MKG Marketing

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing at Bento for Business. We’re a small FinTech startup that offers an expense management solution for small and medium-sized businesses.

What challenge were you trying to address with MKG Marketing?

We were working with a previous agency, but their methodology and content were very shotgun: spray and pray. They were all about getting eyeballs to the website and didn’t’ worry about the quality of those eyes. After working with them for a while, MKG was recommended to us. The primary goal was to focus on getting better quality leads and consolidating the content we have into more meaningful topics.

Over the last month or two they’ve been helping with our PPC as well, optimizing that for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we hired them, we were just getting started with a website redesign and wanted their feedback on the ideal structure for our content: what we should keep and get rid of. After that redesign, we were all about doing audits through the website to ensure we had proper keywords, descriptions, and code. Then, they recommended new content we should put onto the site to increase our visibility.

Beyond suggestions, they’ve just started delivering content pieces for us. Until now, they did optimization of what we already had. Regarding PPC, they’ve worked on Google Ads and Bing. We had an independent contractor helping us with the PPC, but they were only maintaining what we had; he didn’t do new campaigns. MKG cleaned it up, restructured it and created new campaigns to boost our cost per click.

What is the team composition?

We work with a core team of 4–5 people. We’ve brought on and scaled back resources over the years depending on the level of work.

How did you come to work with MKG Marketing?

Our former CMO had them recommended to her, so she started the process of onboarding them when I started.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $20,000 per month with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since April 2019.

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

Since they took over the SEO for us, our presence has increased drastically on the first page of Google. We have 30 different pages that will show up depending on what people search for. People stay on the site for longer and looking at more content since we brought them on board as well.

How did MKG Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very prompt. We have status meetings every other week where they send an agenda upfront with action items and who has to do what. They use Asana for assigning and tracking tasks. They’re really good at keeping everyone on track.

They’re an awesome team to work with, collaborative and open. Beyond the status meetings, we have daily email back-and-forths talking about their recommendations and open action items.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their grace under pressure stands out. We went through 2–3 iterations of a website redesign, which definitely caused hiccups in the progress we could have made during that time, but they were very adaptable. They rolled with the punches and were fully their to be part of the team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep the communication open. They’re very able and willing to be involved, but they can only be as involved and up to speed as you help them to be by giving them access to information and tools.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing for a startup called Atomist.

What challenge were you trying to address with MKG Marketing?

I recently was brought into this company because they didn’t have a set marketing strategy. The company has only been around for a year, so executives and developers were doing their best, but we had very few resources. We didn’t have a single source of truth (SSOT), and we didn’t have a way to track the path to purchase or customer retention.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I knew exactly what I wanted to get from this project. After our initial screening, they were off and running. In two weeks, they delivered a report on keywords we should use to use as we restricted our site for SEO. Then they completed a technical audit and organized our Google Analytics to keep our data clean.

Our next phase will be to overhaul our search engine marketing (SEM) strategies.

What is the team composition?

Jessica (Account Director, MKG Marketing) and Spencer (Director of Analytics, MKG Marketing), were my main points of contact. However, Mike (CEO, MKG Marketing) was very hands-on and regularly would check in. I was really impressed because executives at other companies I’ve worked with have said they would remain involved, but they always disappear once the project starts.

How did you come to work with MKG Marketing?

Our users are very technical, so we wanted a company that understood that background. I was loosely considering an overseas competitor, but they took so long to get back to me that they would have extended the length of our project by several weeks.

I worked as a consultant for another technical company, and their PR strategist recommended MKG Marketing to me. I was impressed by their experience, and that they listened to my business needs. Unlike their competitors, MKG Marketing didn’t stick to a cookie-cutter system. Instead, they created a custom solution that would fit our needs and they stuck to a designated timeline.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

MKG Marketing offered a very quick turnaround. The project only lasted a few weeks in August 2019.

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

I’m really happy with their work. Although we don’t have any metrics at the moment, we expect to see a big impact on our numbers moving forward. We have an SSOT, so we’re able to create marketing goals and can measure them. Now, we can start working on other projects like creating a dashboard. I fully intend to continue working with MKG Marketing. For startups like us, it’s really important to have experts we can lean on.

