obo. Agency

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing and communications for Free the Facts. We’re a nonpartisan nonprofit that aims to teach young Americans, ages 14–35, about some key public policy issues regarding entitlement programs that affect them.

What challenge were you trying to address with obo. Agency?

We had a HubSpot subscription, but no one within our organization took the time to set it up effectively. As a result, everything was a mess. We didn't have any organized list or really even my contacts set up correctly. We recognized that HubSpot could be a very powerful took for us, but needed a partner to help clean it up and train our staff.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We ended up doing three different projects with them in order to achieve all of our goals. The first one was looking at our account and cleaning it up. They spent about three weeks, salvaging what they could, but mostly deleting workflows that we weren’t using or weren’t effective. It laid the groundwork for us to move forward.

Then they trained our staff. They met with nearly everyone in our organization to collect user stories and identify areas where we could use HubSpot more effectively or should be using it. Then they developed a training regimen and training videos for future reference.

Now we’re working on developing more strategic marketing efforts within HubSpot. We work with dozens of students across the country, so we need a way to track the people in our programs and those who come to our events. We’ve now migrated all of their contact information and our social platforms onto HubSpot as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Gabe (Lead Consultant) on their marketing team. He has overseen all of the projects we’ve worked on. We also talked to Taryn (Associate Director, Client Engagement) frequently in the first phase of the project.

How did you come to work with obo. Agency?

One of their sales representatives reached out to me on LinkedIn shortly after we had discussed HubSpot internally. It was the beginning of quarantine, and since we were working from home, I thought it was worth a shot. I was impressed by their sales pitch.

How much have you invested with them?

The first two projects cost between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in May 2020 and it’s ongoing.

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

We’re now comfortable using HubSpot, where in the past, we didn’t know how to use it and it took several hours to figure out what to do. When they went in, they deleted a ton of unnecessary information and workflows. We had about 5,000 contacts that were just duplicates, so we appreciated that they were able to clean that up.

How did obo. Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They were the best at project management, and my team really appreciated that. It was very clear what they were working on and what their goals were from week to week. They were extremely communicative about what they needed from us and asked us a lot of questions. We’ve had weekly calls with them, and that has been extremely effective.

One thing I really appreciate is they’re very efficient and if a call is scheduled to only last 30 minutes, they’re completely prepared and can get everything done in that time frame. It’s great to be able to get on the call, address their needs, answer questions, and then they’re ready to move forward. Overall, I was very impressed by how they managed the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been a resource for us even in areas that don’t necessarily fall under the scope of our engagement. For example, we do an event series for college students, and this year we needed to move the event to a virtual platform. Even though that wasn’t a part of their work, they helped us select a platform to host that event. They vetted software and helped us determine how it would work with HubSpot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some of the projects have lasted longer than we initially anticipated, but my team is as much to blame for that as they are. I think adding a buffer period at the end of the project schedule could have been helpful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very upfront and honest when meeting with them about user stories. We were very transparent about the frustrations that we had with previous contractors and the platform itself. They were able to address all of those concerns. Even if we were on the call and they couldn’t answer right away, they met with their team and got us a solution by the end of the week.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Senior Manager and Marketing Demand Generator at Stardog. Stardog, the leading Enterprise Knowledge Graph platform, turns data into knowledge to power more effective digital transformations. Industry leaders including Bayer, Bosch, National Bank of Canada, and NASA use Stardog to create a flexible data layer that can support countless applications.

For what projects/services did your company hire obo. Agency, and what were your goals?

Our company would like to be able to clearly track and understand all important marketing insights that are taking place on our website and create successful Google ad campaigns to target our ideal customers and build brand awareness for our services. We wanted to have custom dashboards created to display specific data about our marketing. We also wanted to create and launch Google ad campaigns and become familiar with the platform so that our team could create and monitor campaigns internally.

How did you select obo. Agency and what were the deciding factors?

We reached out to obo given a prior relationship at another company. We felt that obo Agency really took the time to understand our needs and presented us with a plan to move forward with the project.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Obo helped us to identify specific events and other behaviors made by visitors that would be beneficial for us to track. Once these criteria was solidified, obo built out custom dashboards that allowed us to view our vital statistics all from one place.

