ROAST

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the SEO & Content Lead

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Business insurance for a modern world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ROAST to accomplish?

• Growing the organic channel
• Technical support for the website
• Providing expertise and insight on industry changes

SOLUTION

How did you find ROAST?

Referral

Why did you select ROAST over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Strong category experience

How many teammates from ROAST were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Technical auditing and recommendation 
• Site architecture and URL mapping 
• International SEO consultancy 
• Performance auditing a reporting

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Improved organic visibility for priority pages Delivery and implementation of new website architecture

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Roast are really responsive to our requirements, we have settled on a way of working that allows both parties to do their best work and for items to be delivered on time and effectively.

What was your primary form of communication with ROAST?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

One of the initial draws was their strong category experience of financial services and b2b. In the time we've worked together ROAST has consistently demonstrated deep channel expertise in SEO, and beyond the quality of what they deliver for us specifically it's also really good to see an agency be proactive in thought leadership and events.

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

As we've entered the second year of our work together, I'd like Roast to continue to push us and approach the account with the same energy as if we were a new client.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Digital Marketing Manager

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Financial services company that offers credit monitoring and credit comparison services

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ROAST to accomplish?

• Improved SEO

SOLUTION

How did you find ROAST?

Other

Why did you select ROAST over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ROAST were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Technical SEO analysis and recommendations, content gap analyses, performance reviews (clicks, traffic, rankings etc), competitor analysis, industry thought leadership, SEO strategy. Overall supporting our SEO growth through various deliverables.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since working with Roast we have seen our SEO performance continue to improve over time. We have improved our rankings in multiple verticals, ultimately leading to improved customer acquisition and business revenue. They have also helped improve the technical health of our website to a point where we are now in a very strong position. Roast have also supported us with ASO which helped us improve the rankings of our app in the App and Play Stores.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Roast have a strong team managing all our project who always deliver on time and to a high standard. We have a good working relationship as a group and so they are responsive to our needs and we collaborate well to deliver on our collective goals.

What was your primary form of communication with ROAST?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Roast are keen to really understand our business and are able to be very reactive to our needs and move quickly which is a strong asset of their offering.

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

No major areas for improvement

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the former Digital & Marketing Director of a life insurance startup.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Life Insurance start up

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ROAST to accomplish?

• Launch and drive efficient growth for a new to market B2C life insurance brand

SOLUTION

How did you find ROAST?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select ROAST over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The scope was to launch a new life insurance brand direct to consumer in the UK across all relevant digital media channels and to determine the correct strategy and plan to achieve targets.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• All digital media activity live to support the soft and then hard launch plan 
• Launch sales and reach targets achieved

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They worked hand in hand in partnership with our team. We were a very small team and they worked as an extension, bringing new ideas to the table, engaging effectively with other stakeholders, communicating regularly and being readily available. They took the time to really immerse themselves in our vision and business and worked collaboratively with other partners and agencies involved.

What was your primary form of communication with ROAST?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They collaborated well with our team and the other agencies involved in the launch of our business. There were times when they needed to be super flexible as timelines moved and deliverables adjusted based on the project and they were always pragmatic and positive; delivering excellent quality work and new, fresh ideas.

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

Not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of International Growth of a cybersecurity company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Cybersecurity

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ROAST to accomplish?

• Search Engine Optimisation
• SEO content creation & outreach
• International SEO

SOLUTION

How did you find ROAST?

Referral

Why did you select ROAST over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fits our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from ROAST were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• SEO Content Creation: Creating high-quality, search engine optimized content for our website. The goal was to improve our website's ranking on search engines and attract more organic traffic. ROAST conducted keyword research to identify the most relevant and high-traffic keywords for our business. Then they created content such as blog posts, articles, product descriptions, etc., that included these keywords in a strategic and natural way..
•  Outreach: This involves reaching out to other websites and blogs in our industry to build relationships and secure backlinks to our website. ROAST researched relevant websites and bloggers in our industry and then pitched them on the idea of linking to our website.

