Pearl Lemon

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Business Development Associate at an IT services and IT consulting that hires India’s top remote talent.

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

We knew we wanted to run a PPC campaign to cast a wider net and get better visibility. Because we wanted to cast a wider net we decided to go with a PPC campaign and have cold email and cold calling done to boost outreach. During an initial call with Pearl Lemon, we discussed our goals and decided PPC and lead generation was the best course of action.

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

We had our options narrowed down to 3 different PPC providers. But as we have done deep research and heard about good reviews, we felt that their team is the perfect fit.

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

They helped us with keyword searches and performed an analysis of our competitors.

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

They assigned a PPC manager to work with us, along with other PPC specialists.

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

The Pearl Lemon team conducted keyword research, helped optimize ads and set them up, and take care of integrations and landing pages as well. PPC had more results than lead gen, especially for the first month but both paths ended up bringing in closed deals for us.

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

They've been great at managing our expectations and meeting the deadline. We communicate a lot through What's App and Email. We are also meeting one of the project managers to have a weekly meeting and discuss new implementations.

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

They put in a lot of due diligence- checking if the project is working smoothly. They have good communication and never fail to update us.

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

Everything has been great so far.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a client support specialist at a SaaS tool. I take care of all support queries and serve as the point of contact between our company and Pearl Lemon.

For what projects/services did your company hire Pearl Lemon?

Our company decided to bring in Pearl Lemon for lead generation.

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

Pearl Lemon came up while we were scouring Google for a reputable agency that could get us results through lead generation and would be available potentially for more projects as well.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

We initially came to Pearl Lemon for just Linkedin outreach and cold email outreach. As prospects and leads came in, we decided our tool needed to be more visible for those not yet being contacted. At that point we decided to get SEO services and written content as well to bulk up our site.

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

At the start of the project we got to work with the founder, but as the project progressed our team ended up getting to work with the head of SEO and communicate with the SEO team. We had an account manager we could message daily if needed via email and Whatsapp and we were introduced to a writer that was dedicated to our blog posts.

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

Our site ended up increasing its overall presence in terms of all of our top keywords our potential customers would be searching. This is an ongoing project, but so far we have been happy. We have had warm or hot leads sent to us nearly daily, so our demo calendars are happy and full.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We were a little concerned when so many team members entered our group chat, but it ended up being no problem at all. It was great to know we had a dedicated point person and we got leads sent as they came in and weekly updates as well.

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

Pearl Lemon is impressive because their team has an ability to roll with changes and criticisms much easier than other companies we have worked with. They took our feedback to heart and corrected anything we wanted changed nearly immediatley. We continually are impressed by the team.

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

Part way through the project there was a little turn over. Internally there were some team structure changes so we got introduced to some new faces and had to be sure they were caught up to speed with everything we wanted.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a sales and marketing specialist for the company. I am in charge of inbound leads.

For what projects/services did your company hire Pearl Lemon?

Our company had a need to bring in more leads and clients for the London area. We wanted a company that was London based and would be able to use an omnichannel approach for lead generation. This meant we wanted someone doing email outreach and cold calls.

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

Pearl Lemon had great reviews, during our initial consultation we really enjoyed the sales team and founder (Dee) we felt the style of the company would work well with our company.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

The team conducted linkedin outreach, cold emails and cold calls for our company. Our initial contract was for three months with Pearl Lemon, despite being summer (and many people out of office) we were still able to secure a good amount of bookings and prospects to follow up with when they were back from holiday. We had four email campaigns runnings alongside each other. Reporting was thorough and updated daily- it was great to be able to see an overview of what happened day to day.

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

Our main point of contact was our account manager/operations director. We got to speak with the founder and work with him via Whatsapp.

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

So far our campaign is going well, We get sent daily prospects whether it is someone to follow up with later or a confirmed booking.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had weekly calls via Whereby and got weekly reports. Our account manager was available almost whenever via email or whatsapp. Pearl Lemon has worked fairly seamlessly with our team.

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

The team is remarkable at being able to fix and adjust the campaign if there needs to change. Whether this be targeting or verbiage. The Pearl Lemon team is fast and efficient.

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

We felt the reporting could use improvements. Although we gave them this feedback and over the course of 72 hours, reports got a full change and continued to change to make the campaign more visible.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder & Managing Director at 1 More Rep

For what projects/services did your company hire Pearl Lemon?

To build out our website from the ground up as I recently broke away from a franchise I was part of. Deciding to step out on my own meant building a website and putting together a totally new brand and making sure that we ranked #1 of Google when people searched for us.