Obo also provided clear documentation that helped us to read each dashboard and clearly display what each data point meant and how it related to us. Finally, obo’s paid media team helped us develop a Google ads strategy, create the necessary copy, and set up the campaigns in our account.

Proper training was also included to make sure I understood both platforms (Google Analytics and Google Ads) and could feel confident enough to operate in either of them at the end of our engagement.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Initially, we were assigned a sales rep who helped identify our needs and what our goals were for the project. Once the initial assessment was completed, we were transferred to an account manager who helped foresee the rest of the project from that point on.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Obo was able to provide clean, professional dashboards and accompanying documentation that helped us to completely understand the data we wanted access to. They were also able to enlighten us about using the Google Ads platform and strategies that we could use in the future to help direct more traffic to our website.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The effectiveness of working with obo Agency was flawless. Their team members were always available for any questions that I had and during our weekly meetings were able to address any concerns or changes that may have occurred throughout the marketing project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I was blown away by the knowledge that obo Agency has regarding Google ads and digital marketing in general. We learned so much about Google Analytics and we appreciated that they were patient with us as we got caught up to speed.

We would certainly engage with this company again if we had any need for additional marketing services and consulting.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I love working with obo! I can say that we're thrilled with the work that obo Agency did for our company and look forward to working with them on new projects!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a nail salon administrator. We are located in Porter Ranch, CA. Our company has 15 employees

For what projects/services did your company hire obo. Agency?

We have a small beauty salon and we wanted to try e-mail marketing for our company. We notify our customers about new promotions and discounts. We also included promotions for friends of our clients so that they could forward the letter and bring a friend. After visiting the salon customers receive automatic letters asking them to rate the visit.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase the flow of clients through promotions and forwarding our letters to friends.

How did you select obo. Agency?

We have been searching for a suitable price and quality offer for a long time. We cut off about 10 companies and chose not the cheapest offer, but we are glad that we stopped at obo. Agency

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After we chose obo. Agency we held several online meetings and developed a strategy. Then they have developed the software, as well as the design of letters and helped with promotions.

What was the team composition?

I worked with only one person, as I was just looking for companies.

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

We increased the flow of clients by 40%, and these people not only came once at a discount, but became our regular clients.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I was very pleased to communicate with them. Very easy and understanding guys.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We felt that they were experts in everything we asked them to do. We were pleasantly surprised how attentive they are to their clients, even with a small check.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. They’re real professionals, and I can’t speak highly enough of them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Advertisers Printing Co., Inc. We specialize in producing and distributing hardcopy marketing communications via print and mail. I am responsible for company strategy and vision.

For what projects/services did your company hire obo. Agency?

We challenged obo.Agency to build a digital marketing program for our company from the ground up. We had zero capabilities on-site. We did have a website but that needed to be rebuilt as well. Our social media presence consisted of a linkedIn page. Our on-line content consisted of a few white papers and no on-going additions or revisions.

What were your goals for this project?

We asked obo.Agency to establish a comprehensive digital marketing program for us.

How did you select this vendor?

We reached out to the obo.Agency based on a recommendation from a highly trusted business associate. We made the decision to go with the obo.Agency based on all the services they offered.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The obo.Agency created marketing strategy for us, created marketing campaigns for us, revised our website, hosted our website, did on-going edits to our website, did seo for our website, added content to our website, created on-going content for our website in the form of a newsletter and blogs, created google ads for us, measured and scored those google ads, created a digital marketing program for us.

They created and executed cold email programs for us, created and executed email programs that were integrated with direct mail mutli-channel campaigns, did A-B testing, utilized marketing metrics such as open rate, response rate, impressions, cost per conversion, conversions, created landing pages, did copy writing, utilized keyword search, did prospecting, generated email prospect lists, did competitor discovery, ongoing campaign optimization and tracking using a dashboard they created for us, marketing automation, google analytics, monitored Google ranking, pillar page linking, social media posting

What was the team composition?

