Secret Sushi, Inc

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a fitness goods retailer. We have an online store and sell through multiple vendors like Amazon, Dick’s, Walmart, and Costco.

What challenge were you trying to address with Secret Sushi, Inc?

We needed help developing our website. We also needed assistance with conversion rate optimization (CRO) and SEO. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started by going through a month-long discovery phase with Secret Sushi. We discussed our website, our customer interaction, and our CRO goals. They analyzed our operations and gave us a six-month proposal on redesigning our website and improving our CRO and SEO. 

Secret Sushi then worked closely with our team and did keyword research. From there, they implemented improvements to our Shopify website. Our goal was to make the site more interactive and improve descriptions on our product pages. We also wanted an easier flow for our customers to get through the checkout process. Additionally, we were trying to maximize and improve our conversion rate.  

Currently, Secret Sushi is providing us with web maintenance services. They are implementing redesigns and resolving errors on our site.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with Adam (CEO) and Kira (Account Manager), but other developers and resources are also working for us behind the scenes.  

How did you come to work with Secret Sushi, Inc?

Another company recommended Secret Sushi to us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since February 2021, and our relationship is ongoing. 

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

Thanks to Secret Sushi, we’ve seen a 0.5% month-over-month increase in conversion rate, which is very good. Our organic clicks are up by 200% compared to last year. Before working with them, we’ve had 100 organic clicks per month, and now it’s about 600 per month. Additionally, our first page rankings increased from 25 to 185. 

How did Secret Sushi, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through Slack and Asana, and Secret Sushi answers questions instantly with no delays. Working with them is a collaborative process — they’re open to changes on the website, and they’ve also given their recommendations. They send weekly email updates, and we also have weekly Google Meet meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We feel like Secret Sushi truly cares about our company. Unlike the other vendors I’ve worked with, they don’t have a one-and-done approach; they want to do things correctly. Even though we’ve gone through many changes, they’ve listened and did the work. They don’t complain or charge us extra — instead, they’ve been a responsive part of our team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Voice your concerns, and they will address them. Be open and honest — when they do their work, they’ll do it correctly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Blackhawk Network, and at the time of the engagement, I was product implementation manager. I work specifically in the incentive category of our business, handling our gift cards. Companies use our gift cards to reward and motivate their customers and staff to do a specific behavior. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Secret Sushi, Inc?

Blackhawk Network had acquired another gift card company. In the process of trying to combine the two companies and going to the market as one larger and more capable company, we needed to develop a website that would lump in several of Blackhawk Network’s outlets. 

We were trying to take 3–4 different websites and roll them into one, more concise, one-stop-shop. We wanted to provide a better experience for all of our customers, as well as a more consistent outlet for our marketing and messaging. For this engagement, we needed help with our website’s content.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

Secret Sushi complied, updated, and edited our websites’ copies. They took content from three different websites and rolled them into one — they created a new voice for this new website. Additionally, they also provided SEO enhancements. They didn’t just rewrite our copy; they found the most efficient ways to represent our brand online.

What is the team composition?

We directly spoke with three people. However, I don’t know if additional people worked on the project behind the scenes. 

How did you come to work with Secret Sushi, Inc?

We didn’t choose Secret Sushi; they were recommended to us by our web developer and designer. We didn’t look for any other agencies, and we just went along with our vendor’s recommendation. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $70,000, but Secret Sushi shared that with our web developer. I’m not sure how much they received.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from June–November 2020.

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

We were happy with the services provided by Secret Sushi. The copies provided were good, strong, and effective. They saved us a lot of work, which we appreciate, as we were a resource-challenged team. We didn’t have as much time to throw in the project as we would have liked. Secret Sushi’s support helped us to stay productive and keep the website development project moving.

Of course, we encountered industry-specific topics that they didn’t have the expertise to write about. That said, what they gave us was excellent — we only needed to tweak and plan instead of building from scratch.  

How did Secret Sushi, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through regular, standing meetings, and we also used Google Docs and Sheets to track the content within our site’s pages. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Secret Sushi’s team is super friendly and easy to work with. We also highly appreciate that they were approachable, and we were always happy to talk with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a couple of guidelines, directions, and industry-specific information that we felt we had to repeat. We gave them the basics to make them capable of writing about our industry, and it seemed like we had to repeat those multiple times. By no means did we expect them to become experts in our industry, but it was frustrating nonetheless. It should have been straightforward. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’m happy to recommend Secret Sushi. Their future customers should overcommunicate, provide as much information as possible, and make the sessions collaborative. They should try to be more efficient with their time so that Secret Sushi can be effective, fruitful, and beneficial to the project.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of platform marketing at Digital.ai, a software provider. We develop software to help companies optimize and complete their digital transformation activities, and we deal with Global 2000 large enterprises. The platform team that I manage includes all of our product marketing, corporate marketing, and analyst relations teams.

