Schaefer

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Equilibrium Foods Inc; we’re a food manufacturing and marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Schaefer Digital?

We operate under a traditional food distribution model, so we sell our products through major retailers in Canada. We wanted to expand our online presence in the US, so we hired Schaefer Digital to help us market and advertise our bone broth product online.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we met with the Schaefer Digital team to discuss our project goals. Then, they drafted a proposal, which we reviewed before kicking off the project. Once we provided the team with photographs and other digital assets, they started working on increasing our online presence. 

The Schaefer Digital team has been responsible for developing creative assets and writing copy for our Facebook and Google Ads, which they’ve purchased. They’ve also analyzed our website to uncover why visitors add items to their baskets without checking out and made recommendations to redesign our website to address our problem areas. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Sidnee (CEO), Alex (Digital Marketing Strategist), and another team member. 

How did you come to work with Schaefer Digital?

We found Schaefer Digital through a referral from a friend. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invest roughly $10,000 CAD (approximately $7,000 USD) monthly with Schaefer Digital, which includes the ad buys. Overall, we’ve invested about $60,000 (approximately $43,00 USD) in the partnership.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with Schaefer Digital since April 2022, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Schaefer Digital has made valuable suggestions and helped us make more effective ad buys on Facebook and Google. We started investing in social media ads in the summer and didn’t expect to significantly increase sales because our bone broth product is seasonal. However, our sales have increased progressively week over week, which has been great.

We’ve really appreciated Schaefer Digital’s commitment to understanding our consumers, which has informed their recommendations for our website. Since implementing their suggestions, our customers have shared positive feedback regarding the changes. 

How did Schaefer Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Schaefer Digital has collaborated with us and maintained an open line of communication throughout the project. They’ve been approachable and responsive via email and phone, and we’ve met weekly via Microsoft Teams. 

During our meetings, the team has made recommendations to improve our digital marketing efforts and effectively answered our questions. We’ve had ongoing discussions about our ad spend, which the team has tweaked according to performance. When we’ve faced problems or confusion, they’ve quickly identified solutions. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

This project has been our first venture into digital marketing and social media advertising, and it’s taken us some time to grasp some of the concepts. Schaefer Digital has communicated clearly, patiently addressed our questions, and explained concepts in detail, which we’ve appreciated. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Schaefer Digital could improve by expanding their focus areas. We’d like to maximize our opportunity to increase online sales through various channels such as TikTok and Instagram, but I’m not sure they have those capabilities. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise approaching the project with a clear understanding of your needs and expectations so that you can communicate them to Schaefer Digital. Since this is all new to me, my expectations didn’t align with their capabilities, which was on me. As long as you’re clear about the project scope, they will deliver on it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the president of an organization that manufactures and sells mattresses to retailers who then sell them to consumers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Schaefer Digital ?

We needed them to help us update and revise our website in order to be more relevant in the digital space and find new people to carry our brand. We also wanted to attract paid traffic to the website to get wholesale clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Schaefer Digital created a couple of landing pages, which they migrated from Unbounce to our own website, using Shopify. One of these landing pages is visible to the public. Whenever a user lands on this page, we retarget that traffic with Google and Facebook ads to the second landing page, which is more of a secret page. Users are then taken further down the funnel to another contact page that they can use to get in touch with us about our mattresses.  
 
Schaefer Digital also handles all of the paid digital activity, for which they do keyword research and offsite SEO. 
 
What is the team composition?

We work directly with Sidnee (Founder & CEO). She handles everything from strategy to organizing campaigns and directing traffic. We also work with someone who’s more of an administrative role. 
 
How did you come to work with Schaefer Digital?

We discovered them through word of mouth.
 
How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $20,000–$25,000.
 
What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in October 2020, and it is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re generating quicker rates, between 6%–8% on our ads, which is a great number for us.

The way we measure success is not by any hard number measure but by establishing a baseline for our brand in the digital space. We’re trying to exceed the industry’s best practices and standard for impressions and click rates, and we’re massively exceeding in all of these aspects by leaps and bounds.
 
How did Schaefer Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t use any special management tool. Everything is handled by either phone, Zoom, or email. 
 
What did you find most impressive about them?

Communication is key and Schaefer Digital is world-class. They’re very good at explaining things so that we can all be on board on the project. They are joyful, really positive, and fun to be around. Moreover, they don’t try to do any activity that is too far outside of their competency. Instead, they bring in the right people for the jobs that may not be part of their core team on the development side. We really respect this mindset. 
 
Are there any areas they could improve?

I believe there are some changes underway in some platforms, for example Linkedln. Other companies might be a little ahead of what’s happening with those platforms. Therefore, Schaefer Digital could benefit from innovating their service offerings.
 
Any advice for potential customers?

We had a little snag when we first started because we failed to clarify what was going on, but we figured it out. Therefore, I recommend that prospective clients make sure to be clear on the flow of the funnel, if they’re doing something in the marketing space that is funnel related.  
 
