Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founders of habitats, an online platform that allows users to sell their homes by themselves, much like the American method. It isn’t currently a big thing in the UK, and we’re trying to be the first into the market.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective?

We brought them on board to help us start our marketing and begin educating the market on FSBO (for sale by owner).

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective came in when we were completely new. They were brought in to help us get a route to market and understand the brand and its look. They were really helpful in a couple of small changes that we made to the brand, such as styling our brand a bit.

Rise also helped us with a brand guideline booklet. They designed all of the marketing plans, customer funnel, and everything related to that, which we honestly couldn’t have done ourselves. We did a social ads campaign, which was a really big success.

They helped with the creation of the website, too. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and for a number of other reasons, our platform won’t go live until January 2021. In the meantime, we have a holding page that Rise helped design.

What is the team composition?

We basically only dealt with Barri (Growth Marketing Consultant). However, what we liked was that he pulled through his contacts for people in different areas. For example, if we wanted an expert in SEO, he then went out, spoke to his people in SEO, and found someone.

Also, if we had contacts that could help, he had no problem adding them to the project. He oversaw the whole process, which was really good from our perspective because of the flexibility it allowed.

How did you come to work with Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective?

When we were about three quarters done with building the platform, my business partner and I went out and looked for someone who had worked with startups before. We also wanted someone who was willing to work with our relatively small budget, which is always tricky.

I believe we interviewed four different marketing companies. We actually found Rise on Clutch. The other three just came through a contact of mine and a contact of my sister. One of the recommended companies was my friend’s company, which is also on Clutch.

Although that company belongs to one of my closest friends, we chose Rise because they were consistent all the way through the evaluation process. That consistency made us feel comfortable, and their personalities also came out on top. We thought that they had the best qualities for the business, along with the fact that they’ve worked with other startups.

Eventually, we went with Rise because we liked them, and we think that’s what a large part of it comes down to — whether you like the people or not.

How much have you invested with them?

We started off by saying that we had a marketing budget of around £25,000 (approximately $33,000 USD). We spent just shy of £8,000 (approximately $11,000 USD) on the services — about £600 (approximately $800 USD) a month. For the social ads campaign, we spent £400 (approximately $500 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rise in February 2020. Unfortunately, we had to strip out their services in October 2020 due to financial constraints. We decided to do the work ourselves.

I think that in any other situation, we would’ve carried on as we were because they’ve essentially done all of the marathon training. Unfortunately, the business comes first, but we told them that if circumstances change, I’ll definitely be the first person to pick the phone to call them.

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

We haven’t actually launched as of yet, so from a metric point of view, it’s impossible to say what they did. However, I believe that they created a stable marketing plan for us.

We have been getting someone else involved, and we used a lot of the collateral that Rise produced to get them on board. That collateral showed that we had done a lot of background work in order to get the business to the position where it was able to launch.

Also, the message and the design of the social ads were really good, and obviously, the audience that we were targeting was right. The booklet looks as good as anything I've seen and the website looks amazing. 

How did Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective perform from a project management standpoint?

It was good because Barri is quite a forthright person. For meetings and whatnot, he set them up, and from an administrative perspective, he was very good at making sure that they all happened. He did a good job of leading the meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

All in all, we were happy with Rise, and, unfortunately, it was just a change in circumstances that didn’t allow us to carry on in the same stead that we were going.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Rise had one mishap in the whole project, and it was just a bit of an oversight. Just before the social ads campaign launched, they told us that we were ready to go live. When we checked, unfortunately, we weren’t ready.

There would’ve been a couple of things that have gone wrong had I not checked, but they dealt with it in a really responsible way. The next day, they apologized and said they completely understood if we wanted to let them go and that it was a complete oversight on his behalf. After that, they were awesome.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be transparent. I believe that we were transparent with Rise all the way through on everything that we wanted to achieve. As a result, they gave all of that in spades. 

As a startup, just be especially transparent on the costs, and the team will direct you to the places where you’re actually going to see a return on the investment. Barri won’t give you a lot of the fluff, as a lot of other marketing people will. Money is at such a premium for startups, so you want that honesty on what’s actually going to work and what has worked for other startups.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of GoWashMyCar, a marketplace for car care services in the UK.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective?

We needed help with setting up analytics on our new app. We also wanted help with devising a marketing strategy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rise connected our website and apps to Firebase and Google Analytics. We can now see our conversion rate much more accurately than we had before.

Their team also created a marketing strategy for us on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Bing. They handle every aspect, from ideas to content to graphics. They’re working on monthly budgets and strategy reviews going forward. 

I didn’t have to review their strategy since they launched it. Rise is very independent; they always come up with new ideas and proactively plan what they have to do in the next month.

What is the team composition?

I work with one senior person who leads a team behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective?

I found them on a Facebook group for London startups while I was looking for a marketing director. The fact that they had experience working with both corporations and startups impressed me. 

Their performance in the interview stage stood out from the competition. Rise redefined the questions I asked, reframing what I was looking for and suggesting different angles. They clearly had experience across every marketing channel and wanted to use my budget effectively.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $25,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started in January 2018 and is ongoing.

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

Rise’s target was to grow the volume of booking we received by 10% every month. So far, we’ve achieved that metric through the channels they manage. 

How did Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective perform from a project management standpoint?

Rise handles everything. Every month, they start by presenting me with a plan, execute it, and then end the month with a report. They can organize themselves, and they never miss a detail. They’re the best team I’ve ever worked with.

We communicate with Rise daily over Slack through a special channel. They always return our calls within half a day, and we have a scheduled weekly call with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creativity in developing a strategy and then delivering it step by step impresses me. With other vendors, I feel like they lay out their steps and then get lost in the execution. Rise doesn’t.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In my personal experience in working with agencies, Rise is the best I’ve come across. I plan to work with them in the future.

Any advice for potential customers?

Communication is key. Be clear about the major assets you want, the guidelines they should follow, and the best ways Rise can communicate results to you. Every company has different goals and different ways to measure their goals. They will adjust to your model—they’re very flexible.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Amazing Support, a Managed IT Support and Cyber Security Company based in London. I'm one of the company Directors.

For what projects/services did your company hire Rise - The Growth Marketing Collective?

Digital marketing consulting

What were your goals for this project?

Increase new leads from Google and conversions from our website

How did you select this vendor?

Recommended by a friend who are an existing happy client of Rise

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Increase new leads from Google by 30% through utilising better SEO and PPC techniques, 60% conversion increase from our website and reduction of 15-20% bounce rate.

What was the team composition?

Barri and his team of SEO and PPC specialists

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

Barri at Rise has continually assisted us with our commercial marketing strategy and helped us to increase customer engagement and new client conversion. I don't think we'd be where we are today without having used him and his agency. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a great and communicative marketing company.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Just a lovely company to work with

Are there any areas for improvement?

None