Siren Digital Marketing

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Strategic Franchise Development, a franchise sales outsourcing company that works with emerging and mid-sized franchise brands. Clients hire us to help them sell franchise units.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siren Digital Marketing?

We hired them to build our website and handle our SEO, advertising, and overall marketing strategy.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a professional website that ranked high on Google and consistently generates leads for our services.

How did you select Siren Digital Marketing?

They were referred to us by one of our franchise clients. We didn't contact them right away because we weren't quite ready to work on our own website yet. A few months went by and we started hearing their name come up when talking to other franchises that work with them. When asked them and a few others for a proposal and ultimately, decided they were the best fit based on their reputation.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

From the beginning, we asked them for their recommendations. We knew we needed a "website" and what our goals were but didn't know how to get there. Siren made the process super easy and provided us with a strategy that was built to scale up as our business scaled. They built our new website which included design, development, copywriting, content, and technical SEO. Once that was done, we launched an on-going SEO campaign with them that includes monthly content creation, link building, and PR. Soon after, they helped us set up an ad strategy that compliments our content and helps generate leads through Google, social media, and retargeting.

What was the team composition?

We have a dedicated project manager that we have open access to at any time. While we don't deal with many others on a regular basis, we know that the work is done by specialists in each segment. We also have communications with the principle and VP during our quarterly reviews.

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

We are currently number 1, 2 or 3 across the board for all of our most valued keywords. More so, were getting traffic, leads, and awareness from the content being created. We didn't "ask" for this in the beginning, but the way it's explained to us is we're building informational content that helps solve challenges our clients are facing or answers questions they are asking. Because of this, were ranking well for keywords and questions we never even thought of. We've seen a consistent increase in the number of leads generated each month, and those leads are turning into a real business. For our paid ads, we were surprised to find that we get really solid returns for a very low budget. Their services have helped us win some really great business they have started helping us develop other areas of our overall brand strategy that were really excited to get going.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They are very efficient. We have a quarterly meeting to talk about results, growth, and the next. We also know we can ask questions or do more frequent reviews if we need it. They are very respectful of our time and require minimum input from our end to get things done. Basically, we're at a point where we really trust them to make decisions and move forward without us approving every little thing. They have a really nice project management system worked out. Not sure what it is, but we can access anything we need anytime and see everything that's happening day to day.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I think the thing we value the most is the way in which they take ownership/responsibility for their own recommendations. That's something you rarely see with vendors these days, especially in the B2B space. In simple terms, they tell us what we're going to do instead of always asking what we think which is a huge plus. Obviously, we trust them and they know what they are doing, but again, it's just rare to ask someone for their expertise these days and they actually do it. Siren's got it together.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a 12-attorney, 20 employee law firm located in the Chicago area. We handle divorce and family law matters exclusively. We are the largest divorce law firm outside of Chicago. I am one of two owners and the Chief Operations Officer.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siren Digital Marketing?

Creation of a custom website with our new look and branding. Transfer of extensive amount of pages from our existing website to the new site without breaking links and our existing ranking with Google. It was a sizable project.

What were your goals for this project?

1. Totally fresh look with our new branding, including custom fonts, colors, logos, imagery. 2. Transfer our existing site over so we would not lose rank. 3. User-friendly, mobile-responsive site. 4. Wordpress so we could easily add stuff and make changes ourselves once it was launched, and so much is available for WP.

How did you select this vendor?

Researched several options - four other web marketing firms. Siren was the best in terms of reputation of one of the owners, price, and the estimated time to completion. We wanted the project launched around the new year. Also, we really wanted the developer to understand what we wanted to do with the brand and that we didn't want a simple template generic law firm website. The vendor understood what we were trying to accomplish.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They created a custom Wordpress site, included all of the graphics, ported the old site over to the new one, and trained us up on how to use the CMS. They also made requested tweaks and changes quickly. They helped us with the porting and it was a pretty seamless process.

What was the team composition?

The dev team included a lead and he worked with subcontractors. I only communicated with the dev lead, Paul McIntosh. He was 100% professional and responsive consistently.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The site launched, and we've had great traffic to it. We've added content easily and received a lot of compliments about the look and feel of the site. I am very pleased with the project results!

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

As stated, Paul was the lead, and he worked with members of his team - we only needed to talk with Paul.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their speed, competency, skill, and knowledge about website design and SEO stood out. Very responsive to calls and emails.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of Tierra Encantada and Denzer Holdings. Tierra Encantada is the leader in Spanish immersion early education. Providing care for children ages 6 weeks to 6 years of age, Tierra Encantada's high-quality program has received the highest possible rating (4 stars) in its home state of Minnesota. Centers feature on-site commercial kitchens to provide fresh-cooked organic meals designed to expand young palates. Tierra's commitment to being environmentally friendly can be seen throughout operations, from the solar panels at their Bryant location to the cloth diapers provided and used for children at all locations. Tierra Encantada has multiple corporate locations in Minnesota and is offering franchises in most markets throughout the United States.

For what projects/services did your company hire Siren Digital Marketing?

We hired Siren to help us with lead generation for our franchise expansion, specifically, Google Ads management. They help us advertise our franchise opportunity and generate leads for our sales team. They have also helped us generate our localized marketing plans for individual franchised and corporate locations which include Google Ads, SEO and Facebook ads.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted qualified potential franchisees to inquire and explore our opportunity. We also wanted to find a method of doing this that was measurable and cost-effective.

How did you select this vendor?

We had previously worked with Siren through our corporate business and initially found them by searching online. We evaluated several strategies and other vendors before making our decision and found that Siren provided the right mix of cost and reputation. Ultimately, it was their service guarantee and the fact that they handled everything that was the deciding factor. They were able to outperform expectations but kept our time commitments to a minimum.

Describe the project in detail.

We started by going through a brief intake process. I think there was one questionnaire we had to complete. After that, they presented the content for approval and walked us through the strategy to make sure everyone was on the same page. It didn't require a lot of effort on our part and they really did there homework before approval.

Everything looked great during this part and we approved their plan with no modifications. We had to give them access to certain things like our website, and they made a few recommendations for content but we didn't make any structural changes. They also helped us fix some technical problems we were having with the site that the original developer missed and didn't charge us extra for it.

What was the team composition?

I know there are a few people that work on different things, but we've always had one project manager that's been our go-to for everything. I'm not sure exactly how many people work on what.

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

Within the first month, we received a few leads but they were very high quality and we actually closed our first new franchisee from this campaign. Each month the number of leads we receive increases and we've increased our budget twice as a result of if.

While we have had other initiatives that work, from an rate of return standpoint, this is our best marketing project for attracting new franchise owners. Recently, we saw big increases in the number of leads but noticed a dip in quality. Before we could bring it up, Siren contacts us to ask if we noticed any quality changes.

It turns out, there are a lot of out of work daycare workers due to COVID-19 that are exploring "starting a daycare", but unfortunately, most of them aren't financially qualified to open a Tierra. We were impressed that Siren saw this even before we did and contacted us to let us know they suspected it would be an issue and immediately to steps to correct it. Now, things are back on track and we're still seeing positive results despite all the chaos with the current crisis.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great. They have a well-defined process for reporting and client communications. We have direct access to our project manager anytime we need it. Phone and Email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I won't pretend to understand half of how they do the work for us, but more than anything were most impressed with the results. Some other great things off the top of my head are the costs (very fair compared to others) and they're really about the work.

Minimal small talk, minimal requirements on our time to do the job. I realize that may not be important to everyone, but it's a huge plus for us. I think to many companies today are hired then you end up doing all the work. Not the case with Siren.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. We couldn't be happier with the results.