What challenge were you trying to address with Secret Sushi, Inc?

We needed good-quality content fast, so we work with Secret Sushi to develop and repurpose content.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Secret Sushi reviewed our website, and we gave them some of our existing materials. They also talked to our internal subject matter experts (SMEs). Then, they identified DevOps, AI, and digital transformation SMEs on their own and got them up to speed on our business so that they could provide a really nice external point of view.

Secret Sushi became an extension of our organization, helping us develop blogs, social media content, e-books, and our podcast. Basically, they help us with all forms of content.

We have ongoing meetings, and we include Secret Sushi in our regular planning sessions. They brainstorm both with us and on their own, and they come back with different ideas based on what we’re working on. Then, we review those ideas, and they work on them to deliver ready-to-publish content.

They’ve helped us get our podcast off the ground, and they create ready-to-post social media content. When they create a blog, they also give us some social media posts to go with it.

Repurposing content is another of the areas in which Secret Sushi’s involvement has had a great impact. We have a lot of webinars, but we were just posting them on our site and never using that content again. Secret Sushi now takes the webinars, breaks them into smaller format videos, and helps us repurpose those content assets for video blogs, targeted marketing programs, social media posts, and content for our website.

We just gave them the raw files of our webinars, and their team looks at them to come up with ideas on where and how to slice them. Then, they go ahead and divide the video, delivering ready-to-go materials. They don’t help us with video production yet, but I’m sure that they would help us immediately with that if we wanted to.

Additionally, They do the same repurposing for other types of long-format content. For example, they take our e-books and divide them into multiple content pieces for various purposes.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Adam (Founder & CEO) and Rai-mon (CMO), and they’re both really active in our account. Every week, we have a meeting in which Rai-mon is in, and Adam is available to us whenever we want. We also work with a project manager, and multiple writers are working for us in the background.

The beauty of Secret Sushi is that they pull in whoever they need; they have a lot of resources.

How did you come to work with Secret Sushi, Inc?

We brought together five different companies and merged them into a new one. Secret Sushi was already working for one of our portfolio companies; they ran their blogs and social media content. We got introduced to them and really liked them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Digital.ai started working with them in September 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

One of the challenges about our company is that we brought five different technology companies together. Hence, we focus on various branches such as DevOps, security, Agile development, testing, and AI. Working with someone like Secret Sushi gives us the ability to tap into different SMEs as needed.

Our work is very technical and specific; we write about development and technical subjects for a technical audience. Our audience can easily identify useless marketing content. However, Secret Sushi provides substantial and substantive content that passes our audience’s approval, which is very important.

As we have limited resources, making Secret Sushi an extension of our team helps us extend our marketing reach to more audiences in ways that wouldn’t be possible without them.

How did Secret Sushi, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

Secret Sushi’s project management is excellent — they keep track of everything. We have a weekly meeting, so they always know the status of things. The team is flexible and willing to reprioritize work as our needs change.

We exchange a lot of emails, we’ve integrated them into our Asana board, and they have access to SharePoint site — they’re integrated into our business.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Secret Sushi’s team is outstanding; they’re good at what they do, and they’re enjoyable and easy to work with. They’re also highly flexible, responsive, and very accommodating.

I’ve never heard them say that something is out of scope or that it will exceed the retainer; they just get it done. They understand our position and challenges — they're part of our team.

Bringing five companies together isn’t easy, so Secret Sushi has helped us bring order to our chaos and install a process. They're incredibly patient with us, and we appreciate that a lot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very transparent, tell them exactly what you need, and bring them into your process. The more Secret Sushi knows the more they can help.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a content strategy agency. We have been in business for 26 years. We work with the biggest and most innovative companies to help them plan, create, and maintain their technical, marketing, and training content.

For what projects/services did your company hire Secret Sushi, Inc?

Secret Sushi is our outsourced marketing agency. They do all of our marketing work. This includes implementing and maintaining our marketing automation system, creating and maintaining our corporate website, and creating all of our marketing materials. They provide all of the expertise we need to to be successful.

What were your goals for this project?

We need marketing expertise and execution to plan, create, and deliver all on our corporate brand. This includes website, collateral, presentations, and so on.

How did you select this vendor?

I met the owner of Secret Sushi years ago, as he was a big supporter of Teens in Tech. I admired his commitment to bringing young people through the ranks to become the next generation of software developers.

I got to know the company from there, through in-person meetings and I learned more about what they did. It was a no-brainer for me to start working with Secret Sushi after seeing the passion they put into their work.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Secret Sushi is my marketing department. Whenever I have an idea, I bring it to them and we discuss. They also have lots of ideas for how best to promote and market my company and brand. Secret Sushi creates everything marketing for us - our website, marketing automation system, campaigns, collateral, presentations - they are both strategic and tactical.

