OuterBox

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Dragon Bicycles is a direct to consumer bicycle manufacturer that sells high performance and high quality bicycles directly to consumers at a reasonable price.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OuterBox?

We engaged Outerbox to improve our SEO standing and help create a successful PPC campaign to increase traffic, engagement, and conversions

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Outerbox managed our SEO and PPC campaigns

What is the team dynamic?

The dynamic was excellent; Outerbox were wonderful partners who made themselves readily available for our needs, and did their utmost to make us feel as if we were their top priority

How did you come to work with OuterBox?

Outerbox came to us through recommendation from other direct to consumer companies we are familiar with.

How much have you invested with them?

Well over $30,000

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Outerbox ended because we sold out of our bicycles online and have transitioned to selling only locally and in person

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

Our relationship with Outerbox evolved into a strong partnership wherein Outerbox felt to me as if they were one of our own employees. Very committed, very involved, and heavily invested in our success.

How did OuterBox address the challenges that arose?

Head on. Outerbox were instrumental in increasing our engagement and driving valuable and worthwhile traffic to our website to increase conversions.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

Huge impact. Due to their tireless efforts, Outerbox enabled us to sell through our inventory.

How was project management handled?

Fanatically handled despite the challenges the pandemic presented over the past year. Rather than focus on what could not be done, Outerbox constantly worked to create excellent content and never failed to meet a deadline

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

Their understanding of the DTC company. Very few marketing firms have the necessary experience to work with a DTC sporting goods company, and Outerbox nailed it for us.

In what specific areas can they improve?

Nothing, their work and efforts were second to none.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Call Outerbox now

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on August 5, 2022. 

CEO, Dragon Bicycles

Manufacturing

1-10 Employees

Seattle, Washington, United States (27034)

$10,000 to $49,999

Aug 2019 - Aug 2022

Project summary:

OuterBox developed a digital marketing strategy for a bike retailer, including SEO, PPC, and social media advertising.

Feedback summary:

OuterBox never outperformed the client's previous partners. The client noticed that there weren't significant increases during their engagement aside from factors outside of their control. Although they helped slightly improve their keywords, the team's service was described as mediocre.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We manufacture and sell road bikes DTC. Our mission is to take the sting out high bike prices while still offering our customers high quality bikes, delivered to their front door.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OuterBox, and what were your goals?

PPC and SEO management. As an online only company our business heavily depends on being seen on the internet. We’re a small independent brand with vast cycling experience and limited knowledge of how to develop and manage ppc campaigns and SEO

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected outerbox because of their experience with other dtc clients, modest (at the time) pricing, and perceived reliability and expertise. All marketing firms promise the world; Outerbox’s promises seemed the most down to earth.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

SEO focus to refine our website to rank better in search engines namely the google. PPC creation and management of google ads and Facebook ad campaigns.

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

This varied between one and four, typically only one associate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Deliverables included updates to our website to better rank in searches such as added keywords, H1 tags, blog post design, and creation of ppc ad campaigns. Overall feedback was mediocre. SEO efforts from outerbox were uninspired and nothing special. Ad campaigns increased traffic and visibility of our website, but no more than our previous digital marketing firms. We did see a substantial uptick in sales 2020, but in hindsight and comparing with 2019, 2021, and 2022, the uptick was caused by the sudden massive increase in demand for bicycles due to the pandemic.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Effective in that outerbox would complete work on time. Ineffective in that ads were unimpressive, in often need of correction due to poor grammar, and overall rather not compelling. Nothing special nor unique came from outerbox.

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

Nothing. They proved to be as vanilla and unoriginal as the myriad other digital marketing firms out there.

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

Better oversight to ensure proper grammar and editing of ppc ads, better handling of timelines due dates and project schedules, and more open lines of communication

Star Ratings

Overall Rating: 1

Quality: 1

Cost: 1

Schedule: 1

Willing to Refer: 1

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a plastics compounding company specializing in engineered polymers. I currently and the digital marketing specialist.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OuterBox, and what were your goals?

We needed a refresh and expansion of our website. New pages needed added, site speed, and overall SEO work.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Cost, proximity to our headquarters.

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

OuterBox will continuously monitor our website for new webpages that need added. They then construct questions based on that new page and these are sent to me. I then will forward these on to the respective party for completion. Once this is done, OuterBox will get approval from myself and push the webpage live. They also provide SEO work for us to keep us up to date on any site changes, algorithm changes, Google Analytic work, etc.