With this in mind I decided to work with Pearl Lemon because I knew their founder for a couple of years and I’ve seen him develop his company over the years and had full confidence in his ability to help me achieve my targets for my new business

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

As discussed I’ve known Deepak their founder for several years. We’ve done some endurance events together and he’s attended a couple of my bootcamp sessions over the years. Furthermore, I’ve seen once he puts his mind to something he’s a big action taker. So entrusting him to help sort out the new brand and new website seemed like the logical option. So many dodgy people out there so you need to be careful

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Well I didn’t have any kind of brand as I’d been working under the brand of my previous franchise. Given I’d built up loyal clientele who were and still are loyal to me on the basis of the sessions we run - it made sense to start afresh.

Now I’m not a marketing guy being an ex-serviceman and police officer so getting some help made sense - especially from someone I knew personally as opposed to a stranger. So support was needed to move from the old to the new and to do this - I needed assistance to help me make it happen.

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

Team composition was the founder (and my friend) Deepak, his web designer (Portuguese lady), alongside a copywriter and operations manager. Team was strong and I was aware of everyone’s part to play which was very helpful. Mostly I stayed out of their way and let them get on with it!

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

It’s been a very very positive experience working with the Pearl Lemon team. I’ve actually readjusted my expectations of ‘marketing’ since working with them. I had heard alot of horror stories of working with agencies and this has shown me what an idea marketing relationship should look like.

I’m now able to change my website at will and whenever I have any quick changes I need to make that I can’t handle myself what’s excellent about Pearl Lemon is that I can ping them a quick question and they’ll send a video showing me how to do things. It makes the relationship smooth and I’ve succesfully transitioned and am running my own bootcamp with a strong new brand and website that exactly fits my needs

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Straightforward. Most of the time the team was chasing me for stuff only I could provide them which makes sense. I had to actually keep up with them. I live on Whatsapp so it was nice that I could ask quick questions and get answers from them as well as getting regular updates from the team as to what was happening and when.

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

Well - it’s what I expected, but nonetheless, their speed of execution was impressive. It was surprisingly quick from having an idea to seeing things happening pretty much straightaway. This was a breath of fresh air and reminded me of the army again when someone says something - and then you just see it get done. My experience in business has shown me that that’s rarely the case - but in Pearl Lemon’s case it was!

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

Nothing really springs to mind. I can’t find much room for criticism to be honest. Sometimes I wish they’d stop showing me how to do stuff myself as then I feel obligated to learn it (which is absolutely the right approach)...but then I’d not do anything myself if they didn’t show me how to do it :p

Please describe your company and your position there.

Managing Director at Curzon Investment Partners. My role is to oversee the asset management decisions as well as making the final call on any investment purchases that we make as a business. Coming from a role in Investment banking I'm very familiar with this level of decision making

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

Curzon are looking in 2021 to make more of a brand push when it comes to our growth so we were on the hunt for an appropriate marketing partner who could help us raise the level of our standing amongst groups of investors from the finance space. We found Pearl Lemon when one of our team shortlisted them through an executive search process in order to identify a partner that would be a good fir for us.

Given the background that the actual founder has in finance at Deloitte and then RBS before that, as well as the experiences they have with financial PR specifically it felt like Pearl Lemon could ultimately be a superb fit for our business and so we decided to make to final interview with them where they impressed enough for us to move forward with them

How did you select this vendor?

Initially through an online search. We looked for companies that had a track record of success in this space. In combination with that we wanted someone whose been in business for several years, has personal experience related to finance and more. No small task - what was also ideal about Pearl Lemon was that their founder had made well over $250,000 in investments across a range of financial products which made Pearl Lemon extremely well placed to take on this account

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

One of the major points of focus was stakeholder and corporate shareholder communications. We were due to raise $200 million for a new fund we were looking at putting together and so we needed all of the assistance we could muster on the public relations front.

Pearl Lemon then were tasked with putting together a series of communications as well as a range of marketing materials that we thought would be a good fit for our existing board members and stakeholders. Not only this, but given this was a list of a specific size we then tasked them with expanding their reach to other lists of investors they could muster and put together. This all had to be achieved over a 6-8 month period as we had a deadline for the fund

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

We worked with 4 people from their team. Deepak Shukla the founder was involved in an overall strategic standpoint initially. Then his head of public relations and two executive were involved alongside a copywriter. The public relations and copywriting team did fabulously in capturing the essence of the messaging that we were going for to our stakeholders.

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

We've successfully raised 67% of the fund of which at least a 10% proportion we'd attribute towards the Pearl Lemon efforts. Truly superb when it came to our slated set of communications. What was interesting was that we only had them prepare messaging for a limited set of our investor group because their messaging strayed so far from what we would ordinarily send out.