We had a primary contact, a web development contact, copywriter contact and contact with an upper level executive for strategy.

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

Since we started with nothing, I can't give percentages since all of them would be ridiculously high. The OBO agency put us on the map, improved our online presence immeasurably, increased our standing with our current clients immeasurably and created a whole new audience for our company. We received a tremendous education in how marketing works as well.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between our company and the obo.Agency was excellent. The frequency of meetings was balanced by the on-going activities and was just right. They always created a master schedule for each project and always kept to the schedule. The OBO Agency was always available to us and very quick to respond to any requests.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to take a company with no marketing expertise and create a comprehensive program impressed us. I was also impressed with their overall knowledge and their ability to communicate to us in terms we understood. They were also amazing in their ability to understand our industry and write content that was spot on.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only thing I wish could have been done differently is I wish I could have been more help to them. I was not as available as I should have been.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CareJourney is a healthcare analytics software company that sells solutions to hospitals and payers. I serve as the COO.

For what projects/services did your company hire obo. Agency?

We have recently been setting up our sales team and implementing SalesForce and brought OBO on to help us with creating a standard process around SalesForce until we identified a full-time hire.

What were your goals for this project?

Clear processes in place for multiple people to use SalesForce simultaneously, leading to quality data.

How did you select this vendor?

We met them through a local event.

Describe the project in detail.

They created new SalesForce processes, uploaded and categorized data, help connect SalesForce to other systems like HubSpot, and created standard reporting.

What was the team composition?

N/A

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

The team delivered on a number of requests in a timely fashion and our sales team is seeing much greater value from the tool than prior to their joining.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had weekly checks-ins with follow-up documentation of next steps that kept everyone aligned. We designated an internal POC to coordinate the work.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The willingness to step in and help with any task and their subject matter expertise stood out.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Communicating timelines for various projects to set expectations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of The Adventure Group, the largest tourism and activity company in Mexico.

What challenge were you trying to address with obo. Agency?

We had a lot of marketing data, but it wasn’t categorized or segmented. Thus, we needed someone with significant expertise to help us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They first helped us to get our data segmented and organized. Then they put together a communication plan for the year for our marketing strategy. They helped us to balance between our engagement efforts and others we used for promotions and social responsibility.

What is the team composition?

There were two strategists. One person was in charge of database management and two were on the account management side. We only kept one account manager and she was worked internally with her design team. From time to time, she’ll ask for assistance from the database manager.

How did you come to work with obo. Agency?

I found them on Clutch. We asked for quotations and proposals and had calls with three agencies. Email marketing agencies are comfortable with managing databases with tons of information on it. In our case, it wasn’t like that. We barely have any information from our clients. We were looking for the opposite—we needed someone who could work with something that’s basic and make something out of it.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2019 until January 2020.

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

They work they did was amazing but the return on investment wasn’t great. We only garnered less than $100,000 in revenue from email marketing and their agency fee took about 60% of that. Because of this, we decided to start managing the service internally. They did an amazing job training my team during the last three weeks we worked together.

They created a history of all the behaviors of our database and the income we got from each campaign. Those are now the basis for us to continue this year and improve those results. If we hadn’t worked with them, we would be at zero without any information about what marketing could mean for us.

How did obo. Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was amazing. We use Basecamp to communicate with our team and have weekly calls with them that last about 20 minutes. We review the strategy and what stage we’re at in the project and get a report once a month. We were really happy with the actions they took.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re professional. They reported results in a way we’ve never seen before. After each campaign, we did AB testing. They were really clear and effective in telling us what variables they were testing, why, what the results were, and what kind of insights we can apply for our next test. That was amazing and now we have one year of knowledge to keep building on it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be really involved with your agency. We had amazing brainstorming meetings with them about what’s coming next. It was super important having them because our main markets are the U.S. and Canada, but we’re in Mexico. Most of the time, we weren’t really aware of the promotional dates like Labor Day or Memorial Day. Those were things we learned from them. My conclusion is to really take the time to exchange feedback. They’re great at keeping an eye on what’s happening.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief learning officer for a software service company, and we sell a learning management system.