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

3 people: Tom, Mariah, and Lexi

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have noticed an increase in site traffic, overall engagement, contact info, lead generation, etc. Great feedback every time we have a quarterly report, OuterBox really knows how to convey the growth of our site.

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

Frequent messages through ActivCollab, email, monthly, and quarterly calls.

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

Their young staff really knows what is needed to stay relevant in today's social structure.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO and Vice President of a wholesale distributor of aftermarket performance parts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OuterBox, and what were your goals?

We were ready to step up our SEO commitment and OuterBox was selected to help us reach more customers through SEO/PPC

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected OuterBox based on market and competitor research. The deciding factor was their enthusiasm and confidence that they could deliver

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

Our primary goal was an increase in revenue via our primary web channel, lethalperformance.com. We focused these efforts around SEO and PPC. Specifically on-site optimization to code, link building, keyword research, Adwords campaign management, Facebook & Instagram campaign management and Youtube management are just a few examples.

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

We've been in close contact with our about 6 members of the Outerbox team, our account manager, web developer, ppc lead, seo lead and designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We achieved a 275% increase in revenue, with 150% happening within the first two years. The majority of this increase is due to SEO and PPC. OuterBox is always extremely professional in both their thoroughness and presentation of deliverables.

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

Outerbox practices Transparency in Business. I call this style "honest and open", these are the only firms we partner with. With this as a foundation, everything else easily falls into place.

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

OuterBox actually LOOKED at our data, our challenges, our potential for growth, and most importantly, they made sure that our firms would ENJOY our partnership based on our pre-contract meetings and discussions.

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

My only wish for OuterBox is to offer more services for us!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We manufacture soccer training equipment. I am the owner of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OuterBox, and what were your goals?

Search engine optimization for my website. Goal is to improve our organic search results ranking and improve the customer experience on our website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Research and interviews. Factors were their competence, the people I'd work with, and flexibility with a small business to work within our budget and not nickel and dime over a little extra work to do it right. I also wanted a firm who knew what they were doing and understood my business so I can focus on my own tasks.

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

To provide me with and execute a plan of action each month with strategic steps to complete each month in given areas from the homepage design, category optimization, and product page optimization with the end result to improve the ranking with keyword updates, homepage optimizations with title tags and descriptions based on research for my field. In the end, we expect to see an increase in revenue year over year while increasing the conversion rate.

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

We work closely with 3 people. A project manager and 2 SEO specialists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

SEO takes time. We are in the phase of focusing on the priorities of building a solid foundation by fixing errors, setting up analytics, analyzing historical data and using the latest insights for google to find us and rank us to the keywords we want to be ranking for. We have seen a bump in keyword ranking we have focused on over the past 2 months. I expect it to continue to improve as we build on the early success. We call this quick wins right off the starting line.

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

We pretty much work entirely through a program called ActiveColab. We are able to tag and follow up on individual tasks through this online software. When we video conference, we use google meet. We video chat once a month to go over my results from the previous month and have the opportunity to ask any questions for the previous month or the next.

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

I need to work with people I like. Makes it easier to get on calls and video conference. Sounds odd, but it's important for me to work with people I get along with well and I can trust to do the job as I wear many hats and cannot micro-manage. They need to be motivated people and you can sense/see that when you work with someone. You don't know what SEO firms do all day. We know we're working with people who are hungry to see our company grow and have more online success.

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

Too early to nit-pick. Nobody is perfect and I want to allow some more time to pass to see if things start to become comfortable and the foot comes off the gas pedal. As long as the effort and creativity to find a way to improve and adapt continues, smaller issues will be swept under the rug. All I care about is the bottom line.. improvement every month.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Creative Director/CMO for Lethal Performance. We specialize in the eCommerce sales & distribution (both B2B and B2C) of performance car parts for late model vehicles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OuterBox, and what were your goals?

We hired OuterBox to take over all of our SEO and PPC/Google marketing for the business.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was not involved in choosing the vendor.

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

We started with the basics, just implementing simple campaigns and working to improve our site with SEO, etc. We then started honing in on certain manufacturers/brands that we carry so that we came up higher in searches. We also had them start building landing pages for SEO, including writeups and info pages on new models.

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

There is usually 4 people who work with our account. Lissa is a Senior Paid Media Strategist and works on the Google campaigns, Brandon is a Director of SEO with Caleb assisting him. And Brian is also a Senior Paid Media Strategist who works with me on our Facebook ads.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since working with the team at OuterBox our revenue has tripled over a span of just a couple of years.

