PBJ Marketing

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of an antique, vintage, and consignment retail store that also has an e-commerce website called Cottage + Crane

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

Our brand has been around for a couple of years, but only as vendor booths in other stores. It was time for us to take our business to the next level and establish our own, independent brand and retail store.

We did not have a website, social media presence, or a marketing plan. We only had our local brand awareness and past customers. We hired PBJ to create us a website, build our social media brand/presence, and launch a local/regional digital marketing campaign upon our store launch.

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

PBJ was referred to us by a friend and fellow business owner. They have done their marketing for the past 3 years and had nothing but good things to say. Having spoken to two other agencies, they immediately impressed us in the first conversation.

We spoke with the owner of the company, not a sales person. He was very pleasant to speak with, very knowledgable, and answered all our questions (which were a lot!). We did not feel like we were being "sold" on anything. In fact, I was surprised with how candid and honest he was... telling us what he thinks we should do, how best to invest our budget out the gate, and what services not to invest in with any agency at this time. We asked for a proposal and that was the biggest deciding factor for us.

After taking a few days to do some research, they put together what was clearly a custom and very thoughtful proposal with a real strategy. It was as if they were already hired! No other agency provide so much actual insights and next steps/action items that were clearly specific to just our business and not some templated response.

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

First, we had a kickoff and discovery call. We met the team that would be our dedicated project and marketing managers. They walked through what to expect in onboarding and set goals/expectations and all the logistical stuff. Then we had a deep dive Q&A where they asked us a lot of questions about our business, our competitors, who want to be.

They shared with us design samples and other websites and "mood boards" to get a sense of what type of website design we were after. It was very thorough. They were able to get a very good website up and running very quickly, with the expectation that it woudl grow and evolve and that we just needed something quick to start with.

They then took some time to come back with some recommendations on a starting budget and some ad samples and messaging samples. Once those were approved, they immediately began setting up and building out our social media profiles and posting and boosting, ads too. I was surprised at how fast they moved, but it was not a chaotic or sloppy quickness. It was very efficient and the end result was a very successful launch.

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

The team is rather big considering I know our budget isn't their biggest. We have a dedicated account/project manager, a social media manager, a website developer, an SEO manager, and a PPC manager. We mostly speak with the account manager, and the others join meetings when we need to discuss things relevant to their role.

The owner of the company that we originally spoke with was also with us the whole time up, even during kickoff/onboarding, up until the first status meeting. So that was impressive. It really helped create a smooth transition and we didn't waste time repeating what we had already talked about.

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

The website was up and running in less than a month, which was our goal because we had a grand opening of the store. Its a great site and is an ongoing work in progress as we grow. We'll soon start offering online sales.

Our social media following immediately started growing and we have a lot of followers and great engagement considering we are a local brick and mortar store only. The grand opening of the store was a huge success. People kept coming into the store saying they saw us on social media and had to check us out!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The onboarding was smoother than expected. They moved fast but efficient and effectively. We met a lot in the beginning, as much as we needed to. Once we felt like we were in a good spot and fully kicked off, we switched to biweekly meetings and end of week emails.

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

I'm very impressed with how quickly they got integrated with our industry and our company and just really took the time to know us. They're not a typical service vendor trying to upsell us. They're honest, conservative in what they recommend, very data orientated, very research orientated. All of that really shows in their recommendations and the success of their marketing. Most importantly, we trust them!

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

Not really. The impressed and over delivered really on all fronts. There's a lot we didn't and still don't understand about digital marketing but they're good at breaking it all down for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an accessibility lift and home elevator company that does sales, installation, and service to various types of lifts and home elevators. I’m VP of the company.  

What challenge were you trying to address with PBJ Marketing?

We wanted professional digital marketing help for our search engine marketing efforts through PPC management.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done various aspects of search engine marketing, including PPC. To start the project, they asked us questions and clarifying questions about our business. Once they had their arms around our business through interviews and their own research, they started managing our PPC accounts. In addition to managing our PPC efforts, they track and report on our performance. 

What is the team composition?

We work directly with David (CMO and Cofounder) and James (Senior Manager, Paid Media), but there are a total of four people that we’ve worked with. 

How did you come to work with PBJ Marketing?

They were a referral from a company that does our SEO. That company doesn’t handle PPC services, so they recommended PBJ Marketing when we asked them about PPC. Our intro call was very impressive. It was clear that they’d be focused on measurable goals and outcomes, making sure we were on the same page along the way so we could appreciate the results of their work along the way. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since October 2020.

