Siege Media

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of outreach for Quote, a lead generation company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Siege Media?

We hired them to make suggestions on how we could improve one of our sites.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Siege Media provided us with SEO consultancy; they gave us suggestions to improve one of our site’s SEO. They also offered link building. First, we told them what we thought our website’s strengths and weaknesses were. Then, they reviewed our site to identify strengths, weaknesses, and content gaps. 

They presented us with a proposal of what we needed to do to better our site. The team worked on improving keyword positioning for a few of our pages. Once they helped us make changes to some of our target pages, they built links to those pages. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with around five people from Siege Media, including SEO specialists, marketing managers, and editors. 

How did you come to work with Siege Media?

We made some comparisons of agencies out there, and Siege Media was one of the recommended agencies we found.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $60,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September–November 2019.

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

Siege Media improved some pages’ keyword rankings and built an average of five links to about 10 of our pages with a domain authority (DA) score of about 35. 

How did Siege Media perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good at project management. We communicated through video chats, phone calls, emails, and Google Sheets. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Siege Media was very professional and knew their stuff; they were good at comparing our performance to our competitors’ performance. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They didn’t build many links to our pages. The engagement could have been much better if they had built more and better links with higher DA scores. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If link building is part of your project, I’d advise not to sign a contract with them until you’ve established the minimum number of links they’ll build for your pages, with a minimum DA score.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the managing editor of a SaaS blog.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siege Media?

We hired Siege Media to do KOB analysis, propose topics, and then write long-form, top-of-funnel blog posts.

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

Our head of SEO had worked with Siege Media in the past (in a different capacity) and highly recommended them for their SEO services. We trusted that recommendation!

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Siege had us completely an intake form and then sent us their interpretation of our answers to be sure we were on the same page, which was incredibly helpful. They also wrote a sample introduction to a blog post to make sure they understood the tone we were going for. After a call to review, and based on all the information we gave them, they did a KOB analysis and proposed a series of topics, including all the metrics related to them.

They asked for our feedback and together, we narrowed down the topics they'd write about. Then they began writing content (normal process: outline, feedback, draft, feedback, final copy—they upload the content into our CMS as well), and continue to do KOB analyses along the way.

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

• CEO was present for the initial call(s)
• Account manager (heavy involvement throughout)
• Designer (heavy involvement early on; just produced content in the background once they understood our style)
• Writers (we had to shift writers part-way through because one of their in-house writers left, but they were able to give us a new team of excellent writers)
• Editor (mostly behind-the-scenes but some interaction)

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

• We'll project that we'll see a return on our investment within 8 months (based on conversions from their content).
• Several Siege-produced pieces were our highest-traffic articles of the year (and several of the topics they came up with but we wrote internally were also very high-traffic).

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They shoulder all the heavy lifting: keyword research, outlining, writing, and uploading; and they have a detailed Google Sheet to track progress against deadlines. They're also very open to feedback about workflow.

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

The content Siege Media produced is the highest quality content I've ever seen from an agency. They were on par with the best content I've received from any freelancer.

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

We had one writer that wasn't a fit for us, but after a few rough pieces, they heard our feedback and were more than happy to move that writer off our account; the new writers they put on our team are incredible.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing at Smith.ai, a customer engagement platform. We offer website chat, virtual receptionist services, and sales outreach campaigns by live agents assisted by AI.

What challenge were you trying to address with Siege Media?

We wanted to increase our rankings on key organic search terms, which would help us gain greater market share. To help us do that, we hired Siege Media. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially had a discovery and client onboarding process with Siege Media. They learned about our business and gave us an inventory of what we needed to provide them with so that they could be a representative of our brand. 

After they audited our search engine standings and competitor positioning, they assigned a manager to us, along with a team that would produce content for our needs. From there, we started identifying top opportunities to work on in terms of content to improve our ranking around key organic search terms. 

At present, we’re still working with Siege Media. They handle our SEO content production, backlinks, and strategic recommendations. We meet regularly, and they also send us reports about our performance.

What is the team composition?

I work with an account manager and a content marketing manager directly, and their many writers and designers indirectly.

How did you come to work with Siege Media?

I knew Siege Media’s founder; we worked together years ago at another company where I was in charge of marketing. Our CEO and I reached out to him for this project. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our company has invested around $150,000 in the engagement. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

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

Our work is still in progress — that’s the nature of SEO — but I’ve received several monthly reports from them, including our report from last month. So far, we’ve improved our position in several top keywords, accrued many backlinks on highly ranked domains, and improved our overall share of traffic from key topics while maintaining high-quality leads. Our team has gained page one or two rankings from some of the articles we’ve written.