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

They are great at communicating their current tasks and outcomes to us. We communicate regularly through ActiveCollab discussions, get monthly reports sent to us and also partake in monthly conference calls to discuss the previous month's analytics as well as the plans for the upcoming month/quarter. I also have bi-monthly meetings with the Facebook Ads specialist, Brian, about our Facebook ads.

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

Their balance of high-level expertise and professionalism with a friendly, family-like demeanor. They don't just spit numbers at us, they want us to understand what they mean and what each move they make results in.

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

Sometimes I feel their actual creative design on landing pages, etc. could be better (but I also may be biased since Graphic Design is my top skill!).

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of a B2B e-commerce company that sells recycling and waste equipment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trinity?

We hired Trinity to help us improve our search engine rankings. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use Trinity’s SEO services, although they offer other services. They’ve conducted an in-depth audit of our Google ranking, and then they work on our SEO efforts. The team has done a bit of UX design. They’ve provided us with performance insights in terms of our global website elements and navigation. 

What is the team composition?

Around four people work with us, including Jay (Technical Team Lead). We’ve also worked with their president and copywriters. 

How did you come to work with Trinity?

I found Trinity through Google. We interviewed a number of other companies, too. Then, we spoke with the principal at Trinity, and we decided to engage them from there. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership started in February 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our SEO success metrics are to be determined. In terms of general feedback, their technical lead is extremely qualified and capable.

How did Trinity perform from a project management standpoint?

Trinity’s communication is clear, but a change in their project management software has caused some confusion. We currently use ClickUp to manage the engagement, though we previously used Teamwork. Meanwhile, Trinity submits design deliverables via PDF. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The scope of services they offer is impressive. Put another way, they provide in-depth SEO and SEM services. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set expectations and goals early. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a mid market ecommerce company and I am a founding managing partner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Trinity, and what were your goals?

A/B testing and conversion rate optimization (CRO). We want to improve our website for our customer over time with data backed conclusions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I researched a few CRO agencies. Trinity was the most thorough in their presentation of the opportunities they saw and how they would approach the project. I also appreciated talking directly to the principal in addition to someone overseeing the day to day efforts.

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

Monthly a/b testing design and then implementation of successful test results. Using a combination of google analytics, google data studio and VWO. Bi-weekly sync up. Ongoing email communication.

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

I've interfaced with a number of people from the team, but I have 1 dedicated main point of contact who is a UX analyst.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Trinity has already found winning variations over our control versions for our website. These winners have provided significant conversion rate lift in a relatively short amount of time. The ROI has been positive.

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

They use a basecamp/slack style project management tool. Bi weekly phone/web meeting sync ups. They are responsive to email questions in between. Their timelines are relatively well-defined and generally met.

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

That they actually delivered positive results quickly. Having worked with many agencies throughout my career, results often never come or take much longer than advertised.

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

Perhaps would like a little more insight into the overall strategy and the why/how they are coming up with their ideas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Zerbee Business Products, a small company that’s owned by Office Depot.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trinity?

When I took over as the director of my company, our outbound email campaigns weren’t consistent. Our team had thrown together marketing materials because we needed to put something out there, but our automation wasn’t consistent-looking. One of the main things that we really wanted was for a partner to help us build a coherent visual brand for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Trinity is in charge of helping us get a nice, consistent look to our outbound marketing campaigns. Initially, they tackled the automation piece through Klaviyo, which needed to be addressed more than anything. We were limited by what we wanted to spend on, so we went through this project little by little over the course of 4–6 months.

Now, they’re helping us with our email campaign automation for our sister company. We try to put as much in their hands as possible. That includes creating a consistent template and layout based on some of the materials that we’ve provided for them.

What is the team composition? 

I work with Travis (Growth Strategist).

How did you come to work with Trinity?

I knew Trinity’s team from previous work with Travis and Nate (COO), and I trusted their opinion in what they did.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $60,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020, and the relationship is ongoing. About 90% of the work they’re doing for our company is completed. There might be one automation part that they’re still refining, but there’s always continuous improvement. For the most part, they’re focusing on our sister company’s email automation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re pretty pleased with the open rates and increased conversions that we’ve seen as well as the revenue that we’ve been able to track through our analytics. A lot of the emails we’re sending out now weren’t being sent out before, so Trinity has more than paid for themselves with their new templates.

How did Trinity perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job of keeping us informed. Their team is really good at looking at what we want and then presenting how they’re going to deliver on that. 

