communicate mostly by email. When I need to discuss our account or something, I’ll give them a call. If they’re not available right away, they return my call the same day.

What did you find most impressive about LYFE Marketing?

I’ve worked with five or six similar companies within the last year. The people at LYFE are very responsive, which is what I like the most about them. Their prices are competitive, and I’ve actually seen results with them. If something doesn’t work, they already have ideas on what we could do next to improve. Sometimes that leads to results, and sometimes it doesn’t, but I understand; it’s all a game of experimentation. I like that they already have a plan when they come to me. I didn’t get that level of responsiveness with the other companies. Being a startup with a limited budget, responsiveness is the number one feature that I look for.

Are there any areas LYFE Marketing could improve?

Of course, I’d like to see 10 times the results, but I have faith that we’ll get there soon.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Zen Fires Digital Marketing provides search engine marketing services to clients along with other digital marketing services, including social media. I’m the owner/proprietor. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

I work with contractors as needed, depending on the amount of demand. I have clients that want social media posting and research, and LYFE Marketing has provided those services for those clients through my firm. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

LYFE Marketing was both curating and creating social content. They were doing daily, on-demand social media posting and research on prospects who needed the services of the end client, posting questions or problems on Twitter that LYFE Marketing could flag and respond to on behalf of the client. The platforms for posting content have been LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. They were using Hootsuite as a social media dashboard. My team and I would manage and review that content for approval prior to posting.

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

I’m primarily a practitioner with a business. I teach social media marketing at Georgia State University on the side, and I’ve done that for seven years. LYFE Marketing has had various personnel take my class, so I’ve gotten to know them well, understand their competence, and feel good about their capabilities. That made me feel like I could hire them as well.

How much have you invested with LYFE Marketing?

I was spending $500 a month on them, so $6,000 annually.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve worked with them on and off over the years prior to August of 2015. The last client discontinued social media posting nine months ago. I’m not working with them right now. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

LYFE Marketing would issue monthly reports, and the reports would show definite growth in all the major social media metrics: users, consumer likes, follows, and shares. There was engagement, too. It’s one thing to get likes or follows; it’s another thing to get engagement. There’d be a social media response to some of their posts, and there would be interaction where they would find people expressing problems that the end client could solve. They would begin the dialogue in social media based on that, and it would be a continuing dialogue.

The end client liked the content. They saw the content and approved it. They wouldn’t have allowed us to do that work for a year if they didn’t like it.

How did LYFE Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Deadlines and communication met our expectations, even though we were handling more of the project management piece, and they were doing content creation and posting.

What did you find most impressive about LYFE Marketing?

I liked their ability to keep up with technology and trends and to do the research to prospect problems for the end client to solve. I thought that was really important and valuable as a service.

Are there any areas LYFE Marketing could improve?

Project management could have been something better that they could bring to the table. But, like I said, we were handling overall project management and communication between the end client and them, managing the approval process, and proofing. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Cardinal Group Management. We are a property management company that manages multiple types of assets throughout the country. We primarily focus on student housing. We’re also partnered up with Cardinal Group Investing, so there are assets that we own and manage. I’m a group operations manager.

When we worked with LYFE, I was in a different role, which was portfolio sales and marketing manager. In that role, I oversaw the leasing and marketing platforms of all our communities. I assumed the role of making sure our social media was on-point, making sure our web analytics were where we wanted them to be. I also oversaw the leasing platform as well, with training and teaching team members how to sign leases and get people in the door, and the entire sales process. So I was the sales and marketing manager during that time we worked with LYFE.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

That was a few years ago, and we’ve fine-tuned our process since then. We were looking for someone to come in and help us define a successful social media marketing platform. We really used them to help identify the things that worked in different markets, what type of campaign worked with a certain demographic. What works at a student housing community in Atlanta, Georgia, does not work the same way at an off-campus dorm in Austin, Texas.

We used them to give us advice and recommendations on how our campaigns should be run in different markets. We also used them to increase our visitors. They provided suggestions to get more people to like our pages or tweet back to us. They shared their expertise in building a successful campaign to see the desired results.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

LYFE worked on strategy, creating content, and they fully managed a couple of our accounts. The one that I could speak about best is our social media platform in Atlanta, Georgia for Westmar Student Lofts. We still own and operate that property to this day. That was our trial period with LYFE, and they managed the entire platform for us. They produced the content and ran the campaign. They were the ones replying to everyone.