How did MKG Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

I would give them a 10 out of 10. Although we communicated via email and phone, we also used video calls. I really appreciated it, because it made it easier to put names to faces. It showed that they would go the extra mile to get to know their clients.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was really impressed by their quick turnaround time. However, as we worked together, I was also impressed by their way of approaching things. While they listened to my needs, they were also really thoughtful about inserting their opinions and offering best practices. They came up with some awesome ways to accomplish certain tasks that I wouldn’t have thought of.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Determine what you want and work backwards. Terms like SEO help are very vague, but if you can establish deliverables, they can help you get where you want your company to go.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at a cybersecurity software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with MKG Marketing?

We needed help with on-page SEO and PPC.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were both highly analytic processes. The SEO was on-page and analytic only, so there was no inbound link strategy or off page SEO at all; it was primarily 404s, H1, and meta description optimization.  

For the PPC side of things, they used Google Ads, AdRoll, Quora, and Facebook. I worked closely with their team on keyword research as well.

What is the team composition?

I worked with seven members of their team.

How did you come to work with MKG Marketing?

The previous marketing manager established our relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in April 2018, and we wrapped up in June 2019.

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

We had record quarters of inbound MQLs (marketing qualified leads) through the PPC ads and our SEO rank increased for several keywords.

How did MKG Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. They were really on top of things, and we had a meeting every two weeks with most, if not all, of the team we worked with. They’re really organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were really data driven and communicative. Overall, they’re a great company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would say there were too many spreadsheets, but I’m honestly not sure how they could’ve fixed that. Also, I would’ve liked if they had off page SEO, like inbound link service, in addition to what they were offering.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They should clarify that they only want on page SEO versus more comprehensive SEO.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was a senior director of demand, digital and growth marketing at a tech manufacturing company.

What challenge were you trying to address with MKG Marketing?

We needed to build our infrastructure correctly from a digital ecosystem and lifecycle management perspective. They have a specific expertise in digital and demand marketing, and what we leverage them for is SEO, building the organic audiences, and being able to sustain that growth and being able to articulate the correct digital storyline to those customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When it comes to tactical implementation, they never shied away; they always had their hands in different projects. It was both content optimization, audience segmenting, backlink analysis, backlink optimization and assistance with PPC.  They never walked away from a challenge we presented to them, so they did in creating that nucleus across many different areas of digital marketing.

We are a data company; whether it's in big data, master data management, data governance, both private and public cloud exploration, they're constantly trying to better the organization by helping capture and facilitate the data in ways that benefit the business.

What is the team composition?

My day-to-day contact was Jenna (Account Director, MKG Marketing). I would also have contact with Mike (CEO, MKG Marketing) Kerry (COO, MKG Marketing ), and Christian (SEM Director, MKG Marketing).

How did you come to work with MKG Marketing?

MKG was actually a referral of my senior VP of digital marketing. I enjoyed working with them so much, and saw great results in doing so, that I brought them on to partner with me at my new company.

How much have you invested with them?

I've invested over $600,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

The general consensus is that their quality is exceptional. MKG doesn't necessarily hire the new-grad, or someone just out of college. They take a different approach to hiring more subject matter experts within areas of expertise. I think that sets them apart from a lot of different agencies. I'm an expert in the digital analytics space, so I need outside, third party expertise when it comes to helping craft and create a story to disseminate to electrical engineers. That's where they set themselves above others in the industry.  We need that deeper level of intimacy when it comes to SEO, and that deeper level of granularity when it comes to analytics, and applying it in the correct way.

How did MKG Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.

As far as project management goes, they're very efficient. I hold them in very high regards. It's never a problem of digging too deep, it's about delivering the correct way.

When you partner with certain entities you need to be able to build a reciprocated relationship. MKG went above and beyond to generate that reciprocal relationship. It was both strategic and tactical, friendly and familial. They never made it only about the work side of things. They really embraced the family mentality that I was trying to bring into the organization. To this day, they take a personal and professional interest in getting to know the organization, the different stakeholders, the different goals, both objective and subjective of each and every stakeholder, and apply that to the strategic flow they were looking to achieve.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They very easily become part of your working nucleus and your working family, which is very important to me. I often joke with my team that we're with each other more than we're with our families, so we're going to laugh, cry, celebrate, and argue together. MKG fits themselves into that dynamic, doing what they do at a tremendous level, in that same context. They're not always looking for the money, they're looking for you to achieve your goals. I've worked with some of the larger type of agencies and smaller boutique agencies. I've never found an agency outside of MKG that was so willing to be a part of our family, not just integrating us into theirs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Truth be told, no. I'm a stickler for wanting to improve. I would say the only thing was, when I was looking to onboard a new paid search agency, MKG was part of the conversation. I had carte blanche in making this decision, but the one coup d'état was that they had to use the Adobe Marketing stack. MKG did not do that. Instead of MKG catering to what we wanted, they were upfront and honest in saying "we do things a different way". I really respected that. They said they would rather stick to their values and be honest in what they're capable of versus catering to what the client wanted. I view that more as a positive.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the associate director of media and marketing for BASIS Independent Schools. We’re a network of Pre-K–Grade 12 private schools focusing on raising the standards of student learning to the highest international levels.

