Spectrum Group Online

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder & Principal of Alternative Partners

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Revenue Operations as a Service. Leadership. Strategy. Architecture.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Spectrum Group Online to accomplish?

• Web Design
• Technical Copy

SOLUTION

How did you find Spectrum Group Online?

Referral

Why did you select Spectrum Group Online over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Spectrum Group Online were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We are currently working with Spectrum Group Online to provide us with ongoing web development, technical blog posts, market research, and SEO optimization. We are very impressed with their work and would highly recommend them. The work that Spectrum Group Online is doing is of high quality and exceeds our expectations. 

They regularly update our blog with informative and engaging posts that are well-targeted to our audience. They are also designing and creating new subpages on our website that are both visually appealing and informative. They provide regular reports on SEO optimization process and tend analysis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Number of blog posts written. 
• Number of sub-pages published. 
• Increase in organic web traffic.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Really well!

What was your primary form of communication with Spectrum Group Online?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their ability to make me feel heard and important and unique in their process. I never once felt like we were 'just another client'.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Spectrum Group Online could have done differently?

Perhaps if anything more investment in PM tools? There's never been an issue with deliverability, we're just really Type A over here.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP Data & Strategy of Gunderson Direct, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Gunderson Direct is a full service Turn-Key Direct Response Marketing agency that uses address based data for targeting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Spectrum Group Online to accomplish?

• Improve top of funnel reporting
• Maximize learning from client side google analytics
• Improve tracking set up

SOLUTION

How did you find Spectrum Group Online?

• Other

Why did you select Spectrum Group Online over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Other

What was the size of Spectrum Group Online’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Best practices for google analytics tracking and reporting for a client's fall program
• Teaching sessions for our team
• Review of work in progress
• Looker Studio Template/Instructions for our client to obtain best reporting and more insights to top of funnel activity in a swift manner that is not burdensome to our client. In general, a group that is generous with their advice across the board and experts in their field also.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Project has not ran its course yet - but I expect to see an huge increase in insights as well as positive impact in meeting client KPIs.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

On time, reliable, understand our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Spectrum Group Online?

• Virtual Meeting

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

They are generous with their marketing knowledge in general and their expertise in their primary focus. What I mean is that although they were hired to help us examine some past work and do well on current work, they took the time to teach and explain along the way to our team. Good folks.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Spectrum Group Online could have done differently?

None that I can think of at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am in charge of global marketing and communications for an Italian multinational manufacturer of sterilization systems for the pharmaceutical industry, mainly for the production of sterilized drugs. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spectrum Group Online?

We were looking to position our brand and increase brand awareness in the US market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spectrum Group started by analyzing our digital positioning in the US market — they evaluated our website and local SEO. Their team conducted interviews with key individuals in our company, including the managing director of our US subsidiary, marketing teammates in Italy, and salespeople in the US.

They also conducted some preliminary research on our competitors through Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to better understand our industry.

Google Analytics wasn’t working well for our internal team, so Spectrum Group took it over and recreated the entire data studio. The Spectrum Group team also set up studio reports and configurations to get our ads started on Google and Bing. They then began to develop locality-specific and general SEO for our website, Google and Bing Ads, and UX/UI for our landing page. They then focused on backlinks and PPC. 

Their team also provides us with tools to help us develop our strategy, including Hotjar to map our website and CallRail. They also assist us with MailChimp, content creation for our newsletter, and are now setting up a chatbot on our website utilizing Zendesk. 

We’ve now started developing some other projects for our global strategy. We are at the beginning of our value proposition project with Spectrum Group to evaluate our value proposition worldwide. 

What is the team composition?

I work with about 5–6 people, including Alyson (Principal, Digital Marketing) and Massimo (CEO & Chief Data Scientist), and there have been some team replacements.

How did you come to work with Spectrum Group Online?

We attended a social media and digital marketing convention in Milan in 2018 where we met Massimo, who was a speaker at the convention. 

We had some bad experiences with companies in Italy and across Europe, but when we saw how experienced, knowledgeable, and humble Massimo was, we started a conversation about a future partnership. Massimo is actually half-Italian and it influenced our choice because the company owners thought it would be good to work with Italians in the US. 

We had a preliminary meeting with Alyson and liked her approach and how she understood our needs and tried to fit them into a budget specific to the projects we wanted. They agreed on starting with a lower budget with the caveat that we could increase the budget and expand the project if we wanted to. They were not pressing us too much and were very open and supportive from the beginning, which was a very nice approach. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our company has invested around $120,000 with them so far — we’ve been investing more than $52,000 a year over our two-year partnership. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in January 2019 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had no digital strategy in the US before we began working with Spectrum Group. Since we’ve started working with them, we’ve improved our brand awareness and engagement in the US market. We’ve increased qualified leads in the US from our website and Google Ads by 30%. The PPC work that Spectrum Group has provided improved our website’s Google ranking — we’re thinking about launching that same strategy in Europe because it did so well in the US.