Because we saw such success with their team, and they helped us so much with that community, we won multiple awards for the turnaround of that deal. Then we asked them to manage a specific campaign of this deal. So, by directly managing Westmar specifically, it let to them managing a few more accounts, and then onto managing just campaigns.

There was definitely always collaboration, and they asked for advice at all times. They were very open and honest with us. At Westmar, we have a position for a leasing and marketing team leader. There is a point system at each of our deals where they are making monthly marketing plans. Every time we would put together our monthly marketing plan, we identified the events we wanted to do, the renewal strategies we wanted to hit, and goals for the month. Our leasing and marketing team leader on-site would bring the entire LYFE team, and they made sure they were very aware of our goals. They collaborated all the time with our team.

When I was in Austin, Texas and working at University Towers, I would have a call with them once a week to discuss our ideas. It would be very collaborative. There were times when they had more of a free rein, especially at Westmar, because they were living at Westmar. So, they were on the pulse of what the residents were saying and doing. The people they were interacting with were their next-door neighbors. Although they had more free rein on that deal, it was always collaborative.

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

They were living at one of our communities, and I joined the company a couple months after their relationship was established. Based on what I’ve heard, they were our residents when they were starting their company. I believe Westmar was one of their first accounts. They approached our community manager and outlined how they could help us.

How much have you invested with LYFE Marketing?

We’re spending about of $400 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship began in January 2013 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The biggest things we saw were definitely brand awareness and just the general communication with our residents at Westmar Student Village. They did such a good job of building that brand. Prior to Cardinal taking over Westmar, it was a distressed asset, so they weren’t hitting our numbers or following through with marketing campaigns. They didn’t really have a brand.

When Cardinal took over and LYFE came on board, we truly created what our brand would look like. Every single day, the way they were utilizing our entire social media platform made the brand come alive. More people were coming to our residence because they heard about us on Twitter, Facebook, or another social media platform. Also, we built that relationship with our residents, which then led to people wanting to renew their lease because they were having so much fun. They were coming to our parties, which they’d found on Twitter. I think they did such a great job on brand awareness. They helped us build relationships that we might not have built without their service.

We utilized their services for a campaign in Austin, Texas at one of our communities, University Towers. We were getting close to the end of the lease, and we were about 10% behind our goal. We hired LYFE, and we asked them for ideas on effectively targeting incoming freshmen. They did an online campaign, contacting very specific demographics. They were pretty much congratulating students for getting into the university. So, they would look up a hashtag about getting into the University of Texas and reach out with information about the community. Within a two-week period, I think we went from getting about 10 pieces of traffic to 55. We were able to convert a lot of traffic into leases from the social media campaign they ran. We directly saw leases coming in from that campaign.

How did LYFE Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always fantastic with communication. They were very quick responding to emails. If I had a question, they were happy to jump on a call to better explain things. They always made sure all of us fully understood the process that went into it. They also did a great job in property management. They were working with different demographics and different managers. They were able to tailor the way they approached situations with different people. I think their communication style is great. Personally, I never had an issue with not hearing back or being left in the dark on our numbers or performance.

They were always very honest with us. If a campaign wasn’t working as strongly as anticipated, they were the first ones to make suggestions to improve it. They were always good about making recommendations. I never questioned whether they were doing the job and doing the right thing all the time. I can honestly say that they always did the right thing when I was working with them. It was a very pleasant experience.

What did you find most impressive about LYFE Marketing?

Over the years, we’ve used a few different agencies. When working with LYFE, I was always impressed with the content they delivered. Although they’re in Atlanta, you would think they were in Austin, Texas and that they understood what was happening in that market. They would come up with such great detail on events. The way they were talking to people online just always amazed me. They were able to get so in-depth in the market. Other companies do a great job with that as well, but I feel there was more attention to their due diligence process to find the very center of what’s going on. I think they did a very good job with that.

Are there any areas LYFE Marketing could improve?

I know they were expanding their brand at that time and building on what they’d started. There was never a time when I was disappointed with their work. I never questioned their work ethic. I don’t think I have any advice or tips other than, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing'.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder, and my parent company is Niche Digital Brands. We develop online brands that target massive markets that specialize in differentiated products. The first brand we’ve been working on with LYFE Marketing is mypoochface.com. We’re an online pet gallery where pet lovers everywhere can upload a photo of their dog, cat, or horse, and we have a team of professional artists who do pet portraits. We have hand painted versions which start at $295, we have a digitally drawn versions that are produced on museum-quality paper and display mount which start at $129. We’re about to launch a new product line of themed pet portraits that will start at $49, which will be more of an accessible product. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

We're a startup and we can't do everything in-house, so we've hired LYFE to take on a couple of projects. One of their tasks has been keeping up with our social media, and the other has been developing the right ad campaigns through social media to drive qualified and cost-effective traffic.