What was the team composition?

I work most closely with the owner of the company. I value the time and expertise he provides. In addition, I have worked with incredibly talented designers and other creative people, along with experts in marketing automation.

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

I have been in business for 26 years and Secret Sushi has been doing our marketing for more than 10 of those 26. I think this speaks volumes about the success of our work together. Secret Sushi is always innovating - looking for new and better ways to marketing our brand.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We work extremely effectively together. We have regular meetings and the people at Secret Sushi are always available for additional needs and questions in between.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They really care about the success of my company. They don't give mere lip service to caring. They put in the time and effort it takes to create and maintain by brand. That type of dedication to the customer is rare and valuable.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I am 100% satisfied with the service I get from Secret Sushi. If I wasn't, I would have changed agencies years ago.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a cofounder and principal at Lumicademy. We are a developer of virtual classroom technology that can be consumed, customized and integrated into existing learning platforms.

For what projects/services did your company hire Secret Sushi, Inc, and what were your goals?

We hired Secret Sushi to help refine our social strategy, SEO, core messaging both on our website and in the media and handle a variety of marketing tasks. Our goal was to increase leads and traffic to our service.

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

Adam and the team at Secret Sushi came highly regarded by other Marketing professionals both inside and outside our organization. We looked at several companies, but Secret Sushi had the most polished strategy, took the time to evaluate our business and form a good initial understanding of how to attack our marketplace.

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

The team at Secret Sushi started by helping us refine our messaging and target audience. Then based upon those objectives they helped us with a complete website overhaul and modified our messaging to match. They helped us develop video ads and dramatically improve our SEO. They took charge over our social media spend with consistent reporting and measurement.

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

Not only was Adam involved, but other resources including an account manager, content writers, creative designers and more.

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

We are still in the process to measure the full impact of Secret Sushi's efforts, but already we are seeing a significant rise in traffic to our website from all sources, including search and social. This has resulted in an increase of qualified leads to our sales team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Secret Sushi has a great team of people. Our account manager is always on top of things and works our account to achieve the objectives we desire.

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

I think the genius of Adam is what makes Secret Sushi special. He has a great ability to break down complex Marketing messages into focused tasks, takes the time to understand your business and stays focused on the results.

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

I have no complaints about the performance of the team at Secret Sushi.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Head of Marketing for a financial services company. For more than 20 years, our skilled team of over 2,600 foreign currency exchange experts has delivered industry-leading foreign exchange, risk management, and international payment solutions to any sized business around the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Secret Sushi, Inc, and what were your goals?

We've retained Secret Sushi for a number of services ranging from backend Website administration and development to end-to-end digital advertising campaigns to video production to content creation and marketing to name just a few of the overall mix we've been working on together. They are more of a highly skilled and accomplished extension of our marketing team versus simply a hired agency.

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

We identified Secret Sushi thanks to an internal recommendation from someone who has worked directly with them before and been impressed with all of their strategic deliverables and successful analytics.

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

Without going too far into detail, we've been moving swiftly against many project deliverables on fast timelines--everything has been delivered timely and perfectly.

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

We've worked directly with Adam the owner and one of their key project managers, Kira, and he's pulled various team members into regular meetings when their direct expertise is needed.

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

General feedback is we are please with the ROI and strategic thinking/planning/execution for all of our project deliverables to date. We are working with a proactive team from Secret Sushi who keeps our busy internal Marketing team on time and in budget, a refreshing change in the agency world. With their assistance, we're tracking all the projects in fine detail and seeing impressive results for company growth thanks to Marketing efforts.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Seamless, as I mentioned before their team is more like an extension of our Marketing department rather than simply an agency.

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

Secret Sushi provides a 360-degree view into everything on/offline marketing to comprehensively execute our communication efforts. They've worked hard to fully understand our industry, product/service offerings, and buyer personas to successfully hyper-target our prospects.

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

Nothing I can think of, they've been on the mark thus far.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am VP of Marketing at Celigo (http://celigo.com), a leader in the Integration Platform as a Service company (iPaaS) space.

For what projects/services did your company hire Secret Sushi, Inc?

I first hired Secret Sushi when we were much smaller, to provide us with instant marketing expertise to help manage several of our initiatives around digital marketing on an ongoing basis. Secret Sushi managed several initiatives around all paid campaigns, website conversion optimization, SEO, some content, and other related efforts. This was split between the "Core" Celigo team as the agency of record for our CloudExtend business unit.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to be able to move quickly and efficiently to ramp up marketing operations. The Celigo marketing team was very small at the time, and it would have taken a long time to build all the necessary capabilities in-house.

