Soup Agency

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Marketing for an eCommerce skincare brand.

For what projects/services did your company hire Soup Agency, and what were your goals?

We engaged Soup to run the SEO for our Australian site.

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

We selected The Soup Agency as we felt that Katya was very knowledgeable on the eCommerce landscape and was going to help - with not only SEO - but other areas of the business if we needed.

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

Our journey began with an in-depth audit of the site. They developed a working sheet that was easily shared with our developers and spoke directly with them to ensure everything got done. This resulted in a faster, lighter website which helped with our rankings instantly. Each month, we now target different keywords to boost key products.

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

We work with one directly, Katya. But I know her whole team touches our account.

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

Since implementing their SEO suggestions, our non-branded search terms have increased not only in Australia but in the US too.

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

Everything is mostly done via email and Google sheets. Follow up communications are very clear on what has been completed and is outstanding.

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

They're very proactive in ensuring all tasks are completed. If something needs to be done, they take the initiative to get it done even though it may not have been in the initial scope. They have become our go-to digital marketing advisor. They're very knowledgeable on not just SEO but every digital!

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

Nothing

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing manager at Dashing - our core business works with some of the biggest retailers in Australia producing visual merchandising campaigns and print executions.

For what projects/services did your company hire Soup Agency, and what were your goals?

In 2021 launched a merchandise brand and rebranded our Dashing X brand management platform. Soup Agency came into play to help with the PPC for these two brands, increasing brand awareness and prospecting new clients.

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

Another supplier recommended Soup Agency to us, they had a good price, and Katya our consultant was super helpful from day 1.

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

For my merch we started creating a Google Adwords account, then planning the ads and keywords to launch the campaign. We have monthly meetings with Soup to keep optimising our results. For Dashing X Soup set up Google and Capterra Ads.

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

Katya is our main point of contact, she is the Founder of Soup. I also worked with Tanya, the Digital Project Manager.

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

Since implementing the PPC ads we are ranking better online and receiving enquires through the website. Some of our clients are finding us online, which is a good sign.

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

They are great at managing the projects and keeping me posted on the progress. The majority of our communication is via email, but they are always available for a call if we need it.

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

Their level of knowledge in the industry and professionalism.

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

It would be nice to have some more suggestions for us to improve our campaigns at our monthly meetings.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Car Next Door is Australia's largest peer-to-peer car share network. I manage our marketing department at Car Next Door, including our performance marketing function.

For what projects/services did your company hire Soup Agency, and what were your goals?

Soup Agency were engaged to help support us while we hired an internal Performance Marketing Specialist. As part of their engagement they were also asked to help audit and refine our strategy for Google Ads, with an understanding of how to best reach our business goals.

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

Soup Agency came highly recommend to us via a valued contact.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Soup Agency took the understanding of our business, our goals and what has worked/not worked before and quickly came up with a strategic, considered and actionable strategy for review. Once approved, this was quickly translated into action.

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

Katya Vakulenko - Founder

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

Soup Agency decreased our CPA by 14% in just one month. They also increased our total acquisitions and strengthen our capacity to achieve our ROAS across all product verticals.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective and easy communication. Soup Agency was happy to tap into our existing organisational channels and ways of working.

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

Speed of action - the time from onboarding to actionable strategy was much faster than I would have imagined.

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

None!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Community and Innovation Manager at Australian Jewish Funders. AJF is the network inspiring effective philanthropy and strengthening community, that is guided by the pillars of innovation, collaboration and leadership to achieve impactful giving guided by Jewish values. AJF inspires members to strengthen the Jewish community and beyond, at the individual and collective levels through educational engagement opportunities, events and programming.

For what projects/services did your company hire Soup Agency?

We want to increase our communications on social media, particularly Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to ensure that we are telling stories about the impact we are making. In particular showcasing our partnership with Catchafire. I would love some structure to the best way to continue posting photos/stories and information out, with canva templates.

