OuterBox

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a marketing advisor at factorydirectblinds.com, an e-commerce company. We ship window coverings nationwide and dropship any type of window covering.

What challenge were you trying to address with OuterBox?

We were trying to increase our rankings with Google searches and so we were looking for a SEO company. We had not worked with another provider before.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have been great to work with. They have increased our sales over 150% within six months. They were able to do a lot of research within that six month period and dive into what we need to do. They have increased our ranking on page one of Google with good keywords. They continue to build content for our website monthly and update it as necessary. They have also assisted us with the launch of a new website and have been able to make recommendations for that. Anything they ask for, they are able to implement it quickly.

They have had a high staff turnover rate which has been the only drawback. Otherwise, everybody has been great.

How did you come to work with OuterBox?

Our CEO did a very extensive search for companies and then interviewed many companies over a couple of months. The location didn’t matter to us. interviewed over a couple months, sat down and talk about it. OuterBox seemed to fit us well. They were very open to and made us feel comfortable. Also, we liked that they are a small company and that their staff is personable.

How much have you invested with them?

Around $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2016 and the work is ongoing.

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

When we first started working together in 2016, we were doing about $5,000 in sales a month. In July 2017, we did $91,000 in sales; it is impressive that they have been able to increase our sales by that much. A lot of the credit goes to them because we don't do a lot of marketing and our conversion rate continues to increase with their recommendations.

Our website content continues to get better because their staff is grasping the knowledge and understanding of our products. Each and every day we have more visitors to the website. Overall, it has been a good experience.

How did OuterBox perform from a project management standpoint?

They use Basecamp to communicate back and forth. Sometimes we get frustrated because they do not call with pressing information, so you have to constantly be on your email. That is a drawback about their communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Jen [Jen Kinney, Director of Search Engine Marketing] has been our account manager from the beginning. When I give her an idea, she is able to elaborate and expand on that idea. She continues to show that we can grow as a company. She leads her team very well and they are able to provide quick turnaround time if we need it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their communication. There has been a high turnover rate which it makes it hard sometimes as new people come onto our account. People can be on your account one month, and the next month they are gone; we have to get people up to speed on our products, our goals, and our vision whenever this happens. They still respond well, but I hope the turnover rate improves.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a digital marketing manager at Tronair, a global leader in the design, manufacture, and sale of ground support equipment (GSE) for business, commercial and military aircraft. Comprised of over 1,500 products, Tronair's GSE is used by over 350 unique aircraft platforms.

For what projects/services did your company hire OuterBox?

We wanted to enhance our overall website strategy.

What were your goals for this project?

The main short term goals were to increase traffic and leads to our website.

How did you select this vendor?

They were consistently on the top of the list during our initial research. Their credentials speak for themselves.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a number of initial calls and emails for them to understand our objectives. We had in-person meetings once we were far enough along on the proposed strategy. OuterBox performed an audit of our various websites as we have multiple brands. They provide recommendations for how to enhance web traffic for each site, paying special attention to certain sites. From there, they developed a plan for SEO and PPC using KPIs to determine performance.

What was the team composition?

We work with a number of people on their team with expertise in specific subject matters. We have a main point of contact to discuss items as required.

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

Our overall traffic has grown significantly, so they’ve exceeded our expectations.

How did the OuterBox perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is great. All of our questions are answered promptly. They have a portal that allows us to send a note and it's routed to the appropriate person. We have a detailed plan for clarity on timing and cost. We have check points in order to review KPIs and make necessary adjustments as required. They give us monthly results in an easy to understand format.

What impresses you about the OuterBox?

They have an ability to share a complex solution in an easy to understand manner. They make it work in a way that delivers results.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, they’ve done a good job so far.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of a real estate firm. 

What challenge were you trying to address with OuterBox?

We hired OuterBox to provide SEO services. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

I tasked OuterBox with generating a substantial amount of new leads for my company. We wanted to rank high for relevant keywords in every market. I gave them our budget, and they enthusiastically agreed to fulfill our requirements. 

What is the team composition? 

