Pilot Digital Marketing

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director and trader of Cimco Resources, a metal recycling company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Pilot Digital Marketing?

We needed help with SEO and PPC services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pilot Digital Marketing has been helping us with SEO and keyword research. We’ve given them all the information they require on our end, and they’ve started working collaboratively with our third-party web development partner to implement the SEO efforts into our site. In addition, they’re taking care of backlinking, ad posting, and PPC for LinkedIn, Google, and Bing.

What was the team composition? 

We’ve been working with Ben (Director of SEO) and Rod (Managing Partner).

How did you come to work with Pilot Digital Marketing?

A business partner referred them to us.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we’ve invested around $10,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Pilot Digital Marketing’s team is very thorough; they invest themselves in researching our end consumers, what we do, and how we do it to ensure successful results. 

How did Pilot Digital Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is beyond expectations in terms of meeting deadlines, staying within budget, and communicating. Regarding tools, we’ve used Basecamp, email, text messages, and Zoom calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their personal touch is one of their biggest strengths; Rod is involved in the process and does a lot of personal research on our company to understand who we are and find the right keywords for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having a plan in place upfront could help the process for both ends.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Digital Marketing Coordinator for the 3 U.S. locations for Bunting Magnetics. We are a global manufacturing company, and offer a wide range of products at each location. This includes magnetic separation, metal detection, material handling conveyors, custom magnet assemblies, in-stock rare earth magnets and more. I have been doing Digital Marketing/Websites for 15 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our e-commerce website for tour Chicago location was over a decade old and built with custom code. It had taken us as far as it could go. Its capabilities were no longer allowing us to reach our high expectations and goals for performance, visitors, user experience and e-commerce revenue. We needed a new Word Press website that could take us to the next level.

SOLUTION

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

At the time, Pilot Digital was our SEO partner. We enjoyed working with the individuals on the team and their openness and skill-set. Since I had worked at digital agencies for over a decade before coming to Bunting, I had been on their side of the table many times before. Now as a client/in-house marketing partner, I can easily tell when an agency is giving me the run around or not being completely transparent. With Pilot Digital, I could tell that they were knowledgeable, did high-quality work, were easy to work with, reliable, and open about everything. We were very comfortable going with them for our website rebuild. There were many agencies we could have chosen, but it was really a no brainer to ask Pilot for help with such a big project.

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

Our e-commerce website BuyMagnets.com was already successful, but the design, user experience and custom-coding was holding us back. It needed a complete overhaul, while staying true to our current successes. Pilot helped us reimagine the user experience to better serve customers, site architecture, fresh design, and new features and capabilities to bring the website into 21st century e-commerce.

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

Pilot's Web Development Director (and co-founder) was our point person, along with 2 web developers. We were in regular contact and questions and needs were always quickly addressed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our e-commerce website was taken to the next level and is achieving the big performance goals that we have planned. It was a challenging build due to our internal CRM system that also needed to be incorporated into the website. So there were a lot of creative solutions and demands that needed to be met, and Pilot stepped up to the plate to deliver.

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

They get down to business and are very focused on the tasks at hand. But they are also very personable and down to earth. Communication is always open.

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

As someone who comes from years of working at digital agencies prior to my current position, they are the type of agency I would've loved to be a part of. As an in-house digital marketing director, I have worked with some agency partners that were untrustworthy and just lazy. Pilot Digital is the complete opposite. They are excellent agency partners and I enjoy our collaboration. They are trustworthy, work hard, know their stuff, and are good people. Our experience was so positive that we actually signed with them to be our PPC partners as well. You have to really trust an agency partner to count on them to be your SEO, PPC and Website partner. Usually you might spread it out a bit. But with Pilot, the trust and positive working relationship makes this possible.

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

When we first launched the website there were some issues due to the complex nature of our internal CRM system that needed to be incorporated. But they worked with us to quickly resolve the issues. Pilot answered the call to overcome challenges that would have baffled and sunk a lesser agency.