 Key Deliverables: Keyword research and analysis SEO content creation (blog posts, articles, product descriptions, etc.) Optimization of meta data (title tags, meta descriptions, etc.) Outreach to relevant websites and bloggers in your industry Securement of backlinks to your website from high-quality websites Regular reports on the progress and results of the SEO campaign.

 Overall, ROAST provided a comprehensive SEO service that included both content creation and outreach to improve our website's visibility on search engines and drive more organic traffic to your site. Their work resulted in increased traffic to our website and improved search engine rankings for our target keywords.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Increase in organic traffic: ROAST tracked the number of visitors coming to our website from organic search results, and reported an increase over time.
• Improvement in search engine rankings: ROAST tracked the rankings of our target keywords on search engines, and reported an improvement in these rankings over time.
• Number of backlinks secured: ROAST reported on the number of high-quality backlinks that were secured to our website through their outreach efforts.
• Increase in engagement metrics: ROAST reported on engagement metrics like time spent on site, bounce rate, and conversion rate, to measure the effectiveness of their content in engaging and converting visitors.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

• Clear communication: ROAST established clear communication channels with us from the outset of the project, including regular check-ins, progress reports, and updates on timelines and deliverables.
• Detailed project plan: ROAST created a detailed project plan that outlined the scope of work, timelines, and milestones for the project. 
• Timely delivery of items: ROAST delivered items on time, based on the project plan and agreed-upon timelines.
• Responsiveness to our needs: ROAST was responsive to our needs and concerns throughout the project.

What was your primary form of communication with ROAST?

• Virtual Meeting

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

ROAST took the time to understand our business objectives, target audience, and competitive landscape to develop a customised SEO strategy. ROAST had a proven track record of delivering results for their clients. They provided case studies and testimonials that demonstrated their ability to improve search engine rankings, increase organic traffic, and secure high-quality backlinks for their clients.

ROAST was up-to-date on the latest SEO trends and best practices. Excellent communication - providing regular updates, and responding promptly to any questions or concerns.

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

I can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Summerill & Bishop are a luxury retailer who create the world’s most beautiful tablecloths. As the Digital Marketing Manager for S&B, I am responsible for digital performance, including PPC, SEO, Social Media, CRM and onsite analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired ROAST to manage our PPC and Paid Social. Digital was a growing part of our revenue stream, so we wanted experts helping us accelerate. They also consulted at various stages on our SEO, Analytics and Amazon strategies.

SOLUTION

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

We knew there was significant opportunity to grow revenue levels coming through our website, as well as incorporating new product lines and an increasingly international client set into our online marketing. Our brief to ROAST was to help us achieve significant growth in Ecommerce revenues while keeping ROAS levels within predefined (and healthily profitable) parameters.

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

We launched our Ecommerce site in 2016 and while we had seen transactions and sales coming through PPC, the vast majority were on branded terms. ROAST initially took over management of our Google Ads, completely rebuilding the account from the ground up to ensure we had full control over which search terms we were spending on and to allow thorough testing of messaging, targeting and spend levels.

The goal was to bring in new customers on non-brand terms as the priority. They also implemented a far more bespoke Google Analytics set up to allow us to see onsite user performance in greater detail. Once PPC performance was established, ROAST launched Paid Social activity across our key platforms – notably Instagram and Pinterest. Again, ROAST approached this activity from the ground up, basing creative recommendations and audience targeting on insights and data.

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

On our account we had an Account Director, an Account Manager and an Account Executive who all had notable experience with Ecommerce brands. We also had access to their Head of Paid Media, Head of Analytics and Head of SEO when we required additional capabilities or wider planning beyond our contracted services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the start of our work together, our average monthly ecommerce revenues increased +305%.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

ROAST were great to work with, their teams understood our business and our priorities. The team were extremely organised and communicative – they’d always keep us abreast of performance and priorities, as well as spending the time to walk us through the more complex digital hurdles we faced.