I talked to a couple of different people from OuterBox. Specifically, I sat down in person to meet with the two owners, Justin (Founder and CEO, OuterBox) and Nick (CEO and Partner, OuterBox).

How did you come to work with OuterBox?

I found OuterBox on the internet. I met with several different vendors, and they seemed the most informed in their field. They answered all my questions and then some. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together a couple of years ago from 2014–2017.

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

I don’t have any specific metrics or statistics I’m willing to share, but OuterBox absolutely made a positive impact on my business. They generated a ton of leads for my company. I haven’t experienced any issues with my site like bugs or glitches.

How did OuterBox perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly communicated through phone calls. I also met with the owners in person several times. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was the most impressed with the results OuterBox produced for my business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The main team leaders were really good at dealing with people.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I encourage potential customers to invest heavily in OuterBox. Multiple times, I personally discovered that it costs more not to work with a professional SEO provider. You spend more money in the long run than you save trying to do SEO in-house.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the director of operations for ENP Coffee Co, a non-profit coffee company.

For what projects/services did your company hire OuterBox?

We engaged OuterBox to design a website and advise on web strategy.

What were your goals for this project?

The site needed to reflect our company goals. We wanted the design to draw people to the story behind our coffee while maximizing its functionality.

For what projects/services did your company hire OuterBox?

We engaged OuterBox to design a website and advise on web strategy.

What were your goals for this project?

The site needed to reflect our company goals. We wanted the design to draw people to the story behind our coffee while maximizing its functionality.

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

Our site saw increased traffic and an improved user experience. The design received a great deal of praise for its ability to express our story.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

OuterBox kept in touch with us regularly and was highly accessible. We always knew where progress stood at any given moment in the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team demonstrated a clear passion for designing the best possible site to meet every goal. They explained each stage clearly throughout the process, ensuring that each element served a purpose and provided value to our company. When any question or concern arose, I trusted OuterBox's experience and expertise to address them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

OuterBox exceeded our expectations in delivering a high-quality site design. We will definitely work with them in the future, and we highly recommend their team to anyone looking to improve their web presence.

Please describe your organization.

Jet Dock Systems is a manufacturer of drive-on docking systems for boats, personal watercraft, and sea planes. We provide walkways and a floating docking system that works like a lift, allowing users to drive their boat directly on top of it and get out.

What is your position?

I am the director of sales, marketing, and IT.

What business challenge were you trying to address with OuterBox?

OuterBox handles our SEO and website development.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We don't engage in any print marketing anymore. Everything my company does is online. We handle our own pay-per-click campaign, but OuterBox is in charge of SEO and website marketing, including social media platforms. OuterBox is in charge of some content marketing, as well as making press releases for our company. OuterBox also hosts our website, and has developed a mobile-responsive version of it.

How did you come to work with OuterBox?

Our original web developer had quit the business, and we were looking for a new company. OuterBox had great rankings and everyone we asked about them seemed to like the company. They were also a local company, which was a great help. We could actually meet with OuterBox and know who we were talking to. The ones that originally made our website were a company that we'd known for years, so we wanted the same kind of relationship now.

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

The monthly cost for OuterBox's services is $2,250, which doesn't include web hosting and development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with OuterBox in 2004. We have an ongoing relationship.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

My favorite part about OuterBox is that they come up with new ideas every month, and continually develop their work. Our results have gone up fantastically since we've started using OuterBox on the SEO side. We don't engage in a lot of print advertising. We've also been able to drop our pay-per-click spending since we've gotten good organic results. As a result, we're saving money by using OuterBox. We don't sell online, so it's harder to say if an increase in business is strictly due to OuterBox.

We have virtually zero downtime on our website. We track organic and paid visitors, as well as total visits and time spent on the site. Since our last rebuild, the time on site has increased, as well as the total number of clicks. After making the site responsive, we also changed out our photo and video galleries, making it much easier for customers to find items, based on OuterBox's suggestions.

How did OuterBox perform from a project management standpoint?