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

From the beginning, we’ve been very pleased. While we were a little uneasy about offloading our PPC accounts to an external provider, they’ve handled it professionally from day one. They’ve done a nice job staying in line with our cost per lead, customer acquisition cost, and staying within our budget. We’ve benefitted from working with folks who primarily focus on this type of work, so we can focus on our industry and what we do best.

How did PBJ Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done very well. We have regular meetings with them where we review progress. The communication, whether via email or an online meeting, is timely and professional.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re numbers people. Whether it’s a step forward or backward, they’ll communicate the truth about our performance directly and clearly. That’s a winning formula.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to their recommendations and give them a chance to deliver on their suggestions. You won’t be disappointed.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing manager for a small B2B manufacturing firm in Atlanta.

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

We make small precision parts and other specialty products for manufacturing firms. We also do sourcing services as well. We hired PBJ marketing to help us set up and manage our Google Ads campaigns and SEO services for us. PBJ's goal was to drive consistent inbound inquiries from our targeted businesses at an efficient cost per conversion.

How did you select PBJ Marketing and what were the deciding factors?

Initially, I met with 4 - 5 well-known agencies in the city personally. But, I thought that that they were too expensive for us.Then I found PBJ marketing online, after reading all the clutch, Google place and other reviews, we have decided to go with PBJ. And, I thought that it the right decision.

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

Even though we had a decent website, we were not getting any inquiries from the targeted business though our website. We never got a single inquiry about our product range online. The problem wasn’t with the website as such but it was with the fact that the website was never promoted in any way.

Nobody knew we had an online presence at all. PBJ team did a great work by implementing PPC and Google ads and then even created various social media profiles for us and updated content on a weekly basis there. The Google ad implementation and campaigns were spot on.

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

The PBJ marketing team worked directly with me and my team. Nick, the strategy manager and even Phillip, the CEO was just one call away.

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

We are really happy with the outcome of the campaigns so far. We have to temporarily pause the campaign due to the Covid situation but surely will resume the campaigns by the end of January.

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

The dedicated account manager was always available even in weekend.The team communicated with us regularly using various tools such as Zoom, Slack, Skype and direct phone calls as well.

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

When working with PBJ Marketing, they share their extensive knowledge and experience every step of the way. The team worked with us as partners and gave all we needed to gain the best possible results. The account manager was extremely knowledgeable and helped us in every possible way he can.

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

Not really. So far so good from PBJ marketing. I'm impressed with their dedication and hard work. They know what they are doing.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our mission is to partner with our greater community to lead conservation and inspire stewardship of our rivers and watersheds across the great state of Montana. I am the Director of Development.

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

Despite being one of the largest nonprofits in the state and one of the most prominent in water conservation, our website has always retained a healthy engaged audience, but we knew we should have been growing bigger and faster.

We sought a digital marketing partner who could not only increase our traffic but provide strategic consultation and brand planning to increase engagement.

How did you select PBJ Marketing and what were the deciding factors?

We found PBJ through Clutch.co. We decided to hire PBJ because of their extensive experience and successful case studies within the nonprofit and organizational space. They impressed us with their proposal which included a deeper level of insights and competitors research that other agencies did not bring to the table.

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

They started with a deep dive analysis of our website, identifying all the high-value keywords our competitor sites were ranking for. They then performed a comprehensive UX audit to assess how current traffic was performing and how visitors were engaging and not engaging.

They then worked with us to come up with a custom SEO strategy focused on moving existing pages higher up in Google’s page rankings for the keywords we knew we needed to rank for better.

PBJ also provides guidance on content creation. They laid out a plan for dedicated new content hubs driven by keyword research and improvements to website structure and user flow.

PBJ implemented SEO best practices such as installing SEO tools, following metadata best practices, making images smaller, and overall standardizing how content is created.

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

We have a dedicated SEO account manager who also leads the overall SEO strategy. He is also our primary point of contact. The entire SEO team consists of at least one developer, and content manager (and a couple writers), an data analyst for reporting, and a team of link builders.

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

We just received our 2020 recap since we started and we’ve seen an 80% increase in Organic Traffic compared to the same period last year. We’ve also seen a nearly 150% increase in New Visitors, people who have never visited us before.

Additionally, though we can’t attribute all of this to SEO but we can attribute a large portion, we’ve seen a 400+ % increase in donations.