For what projects/services did your company hire MKG Marketing?

We needed someone to manage our PPC as well as our social media strategy and activation.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to drive engagement with and consideration of our network of private schools. It was essential that our campaigns delivered quality leads that would ultimately become conversions (whether signing up for info sessions/open houses or filling out an application).

How did you select this vendor?

We vetted a number of companies to partner with. Not only did we need to feel confident in their capabilities, but also, from a culture standpoint, we needed an agency that we could mesh with. Our marketing department was small but nimble, and we sought a partner with those same qualities. 

Describe the project in detail.

MKG Marketing’s team helped us define our strategic plan and execute our PPC and social media campaigns effortlessly. They targeted a niche, hyper-local audience in a competitive market with clear keyword strategy recommendations.

What was the team composition?

We primarily worked with two project managers with whom we were in constant communication. We also worked closely with the CEO.

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

It was essential that our campaigns delivered quality leads that we would ultimately convert. On the PPC side, we saw our cost per conversion (CPC) decrease and our lead quality increase. For our social campaigns, we saw an uptick in both information session and event sign-ups. We were so happy with the metrics that when our charter network needed help advertising for their upcoming enrollment period, we recommended MKG Marketing.

How did the MKG Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Although the MKG Marketing team worked remotely, you'd never know it. Collaboration and communication were necessities for us, given our time-sensitive campaigns, and their team was always responsive and easily accessible. Furthermore, we developed a synergy from forming strong, working relationships.

What impresses you about the MKG Marketing?

They focused all of their attention on achieving our business outcome: getting students in seats. Not only were they easy to work with, but it was also clear that they knew their stuff. I relied on their expertise in a space that was relatively new to other members of my team. MKG Marketing's team heard and understood our challenges.

The agency proved to be a great partner. Smart and diligent, they cared about the work they were doing for us. I couldn't have asked for a better group to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They do have a minimum required spend for their partnerships, and, being in the education industry, we didn’t have a large marketing budget. Since our network was composed of five schools, we were able to make it happen.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing and Communications Manager for OB1, a venture-backed startup that is building a decentralized cryptocurrency marketplace.

For what projects/services did your company hire MKG Marketing?

We hired MKG to help us with the search engine optimization of our websites, digital campaign planning and guide us with PPC work.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have excellent tracking for our web properties, including campaign conversions and website traffic.

How did you select this vendor?

We were referred to MKG Marketing. Both sides determined the partnership was the right fit after research.

Describe the project in detail.

We relaunched our software and wanted to ensure our web properties received maximum exposure. We started tracking meaningful conversions in addition to other analytics. MKG Marketing also handled our keyword targeting and PPC campaigns.

What was the team composition?

I was the point of contact for my team. We worked with an account manager and a team of experts that focused on Google tag management and PPC management. Occasionally, we worked with the agency owner for major campaign changes, pitches, and reviews.

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

MKG helped us determine and rank for keywords that we previously looked over. They provide a steady supply of qualified leads for potential clients to visit our website. These leads increased our conversion rate of product downloads.

How did the MKG Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciate their approach to project management. They were professional, organized, and regularly follow up with us to keep our project on track.

What impresses you about the MKG Marketing?

Their balance of professionalism and commitment to quality work is impressive. We have a comfortable work atmosphere that is both engaging and transparent.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I believe it would be beneficial for their business to explore setting up an ongoing SEO and PPC maintenance package. This would make their services more accessible for small businesses like ours and keep them as clients for the long-term.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO at Atmosera, a cloud solution provider. We specialize in managed services for companies looking to move their infrastructure or services to a cloud-based environment.

What challenge were you trying to address with MKG Marketing?