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

Soup Agency applied for this project on Catchafire and after interviewing them we thought the collaboration was perfect and decided to continue on the journey together.

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

After our first meeting, Soup Agency began putting together a social media content calendar to meet all our needs. This also involved canva templates which we can adapt to our needs moving forward. The copy they created was fantastic and really understood our brief.

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

We worked with 3 incredible individuals from the team, including founder Katya and Lakshi and Michelle.

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

We launched a Philanthropy fellowship and had a positive turn out for applications, thanks to our social media posts.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We met almost weekly, and they were fantastic at communicating back to us on the work that was being completed, taking us along on the journey, which was increidble.

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

They've offered incredible attention to detail.

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

Honestly, nothing they were attentive and able to understand what we were looking for, which was great!!

Please describe your company and your position there.

At Beeline, we believe that a world where more people ride is a cleaner, healthier and happier world. We aim to get more people riding by improving the typical ride experience and removing the barriers that put people off. We do this by handling the routes, navigation and tracking so that riders can get the most out of their journeys.

For what projects/services did your company hire Soup Agency, and what were your goals?

We have taken on Soup to handle all our back end marketing.

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

Came with great referrals and are very easy to communicate with.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

They were to: Set up all markering tracking and marketing spend accounts, come up with and roll out our social campaigns, produce a plan and implement AdWords advertising. Then we touch base bi-weekly to discuss outcomes and approve plans.

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

We have dealt with several different members of the team who all can implement changes to our account. All have been a pleasure to work with.

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

From the first month, we saw a positive return on our ad spend. Any changes were done quickly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Perfect. Very flexible.

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

The ease of communication is what we have found to be the most impressive.

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

Not as yet. We are very happy with the work they've done so far.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m in charge of the software and technology investments for an investment company. We invest in day-to-day software services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soup Agency?

We needed help with digital marketing, content strategy, and content creation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Soup Agency has provided us with several services. For example, they set up a whole email marketing strategy for us from scratch, and they also implemented a contact form on our site so that people can interact with us.

They’ve created all the content for our website, including more than 20 blog entries, and they’ve been in charge of our social media posting, too. They continue to provide us with content every month on an ongoing basis.

Additionally, they created two different videos for us. One is an explainer video that explains the software product and the company behind it. The other one introduces case studies with existing clients and their experiences. They scripted the videos and coordinated the entire video production.

What is the team composition?

We work with 5–6 people from Soup Agency, including an email specialist, a content specialist, a copywriter, an SEO person, and a couple of other people.

How did you come to work with Soup Agency?

They were recommended by a friend of mine.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2021, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Soup Agency coordinates their staff quickly, and they’re responsive to change requests, which has been helpful.

How did Soup Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is good, and we use Asana to manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Soup Agency’s responsiveness is impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good if they improved the social media posts. Originally, the content was too much, but they’ve been improving in that regard.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing and engagement manager at Northcott. We are a leading disability service provider in NSW/ACT. We support children and adults with complex and profound disability.

For what projects/services did your company hire Soup Agency, and what were your goals?

We had a very poor online presence and wanted to make our organisation more visible online. We also wanted to ensure our digital marketing budget was being used effectively.

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

We were recommended Soup Agency through a professional network. We considered 3 agencies and chose Soup Agency based on their expertise.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Soup Agency did a comprehensive review of our current digital capabilities to understand where we were at and the gaps. Following the analysis we agreed on some of our key priorities, strategy and budget.

Over the next 6 months we slowly worked on optimising our account on Google and Facebook. The agency had a really comprehensive knowledge of the platforms, this made the work so much faster and more efficient. They were able to identify issues quickly and recommend possible solutions.

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

We worked mainly with Katya.

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

We were able to leverage on our Google grant like never before. Within 6 months there was a 10 fold increase in our ability to utilise the grant.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Katya has always been very responsive, she was available over the phone, emails and via face to face meetings in our office. Given the restrictions in Sydney, we started to move more of our collaboration online using Google apps.