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Family Works. We’re an online web app, and moving toward a mobile app, that helps families to be more intentional.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Schaefer Digital?

They were brought in from ideation. We had to find that there was a problem and thus a need. They’ve been involved from the very first stages of product validation. From ideation, we moved onto concepting to launch to testing. Now we have a product, and they’re helping with iterating that project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re a member of our growth leadership team. Schaefer Digital has been instrumental in the process of us validating our ideas with a go-to-market strategy. We had the idea and some hi-fi concepts. Instead of building something, we asked Schaefer Digital to market it and put up a splash page in an effort to see if anyone would find this to be interesting.

They ran a campaign and led us through a workshop to see if there was a niche in the market that our product could fill. Schaefer Digital helped us define our market, create a value proposition, and put it in a way that still resonates with people.

Additionally, they established all of our social platforms and helped with our brand identity on the creative side. Their team has managed all of our ad campaigns, primarily conversion campaigns. They’ve optimized those campaigns, tracked metrics, handled Google Analytics, monitored performance, and put our Facebook Pixel on so we know how far people are going through our app experience.

Our app is content-heavy so they’ve helped us with content strategy. They sit in on our cross-functional team workshops and handle our email marketing strategy. We do a lot of product and offerings validation, and they come up with the tests for our A/B testing efforts.

What is the team composition?

We work with Sidnee (Founder & CEO) as well as two other individuals.

How did you come to work with Schaefer Digital?

We came to find them through an agency that recommended Schaefer Digital. Our team gave them one assignment. We instantly clicked and felt they could help us achieve our goals.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in May 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The parameters and goals we set for our first months were reached within the first week. We immediately knew we had scratched an itch. We’ve consistently outperformed cost per acquisition metrics in our industry. We haven’t had any trouble gaining new customers. That’s been our greatest success so far; especially considering we started with zero.

How did Schaefer Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They manage our assets, campaigns, and timely feedback. They’re a highly data-driven organization that can instantly translate data into product updates and reviews. That’s a value add that I hadn’t anticipated, but has been really helpful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Because of her background and experience, Sidnee brings a unique perspective on what it takes to validate and get a product from concept to market. Sidnee’s an expert. We’ve saved time and money as well as look better to the external world because of their performance.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have clear expectations for the outcomes and way you want to work with Schaefer Digital. They’re excellent at back-and-forth communication. Define the parameters and expectations around your budget. They see themselves as business partners so treating them as such will give you the best results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the creative director and co-founder of Shake Collaboration, a branding and product development outfit. We have a consumer-facing product that we’ve brought to the market called CBD & ME.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Schaefer Digital?

We hired them to scale our digital growth including our e-commerce platform, brand awareness, and sales. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Schaefer Digital team provides SEO for us. At first, they analyzed our site before mapping out a plan on how to optimize it. Then, they conducted on- and off-site SEO for us. 

They also helped with our programmatic ad campaign where they developed ads for us to try and attract engagement on our site. Programmatic ads help to identify the best channels to place our ads by being able to identify the specific consumers we want to target.

In our case, our first round targeted people who needed self-care, such as athletic people, anxious people, pet owners, and people who lack sleep. All of those were based on the team's research. We basically tested our audience in order to identify what demographics would best respond to our product. In the end, we learned that targeting those who had sleeping anxiety was more successful than marketing to athletic people. After that, we are now on our way to our campaign's phase two.

However, along the way, we discovered some limitations and problems with our site. As a result, we decided to switch platforms and because of that, we haven't been able to proceed to phase two yet. Despite that, Schaefer Digital made some site recommendations while waiting for us.

What is the team composition?

We work with Sidnee (Owner), and other people from their team.

How did you come to work with Schaefer Digital?

We had a personal connection. One of my friends and colleagues in the design referred me to them. At that time, we also interviewed other similar agencies and we ultimately went with Schaefer Digital because they were willing to work with a startup and within our budget.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in August 2020, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s hard to gauge the impact because we didn’t convert as many sales as we hoped to, but at the same time, our number of visitors increased which means that our brand awareness has improved. Furthermore, they've been good strategic partners to us.

How did Schaefer Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We have been doing everything through Slack, which makes things really easy. I run two companies, and it helps me to keep everything on track. In addition, their reports have been detailed.

They have been very communicative despite our two-hour time difference. Overall, they respond quickly and their work ethic has been exemplary. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They've shown that they want to be partners with us and that they care about our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think they have any areas they could improve. I’m really happy with their service.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them walk you through their process and make sure you understand it. Spend some time knowing what they're diving into on your behalf.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the CMO at School of Rock. We’re the world’s largest performance-based music education company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Kingfish Digital?

Our head of digital left the company and we needed to keep our digital programs going while we found a replacement. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sidnee (CEO & Founder) managed our SEO, including paid and organic search. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Sidnee.

How did you come to work with Kingfish Digital?

I’d worked with Sidnee in the past at previous agencies. When I found out she had started an agency, I was excited to have the opportunity to work with her again.