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

Theiraccount team just aligned with us a business – we were ambitious and wanted to grow quickly and effectively. Everything they've brought to the table is tailor-fit to our objectives.

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

No, our work with ROAST has been exactly what we needed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Demand Generation Marketing at Hyperoptic - the UK's largest exclusively full fibre broadband provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We lacked an SEO strategy that was grounded in commercial acumen and the latest channel capability. We needed a partner to guide us, be able to provide us the technical recommendations and consult on content.

SOLUTION

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

We ran a shortlisting of 6 agencies offer different solutions, and from this Roast were one of the top 3 agencies then asked to pitch after a successful chemistry session. Evaluation basis was: Understanding Hyperoptic's business, challenges and opportunity.

• Credibility - do they have integrity and merit? Relevant experience?
• Strategy - does their response deliver to our requirements & brief?
• Planning - good use of tools and data
• Competence - do they know what they're doing?
• Innovation - new ideas and bold thinking
• Communication - articulate and easy to comperehend
• Commercials - clear pricing and transparent renumeration model
• People Chemistry - professional & enthusiasm account team

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

Original scope was for 6-mths for a fixed amount that we could afford in the trial period to determine whether investing in the channel and relationship was worth it. Deliverables included a technical audit, keyword research, new site architecture, content gap analysis as well as consulting on all new content.

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

x4 Managing Director Head of New Business Head of SEO Account Director

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since implementing the strategy we have already seen improvements to our rankings - from 24 to 20 in the space of 3 months. Once the technical improvements are implemented we expect conversion rates to improve by 5-10% in the next 6 months. Longer term (after 24 months), we're forecasting a +35% uplift in organic clicks vs. pre working with ROAST.

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

They have phenomenal project management skills (probably the best I've ever seen). Using Google sheets and slides effectively so their ecosystem never clashes with ours (Outlook/Microsoft). Always send minutes from meetings near instantly which is much appreciated. Senior members are contactable by phone which is a godsend in this day and age when most agencies don't have phones anymore!

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

Perfect blend of human connection (people you want to work with) and technical acumen (people you trust).

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

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior search marketing manager for the London Stock Exchange Group. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROAST?

We needed help with SEO and organic search efforts. We wanted it to be easy to find our products and websites.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our company has been working with ROAST for a long time now. They audit our websites and come up with a plan for us on how to grow and expand. They analyze everything and then go through strategies for different activities in weekly and monthly reports. We give them suggestions for keywords and they normally take it from there. 

We have many different websites across the world and in different languages, and they support all of them for us. For the most part, the work centers on SEO and optimizing our campaigns and websites. Sometimes we have specific needs like website migration, and they help us with that as well. 

They use Myposeo, Semrush, Oncrawl, and Screaming Frog. 

What is the team composition?

The people working on the account change sometimes, but for the most part, we work with 5–6 people on a regular basis. The team normally consists of an account director, an account manager, executives, and we have a client services person. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested around £120,000 (approximately $135,000 USD) in 2022. 

In past years we’ve invested anywhere between $200,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them for about three years now. 

We began working with them this year in March 2022, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re having good success with keyword rankings and traffic. We’re also seeing really good improvement on Core Web Vitals based on their recommendations.

We have some ongoing efforts right now that we’re looking forward to seeing the results of.  

How did ROAST perform from a project management standpoint?

They assigned us a new client services person who is really great. They make sure everything is being delivered on time, and if there is a delay they reach out to us and explain why that’s happening.

Overall, ROAST is pretty good with timelines and deadlines, but they are also very strong communicators which helps a lot. 

We have in-person meetings every quarter, but the primary format of communication we use is through virtual programs like Microsoft Teams, Trello, and sometimes Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

When it comes to SEO, they have good expertise and they deliver. They aren’t doing anything for show, and they continue to bring new ideas to the table. They have a modern way of viewing SEO, and the people that they put on our account are helpful in reaching the goals that we are trying to accomplish. 