One of my responsibilities as CMO is demand generation and brand awareness. We engage with MKG for two specific needs: SEO to broaden our profile and increase our Google ranking, and demand generation through pay-per-click.

What was the scope of their involvement?

MKG is our agency of record (AOR) for SEO and pay-per-click. They manage relevant day-to-day tasks and optimize our digital assets according to best practices.

Internally, we work proactively to identify specific areas for improvement while constantly managing the combination of keywords, themes, and subject matter expertise that we want to highlight. We oversee these practices from an SEO standpoint while also identifying content areas that are successful/lacking. This is also our process for reviewing our advertising strategies. We then use this information in conjunction with our larger campaigns, which are tied to specific topics or services that we’re looking to push. We then connect everything through pay-per-click ads to redistribute demand/site traffic according to our current marketing goals.

MKG takes a lead on how to most effectively structure those campaigns, monitor their performance, manage their budget, and ensuring that the ROI is worthwhile. They work collaboratively with me and our creative agency in preparing content/visuals that further our goals. They’ve also made changes to our site in line with SEO best practices.

What is the team composition?

There are always a minimum four people on our calls. We primarily work with an account/project manager, an SEO specialist, a pay-per-click specialist, and an integration/analytics specialist. Other key members of their team engage on specific challenges as necessary.

How did you come to work with MKG Marketing?

We were using another agency before the start of the engagement and needed a change. When I was in the market for a new agency, our CEO suggested I reach out to MKG after hearing about them from a personal acquaintance.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed a 12-month contract with them in May 2017.

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

The campaigns drove 100% of all new customer leads that we were able to convert to sales in the last year. This is an incredible indicator of success. 67% of those sales were directly attributed to SEO and pay-per-click.

How did MKG Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very organized throughout the process. However, there were a few staff changes during our project that created some challenges. MKG fosters an environment that allows for vacations, account switches, etc. They do a very good job transitioning and making sure that new people are up to speed, but it’s still not the same as having a dedicated, full-time resource. Over the past six months, we’ve been able to stabilize and there are very few shifts on their end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very knowledgeable around the various processes that they implement, and they know how to get results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Apart from the occasional resource shifts in the beginning, we’ve been very happy with the engagement.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

With SEO and pay-per-click projects, you have to be very invested. They require meticulous oversight and need to be actively sustained. Make sure you understand the audiences you’re looking to reach, and take a hands-on approach to tracking results.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director for a company that produces Software as a Service (SaaS) to help businesses calculate, file, and remit sales and use tax.

What challenge were you trying to address with MKG Marketing?

We wanted to raise awareness for sales and use tax and our company’s services, and we also wanted to conduct research on what messages and key pain points would resonate with potential clients.

What was the scope of their involvement?

This wasn’t my first time working with MKG; I’ve worked with them in two prior roles in the last five years. In the past, they’ve done organic and paid search, but this time we just wanted demand generation marketing campaigns. We wanted to build targeted campaigns for software and manufacturing verticals, and we want to understand what messages we should advertise. They could be in any medium:  banner ads, e-mails, or other marketing channels. They recruited people that fit our potential client profile (i.e., finance and accounting professionals) and conducted expansive research to find what was important to them. They had a list of questions for each category and asked them to the interviewees.

After that, they reported back to us what they found and what they saw as key trends and patterns in the research. They helped us hone in on what message we should choose; we could have gone with efficiency, easiness, accuracy, etc., but we wanted to be succinct and precise. They provided market research to help launch a successful advertising and marketing campaign.

What is the team composition?

We have around four people. There’s an account manager, two who do most of the work, and one who oversees everything. I’m not involved with the project on a day-to-day basis, so that may be a bit different. We speak with our main point of contact either daily or weekly, depending on the project.

How did you come to work with MKG Marketing?

I met them at a previous job and brought them on here. We were considering two companies at the time, but MKG’s past success, cost, and nimbleness made me choose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in August of last year, and the campaign launched in October, but we’re still working together.

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

Multiple factors influence our success, but overall, we did achieve our campaign goals. Every channel had different goals (e.g., for paid digital we had impressions, click throughs, desired bookings targets), and we accomplished them; in part, thanks to MKG.

How did MKG Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They communicated everything well, and they delivered within our budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They took the time to understand the services and products we offer. Their background work and research allowed us to create a successful campaign.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be clear on what you're trying to do, and give them as much information as you can. They’ll take it and do a great job.