OuterBox sent me really long reports in the beginning, which I didn't really need. They were able to break those down and make customized versions. OuterBox likes to contact customers every month. I don't necessarily need or want that, so we've moved interactions back to quarterly intervals. I receive the news and briefing that I want, and only call OuterBox if I have questions.

What distinguishes OuterBox from other providers?

OuterBox is responsive to what I need and want, so as long as the results keep coming in, I don't have to worry about details. OuterBox lets me know whenever something goes wrong. I can look at the data and call them if I don't like something, but otherwise, everything just flows.

Is there anything OuterBox could have improved or done differently?

I don't like the Basecamp software used by OuterBox, but they've recently changed this. There were occasions in which I assigned OuterBox tasks and they didn't get back to me. I saw that as lack of responsiveness, but they simply took care of the work and didn't get back to me. The few little kinks I've had with OuterBox have pretty much been solved.

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.

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.

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.

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!).

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing director for a group of retail businesses that specialize in intimate apparel, adult toys undergarments.

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

We hired OuterBox to help with our search engine optimization and increase presence and visibility. Our goals aligned perfectly with their vision to increase, impressions, traffic and inevitably sales.

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

We took a long time to research SEO companies and honestly the biggest reason we went with OuterBox was their presentation, they were to the point, helpful and informative leaving me with a great gut feeling that it would be a strong fit.

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

We worked with them for about 3 years and over the course of that time we mainly focused on keywords and some slight technical improvements to enhance the site. The main site they worked on, we would consider more of a marketplace and we carry over 10,000 products making it a lot of different keywords to target. Every month they focused on a different category and the words and phrases within it using research and analytical tools combined with our companies product knowledge to create incredible content.

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

When we started out we worked with the Jeff who was amazing to deal with. Throughout the 3 years we had 2 reps who were both great and then collaborated with a few others who worked with the reps themselves.

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

They definitely met our expectations for the goals over the 3 years. They identified a lot of technical improvements that needed to be addressed and they not only found but fixed them as well. As far as SEO and presence go, our organic traffic increased year over year while we were with them between 23% and 31% which did result in increased sales and conversion rates.

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

We found great communication was made and we mostly corresponded over email and in active collab but we got monthly and quarterly reports that we were fully walked through.

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

Just the personal attention they gave. It felt like they were almost an extension of our marketing team as opposed to an outside company.

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

I honestly didn't have any areas of improvement for them as they helped us reach our goals and did so in such a great manner.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Director of Ecommerce for online B2C business that sells crafting products.

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

We were looking to maintain and improve our SEO performance. Primary goals was to expand keyword performance and increase organic SEO traffic.

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

We vetted multiple vendors and felt their plan and expertise best aligned with our goals.

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

Engagement started with technical audit and keyword research. From there we worked with them to optimize on page content and created new SEO content.

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

We work an account manager and a strategist.

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

We have seen growth in number of keywords ranking on page 1 along with improved rankings.

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

Team has been very organized and great at communicating including maintaining a beneficial cadence of meetings. The project management tools are easy to use and help keep projects moving forward.

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

We're impressed with their SEO knowledge and how quickly they've understood how our business operates.

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

With large amount of SEO content we are creating it could be helpful to have better tracking on these individual tasks.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of Centaur Forge a manufacturer and distributer of farrier and blacksmith products.

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

We hired OUTERBOX to manage our adwords and then we added SEO support.

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

We got to OUTERBOX after trying two other companies. We chose them because we were impressed by their available resources and their ability to discuss in detail what they planned to do and the team that would execute it.

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

OUTERBOX manages our Adwords and SEO projects. We have a monthly ZOOM meeting on both projects to discuss results and cooperate on ongoing and future marketing initiatives. It is a productive working environment.

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

We have one person for Adwords and another for SEO. Also senior people from OUTERBOX attend our monthly meetings.

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

Search results and online sales growth have improved and are critically dependent on OUTERBOX initiatives.

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

They supply complete metrics an a monthly basis and foster a cooperative interchange of information.

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

The results they delivered.

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

No We are very satisfied working with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

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

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.

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.

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.