Eventually we’re going to be rolling out other brands. The goal is to calibrate this model so we can then roll out other brands successfully. We’ve had a lot of success early on with mypoochface.com in terms of people’s interest. It’s conducive to digital channels. We’ve generated about 80,000 Facebook followers, 20,000 Instagram followers, and over 100,000 subscribers to our updates and newsletters within about 18 months. We’ve sold almost $600,000 worth in paintings in our first year, so we’ve gotten some good traction. The good news is that we have a technology platform, and we have a high-quality product and a nuanced process that customers love. The biggest challenge we had was our high cost of customer acquisition.

As we roll out other brands with other products within that industry, we’ll be able to cross-sell, upsell, cross-pollinate and extend the life value of the customer. But in the current situation with this one brand, the life value of the customer is somewhat limited to maybe a few purchases, which are also expensive purchases. That’s one of the reasons we’re introducing the more cost-effective product. So we really have to get that customer acquisition cost right from the beginning, and we’re doing a lot of social media advertising, we’re doing prospecting through tools like Quantcast, etc. We have a pretty sophisticated environment, but our products are not really impulse buys. A lot of the folks are buying these for gifts, so we need to reach the right people at the right time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For a startup, it’s challenging to hire an agency. It can be extremely expensive. The Holy Grail is to find the right agency at the right size that could do the work cost effectively but add value and do things well. We had worked with a couple of other social media ad agencies that were more expensive than LYFE. What I found is that the people that were doing the work were novices, and they were learning as they went. They add a lot of value in the form of ideas, and they didn’t push the envelope. They basically were executing a strategy that we put in place, and ultimately, that proved to have no value. In the beginning, I felt that we got a little burned out with some of the agencies not really adding value in the form of advertorial social media ads in generating and targeting audiences and so on. 

With LYFE, I think they’re trying to grow while helping to grow our company so that we can expand our service with them, rather than them trying to acquire new customers. It’s probably more cost effective to grow the existing base and the services we provide to them. I’m sure they’re doing both, but that’s how we felt we’ve added more capability. LYFE has done a phenomenal job. We’re in the pet space, and they gave us somebody who loves pets. She does an amazing job. She understands that there are three reasons that people buy our portraits (one is to celebrate the life of their pets and the love they have for their pets; two is to memorialize a pet that has passed; three is the most unique and meaningful gift you can ever give a pet lover). So it’s tough to communicate all of that, while also establishing the emotional connection. They really understood that and did a phenomenal job with the content curation. It has been a very cost-effective strategy, and their quality is superb. Initially, they wanted my review and approval on their posts, and now there’s no value I can add. Their choices are excellent. 

On the ad side, I think the most complicated aspect of our product is that there is no one-size-fits-all ad. In our industry, it’s easy to identify people that love pets. What’s hard is figuring out who the people are within that environment who are more likely to buy really expensive pet products. Who makes a good audience? Is it somebody who has bought organic food for their pets? Or is it somebody who takes their pet to the groomers every month? Is it none of the above? LYFE has done a good job helping us identify the different audience targets and testing them all. 

We also learned that the marketing is cost effective, but prospecting is not, and at the end of the day, prospecting is what fuels our ability to be successful in marketing. So we’ve been looking at some different strategies. Like, how do we use social media more effectively on the marketing side? We’re starting to talk and figure out ways of generating more cost-effective prospecting. One of the things that we’re trying and that seems like it’s working well is outsourcing the content writing to somebody else using Upwork and similar services. The content is specific where we’re trying to drive prospecting through the content distribution networks so that people self-qualify. It’s just another way of looking at it. It’s a whole different dimension and strategy, and I haven't heard anybody else propose that. The other big thing that LYFE has proposed that I've not heard before is the ability to connect third-party data providers through social media platforms with additional data sets that were not available through Facebook. For instance, using the Experian’s and Equifax’s of the world in getting consumer purchasing behavior data sets that we can then overlay and streamline down to pet interests, gender, specific age groups, etc. 