How much have you invested in them?

We invested around $15,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2019–February 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had record paid search performance and strong SEO performance. Though it can take a while to see results for organic search performance, things moved smoothly throughout the engagement. 

How did Kingfish Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very strong and understand how to deliver on schedule. Sidnee is a great communicator who manages expectations correctly and identified potential roadblocks early in the process. We mostly communicated via video calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sidnee is a strong marketer and a good person.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything went really well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

As a young agency, they’re working hard to make a name for themselves.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CEO of Handled, and we are one of the fastest-growing moving and home service companies in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kingfish Digital?

From a marketing standpoint, we have needed a pretty versatile, flexible partner that can help us not only kick-off and generate new business, but also grow with us and expand according to our needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with Kingfish Digital in a variety of aspects. The first of those is the paid experience, which encompasses everything from setting up all of our initial PPC ads on Google to social media promotions on Facebook, Instagram, and even platforms like Yelp and Thumbtack. Their team has been critical in getting those off the ground and then optimizing them to increase brand awareness while lowering the cost of our leads.

Further into the engagement, our company realized that it was growing fast enough to require more services than just the paid side of the business. At that point, we expanded their engagement to include marketing strategy and coordination. Those services range from tweaking landing pages to optimize conversion flows to providing some of the tools we need in our review system in order to drive more social credibility.

What is the team composition?

The primary person I interact with is Sidnee (CEO, Kingfish Digital), and she has really led a lot of our in-depth strategy work in particular. There are two other people from her team working on the project as well.

How did you come to work with Kingfish Digital?

I knew Sidnee at a previous employer and was always impressed with the work that she did. When I heard that she was starting Kingfish, I reached out to her because I knew that she would be a good fit for the relationship.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just under $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in August 2019 and is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the beginning of the project, we have seen an almost 60% reduction in the cost per lead that we receive. That level of cost savings has been massively helpful in helping us to grow and expand our operations as a business.

The entire partnership has been a really positive experience so far. We feel like we are constantly receiving their best work, which is really important to us and one of the main reasons we’ve expanded our work with them so significantly. Our team has been so impressed with their leadership that we regularly make them a part of our strategic conversations and grant them the same level of authority as any of our internal hires.

How did Kingfish Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Sidnee is the kind of person that really takes the lead in project management, so we get high-quality documentation along with their delivery and amazing monthly and quarterly reports. She has worked with us to build out incredibly detailed attribution tracking so that there’s complete transparency around the performance of their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their whole team operates with a level of strategy and accountability that you rarely find among marketing firms. Kingfish Digital Has the ability to look at the long term and build systems that are not only going to be successful today but are going to get you to your long-term goals. They aren’t afraid to ask really difficult questions about why the work is being done and how it could be done differently or better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We provided feedback early in the process, and they always responded incredibly quickly and well. It’s led to an even better working relationship, so I don’t have any suggestions for improvement at this point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Integrate Kingfish Digital at the very start of your work. They are good at execution, but if you want to take advantage of their most unique attributes and strengths, then you should bring them in at the very beginning of the problem so they can help architect the solution.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President & Owner of Nemawashi

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Nemawashi advises owners of small to medium service businesses ($3M-$30M) on making fundamental business changes using a proprietary product based engagements, with clear and transparent fixed pricing, that achieve operational and strategic goals resulting in a more valuable and sellable business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Lead generation

SOLUTION

How did you find Schaefer?

Referral

Why did you select Schaefer over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Schaefer were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Our scope of work included refining our niche, optimizing the user experience on the website, and implementing tactics for more efficient lead generation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As a result of our project we increased our top of funnel leads by 300% leading to increased revenue of 200% in the first 6 months following the project.

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

The execution of the project was excellent. Schaefer was proactive in their approach to giving, receiving, and incorporating feedback.

What was your primary form of communication with Schaefer?

Virtual Meeting

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

It was startling to me how quickly the Schaefer team built rapport and an environment of teamwork. They are now my gold standard that I compare other firms to.

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

Working with Schaefer was an ideal experience.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of Yoga Pod. We are a multi unit yoga studio, offering five different style of yoga via in-person, live-stream, and on-demand modalities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Shaefer Digitial to strategize, design, produce, and manage various marketing campaigns for our Grand Opening promotions and events.

SOLUTION

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

Shaefer Digital has vast experience in designing a complete digital strategy. The Shaefer teams ability to listen and devise a comprehensive solution for us was quite impressive. They have an intuitive sense that enabled us to articulate exactly what we wanted and needed.

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

Shaefer developed our complete strategy: ad production, landing pages, copy & edit, visual appeal, etc. They managed the execution flawlessly and offered comprehensive reporting to guide us to completion.

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

There were three professionals assigned to our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The campaign was a complete success, with an impressive number of conversions, resulting in significant revenue increases.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent workflow and timely communication.

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

Their ability to develop comprehensive, effective strategies was impressive.

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

No.