We believe that they’re providing really good value for the money we pay them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been a few times that projects take a little longer, and sometimes we feel like we need bigger suggestions for projects that are more innovative. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a plan and an approach from the beginning, and be clear about who you want on your project and the level of expertise you need.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I head up the web team in a fast growing business software company serving the mid-market in multiple sectors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our company grows through M&A and we initially hired ROAST to assist with our website migrations of these acquisitions to ensure we're capturing the SEO equity of those websites to bring into the 'mothership' website. We also had a site without an IA strategy.

As the business had grown, new parts of the site were bolted on in siloes. We're hired ROAST to work on us to solve this too. In addition, we also work with ROAST on a retainer for our day to day SEO activities.

SOLUTION

How did you select ROAST and what were the deciding factors?

I'd worked with ROAST in a previous company and was happy to find out the company I was moving to was also already working with ROAST because I knew they're a team of experts, who are great to work with and reliable. I'd hired them in my previous role based on a pitch against several other agencies to complete an IA structure in that company too. Their pitch was the most comprehensive, methodical and focused on results.

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

For the migrations, they are multiple and on a continual roadmap. Each one starts with a discovery meeting for that batch, a detailed project plan is drawn up, stakeholders from the acquisition and internal teams are consulted along the way, ROAST and our team work collaboratively to ensure keyword and page mapping, page creation and technical aspects are covered.

KPIs for a successful migration are tracked and updated regularly so we're able to communicate with stakeholders on the success of a migration. The IA project involved a discovery session, a lot of data processing, over 27k keywords were analysed and mapped. Again, it was a really collaborative project with the ROAST team becoming an extension of our internal team to deliver this piece of work.

The end result saw an increase in organic search of 18% in the first 2 months. Through our ongoing SEO retainer with ROAST, we have weekly updates on email with status updates, the 'so what' and actions, fortnightly catch-ups and monthly strategy meetings.

ROAST provide essential and time intensive keyword tracking, analysis and recommendations, freeing up my team to work on other strategic projects.

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

We have an account director who is my first port of call for communications between our teams. We also work closely with the SEO Director as well as the 2 SEO execs who also work on our account. My team and I are in regular contact with these 4 people as our team within their agency.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Together, we've successfully delivered 8 website migrations this year and we are queuing up the next 9 migrations for 2021. Through the completion of the IA project, we've seen an 18% increase in organic traffic. We have greater visibility of our keyword ranking across multiple topic areas and sectors and actionable recommendations for improvement.

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

We have regular project Zoom/Teams calls, email most days on various projects, share Google docs so we can see progress and collaborate in real time. They're good as managing expectations with deadlines and hitting them.

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

They're conscientious, experts in their field, take feedback on board and feed learnings into their internal processes so everyone gets better. They're a lovely bunch of people without big egos — they're a great match for our team. We're able to be really productive as well as enjoy what we're working on together.

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

Sometimes, as digital folk, we can be very pure in our field and need to take a step back to think about what we can communicate with certain stakeholders to make the most impact.

ROAST are really good at telling the story and backing up their approach with the methodology behind it - senior stakeholders often don't need/want/understand this detail and just want to skip to the bit that's important to them. T

his is something we're working on together to hone an approach to communicate complex work in an impactful way. It's definitely moved forward massively in the last few weeks with a very successful meeting this week. More of this!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Demand Gen of my company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Mobile Technology Company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ROAST to accomplish?

• Increase ROI
• Increase Conversiona
• Optimize Campaigns

SOLUTION

How did you find ROAST?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select ROAST over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from ROAST were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We needed an agency to manage our Google accounts and provide recommendations for all paid activities. Specifically we wanted to restructure from country focused to region, implement the latest optimization tactics (value-based bidding) and other tactics so we could continue to grow our ROI

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We increased lead volume by over 70% while reducing CPC, CPA and most other performance metrics

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Great group to work with, always responding in a timely manner and working within our deadlines

What was your primary form of communication with ROAST?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They're a really nice team to work with, and they take the time to understand our needs and goals.

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

No