SearcherMagnet

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a real estate mortgage brokerage based in Sacramento, California. I am the president and chief executive officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SearcherMagnet?

We needed to generate leads and visibility through Internet marketing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SearcherMagnet has provided web design, pay-per-click management, and ad retargeting and is currently building a mobile application for our company. I haven't used SearcherMagnet for SEO [search engine optimization] or social media services.

How did you come to work with SearcherMagnet?

I'd known SearcherMagnet's owner [CEO Aaron Opfell] for a long time and had done business with him for 7 to 8 years, which was a first step for selecting the company.

How much have you invested with SearcherMagnet?

The budget managed by SearcherMagnet has been $5,000 on average. Our web application will have a cost of between $10,000 and $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with SearcherMagnet for at least 7 years [since 2009]. We're in the process of getting a proposal for SEO work from SearcherMagnet.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

SearcherMagnet generated more than 6,000 leads for my company within the first campaign we ran together and also generated 3,000 leads for my wife's business. We ran anywhere from 15 to 35 mortgage loan closings, 90 percent of them being directly correlated to the campaign run with SearcherMagnet.

How did SearcherMagnet perform from a project management standpoint?

My return on investment is great, and the communication is good. The collaboration with SearcherMagnet is getting better and better.

What did you find most impressive about SearcherMagnet?

I've enjoyed working with a principal who takes pride in his work. He adds a lot of value to the collaboration, bringing in ideas and strategies not necessarily correlated to additional revenue for SearcherMagnet.

Are there any areas SearcherMagnet could improve?

I can't think of anything.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with SearcherMagnet?

After comparing SearcherMagnet to the competition, I'm sure clients will do business with them. One of the biggest issues when starting a contract with a company is not knowing if they will perform, answer phones, or deliver what was promised. However, SearcherMagnet has always done this.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

34 Strong uses the StrengthsFinder assessment in order to help measure where each person's natural capacity for human excellence resides. We work with many organizations, focusing on how to maximize team performance and drive employee engagement. We're thus able to impact profitability, productivity, and employee turnover, aligning people around talent.

I am one of the founders and the Chief Operating Officer of the company. I also facilitate by participating in workshops and one-to-one sessions, and work behind-the-scenes building relationships and helping grow the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SearcherMagnet?

We had a good website, but we asked what was next. It was like having a Ferrari without the keys. We weren't getting the right support from our web developer at the time and wanted to begin selling the StrengthsFinder assessment through the page. It was a combination of e-commerce and SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SearcherMagnet provided API integration in order to integrate the StrengthsFinder product directly on our site and implemented better SEO tactics. SearcherMagnet gave us clarity on what impact the work would have, providing analytics. We're far more data-driven in our decisions, and we can see a connection between the content that we're putting out and what's happening on the traffic frontier. Before this, many of our results were accidental, so having more clarity around analytics is very interesting.

Many businesses identify their market wrong, and SearcherMagnet was on the front end in getting a handle on whom we could target by providing market research. Before spending money and building something, we gained some insight into what groups were actually responding. We were able to better understand not only our marketing components but also our business, who our customers were, and what our selling process should be.

How did you come to work with SearcherMagnet?

We connected with SearcherMagnet through a referral and were impressed with the questions that they were asking. Before getting into a contract, I already felt that I'd gained a lot of value. The process was consultative, and SearcherMagnet had a genuine interest in helping us as a business. I respected the fact that SearcherMagnet said no to some things out of the gate, instead of serving us a wild, pie-in-the-sky dream. I knew right away that we'd be dealing with a straight-shooting company, which wouldn't overpromise and under-deliver. Instead, they’d under-promise and over deliver time and time again, and this is why many of the organizations that we've referred to them have become clients.

How much have you invested with SearcherMagnet?

The cost of SearcherMagnet's services has been between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SearcherMagnet in May 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We are very much analytics-driven and now have a much greater handle on who our audience is. We are gaining much more clarity on what is or isn't working and what the holes in our bucket are. Market segmentation has been huge in getting tangible results, and it ties into some of the web design work that we're doing with SearcherMagnet right now. The efficiency increases have been phenomenal, and they will continue to be so.

How did SearcherMagnet perform from a project management standpoint?

SearcherMagnet is a very communicative group, so I've never had to worry about where we stood with a certain task. SearcherMagnet drove the process, going through it effectively. Bumps will come along, and SearcherMagnet handled this well by taking ownership and communicating with us.

What did you find most impressive about SearcherMagnet?

SearcherMagnet is committed to the long-term success of the client, well beyond the project at hand. It felt much more like we had a partner in an area where many businesses like ours feel a little naked. SearcherMagnet was more than an outside vendor that we wrote a check to. They always had our backs in a space where we lacked expertise.

Are there any areas SearcherMagnet could improve?

Across the board, I've been very happy with our process of fleshing out ideas and getting clarity about our goals.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with SearcherMagnet?