What challenge were you trying to address with obo. Agency?

We hired obo. Agency to help build our brand and support our sales process by developing a marketing strategy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They looked at our marketing strategy holistically to determine our key drivers for building our client base was. Their team conducted A/B testing to craft the best marketing strategy and determined that we needed to focus on reengaging leads. They assessed what kind of leads we were getting, what their personas were, messaging, and the frequency of our existing marketing strategy and how we could improve it. Given our limited budget, obo. Agency developed a campaign that would help us build, convert, and reengage leads.

What is the team composition?

We had three people working with us, including a strategic marketer, and technical lead. Meanwhile, the owner of obo. Agency focused on the big picture of our project.

How did you come to work with obo. Agency?

I found obo. Agency on Clutch. We wanted to work with a smaller local company that would be flexible to our needs. We chose this team over three other agencies because we met in person and I really liked their personalities. It seemed like a good match.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $21,000–$22,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from April–October 2019.

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

Over the last six months, we’ve seen between a 25%–27% response rate to our emails, which is a significant improvement for us. We have significantly more clarity on where our business needs to go and how we need to get there. The project is paused, but we would definitely like to work with them again. They went above and beyond our expectations.

How did obo. Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They followed an agile methodology, cycling through a new to-list each week. By doing one thing at a time, we could connect the dots and get everything done. They do a good job providing commentary on the project’s progress through a weekly webinar call. Their team is totally transparent and we always know the status of each task.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They develop a  close relationship with their customers and are able to understand their project needs. They start by asking questions and making suggestions to move the project in various ways. They always look out for the customer’s best interests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they did a great job and I don’t see anything they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Develop a solid relationship with them. They’ll take the time to meet with you and understand your business needs. The better they get to know your brand message, the stronger the strategy they develop for you will be.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a Tier 2 telecom company. We operate in a few key cities in the Mid-Atlantic region. I'm part of a two-person marketing team, and my duties include designing and developing our marketing website.

What challenge were you trying to address with obo. Agency?

We’ve been in business for more than 20 years in the D.C. area, but our primary challenge is brand awareness. We compete with over-the-top telecom companies for our business clients. We needed creative solutions to raise awareness, and felt obo was our best bet.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came up with a wide variety of research-driven PPC ads and display ads. They also led some LinkedIn and programmatic campaigns that targeted high-value accounts. We also contracted them to do email and direct mail marketing.

I was fairly heavily involved in the campaigns, and they offered us an extensive menu of options to start with. We co-shaped a lot of the messaging and used their keyword research. They were extremely collaborative, even though we're an unusual client. We are tactically hands-on and strategic. We understand the work that they do, so we co-developed a lot of ideas and messaging.

They provided some content for our email marketing, which we massaged. Our industry is very technically specific, so we taught each other a lot over the course of our collaboration.

They also did an analysis of our sales and implementational lifecycles, as well as all the associated technologies and systems we use to track those. We never had a full-stack review previously, so that was an important part of the process. They ultimately transferred our marketing automation system to HubSpot.

What is the team composition?

I work with a lot of people within their company and feel like I know their whole team.

How did you come to work with obo. Agency?

I came across them via one of their sister agencies, and I read reviews about them on Clutch. I considered several local agencies, but we decided to work with obo, as they had the best plan for the price. They provided a lot of bang for the buck.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost for all our projects with them was between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2018 and ended our collaboration around January or February 2019.

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

My coworker and I absolutely love working with their team. They're prompt, diligent, and extremely organized. They exemplify white glove care and are our B2B marketing agency of choice for any future projects.

How did obo. Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They are superlative project managers. They are fairly close to our offices, so we met a few times in person and had weekly phone calls. We felt like a part of their team, and they felt like a part of ours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have sharp minds, a dedicated work ethic, and an unbelievably positive attitude.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have been more forceful with us when we didn't hold up our end of the bargain, though that says less about them than it does about us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to do a deep dive analysis of your strategy and processes. They will require you to know all the ins and outs of your business.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of business development at Yurchak Printing. We specialize in book manufacturing.