How did Siege Media perform from a project management standpoint?

Siege Media has managed the project exceptionally well. The team is extremely organized, and they keep us well-informed about all projects in progress. In terms of tools, we use Google Spreadsheets and specific SEO tools to track the results of our efforts. To communicate, we use emails and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re the absolute best in this business. Nobody thinks more comprehensively about SEO and content strategy than them. Moreover, they have the unique ability to execute strategies in a reliable way; they have a programmatic approach to SEO. 

Overall, the Siege Media team has been truly flexible with our requests, and they feel like a member of our in-house team. They’ve significantly leveled up our content and have impressed not only our marketing team but also our design and leadership teams.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you work with a top-tier firm like Siege Media, you don’t have to wait as long for results. You're producing great content the first time, and they know the master "formula" for ranking on Google, so to speak. That takes a lifetime practically. One staff member could never produce what they have done in a short time, and hiring this many staff in-house would be impossibly expensive budget-wise. It's the perfect work to assign to an agency.

People often believe that it takes a long time for SEO investments to pay off. However, we’ve seen quick ROI with Siege, which is just one of many remarkable things about working with them. They are the most professional, polished, and focused content producers, always with their eyes on the goals. Find other areas to cut budget; these are the best and worth every penny.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Caliber Real Estate, and an co-owner in a hard money fund known as River CIty Capital.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siege Media?

We needed to improve our organic rankings for competitive terms around hard money loans.

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

We got a recommendation from an expert also in finance who had a good experience working with Siege Media. We had an introductory call and proposal that clearly showed Siege got to know our industry and had a plan for success.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Siege created a content strategy plan that offered blog design recommendations. This led to keyword research and a project plan that the team executed on, finding opportunities that allowed us to rank quickly. The content was also particularly high quality.

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

Siege had a Content Marketing Manager and Content Marketing Specialist as our main point of contacts. There are other roles on the team such as designers and Art Directors that also touched the account.

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

Our overall website traffic went up by more than double, also increasing qualified leads by a similar number YOY.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their communication was strong, typically touching base weekly and also corresponding through monthly reports and calls.

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

Their content included high quality design and development that many content teams don't offer.

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

We were hoping they could offer PR services but they recently stopped offering outreach work.

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company is a data platform built for sales and marketing teams that matches sales activities to CRM records, identifies members of buying committees, and identifies the touchpoints throughout the sales cycle that attribute to closed-won opportunities.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siege Media, and what were your goals?

SEO strategy and content creation. Goal was to increase site traffic, rank for specific industry keywords compared to other well-known competitors, and increase leads.

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

We followed a referral from our CMO at the time. The main deciding factor was how quickly they could get up to speed on our products, speak our language, and be able to produce high-quality content that we'd been previously handing in-house.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Keyword analysis, analytics reporting, drafting up content outlines, drafting up v1 of content, finalizing content, designing SEO friendly images, handing off to in-house engineer for publishing.

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

2-3? Content manager and designer were main points of contact throughout project.

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

I don't have the numbers in front of me but I know that we drastically increased traffic to the site, ranked higher for certain keywords that other competitors were "known for" and were getting far more people onto our blog than ever before.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Communication style was relaxed but professional. Always had up to date timelines ready, never missed an internal deadline. Leveraged Slack for day to day comms, Zooms for bi-weekly check-ins, and Trello for project management.

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

Ability to take feedback and iterate quickly. Especially once the project was really humming along. The edits that were required from my team became fewer and fewer as the Siege team quickly became SMEs on our topics.

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

Not that I can think of

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Vice President of one of the largest media companies in the US.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siege Media?

We hired Siege Media for their content marketing expertise and execution capabilities for high end content for several of our startup and mid-range brands, including Interest.com, TheSimpleDollar.com and several others.

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

We selected Siege for their expertise, reputation, and for driving strong SEO results for one of our smaller businesses the year prior.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

They started by assigning an Account Executive and meeting with us several times with multiple people from each company present, to dive into our brand status, competitive sets, SEO targets, and audience growth targets. After the discovery rounds we met routinely (1-2x per month depending on the brand) to deep dive into the editorial calendar, QC, and review of performance in growing traffic and links. Their close involvement helped to pivot strategy from time to time when ideas didn't pan out, or where they spotted fresh opportunities.