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

Very responsive and very organized. I can always count on getting a same-day response from them, or immediately the next day at the latest. We are never in the dark on what they’re doing, what is owed to us, what we owe them, etc. I wish my own team was as organized! But they really help keep us organized.

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

They guarantee their deliverables, no matter how hard or difficult they are to achieve. Most SEO agencies DO NOT do this. They don’t buy links like most agencies. They reach out to websites and offer guest posts.

This approach sometimes takes a bit longer, but is the highest quality link you can get, and no matter how long or hard it takes they promise to deliver in full. They also guarantee you’ll keep that link otherwise they will replace it.

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

No, love PBJ!

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our firm is one of the largest professional services network in the world. We provide consulting, audit, legal, advisory and tax services to a multitude of clients serviced by our thousands of professionals deployed across the globe. I am Project Manager in our Cyber segment where I work with clients to build, mature, and expand their cyber programs.

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

With the recent rollout of new proprietary software products and cyber services, we hired PBJ to kick off an integrated Paid Media and SEO campaign. Our goal is to target high-profile companies within specific industries with the objective of generating brand awareness and qualified lead capture specific key decision-makers.

How did you select PBJ Marketing and what were the deciding factors?

We found PBJ through a Google search of top digital marketing agencies. We interviewed many agencies with several rounds of elimination and PBJ consistently stood out. In the end, it was PBJ’s thorough industry research, understanding of our marketing needs, and well thought out execution strategy that won us over. No other agency asked the sort of pointed and pragmatic questions as PBJ. I do a lot of RFPs, and with PBJ, the RFP process itself felt like onboarding and kickoff. When it came time to make a decision and move forward, we felt we’d be taking one step back if we went with anyone else.

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

PBJ is tasked with the ongoing setup up and management all PPC campaigns and digital media buys for our nationwide campaign. This includes ad platform account setup, individual campaign set up (10-15 live campaigns at any given time), ad spend budget management, campaign conversion tracking and optimization, ad creation (text, banner, video, and animation), landing page design and optimization, and ongoing reporting. Key deliverables are brand awareness lift, website visits, lead capture (i.e. contact us, more information requests) and remarketing visits.

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

The two owners of the agency led both the RFP response and the onboarding and remained in the forefront for the first couple of months of our engagement. They were supported by what would eventually become a dedicated marketing team. Once everyone felt our program was running smoothly, management of the account transitioned over to a Senior Account Manager and marketing team with senior leads for both Paid Media and SEO. This team was then also supported by a strategy and execution team. I’d say, in total, we had about 6-8 folks on our account which seems big but was well organized with a single POC.

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

Our paid media campaigns continue to outperform month-over-month. Most recently, PBJ identified an untapped digital campaign placement which resulted in one of our most successful runs, garnering 19 leads for just $15.11 CPL in on month alone. Looking at Q4 alone, digital paid media initiatives alone generated 256 conversions (150% above our target goal) and hit an industry-low CPA of just over $26 (our previous record low CPA before PBJ was $73). On average, throughout 2020, conversions have seen a 20-30% increase month over month.

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

Despite the large team and massive campaign “footprint”, communication and project management are very efficient and streamlined. We use a variety of tools from Google docs to Slack to Asana. We also get weekly email updates in addition to monthly, quarterly, and annual detailed reports. PBJ also created for us live-feed data dashboards for all our campaigns so we can see results happen in real-time.

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

PBJ emphasized from the very beginning that they do not want to be seen as a typical vendor, but rather strategy consultants on all things digital; they are just that! We don’t make a single digital marketing decision without PBJ’s input. Whether it’s part of their SOW or not, they are always willing to assist and advise. We truly believe they are an extension of our own team and always looking out for the best interest of our business.

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

Not really. We did have issues getting PBJ all the appropriate access they needed to get up and running, but this was more or less on our end. PBJ was very patient and went above and beyond assisting us with getting control of our PPC accounts from our past agency.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The North American headquarters for one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. Our US operations consists of a worldwide family of distinguished and exciting brands including Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Volkswagen.

At the time of my recent employment, I served as Senior Brand Manager, Midwest Division. My job was to provide corporate marketing and sales support through locally focused marketing programs for affiliated dealerships.

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

In preparation for the launch a new line of high-end, but affordable and energy efficient, all terrain and sport vehicles, the company developed a nationwide marketing campaign designed specifically to help support the company's extensive affiliate dealership network.

