Social Fulcrum

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Dobie Associates is a boutique consulting firm specializing in B2B companies who are looking to grow their companies organically. I’m the principal consultant. I find new clients directly or assigned to other clients who might need my specific kinds of capabilities, which is all aspects of go-to-market including demand and lead generation, sales, especially high-velocity sales models, and product management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Fulcrum?

When I first became acquainted with them, I was working at a new consumer financial tech startup. We had no customers at all as we were a brand-new company with a brand-new product. We needed to try to scale really quickly. We had quite a few investment dollars, and our investors were really expecting us to get out of the gate quickly. There were already established competitors that were well ahead of us, and we understood from what they were doing that acquisition scale was going to be really critical. I had started doing some paid social advertising on my own. It was slow and hard to get to a point where I could find the right combinations of ads and audiences to be able to start to really scale that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My boss, who is a LinkedIn fan, had been looking for somebody who was a paid social expert, and he came across Social Fulcrum. He sent me a link and said, “I think you ought to talk to them”. After our very first phone conversation, I was like “Yes, I want to work with them right now. When can we get started?” From our very first meeting with them, we engaged them and got a contract done. The real reason for that was that it was clear that they could talk the talk and walk the walk, and they also spoke to me in terms of my real analytical nature.

At one point in our company, we had as many as 20 data scientists in a company of 120 people. So the whole company was analytics focused; we couldn’t have gone with an agency that was going to talk about fluffy stuff. Those were not metrics that mattered to us—we needed customers. We spoke directly to the two principals, Noah Freeman and Andrew Krebs-Smith at Social Fulcrum, who I’ve gotten to know very well over the years. They really wowed us right away with their ability to talk about the details of their testing programs.

How did you come to work with Social Fulcrum?

I used to work for a consumer lending company that was a new fintech type of company, and that’s where I first met Social Fulcrum. The way we began working together was completely unorganized. We felt strongly that if we started with a small engagement and hated them, that we could just cut them out. Our chances seemed good that we would, at least, have a good experience. We started with them less than 10 days after from our initial meetings.

How much have you invested with Social Fulcrum?

We spent $1 million with them in my first round.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with them October 2014. I left the company after about 10 months of working with them, and they continued working with that firm for another four through six months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The thing that strikes me the most is that we were able to reduce our cost per acquisition by about 50% within the first 90 days. We continued to improve results afterward but at a slower rate. When I transitioned and came to work with this consulting firm, I engaged them with one of my very first clients that I was assigned to, and that’s a data services and aggregation firm. I brought in Social Fulcrum to help them with a few different marketing channels. That program ended up only being a short-term pilot, and my client elected not to proceed because of budget reasons, but we had exceptionally good results with them as well during that time.

I have another client that I am looking to sign on with them right now, which is a public company that is actually a startup because they have divested assets and acquired new ones, so they’re starting over. Social Fulcrum is going to be an extremely good asset to them because of the nature of the clients that they are trying to acquire. It seems like a really good fit for Social Fulcrum as they are looking to be efficient and test a lot of things.

How did Social Fulcrum perform from a project management standpoint?

I enjoyed working with them a lot from a project management standpoint. It wasn’t something that I ever had to worry about. I felt like they were continually letting me know about changes, what they were doing, and what they needed me to do. I felt like they communicated well with me. I had a lot of great project managers that I worked with there. There is one in particular that I talk to every single day.

What did you most impressive about Social Fulcrum?

The thing I appreciated the most was how knowledgeable they were about the different ad tech platforms. They were able to tell me things that I didn’t know, and I’m pretty experienced, so I felt that I was always learning from them. They were always ahead. They were working really hard with the different ad platforms, even to drive their products. For example, they basically beat Pinterest and tried to get them to change things about their ad platform, and they found ways to exploit gaps in the product. They are really smart about stuff.

The other thing that I really appreciated is that they weren’t condescending when they were trying to tell you something that you didn’t know. Every single person that I ever dealt with was really nice. When you have a combination of people who you really like and who you enjoy working with, and who are giving you great results, there’s nothing better than that.

Are there any areas Social Fulcrum could improve?

One of the things that we struggled with at the time was with the creative aspect itself. Anytime there was graphic material needed, I felt like they had areas to improve there. I know they have indeed made some improvements in that area, and I’m sure that’s made a big difference for them, but that’s the only thing that I would have liked to have seen a little different.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Social Fulcrum?

It’s important to not to try to direct Social Fulcrum too much because then you might miss out on some of the potential lessons that Social Fulcrum could bring. If a client thinks they know it all, then Social Fulcrum is probably not their best choice. Be open minded and intentionally curious because you are going to learn some things about your business and your customers that you didn’t know before.