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

They assigned an Account Executive but their Director of Strategy was very present and engaged throughout the project, as were some of their creative leads, and the founder (Ross) when applicable.

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

Siege helped us to more than double our media share and backlink velocity, which helped to drive SEO performance and audience growth. Some of our smaller sites were in growth mode so naturally saw month over month traffic growth of over 100% most months, the larger sites closer to 10-30%.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I would say it was quite effective; Siege were really flexible overall and handled a lot of self-reporting, adapting to our google sheets, metrics, and ways of dashboarding progress.

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

Quality and breadth of experience. They have a broad, current perspective of content marketing. Media companies are matched with strong creativity.

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

Even faster testing and innovating with new concepts in some of our competitive but dull content categories (like mortgages or credit cards), where it can be incredibly hard to see success vs more naturally interesting topics.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I worked for NortonLifeLock and led our SEO efforts.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siege Media?

We wanted to boost our content marketing efforts, and earn backlinks to enhance the SEO value of our site.

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

I had worked with Siege Media in the past when I was at Shutterfly. I was always super impressed by the quality of their work and their constant willingness to go above and beyond to ensure we were achieving our objectives. Based on their strong reputation and great interaction we had in the past, it was an easy decision to work with Siege Media again.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Siege Media helped us to really dive into where our opportunities were with content marketing. They did thorough research into the competition and also did outstanding analysis into specific audiences that we should try and target. They would propose a list of topics that they would develop content for and it was all backed up by their in-depth research and opportunity sizing.

Once we aligned on a list of topics that we would pursue, they would develop the content and then share it with us for approval. We had many internal stakeholders and many layers of approval to go through and Siege was always very fast in making those changes. Once we obtained approval from all stakeholders, Siege would deliver the finalized assets and we would publish them on our site.

Additionally, they conducted outreach for each piece of content and we saw great traction in terms of how many sites were willing to link back to us. They would also monitor the performance of each piece of content and would also utilize that information to inform future pieces of content that they would develop for us.

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

We typically had 2 people working directly with us at all times but others would get looped in as well depending on the topic or agenda we needed to discuss. They were typically content marketing managers or specialists.

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

Siege Media would always surpass expectations with the quality of their work and the results that they generated. They helped us to consistently create content that would rank highly in Google search results. They even helped us to optimize a article that achieved #1 rankings for a highly competitive and high volume search term. That article actually ended up being one of the top traffic contributors to our website. The results they would achieve were always consistently stellar.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was extremely productive and streamlined. They adjusted their workflow to ensure they were supporting us as best as possible. As previously mentioned, we had many layers of approvals and stakeholders to go through internally and Siege Media was always accommodating and supportive every step of the way.

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

There are many things about Siege Media that are impressive. They use a very data-driven approach to decision making. All of their work is backed up by data. Additionally, they went above and beyond to ensure that they were delivering the best quality of work. They don't cut corners and they do things right and the results certainly show.

They're also just really great people to work with. Everyone from the founder Ross to content marketing folks to designers and developers, the entire organization is filled with great people who are just a pleasure to work with.

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

No. =)

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder & CEO

For what projects/services did your company hire Siege Media, and what were your goals?

Siege reviewed our business and helped us look at potential SEO strategies to be part of our sales plan and / or sales development process.

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

I was introduced to the company through a group I am involved with. I have spoken to lots of folks doing SEO through the years and was impressed with the background and knowledge of the team.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

The team reviewed our current website, understood our business plan and our goals. They then made suggestions on areas of opportunity, areas that aren't worth focusing on and things we might consider for the future as we grow and scale.

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

I worked with one of the most senior team members. We are a new company working on determining our sales and marketing strategies.

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

As a result of the project we have decided that SEO will not be one of our major areas of sales and marketing spend. I appreciate the candor and honesty the team provided in helping us determine where best to deploy our resources for sales growth.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They did a good job of teaching, helping me understand, showing how things work and don't work.

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

Their knowledge of SEO and link building was very strong. I impressed with the commitment and service of the team.

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

I probably would have liked a little more time to go over the recommendations, but in all honesty I got what need in that we need to focus on other areas of our sales and marketing strategy.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the EIC of a financial media publication which produces more than 100,000 words of content each month.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siege Media, and what were your goals?