PBJ was tasked with the setup and management of targeted Digital Paid Media campaigns across Search, Social, Video, and Native ad platforms. The goal was to rise brand awareness and excitement and encourage people to visit their local dealership for a test drive.

PBJ was also in-charge of locally supported SEO campaigns, creating content, and increasing organic search rank and website traffic for auto related consumer topics.

How did you select PBJ Marketing and what were the deciding factors?

I had worked with PBJ in the past for another company/brand where they helped execute upon a similar campaign that helped support locally owned brand affiliates.

We interviewed several agencies in the process who had similar experience as well, but we ultimate chose PBJ due to their hands-on/manual approach to PPC, the level of account support they provide clients, and the apparent advanced level of data tracking and detailed reporting.

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

PBJ kicked things off with an onboarding phase that included market research, customer profiling, and funnel-based goal setting. They helped up sent target benchmarks for all our primary KPIS (CPA, LTV, ROAS, etc.).

They even helped us set up a complex attribution tracking model that took into account all the various touch points and interactions throughout the customer lifecycle, which was a big initiative we always wanted to achieved, but struggled in its creation.

After onboarding, PBJ built out all of our PPC campaigns at a local-level and created locally-focused ad copy and creative for each dealership. We launched campaigns across all paid media channels and PBJ was in charge of all the day to day operations and budget management for 100s of campaigns.

On the SEO front, the optimized every single Google My Business profile for each dealership and worked with dealerships to write and post blogs and guest articles of seasonal auto trends. This helped build activity and search presence in local Google listings.

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

This was/is a very big program and required a large team to execute many deliverables. I don't know how big the full team was because the senior managers and supporting staff.

The senior team included an Account Supervisor who was our primary POC. On the PPC front, the senior team included a social media manager, paid search manager, and data analyst. On the SEO front, we had a senior manager for each of their 3 focus areas which was content, technical, and link building.

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

We did not give our agencies much time to prep and launch, but PBJ was able to move fast and hit the ground running. Campaigns were launched almost immediately.

Month over month performance of campaigns always improved. Within 6 months, ROAS improved by nearly 60%. By the end of the fiscal year, our paid media KPIs performed 20% higher the year-end goal.

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

Project management was superb. PBJ was always reachable either by email, phone, chat, or video and always responded usually same-day or first thing the next.

The had a very detailed project management process and tools with an interactive online Gantt timeline, Slack for informal conversations, live-feed data dashboards for real-time KPI reporting, and Google shared docs for note taking.

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

The most impressive part was how well they worked with our other agency partners. PBJ was the original Agency-of-Record in charge. They were one of several agencies as this was a very big online and offline campaign.

PBJ didn't stop at just what they were tasked with, PPC and SEO, they provided consultation and added-value to the entire marketing footprint. Towards the end of the program, they assumed an acting AOC role.

The other very impressive part was their quick turnaround and detailed level of reporting. They even helped us match online engagement/conversions with actual in-store visits.

They also provided us with weekly reports for each specific dealership that cross referenced digital marketing leads with dealership visits and sales.

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

Nothing that I can think of, everyone was very pleased with their performance.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as Marketing Manager in a Financial/Insurance firm

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

Even though we have tried another agency and "kind of happy" with their service, we really wanted to boost our online presence and increase the inbound leads for us. We really wanted to improve our social media presence as well. The ultimate goal was to attract more visitors to our website and turn them to working agents.

How did you select PBJ Marketing and what were the deciding factors?

I have gone through tons of review sites and did a detailed search about 10 digital marketing companies. Finally, we have decided to go with PBJ marketing after reading their overall performance ratings and reviews.

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

Our ultimate goal was to recruit as many agents for us. Because insurance and financial sector is such a competitive field, it is not that easy to target the right prospects. We needed to place our ppc campaigns on right place and target the right prospects as well. PBJ took the challenge and did a great job on that.

Also, our SEO campaigns were also dropping. PBJ again did a fantastic job by doing excellent site analysis and implementing correct seo tactics. We have started to get results after a month and we did managed to take our business to the next level.

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

There was a designated account manager for us and he was available 24X7 online to answer my questions and concerns. Phillip, the CEO of the company is such a cool guy. Even he was available to answer my questions. All I have to do was to book a meeting in calendly.