We also received some positive feedback on our newsletter and content that Alyson and her team put together. 

How did Spectrum Group Online perform from a project management standpoint?

Spectrum Group has great project management — they’re very well-organized. They verify everything that is happening with our online performance: our Google Ads, website, and our SEO. They always follow up on changes we may not be aware of or cannot monitor because we don’t have the technical expertise that they have. 

We use Google Drive for sharing documents and project reports, and exchange everything else by email. We communicate via email and have online meetings over Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a nice approach to our partnership and show their support — they’re more than just a vendor, they’re our partners. Spectrum Group isn’t just trying to sell us services, they’re trying to help us. I feel supported 24/7 despite the fact that we are in Italy and they are in the US. 

The Spectrum Group team always tries to be flexible and to find ways to help us — even when our budget is small, they find a way to deliver what we need within it, dividing the project into different steps so we can accomplish what we need. For example, we’re about to start our third project to add a schema markup to our website and they’re willing to take it page-by-page every month so we can stay within budget while still addressing our needs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

To me, Spectrum Group is perfect. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Future customers need to provide Spectrum Group with as much information as possible about their company. Alyson is very empathetic and understands what is going on and always offers what we need, and Massimo is very flexible and completely understands everything that is shared with him. 

If you are able to share information about your project, company, ideas, concerns, and goals, you can get a lot of the partnership — they really feel like internal teammates.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of program marketing and analytics at a major university’s school of business. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spectrum Group Online?

We hired them for help with SEO training. Our team has plenty of news and content writers without much knowledge of organic traffic.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They visited our facilities and provided training on SEO. As a result of that training, they provided some additional consulting hours. 

We decided to expand our relationship from there. First, they helped us get a handle of our Google Analytics accounts and developing additional dashboards for us. With our current set up, we didn’t have visibility into user flow between our sites. They associated all our sites and accounts with each other to achieve that visibility. Once they applied some new analytics goals to our accounts, they set up new dashboards for our departments.

They provided additional ala carte services, such as a link cleanup where they disavowed out of date links and fine-tuned the sites for SEO.      

What is the team composition?

I worked with five people, including two owners, an SEO link cleanup specialist, an analytics employee, and a user flow auditor. 

How did you come to work with Spectrum Group Online?

They act as teachers through an extension program at the school. One of my direct reports was taking a class with them and recommended them as SEO experts. We got in touch with them from there. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $65,000 on their work.  

What is the status of this engagement?

The projects lasted from January 2019–December 2020.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a marketing manager for Garratt Callahan. We’re a water treatment company that services the industrial needs of businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spectrum Group Online?

Our website was about five years old, so we wanted a reputable agency to help us rejuvenate it with updated visuals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spectrum Group Online started the engagement by performing an extensive audit of our website. They looked at our site’s frontend to evaluate the clarity of its UX. Then, they analyzed the backend’s ability to support SEO and SEM. By applying their knowledge of Google Analytics, they found a lot of areas in the site that could be improved to help us standout within an online marketplace.

Before we started the renovation process, Spectrum Group Online suggested that we implement a pop-up on the website that asks users what they’re looking for. It’s a small solution, but it quickly generated measurable results.

They’re a full-service digital marketing firm, so they completely redesigned our whole website. Once they understood where it could be improved, they started making changes systematically. Now that they’ve completed the site renovation and SEO upgrade, I work with them periodically to continually enhance the site. Whether it be related to web content or backend infrastructure, they support the site and make it more robust.

What is the team composition?

I work with Massimo (CEO, Spectrum Group Online) and Alyson (Principal of Marketing & Branding, Spectrum Group Online) directly. I also communicate with three other resources from their team regularly.

How did you come to work with Spectrum Group Online?

They were recommended to us by web developer I’ve hired in the past. She wasn’t able to accept this project, but she highlighted Spectrum Group Online as a qualified digital marketing firm. After a brief conversation with them, I decided they’d be a good fit for this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $2,500 a month for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Some of the applications that they put onto our website track calls that come into the company. That allows us to track sales statistics generated from website visits or phone calls. The pop-up integration they suggested also converts web traffic into direct sales consistently. That contribution alone was worth what we paid for Spectrum Group Online’s services.

They’ve turned our Website around for the better. It functions better from both a business and a user standpoint. The new UI/UX attracts customers and keeps them engaged. Our analytics indicate that visitors are spending more time on our website than ever before.

How did Spectrum Group Online perform from a project management standpoint?