We faced numerous challenges in terms of Search Engine Optimization. A previously successful SEO strategy failed to yield further results, and we weren’t sure why. Our aim was to increase our search presence on Google, strengthening our position as an authority in a very competitive landscape.

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

Siege Media was referred to me by a friend in a different vertical. They were highly recommended.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Siege helped us to develop, implement, and further refine an effective content marketing strategy. They performed a competitor analysis and keyword research, identifying gaps among our competition which were ultimately opportunities for us. They examined our existing content, strategy, and processes, identifying multiple areas which needed improvement. They then looked at our existing capabilities, and facilitated a plan we could feasibly accommodate through content marketing. Finally, they helped us with promoting the content on various social media and other external channels.

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

I’ve worked directly with three individuals, though I’m aware that a team of 6-7 personnel actively assisted in our collaboration.

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

We’re an ROI focused organization. At the end of the day, if it doesn’t make sense in terms of ROI, we’re not going to do it. With that being said, we’re on track to see a positive ROI from the work performed by Siege. In fact, we’ve seen a number of increases across measurable metrics, including organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and media mentions from other high-quality, authoritative publications in our space. The latter is very difficult to obtain.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

I’ve always felt very comfortable—and aware—of the work Siege Media has done. Everyone I’ve worked with is a great communicator, ensuring I understand what’s going on and that I’m happy with the plan. I also receive consistent updates in terms of progress, including a detailed monthly report explaining progress in the previous month, and plans for the upcoming month.

I’ve found that Siege Media took the initial steps to really understand our needs, and always made our end goal their first priority. After 15+ months of working with them, this is the impression I still have, which is a wonderful feeling. I’ve worked with a lot of agencies and most have resulted in poor experiences, but Siege has been fantastic.

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

Their methodical processes and SEO expertise are what really blows me away. Coming from a very competitive niche, I had concerns that standard SEO practices wouldn’t be sufficient, given our experience. Yet, in reality, this was never a concern once I spoke with Siege. Their knowledge and experience was applied to our content strategy in ways that I had never even considered.

Further, they’ve been able to provide us with a number of mentions from other platforms which are incredibly rare in this industry. I’ve yet to encounter anyone else with the ability to provide similar services.

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

We haven’t had any issues.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the operator of an educational brand, as well as a board member of an engineering company and a technology company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siege Media?

We knew we needed to develop content that was engineered to drive keyword-specific traffic to our website. We had a rough idea of the value top of funnel content created in our specific target markets but we were very skeptical of the ROI claims that nearly every agency makes. We knew that finding the right formula to increase traffic would dramatically increase revenue, so it wasn't that we weren't able to spend money, it was that we were highly skeptical that it would be a good investment.

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

We found Siege through a referral. We were told they focus only on content marketing and that they do everything in house; strategic analysis, design, content development, brand alignment, and distribution to publishers. We knew enough to know that we had outgrown trying to have one or two people originate all our SEO work in house. However, we were having a hard time assessing the quality of different full-service agencies. It seemed like everyone could do everything, so Siege telling us they could only do content was refreshingly honest.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After the initial meeting, Siege worked with us to get a feel for our branding parameters. We outlined the business case for our investment to make sure the performance reports tracked the right KPIs. Siege then analyzed the competitiveness of our current pages as well as the search market activity for key terms. From there, they told us where we'd see value from content spending, and gave us a proposal that they were confident would deliver the results promised. Once the project was running, they gave us a regular report showing how we were doing compared to our goals.

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

We worked with a team from Siege that was led by a content marketing manager and designer, and included several specialists. I don't know all their roles, but I think they divided between industry experts, design specialists, distribution specialists, researchers, and content writers and editors.

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

Traffic in our target markets has grown over 100% in the time we've been working with Siege. We are confident that the incremental gross profit we've seen from their work has delivered a positive ROI. We think we paid for them in under a few months. We'll continue working with them as long as they keep driving the results ( we actually weren't able to start working with them as soon as we hoped because they had a waiting period for new clients).

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We are in regular communication with multiple team members and haven't found there to be any significant blackouts in communications.

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

Their specialization with content marketing, their willingness to say what they can't do well / confidently expect an ROI, and the fact that their processes for running a project and communicating seem to be well organized.

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

I wish we could have started right away rather than waiting in the queue. Also, we have other digital marketing needs and since we've been so happy with their content work, I wish they were able to provide some other marketing services too. They did have a few suggested referrals we may try but any time you find a good vendor or service provider, you wish you could go to them for more.