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

We were extremely happy with their performance. Especially, their PPC campaigns were spot on and we got really good results from it. Their SEO service was also helpful for our website to boost rankings. Overall, we have started grow our business and managed to hire lots of working agents for our firm.

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

The dedicated account manager was always available for communication. I usually talk him almost every other day reviewing the progress of the campaigns. He was available in Skype, Zoom or I book a meeting with him in calendly.

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

The entire PBJ team is young, vibrant and really hardworking. They know what they are doing. They are professional, meets deadlines and the rates were very affordable

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

I think they did a great job for us so far. Nothing to complain right now.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for PrimeSuppliers.com. We are a nationwide e-commerce store that specializes in home maintenance and outdoor power equipment across all the top brand names. Our customers range from DIYers to small and medium sized businesses. I am a senior product manager, and I am in charge of product procurement and and determining monthly sales/marketing goals and strategies.

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

The majority of our sales were coming from direct offline sales tactics and word-of-mouth. We knew our competitors were actively marketing and selling online and making a killing and we wanted to do the same thing. We redesigned and launched a new website but you couldn't even find us if you tried. We started actively marketing ourselves through social media and paid ads but we were not seeing the return.

We just ended up spending a ton of money without much to show for it. We were driving SOME traffic, but hardly any customers. We need an agency who could come in and assess why our website was hard to find, why our ad campaigns weren't converting, and what our competitors were doing that we weren't.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted our website to appear in Google for certain product searches. At this point in time, our website wasn't even appearing when you Googled our name! We also wanted our ads to appear next to our competitors for certain searches, and we wanted to increase our social media following and ad performance.

The impact we hoped to see was a substantial increase in online sales, and continued increased/growth month over month. We were hoping to see around a 20-30% ROI on our online advertising efforts.

How did you select this vendor?

We did an online search for firms in the area. We found PBJ listed on Clutch and they had very good ratings and very good reviews from other clients so we decided to submit a contact form. As soon as we did, they immediately reached outscheduled a call which was nice.

It was that first call that impressed us. They asked us questions that no one else bothered to ask. They also really took the time to thoroughly explain the services they do and their approach. It almost felt like they were already hired and we were kicking things off. 

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After several conversations and them doing a little homework and coming back to us with a VERY detailed proposal (something else no other agency did), we decided to launch and SEO and PPC campaign.

For PPC, On the SEO side, they audited our website, cleaned up a bunch of technical errors and issues, made our website faster, created new content and optimized existing content, and started doing backlinking. They conintue to write blogs and build backlinks to help us improve our appearence for certain keyword searches. 

What was the team composition?

We've been assigend a dedicated account manager as our primacy point of contact, and then we have 2-3 folks on the SEO side and 2 folks on the PPC side. The two owners of the company were also very involved during our onboarding process to ensure a smooth kickoff. I mostly work directly with the account team, now, but the owners still periodically checkin which is very nice and comforting. 

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

Well, there's no problem finding us when you Google our name, so that's good! On the PPC front, performance has been great, exceeded expectations out the gate. We immediately started seeing sales once our campaigns launched. We found our aids appearing side-by-side our competitors. Each monther, campaigns performe better and better.

We're seeing an average 30-40% increase in ROI from our marketing efforts month over month. On the SEO side, we understand these results take much more time, especially for a brand new website. We're starting to see ourselves rise in search rankings each month so we're heading in the right direction. We couldn't be happier. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Onboarding was a smooth as can be. They got up to speed very quickly and implemented communication and project managment tools to help keep us all orgnized. We always know what's on the to-do list each month and the status of projects/tasks. We have a dashboard that we can check any time for status as well as campaign performance. We also get an email at the end of every week with a progress/results summary and an EOM report that is a bit more in-depth. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They know their stuff, that's for sure. But what impresses me most is you know it's not all marketing fluff and buzzwords. Everything they do, say, recommend is always backed up but data and metrics. I truly feel they are looking out for the best interest of my company and not just another vendor trying to increase their fees. I really trust these guys.

I've also found myself learning more about digiital marketing and my data/metrics more than I ever thought I would. They really take the time to ensure I understand their reports and what the data is saying. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of, nothing yet. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Ecommece Product Owner for our digital platform. We're a reseller of over 60K SKUs related to manufactured goods.

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

Our business is in the mist of a digital transformation as we rely heavily on a call center operation. We are looking to shift the way we do business with our customers. We wanted to work with an agency to expand our marketing reach via search (SEO/PPC). We wanted to take advantage of a larger team without that internal headcount/cost. This was our first search agency we've worked with.