In the beginning, we would have regularly scheduled weekly calls, but now it’s more every other week. In both cases, we know exactly what to expect at every step of the way. Trinity has other project management and reporting tools that keep us on track, which we reference during our meetings, but I don’t always take advantage of them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have all the confidence in the world that they’ve got our schedule in front of them and aren’t working on anything that we don’t want them to be working on. That’s important because we’re paying them by the hour.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If I had one criticism, it would be around their creative assets. The templates are pretty straightforward, and we provide most of the content, so it would be helpful if they could figure out which products to promote without our direct guidance. 

However, we realize that there’s a cost associated with that, too, because they’re going to need to spend time finding the right content if we don’t provide it for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should look beyond the price tag when considering them. They weren’t the least expensive option, but they instilled the most confidence in us that we were choosing the right partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CMO of a National Debt Relief, based in New York.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trinity?

We engaged them for web development and creative work for a new site we were launching in the financial services space.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were responsible for conceptualizing the various pages for the new site. Once we agreed on the designs, they jumped into the coding and development for the project as well. We needed their experience to drive conversion. This was a direct-to-consumer (D2C) app, and they designed the full application flow.  

What is the team composition?

We had a dedicated account representative, a creative lead, and a developer. They had additional resources, but they were our primary contacts. 

How did you come to work with Trinity?

They seemed to offer the best timelines and greatest value. We felt they could bring the schedule, skillset, and overall value we needed to drive high conversion rates.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000 on their work. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on this project from about October 2017–November 2018. However, we continue to engage them because we’re happy with their quality of work.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their team helped us take a product to market with considerable speed. Their timing and experience were of critical importance. Through our multiple project phases, they delivered ahead of schedule. 

We were able to align on vision very early in the conception phases, which definitely helped save time. Their first iteration was incredibly impressive, and the end result exceeded expectations in terms of driving response. Our conversion rate began exceeding KPIs after our work together.  

How did Trinity perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team structure lent itself to efficient and effective engagement between our respective teams. We had contact with three dedicated individuals who understood our business and goals. We met on a weekly basis to ensure we were performing well against timelines. It was a well-oiled machine, as they were able to scope out the work and execute it in a timely fashion.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand how to drive consumer response. After providing them with our vision and technical requirements, they quickly interpreted the materials to drive conversion. That certainly stood out to me. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive criticism because they exceeded all of our expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They offer a wide range of services. If you have an immediate need, it may be beneficial to explore some of their other services as well. We benefitted from relying on them for much more than we may have intended originally.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior manager of web UX for Paul Frederick, which is a men’s clothier.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trinity?

We hired Trinity primarily to help us with technical SEO on our website. Our previous engagement involved more of a traditional marketing agency, and we had a lot of backend technical needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Trinity helped us with technical projects such as the implementation of XML site maps. Instead of manually building site maps, their team developed a solution to procedurally generate them. This improved the breadth at which search engines could crawl our site.

Their team also helped us with the migration from nonsecure HTTP to secure HTTPS, which involved a lot of moving parts. They ensured the entire site moved to the new protocol and didn’t lose ranking.

What is the team composition?

As we engaged them for about four years, we worked with a handful of people from Trinity. Normally, we were in communication with 3–4 people at a time including a project manager.

How did you come to work with Trinity?

We looked for an agency that was an authority in technical SEO. We also wanted to partner with a relatively local agency. It was important for us to have a partner that we could meet in person and work in the same timezone. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $300,000–$340,000 over the course of four years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our partnership in 2016, and it ended in 2020. Through no fault of Trinity’s, we had to move away from them to consolidate our partners.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They improved the site's readability and the breadth at which it crawled. Trinity applied diligence to all their tasks including writing summaries of our conversations, managing ongoing projects, and producing the actual deliverables. As a smaller business, we constantly change. When we changed directions or requirements, they pivoted and delivered on those changes.

How did Trinity perform from a project management standpoint?

Trinity was always more than happy to oblige us and give in-person presentations when requested. Their team was punctual and flexible. One of my favorite parts about working with Trinity was their communication. As with all projects, there were occasional delays that their team made clear to us. They understood our priorities and delivered those first, which was meaningful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their project manager's attentiveness stood out to us. Their flexibility with our changing business goals was also valuable. I was always happy with the quality of the product and the communication along the way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I was happy with their service.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be willing to clearly communicate what you expect out of the partnership. Trinity does their best work when they understand the project’s goals.