How did you select this vendor?

I had previously worked with Secret Sushi at two other companies - iCharts and Swarm Fund, so I bround them along when I was first hired at Celigo.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

As mentioned, Secret Sushi managed on an ongoing basis several initiatives around all paid campaigns, website conversion optimization, SEO, some content, web design, and other related efforts. This was split between the "Core" Celigo team as the agency of record for our CloudExtend business unit.

What was the team composition?

Team consisted of two direct contacts at Secret Sushi, and they would supplement with a stable of designers, developers, and writers as needed.

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

Celigo has been growing consistently for the last several years, with the pipeline growth to support it. When we first started, CloudExtend was on the verge of possibly being spun off or shut down, and has been turned around into a thriving part of Celigo since.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very. There was a weekly conversation with the team, and items were typically managed via tools such as Asana.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The direct line of communication with the founder and CEO. Adam is a good person who really cares about his customers, and you can see it in every interaction with him.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As is, Secret Sushi is probably not built for the largest companies, who likely have requirements for in-house staff or very specialized expertise at scale.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Manager at Center for Employment Training (CET). CET provides voc-tech job training services in 12 markets in the US with a focus on targeting at-risk populations.

For what projects/services did your company hire Secret Sushi, Inc?

We originally hired Secret Sushi to complete a website redesign that had been shelved. The turn-around time was very short with a limited budget. Following the successful launch, we continued to engage the team for a variety of services from social strategy to digital advertising.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to bring the organization into the digital age and continue to transform how it reaches its audience.

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed firms and ranked them according to a needs assessment.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Secret Sushi is my marketing partner. As a department of one, Secret Sushi helps us in every aspect - PPC, SEO, "fixing" the website, content models, email automation, GA reporting, tools and resources, blog posts. Name it and I've asked this team to help or they simply step in and get it done. It gets done.

What was the team composition?

I've worked with a variety of team members and always am confident the job will get done and communication is clear.

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

After completing our first project together, we saw our digital lead generation go up 300%. A subsequent site also resulted in increased leads AND put into place better tracking systems and supporting toolsets.

This transformation has continued and increases with the implementation of each strategic initiative. Increased social engagement, a larger share of organic website traffic, and better processes are just a few accomplishments.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow is great. I all fairness, this team has made recommendations on how I can improve my workflow and everything has gotten easier.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Regardless of what comes up, Secret Sushi, Inc can and does help. I am always thankful that I don't need to go to different companies.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that I can see.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of Marketing at a SaaS company. Our analytics solutions help IT executives gain visibility to improve their business performance.

For what projects/services did your company hire Secret Sushi, Inc?

When I joined the company, I knew we needed to scale our digital marketing efforts (and do it faster than our internal team can support). I brought Secret Sushi onboard to help us accelerate at much faster pace than we could on our own.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to accelerate our content marketing and social media outreach and our previous agency was not able to support us.

How did you select this vendor?

I have known and worked with Secret Sushi at two of my previous companies, so I knew I didn't need to look further.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The Secret Sushi team is currently powering our content marketing efforts (e-books, blog, briefs) and is managing our social media presence.

What was the team composition?

In addition to Adam (the founder and CEO), our day-to-day contact is Rai-mon. They are supported by a team of experts in their field.

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

Our digital presence and brand awareness have increased significantly since we started working with Secret Sushi. Not only has our blog traffic more than doubled, but their efforts are significantly contributing to helping us build pipeline.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very smooth. Our weekly calls keep us in lockstep and they're always responsive to urgent requests.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are a true partner that not only cares about our success but pushes us to succeed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a marketing content manager for a facility services organization that provides non-core services to large corporations. Our services include cleaning, technical, support services, food services, and security services.

For what projects/services did your company hire Secret Sushi, Inc?

Secret Sushi is helping with our digital marketing efforts and focused on our SEO and website management.

What were your goals for this project?

Improve our website visibility and grow our leads.

How did you select this vendor?

We met a member of Secret Sushi at a continued learning session and the organization's purpose aligned with our goals.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Offer SEO support and manage our website design. Help with the development of our advertisement campaigns.

What was the team composition?

We work with 2 people from Secret Sushi, Adam and Steve. They are great!!

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

We have seen an increase in our website traffic and support from our executives. We have also seen an increase in website leads. They have helped implement a solution to track leads that come through the website.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow has worked well for us and their team. We have meetings every 2 weeks to make sure our tasks and goals are aligned.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their response time is great and they have a large amount of knowledge. They take the time to help us understand their approach and solution.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Offer a detailed list of tasks in progress that we can follow the flow of work to ensure our goals are met.