Upon seeing it's incredible success however - we gave them full reign to actually prepare communications for our entire list and on that note they performed just as well. So we looked at least $13.5 million which we can directly attribute to the Pearl Lemon efforts - which is exactly the kind of result that we had signed up for - and we're now asking Pearl Lemon to come on a a permanent partner and they're currently reviewing our communications across the board!

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

All good on this front. We would have a weekly call with their team that involved getting an update as to where their efforts were at alongside seeing alot of activity on email. I must confess I've never seen a team this proactive and we needed to adjust our internal cadence just to keep pace with how quick they are on the email front We used a combination of Zoom + Email + WhatsApp for communication and it all worked pretty well.

The content requests we sent out were always responded to promptly as well as delivered on time and to be honest in 75% of cases ahead of schedule which was brilliant to see. Having hired other partners alongside Pearl Lemon for different activities - we now use Pearl Lemon as a benchmark for what to expect when it comes from 3rd party relationships

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

Difficult to put one finger on it overall as there's lot's to be impressed by with Pearl Lemon - not withstanding the actual result itself. In general it's easy to see the influence of their founder whose come from a red-brick university, got a literary degree but then went into finance We do some serious due diligence on the stakeholders of any business we decide to allocate resource to - and it was great to see that our investment wasn't misplaced in any way, shape or form

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

They were the premium priced agency so initially we were unsure about our risk shall we say...but those risks were ultimately totally unfounded so it's worked out exceedingly well

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder at Inkyy, a Creative Web Design and Development Agency

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

To build our pipeline through lead generation and also improve our technical SEO for our website to get more leads. Hired this company after watching their video interviews, which were really impressive. What were the goals of the project? More leads what else.

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

As above found them via Youtube actually then reached out

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

As described above with the technical side of SEO. We aren’t SEOs and the end game of any work is more pipeline

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

Project manager, operations manager and lead gen expert, and SEO strategist

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

10 leads a month increase overall - very happy as 2 converted over 3 months and we made $17,500 more or less :)

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

Good team. Could always be better. Also, it helped a lot since I get every report via Slack and not email

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

We were most impressed by their speed. Really really enjoyed that

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

A little expensive but then we tried cheaper and didn’t work.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Co-Founder and Marketing Director of an online B2B professional service provider.

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

Our company has depended almost entirely on organic website traffic for our customer enquiries since it was launched in 2014. My own knowledge of SEO got the site to a number of competitive (often no. 1) spots for many valuable keywords, however in late 2020 we noticed many of our rankings drop.

Our SEO has never had a consistent strategy behind it, with me trying some of one thing and some of another, with mixed results. I realised I no longer had the time or depth of knowledge to continue to run the company's SEO efforts so wanted to outsource this to a specialist SEO agency.

How did you select Pearl Lemon and what were the deciding factors?

In my opinion, the SEO industry is filled with both companies that claim they know SEO, when really they know little more than the basics, and SEO companies that are more established, but in my experience choose to hide behind an elaborate series of smoke and mirrors...

You never really know what process they will follow, who actually achieved the results they claim to have achieved, how much it will cost you, or what the end result will look like.

It's a minefield. I have also had some very bad experiences with digital marketing agencies in the past, so not only did I have high expectations of Pearl Lemon (as I'm not new to SEO myself), but I was admittedly paranoid about hiring another agency too.

Fortunately, I found Pearl Lemon twice - both via a Google Search and also on Upwork (always a good sign for an SEO company...) - and the overwhelming first impression I had from both online profiles was "these guys know what they're doing". Their customer reviews spoke for themselves. It only got better when I then spoke to Ion, Pearl Lemon's Sales Manager.

He made a really fantastic impression and didn't try the usual pressure tactics I'd found when speaking to other SEO agencies - they were totally transparent about what they can and can't do, and left it with me to decide. I think it was clear from the outset that they had nothing to hide and are simply good at what they do.

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

The team was tasked with improving our rankings for 7 valuable keywords, including at least one which I would describe as "highly competitive" with high search volumes.

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

Pearl Lemon is made up of a team of specialists - everyone from technical SEO specialists and PR experts, to a backlink builder. I also spoke with Ion (Sales Manager) and the Founder, Dee.

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

Since Pearl have started working on the site, our rankings have not only returned back to the place they were before (a real relief), but our rankings for a number of keywords have also improved further than this. This is just after 2 months of working with them.

We have also significantly improved the loading time and UX of the company website, following their detailed technical SEO recommendations. Their advice and support has led to us hiring a new (much better) web developer, who is now rebuilding the site from scratch with many key technical improvements in mind.