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

A good friend of mine in the digital marketing space referred LYFE to me because he knew I was trying to find an agency. Sean, one of the principals, was on the onboarding calls, and he’s really project managed the strategy with me and his team. That struck me. He’s on the call with us every week, and he’s making sure his team executes on the strategy. His participation is valuable, because obviously he has more experience than his team, and his involvement throughout the process has gone beyond our monthly fee. I don't think he feels limited by that. Whenever we need to have a strategic conversation, we get on the phone, we talk about it, and we implement. Their team also joined our Slack channel. They’re just flexible, and that’s added a lot of value.

How much have you invested with LYFE Marketing?

We have a monthly retainer with LYFE, which has been about $900 a month for about nine months, plus some special projects here and there. I’d say we’ve spent a bit under $10,000 with LYFE.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started working together in July 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
There are vanity metrics and then there are clear metrics. I don’t have the numbers right in front of me, but the vanity metrics and a lot of the content that we’ve created has resulted in a significant increase in followers. We also get weekly reports, but I don't pay as much attention to those metrics, and those metrics track levels of engagement on social media. In terms of cost per conversion, that’s where LYFE has been the most valuable. I would say we’ve probably reduced our cost per conversion by 20%, maybe 25%, since we’ve started with LYFE. They’ve really taken a multidimensional approach rather than just looking at audiences or the ad content or the channel. 

How did LYFE Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?
I think we set deadlines as a team. What LYFE does well is they follow up and execute on what they say they’re going to do, which is rare, but that’s key. In terms of project management, we have a weekly call every Monday morning like clockwork, and we have a weekly report on metrics. Every month we also get a report on the content that’s going to be posted for our review and approval. We get it as a formality, but we’re like, “You’re good. We trust you.” Sometimes we’ll need to touch base briefly during the week to addition milestones or something. We get in touch whenever needed, really.

What did you find most impressive about LYFE Marketing?
Personalities are personalities, but it just so happens that with every team member I've worked with at LYFE, they’re all friendly and outgoing. Even at this level of $1,000 a retainer a month, which is not a huge amount, you would expect them to be less involved and for things to be a lot more cookie cutter than they are. So it’s been surprising how much time and effort they’ve put into their work, given the retainer size.

Are there any areas LYFE Marketing could improve?
LYFE could lower our cost per customer conversion even more, right? I think the challenge for any digital marketing agency is that every situation is different, and it really takes time to try and test things out. I think it’s easy for a brand like ours to be impatient, so there has to be enough substance on the other side. It’s not about getting the results immediately without having reasonable strategies. In terms of feedback, the only thing I would say is that I hope this level of commitment, service, and mindfulness continues beyond what we’ve seen so far.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an exclusive call center for cosmetic manufacturers. We handle cosmetics exclusively.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with LYFE Marketing?

I had started a website and needed them to design and manage the site. I also hired them to do my social media marketing.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

They've actually built two sites for me, and I've talked to them about updating a third site. They provide web design services and social media marketing. They also manage the Facebook and Twitter accounts for one of my sites.

How did you come to work with LYFE Marketing?

They were recommended by a friend who had used them in the past.

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

I spend $700 a month, and $750 per website working with LYFE Marketing.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January of this year. The relationship is ongoing for the site management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

LYFE Marketing has been very patient. I'm not a marketing person. By trade, I'm a paralegal and a licensed claims adjuster, so I was not able to help them figure out what I wanted. I knew that I wanted something, I told them I wanted something, and I asked them to figure it out. They were very understanding, and they did figure it out.

The design turned out to be fantastic. For me not knowing what I wanted the results to look like, I think everything turned out great. I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted. What I knew was that nobody in the industry was dealing with issues related to relaxed hair, and relaxer is a huge part of our industry. The natural hair care movement has hurt the way people perceive relaxer. I make my money on relaxer, and I wanted a place where relaxer could be discussed without it being a negative. I wanted a place that says what I wanted it to say. I wanted it to be honest and factual, and that's what I got.

What distinguishes LYFE Marketing from other providers?

They were open to what I had to say. They're very bright, and they were able to figure out what I was trying to say even though I don't know the technology. They didn't take issue with the fact that I don't know much about any of that. I thought that was nice of them. Even though I was so far out of my element, they worked to help me understand how things worked. When I had questions, they took the time to answer them so I was clear about what was going on.

I'm a very straightforward and upfront person, and they were all right with that. I was able to talk to them very plainly and frankly. They understood the way I like to work, and they were OK with that. They would respond quickly whenever I wanted something, and they've been gracious when I'm not able to respond to them in a timely manner.

Is there anything LYFE Marketing could have improved or done differently?

I don't really have any complaints.