What were your goals for this project?

Improve search results; reduce monthly marketing spend in search; gain better ROAS; more SQL & MQL leads; increase online traffic; increase incoming calls.

How did you select this vendor?

We're a large company so we're required to follow a procurement process to source the best vendors possible for every area of the business. We sourced 8-10 agencies for the process via Cluth, online search, and word of mouth referrals. Though the process, we narrowed it down to 2 main contenders. We ended up selecting PBJ as we felt that they were more of a personality fit for our organization.

Describe the project in detail.

We started off transitioning the word from our current setup to PBJ. The initial month was a little rough since the transition was a bit difficult from our side. PBJ was flexible through the transition process, and stepped in. It was slightly hard for the company I work for to understand a process takes time, but PBJ was able to ease internal sentiment. They came onsite, met with the internal team, and really took an effort into making this a successful partnership.

What was the team composition?

Internally, we had 2 people involved with the initial process. Over time, we have added more managers to our weekly touch bases. PBJ has 3-5 people on their side involved with the project at any given time (depends on the work).

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

- Increased calls from paid search - Increased website traffic - Lower marketing spend with higher ROAS - Lower CAC cost

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I was a little skeptical at first as I've had bad experiences working with agencies in the past. There was a part of the contract of "outside working hours" and an extra cost which made me a little nervous; however, it's been completely opposite of that in actually working with PBJ. We typically exchange communications via Slack or email. They prefer Slack over text message, but are extremely responsive in general. They've really integrated well with our team where they feel as "a part of the business". We truly see this as a partnership with them.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I'd mirror my sentiment above. PBJ is a partner to us. They've integrated really well into our business and they feel just as committed to our business as we are internally. They are a part of our "team".

Are there any areas for improvement?

Initially, we had a speed bump along the path where we overspent the first month they managed the account, but we were able to bounce back quickly together as a team. We were able to add some quick checks-and-balances in place to prevent this in the future.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: Our organization is an interventional cardiology conference, and I’m the project director. I oversee the meeting logistics and review conference marketing. 

Respondent 2: I’m the medical writer and editor. I proofread materials and approve news-related content for social media.

What challenge were you trying to address with PBJ Marketing?

R1: We needed marketing for our conference as well as social media marketing for our news articles.

What was the scope of their involvement?

R1: Among other services, PBJ Marketing provides a content calendar and news articles with images. From a conference marketing standpoint, we provide them with the materials and content to market regarding conference registration and hotel information. 

The team then puts it together and sends it back for our approval. They post on a daily basis on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

What is the team composition?

R1: Sam (Senior Manager, Social Media) is our liaison and project manager.

How did you come to work with PBJ Marketing?

R2: I was researching marketing firms to replace our previous vendor when I found PBJ Marketing. They impressed me because they had experience with other technical medical-related firms in their portfolio, as well as positive reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

R1: We spend $3,000 per month, which comes up to $21,000 in total so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

R1: We began with PBJ Marketing in September 2019, and our engagement is ongoing. 

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

R1: We’re learning that people like news articles more than they focus on conference posts or registration, so there is no direct correlation between social media marketing and registration. 

PBJ Marketing has opened our eyes to the unqualified users we had when we were working with our previous vendor in terms of engagement and activity on our social media platforms. We still have high user numbers, but they’ve helped us improve the number of qualified users.

R2: Although we had high users before, PBJ Marketing was able to pinpoint that our previous vendor was buying cheap likes to get user numbers up. So, our user-base included people from other countries who wouldn’t really be interested in our conferences.

How did PBJ Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

R1: Sam is great at keeping us on task, focusing on what needs to be done and when it needs to be done in order to keep social media accounts updated, especially as we approach conferences.

R2: He takes an active interest in our social media and asks probing questions to come up with ideas that can increase interest and engagement. He is very proactive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

R2: PBJ Marketing is engaged, responsive, and really listens to us. Unlike our previous vendor, we haven't had to change our liaison every few months. This means that there hasn’t been a repeated learning curve to get a new contact up to speed for our specialized industry.

Are there any areas they could improve?

R2: It may be a function of the price point we had, but PBJ Marketing didn’t provide any of their own graphics. We had to provide all of them, which is understandable. However, it could add value if they did offer the option to have them design the graphics as well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

R1: Know what you want in terms of your social media presence in order to guide the trajectory.