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

They are really a specialist in in digital marketing. What I find really impressive was how up to speed they are with the latest technology/trends. Things move very quickly in the digital space and it is very hard for us to be across updates/changes. I find that the agency is always proactive and innovative.

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

We are limited by COVID restrictions but I would have liked more face to face interactions so we can share more product knowledge.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an owner of a footwear company and my position is Founder and Creative Designer.

For what projects/services did your company hire Soup Agency, and what were your goals?

We hired Soup Agency to help us with a sales strategy of our new footwear line.

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

We searched online for a reputable marketing agency in Sydney area. As a small business we had a set budget and Soup Agency stood out as it had really good reviews and met our requirements.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

As a newly established business we needed help with bringing the brand to life. We concentrated on building the brands identity, persona and voice as well as identifying our market.

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

We worked with the account manager.

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

I think the investment was certainly worth the outcome. We now have a clear understanding of our target market and the way we should be marketing our product.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We communicated via zoom, phone and emails and found it effective for what we needed to achieve.

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

They know how to do everything and specialize in all areas of digital marketing. As our business grows, we will continue to use Soup Agency to assist all of our needs.

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

We had a really good experience and cant fault service we have received.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of KE Financial Services. Our company provides a wide range of accounting and taxation services, so our clients can focus on their businesses.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soup Agency?

I needed them to build my website and help me boost my clientele.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’m a finance professional and not really a marketing person — I needed Soup Agency’s team to not only develop my website but also employ marketing strategies that could effectively introduce my business to the right clients. As soon as their team signed the contract, they created the scope of work and helped me set specific business goals.

They designed my logo and created my website from scratch, including both content and development work. After this project phase, Soup Agency set up and monitored my ads on Google, Instagram, and Facebook to help me get more client calls and emails. Additionally, they utilized other marketing strategies to gather features for my business and generated reports based on the success of each SEO campaign.

What is the team composition?

I only worked directly with Katya (Founder).

How did you come to work with Soup Agency?

I first encountered their agency through a Facebook group that I was a part of — someone who was talking about digital marketing had mentioned Soup Agency, so I got curious and looked them up. I saw from their Facebook and Instagram profiles that they had worked on great projects and received great feedback as well — I then decided to give them a call and try out their services for myself.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent about $10,000 AUD (approximately $8,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from July 2020–February 2021. The website took two weeks to finish, while I needed them for their marketing services until last February.

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

Our engagement resulted in good website traffic and a great number of client calls from that traffic. From those calls, I was able to secure potential and new clients — that was really a success point for me.

How did Soup Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Soup Agency mainly contacted us through email and Google Hangouts. It was perfect — we had weekly communication and all their replies to us were within 24 hours. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a professional agency with very good communication skills. Soup Agency listened to our needs without trying to upsell us. I didn’t like it when people tried to sell me something that was not really straightforward, so I was pleased that their team delivered what they initially sold to me. Their agency helped me reach my goals, and that made me happy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn’t see an aspect that needed improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate your needs clearly to their team for them to understand what your goals are. They'll take it from there and help you achieve those.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Sales and Marketing Manager for CCNA

For what projects/services did your company hire Soup Agency?

CCNA engage Soup Agency to create and maintain our marketing requirements including, but not limited to, our website, EDM's, Case Study's and competition entries.

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

Networking, their open approach and clear understanding of our requirements.

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

Soup provide us with Marketing support for Web design, EDM's, Case Study design and competition entries.

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

We work with Michelle at Soup very closely and she is always very professional and engaged with the tasks at hand.

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

Our general marketing front has improved greatly since engaging Soup Agency. Michelle in particular has been an asset to the team and always professional and diligent in her approach to the task at hand. We have won and landed finalist standing in several awards and generated several outstanding case studies that have in turn supported our business growth. Their support , flexibility and 100% engagement with our visions for the company have been just what we needed.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent communication and adherence to meeting times and deliverables. Outstanding.

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

They are engaged, flexible, and customer-centric.

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

None.