If the client is looking for a quick-fix, band-aid solution, SearcherMagnet is not the right company. But if they're looking for an organization committed to the company's long-term success that will continually bring in more value than what they paid for, SearcherMagnet is the right partner. Clients should go through the process, have conversations with SearcherMagnet on the frontend, and go through a needs analysis. In the worst-case scenario, the client will come out of the experience with some value and be able to think through their processes far more effectively.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

02 Naked Air sells 100 percent oxygen in small cylinders to high-altitude athletes like hyper bikers, snowboarders, skiers, and so on. I am the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SearcherMagnet?

On the front-end, we wanted to clean up and consolidate our web presence, from social media to the several different company websites. We had a wholesale as well as a direct-to-consumer site, which needed to be put together and marketed in such a way as to get a conversion rate of around 3 percent. We also wanted to market through different affiliate networks.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SearcherMagnet provided web development work, taking everything that our company had and consolidating it. SearcherMagnet also launched campaigns that were attached to AdWords and brought our conversion rate to a slightly more than 4.5 percent, exceeding our expectations. SearcherMagnet helped us a bit on the shopping cart side, filling in the gaps within the website that were causing us to lose people. SearcherMagnet monitored our site's activity and came back to us with the data required for making adjustments, and maximizing the potential of each visitor. SearcherMagnet produced graphics for the marketing pieces we send to private-label customers.

How did you come to work with SearcherMagnet?

SearcherMagnet came as a referral to our CFO [chief financial officer], who has also used them for other companies. I don't know how SearcherMagnet usually gets its business, but they've done such a good job for us as to convince the investment company that founded 02 Naked Air to pick them up for other projects. I have a consulting role in another company, where I've also brought in SearcherMagnet. That company has referred them to their own network of people.

How much have you invested with SearcherMagnet?

The overhaul of our web presence and web development project hyped the cost a bit, and I wouldn't be shocked if we spent $20,000 per year during the last 2 years of working with SearcherMagnet.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with SearcherMagnet since 2014. We have an ongoing relationship with no plans to stop. SearcherMagnet has become a consulting and marketing arm for our company and do this better than we ever could. There is no reason to deviate from this.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We had an expectation of doing some marketing and having some platforms consolidated. We wanted to have a 3 percent conversion rate on the site but ended up with more than 1.5 percent above the target. That was a very good result.

Our traffic has increased and, once we started converting at a certain rate, we upped our ad buys and are looking to increase this even more once we've attained a certain affiliate position. SearcherMagnet has referred us to several affiliates, and their preexisting relationships made this easy.

Our presence has grown a bit internationally. We've engaged with groups in India, China, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the Caribbean. These are all companies looking to do something similar, engaging us to either consult or provide private-label services. This type of traffic never came to us prior to engaging with SearcherMagnet. SearcherMagnet gave us a clear ROI [return on investment], which no other company was willing to do, even though we've gone through many partnerships in the past.

In terms of SearcherMagnet understanding our concepts and helping us prove and identify the market, then targeting our core audience, SearcherMagnet's team had some good tricks up their sleeves. They put their finger on the pulse of the market with regard to our particular product and even worked on reverse analysis for our customers, allowing us to get a full report of who they were and where they were coming from, as well as their age range. SearcherMagnet wove itself into a strong position with our company.

What did you find most impressive about SearcherMagnet?

SearcherMagnet's principal [founder Aaron Opfell] has become a trusted advisor of mine, even for other companies that I'm working with, for the project management and sales process. He has shown me what SearcherMagnet would use in terms of software and systems in order to make things more efficient and not let anything fall through the cracks. We've implemented many of the systems used by SearcherMagnet for business development and project management. We've come to trust SearcherMagnet quite a bit, and I consider their principal a friend at this point. We've had many consultation sessions without being charged because SearcherMagnet's principal knew that our talks would lead to ongoing business.

We've spent between $80,000 and $100,000 in the past, trying to find the right help in terms of marketing and for getting to where we wanted to be online. We wasted that money on retainers for people promising the moon and had all sorts of decent referrals. None of this produced even close to what SearcherMagnet has done for us. Once we started to see results and to trust them, we engaged SearcherMagnet quite a bit.

Are there any areas SearcherMagnet could improve?

At this point, SearcherMagnet is helping us improve. They know their business, and we know ours, so I cannot critique what SearcherMagnet is doing. We've seen results, and I don't have the expertise to analyze what they do as a company.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with SearcherMagnet?

I advise clients to trust SearcherMagnet. Many items in this realm can be overwhelming, so giving SearcherMagnet's team some time to wrap their heads around things is necessary. They will work hard, and I bet that SearcherMagnet can get results for anyone out there.

They've helped us streamline our processes and become more efficient, which helped with the bottom line. Just because we haven't seen immediate conversions, it doesn't mean that they won't come.