Long-term, I expect this will further improve our rankings on Google (and overall user experience for all website visitors). They have also reviewed and cleaned up our current backlink profile, provided an SEO-led content calendar for our Marketing Manager to follow, and much more.

Aside from the "doing", Pearl Lemon are also incredibly transparent about the process they follow and help their clients understand exactly what it is they are doing.

As soon as we started working together, they sent across a very detailed guide on exactly how they build backlinks for their clients (and, importantly, why they take their particular approach), and every single aspect of the work they do is backed up by a video explainer video.

I have also had some quite detailed/complex questions at times - they have always been handled very well. The level of detail is insane and so the value for money we have seen from the SEO work alone has been excellent.

I say "the SEO work alone", because working with Pearl Lemon has actually been transformative for me as an "entrepreneur" on many levels. I feel like I have hired an SEO company and a business coach (in Dee) at the same time!

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

I have direct access to every person working on the site, and a Whatsapp group with Ion and Dee. The entire team is incredibly responsive, helpful and honest. The relationship is totally free of the usual BS I have grown to hate when hiring many professional service providers, across many different industries.

I have access to a client folder on G Drive containing all updates and reports, and receive a very clear report on the work completed every fortnight without fail. I have genuinely enjoyed the experience from day one. They just "get it"...

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

I feel Pearl Lemon is a direct representation of Dee himself - he goes out of his way to add huge value, above and beyond what someone could reasonably expect as a customer.

The company's ethos and approach are totally unique as a result. On a personal note, working with Dee and his team has made me remember exactly why I've also chosen to run my own company. I never thought I'd use the word "inspired" in a review about hiring an SEO company... but there we go. I just did.

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

I can't think of a single thing.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of the leading website for 529 and college savings information, with millions of annual visitors.

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

Primarily for Technical SEO, Keyword Research, and LinkBuilding

How did you select Pearl Lemon and what were the deciding factors?

Quality of team, breadth of knowledge and reference materials, can-do attitude, and relevant experience. Plus, they just seemed like awesome team to work with.

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

They did an incredible job of auditing our SEO: technical, on-site, and off-site. They then prioritized the activities that needed to be done, and worked hand in hand with our tech team on areas they needed some help with, and with our content team to develop content and/or edit our existing content to rank higher and drive traffic.

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

They assigned a project manager, but we had interactions with various specific members of the team that had different areas of expertise.

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

We have a sizeable editorial team and couldn't seem to break 15% growth YOY for a couple of years now....with Pearl Lemon we more than DOUBLED our growth rate to 33%+ YOY.

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

Email, Slack, whatsapp. They were very hands-on, communicated a lot with us, always replied within hours and thoroughly. They really felt like part of the team and not a traditional agency, which was incredibly refreshing.

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

Super responsive, they really take ownership of the project, took the time to really understand our business, and like I said earlier, they felt like part of the team and not an agency.

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

None at the moment.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of sales for a facility management services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pearl Lemon?

We hired them to assist my sales team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

 There work included a combination of SEO, email marketing, and calling. They also supported us with general consulting.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 of them. We worked with a company director, sales team, and sales director.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about £5,000–£7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started work in June 2020 and it’s ongoing.

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

They work very hard. They increased conversations and helped us understand our market a lot better. They are extremely responsive and very helpful.

How did Pearl Lemon perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed extremely well. We communicate by messaging on WhatsApp or by calling them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work very hard. They listen carefully and ask questions constantly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They won’t let you down.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Commercial Manager at Insly in charge of building new outbound business

For what projects/services did your company hire Pearl Lemon?

To assist us with the scaling our our lead generation to pass onto our sales team to close

What were your goals for this project?

To generate an additional 10-20 leads per month

How did you select Pearl Lemon?

I know their founder Deepak, and have seen him generate leads on a consistent basis for his business as well as clients - so asked him to present to Insly alongside several other firms

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

To assist with building out our pipeline. We do a combination of cold email with a follow up phone call and Pearl Lemon introduced LinkedIn into the process which has been very powerful for us

What was the team composition?

Deepak, Phillip, Skylar and Melanie

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

We generated from 12-25 leads per month through Pearl Lemon of which 2-3 were quality leads that could afford our mid 5-figure and above ticket prices - making their fees more than worthwhile

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Easy, whatsapp + email were our communication channels - no complaints

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They make it all look so easy. The generation of leads using a sophisticated array of tools and automations alongside human intervention was extremely impressive

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing comes to mind. Their reports could be prettier but I'm an excel guy so actually I enjoyed the data. My MD less so - but you can't please everyone ha :P