European Market SEO for Luxury Car Service
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Search Engine Optimization
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Content development International SEO Other SEO
- $50,000 to $199,999
- Jan. 2011 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 4.5
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"Because of SEO Brand's effort...I have no competition in my market."
- Automotive
- Miami, Florida
- 1-10 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
SEO Brand researched a car dealership's competitors and created brand marketing and pay-per-click strategies. They later provided lead generation and content creation for a website and app.
Communication with SEO Brand was seamless, since the team used Basecamp, weekly phone calls, and email reports to keep the internal staff involved in every step of the decision-making process. They were always passionate, trustworthy, and dedicated to their work.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your organization.
We are a classic car handler for European clientele. Our company is based in Miami. Our business requires a large marketing presence within Europe, given that our customers come from Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Luxemburg, and so on. We mostly have people looking for classic cars like the '65 Mustang or '58 Corvette. We handle very particular classic cars which are hard to find anywhere other than the US. We seek cars all over the US, negotiate sales, qualify the seller and the car, and take care of the entire process, from A to Z, including shipping the cars from wherever they are located in the US to the port in Europe. We take care of customs clearance and everything else.
What is your position?
I am the founder and owner.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What business challenge were you trying to address with SEO Brand?
Our target audience is in Europe, 8,000 kilometers away, so we needed creative branding in order to get people interested in spending anywhere from $20,000 to $200,000 on a car. By being so far away, we need to provide a guarantee that we are a trustworthy, liable company, and that we do our jobs right. The context in which we work is very scientific: we build clientele and branding based on trust. If we miss one deal, then our reputation suffers. The core business of our company is dependent on our marketing strategy. We needed to make our company known, starting with our branding effort.
SOLUTION
Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.
We had a briefing with SEO Brand a number of years ago. They operate in Canada and the US, but SEO Brand has good knowledge of the European market. We had to define our real needs, so we set the goal for our company to become emblematic in the business. People from 8,000 kilometers away needed to know about us in order to provide business on a regular basis. We considered what other companies were doing and how they were doing it. SEO Brand did the research and we found out that our specific niche had never been marketed properly. The only advantage of our competitors was that they had been there before us. They didn't do much branding from a digital standpoint.
SEO Brand gave us a clear understanding of what we were up against. From there, we built a strategy, namely to strengthen our branding through pay-per-click advertising. SEO Brand analyzed the components we could use in Europe. They researched marketing approaches and websites in our target area.
The second part of our work included lead generation, which came with its own strategy. Pay-per-click can also generate leads, but since we're in a niche and Europe is a bit old-fashioned when it comes to AdWords, we're only using this tool for exposure, more than anything else. We researched the available websites on which we could publish ads for our cars and came up with interesting possibilities which have become the core components of our marketing.
We then went to on work on SEO, generating text and trying to define what we did. Even though I'm a good writer, one text per month would not help our goal. We needed a strategy through which we could produce information about our business on a regular basis. SEO Brand did a great job of generating exposure for our company through content generation. Because of SEO Brand's effort, I have come to consider that I have no competition in my market. No one else does what we do as far as marketing.
I've also asked SEO Brand to develop a website and a mobile application for my business.
How did you come to work with SEO Brand?
Most SEO companies act as contractors, working on 100 jobs at the same time. There are also many one-man-show companies which claim that they have full teams available. I've had many experiences of this kind in the past through companies found online, so this was no longer a solution for me. I considered it to be a waste of time, so I started asking people in my area for recommendations. Out of the 10 people I talked to, 7 of them barely knew what I was talking about, but the other 3 directed me to SEO Brand. I found this to be a good indicator, so I checked the company out. I met with SEO Brand's principal, who introduced me to the team in Canada. I could see right from the start that they were a hardworking and organized group, not a one-man-show.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?
The average cost for SEO Brand's services is $50,000 per year or more. The cost of the last website SEO Brand built for me was $20,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
I have been working with SEO Brand for more than 5 years. Once I find someone reliable, I ask them to bring their tools and we go for it.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?
Even though I do have competitors, as far as marketing goes, no one in my niche produces the energy that we have achieved through SEO Brand. Working in a niche has made the job of positioning my company easier, though. I have the advantage of not competing with large companies.
How did SEO Brand perform from a project management standpoint?
I like to stay involved in the project management because it's important for my business. SEO Brand uses Basecamp, through which they keep me updated on the work. I also receive email reports with detailed charts.
During the web development project, I was also kept informed about every step taken, including internal iterations that SEO Brand made. SEO Brand included me in the project, almost making me a part of the team. They considered me a partner, not just a client, and involved me in the processes for running campaigns and building my website. I am a dedicated person, and as such, I've appreciated SEO Brand's way of working. I'm not a developer, but I feel like I'm a part of the process. SEO Brand wants me to understand what they are building, which shows me how the money I invested is being used.
What distinguishes SEO Brand from other providers?
I go back-and-forth on the phone with SEO Brand every week. I like to be on top of the work, but I also know that I can trust SEO Brand to run operations even without constant interventions from me, as opposed to other SEO companies I've worked with in the past.
I receive regular reports of our work and maintain my involvement because it allows me to assess the work being done. SEO Brand's team always knows exactly where we stand and I can see information about our progress on a week-by-week basis. I can see the areas in which we're succeeding and the ones in which we need a new strategy. As a business owner, I've been incredibly relieved to work like this. Within the SEO industry, it can be easy to get lost in the details, and many companies take advantage of the fact that their clients don't understand technical details. SEO Brand is made up of passionate people who care about what they do. I always push the people with whom I work and try to stay on top of things, which can become too much, but this hasn't been a problem with SEO Brand. They simply deliver, which is impressive to me, especially in the SEO field.
I went through a few companies before using SEO Brand. They simply acted like paid contractors. They did their job and gave answers in Chinese for any questions I asked, putting me in front of a wall. It was a relief to be a part of a project and have SEO Brand's team understand what I wanted. There was never any miscommunication with SEO Brand because I was involved at every step of the process.
SEO Brand's approach inspired me even in my business. Providing this level of relief is something I've tried to do for my own clients. If everyone worked like this, we'd live in a perfect world.
Is there anything SEO Brand could have improved or done differently?
There is always something which can be done better, and we're always on the look for that, either from my side or SEO Brand's. The moment we stop evolving is the moment we start going backwards. In the digital industry especially, everything moves very fast. Google algorithms change every 6 months or even sooner. They'll soon be using artificial intelligence instead of the old algorithms. This is not my industry, but I have been forced by the circumstances to understand and adapt to it.
RATINGS
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Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
"I believe that my rating is self-explanatory at this point."
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Schedule
4.5On time / deadlines
"Giving a maximum rating for this is hard, given that we're dealing with many factors in the SEO field. The SEO Brand's team do the best they can, but scheduling is dependent on more than their efforts. The industry itself is always changing."
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"The difference in value given by SEO Brand is like the one between a Fiat and a Porsche. I wanted an organized team behind me, not a one-man-show, so I had to pay for it. Good service comes with a price in any field, just like cheap and fast work."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS