Shrewd Marketing, LLC

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior vice president of enterprise sales for Comporium. Comporium is a telecom and broadband company with internet, video, phone, and security home automation services. We also run a media services company that serves our business customers, and partners with other telecom agencies to provide media services in the Southeast United States.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shrewd Marketing?

We own, host, and manage an online digital directory—or internet yellow pages (IYP) platform— that needed a refresh. We wanted the directory to have better functionality, produce better results, and be optimized for both web and mobile devices. We passed the domain over to Shrewd to rebuild the platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Shrewd owns a patented technology that collects data and auto populates and creates profiles in different territories across the U.S. They applied that technology to our directory and used it to improve SEO rankings. They also built the directory to be customizable and have a responsive design that works across any device.

Shrewd’s platform is very flexible to the needs of the agency or business that would be deploying an online directory. It also allows for custom branding for your agency or business, and offers a full suite of online services, reputation management, web design, web hosting, digital marketing services, and SEO. Really, Shrewd has anything an agency would need to package and retail their brand to customers.

What is the team composition?

We have probably worked with about six members of their team, including project managers and developers.

How did you come to work with Shrewd Marketing?

I have personally worked with their co-founder over the last 15 years in different online directory and web marketing spaces. Through him, I met with the other co-founder when Shrewd was launching, and we became one of the company’s first partners.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $1 million–$2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered together in July 2015, and we continue to have bi-weekly meetings to go over issues, bug fixes, or new advancements we want to make to the platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have increased our advertisers’ visibility exponentially on the new platform as a result of the ad-serving technology that is built into Shrewd’s technology. The platform presents more relevant ads within the internal search results of the directory, increasing the value we offer our business customers.

How did Shrewd Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

We have not had any problems with project management, and I think it is one of their strong suits. We were able to create a timeline, meet each deadline, and launch within the timeframe we were looking for.

When we were first laying out our requirements, my team had some onsite visits that eventually evolved into weekly calls. We communicated daily through technology like Slack, and began a weekly sales meeting after launch to cover sale’s issues and performance. Now that the platform has been online for a little over two years, we check in about every two weeks via a conference call.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They bring a large wealth of knowledge on web marketing and online directories because they have been involved in those arenas for so long. Additionally, their flexibility to tailor their platform to meet our business needs was impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. We have really been in sync on the project and become close partners.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be willing to listen to the knowledge and experience that they have in the spaces you’re looking to possible transform an old business model into a new one. It is never too late to transform your business, and Shrewd offers options to help reclaim and drive new revenues.