What challenge were you trying to address with obo. Agency?

We hired obo. Agency to help us improve our company’s online presence and make ourselves more of a recognizable name within in the industry.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Once we agreed to the terms, they visited our facility to meet our staff and learn about our company. We discussed our strengths and weaknesses relative to our peers, and we conducted a competitive analysis by examining the marketing materials from some of our competitors. The obo. Agency team refined a database of potential clients and launched an email marketing campaign that highlighted our services.

Once the email campaign launched, we worked with them to update our website. It was somewhat antiquated, so they refreshed it and made it more mobile-friendly. As part of the update, they came to our offices, took pictures of our principals and our facility, along with some of our work being put together. They also helped us implement a blog and a newsletter, neither of which we had before. They would typically present me with a list of relevant topics, and then I'd have conversations with their copywriter. Shortly after, we’d have a first draft of a newsletter, and, after a round of edits, we emailed it.

Lastly, obo. Agency improved our SEO rankings by helping us identify keywords that would drive searchers to our site. We didn’t alter much of our content, but they made it much more SEO-friendly.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of 6–7 people, a group that included an account representative, a copywriter, a web developer, and a few other data researchers behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with obo. Agency?

A representative from a trade organization within the printing industry recommended obo. Agency and suggested we speak with Noah (Co-founder, obo. Agency).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–September 2018.

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

Within 24-36 hours of the first email blast, we had about 20 positive responses, a response rate that exceeded what we thought was realistic. We converted a few of those into viable prospects, and within two or three weeks, we had secured our first new client, which was a big success. The website was a huge hit with our customers, as well.

By about the fifth blast of emails, the responses were coming in rapidly. We were completely overwhelmed in a positive way. We got to the point where we started to grow so quickly that we didn’t have the resources to take on any more business. We had an excellent return on the investment. We grew about 75% year-to-year in the past four months.

How did obo. Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Throughout the entire process, they were efficient and thorough. We had open lines of communication with all members of their team. They were always on time and came through on their deliverables when they said they would.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I felt that they were experts in everything we asked them to do. They knew what would be successful and what wouldn’t. They offered smart suggestions and sound reasoning for all decisions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They’re real professionals, and I can’t speak highly enough of them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to how they want to steer you because they definitely steered us in the right direction.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director’s assistant for the Maryland Bartending Academy, a trade school that trains bartenders who are placed all over Maryland, D.C., Virginia, and the U.S.

What challenge were you trying to address with obo Agency?

We’re a small company and needed help managing our prospective clients and keeping in touch with our grads. We also needed help rebranding our site and better managing our marketing content.

What was the scope of their involvement?

obo Agency cleaned up our old site and made it look new, rebranding the entire thing. Along with those changes, they also put all of our leads into an email automation system, meaning I didn’t have to compile a list and send emails out a few times every month. They keep our contacts updated across all our programs and even improved our newsletter.

They worked on our social media a bit, but that’s not the bulk of our marketing, so our internal team manages that now. The did, however, make our content more cohesive and streamlined, minimizing the content on our site to make it easier to navigate.

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact, but we can talk to anyone at their office.

How did you come to work with obo Agency?

We initially worked with a different company, but they got too big and left us behind. They referred us to obo Agency, and we’ve been working together ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$50,000, and they’re worth every penny.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since November 2017, and the work is ongoing.

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

We’re landing our leads more consistently and seeing people engage with our marketing content a lot more. Before working with obo Agency, our numbers were decreasing, but now we’re growing. Our organic search is up by over 200% from last year, and the leads are much higher quality. The emails that obo Agency sends out are professional and easy for our customers to engage with.

How did obo Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They explained every detail of their plan, making sure our internal team understood what was going on. They created flowcharts to illustrate the email automations, and the website has detailed instructions for tasks like changing pricings, updating pictures, etc. They’re incredibly clear, and, if I don’t understand something, they schedule a meeting right away. They’re a great asset to our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They care about our business and are passionate about helping their clients. If we have any problems, obo Agency is quick to fix them. I never feel like I’m bother them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re a great partner.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Work with them; you won’t regret it.