They're constantly keeping me updated about the project through progress reports and updates. They ask for input frequently and enjoy working as a team. If the site goes down or it experiences an error of some sort, their team addresses each problem proactively. They continually analyze the site and pitch additional UI/UX enhancements.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Spectrum Group Online had to learn what it means to operate a B2B water treatment company, so we appreciate their efforts. I see them as a part of my marketing team. We're a small company with limited resources, so having their skills at our disposal is great.

If they don’t understand something, they’ll ask questions instead of trying to fake it. But as a result, they’ve internalized our message and can communicate it effectively. They’re truly an asset to the business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any real criticism to offer. I wish we had the budget to have them onsite with us full-time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them all the information they need to be successful. The more they’re given, the more they can help. Also, listen to their feedback. Since they’re a fresh pair of eyes, they’ll likely see things that others might have missed. For example, they brought to light a lot of things from the user’s point of view that our internal team hadn’t considered.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO and sales manager for Gardener Pool & Remodeling. We’re a swimming pool remodeling company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spectrum Group Online?

We needed a digital marketing agency to improve our website’s SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spectrum’s ultimate goal was to get us on the front page of Google within our market. To accomplish this, they implemented a multifaceted digital marketing strategy. They conducted a competitive analysis of our website compared to similar firms in our industry. Then, they helped redesign and develop our website. To forward the SEO effort, they conducted additional research to produce a keyword list. This enabled them to lead an AdWords campaign, create our blog, and produce other keyword-infused content throughout the site. Finally, they bolstered our online presence by creating and managing our Facebook and YouTube accounts.

What is the team composition?

I had weekly phone calls with Jen (SEO Specialist, Spectrum Group Online) and would speak with their CEO once a month.

How did you come to work with Spectrum Group Online?

I worked with Jen when she was with another company. She started working for Spectrum, so we followed her.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent roughly $33,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2016. We terminated the engagement in March 2018 to work with an agency that specializes in our industry.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Spectrum created a lot of content and blog posts for us throughout the engagement. They were essential to the website’s redesign and helped us establish an aesthetically pleasing web presence. Their efforts have successfully increased our Google Ranking. I was very happy with their work and the time they put in to learn our industry.

How did Spectrum Group Online perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via phone, email, and also used Google Docs. They used other tools to track our process and regularly updated us on what’s being done and if we were hitting the targets we wanted. Jen particularly deserves a lot of praise.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their SEO content is well-written and their communication skills are top-notch.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They accepted a client from an industry they’re not familiar with and still did a great job. We’d still be working together if I didn’t find company specifically well-versed in marketing our services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start the project off right by communicating an accurate analysis of where your business stands. Furthermore, projects like this require a lot of moving parts. If everyone isn’t on the same page, the whole project can be thrown off quickly. I required Spectrum to integrate a Google Docs solution that enabled everyone to see the project’s current deadlines and goals. New customers should hold Spectrum to that process to ensure an organized engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing and business development. I run the standard outbound marketing tasks including PR, analyst relations, web messaging, sales tools, and demand generation. I have three people on my team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spectrum Group Online?

The problem with SEO and SEM is that there’s a lot of expertise that you need in terms of real-time learning because Google changes its algorithm. The best practices that worked a year ago may not work now. One of my theses of marketing is to outsource projects within a space that’s dynamic and changes a lot so that you’re getting that agency’s knowledge from hopefully five to 10 other companies. What you get back is advice that’s rooted in experience that’s relatively fresh. That’s why I searched for an agency.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re a series B company which means we’ve only had two rounds of investment. In a startup, when you’re early stage funding gauged in funding rounds, you tend to be more improvisational and anecdotal. You tend to look at the big picture like, how many meetings did I get? You don’t worry about MQL and SQL ratings because you’re just trying to get in front of people and try new ideas. We’re still very much in the experimental phase.

With Spectrum, I was trying to learn more about message testing. I want to have basic search engine marketing up. Rather than full-on optimum performance and SEO, I was trying to use SEM to figure out where are the honeypots and how can we at least make sure that we’re attracting qualified buyers to the site. We don’t even know what our buy messages are yet, so it’s a different use case.

What is the team dynamic?

Massimo [CEO, Spectrum Group Online] has a lot of pinch hitters. Massimo, by my observation, has cobbled together a company with two principals, him and Alyson, and they subcontract everybody else. I spend the most time with Massimo and Shanee. We’ve had a few people in to help do reporting, Yuan and Dan for example. but I’ve recently learned that I don’t need that reporting, so I’ve cut that out of the program to save some money.

How did you come to work with Spectrum Group Online?

I worked with Massimo a few years back and gave them a call. What I wanted was somebody local, grounded, and hands-on. That’s the way I remembered Massimo.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $3,000 per month. We’ve spent $12,000 or $13,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June of 2017, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Massimo’s team thought that we knew our message and they were there to help us fine-tune call to actions and behavior around that, but that’s not where we are. We’re still learning what our sales motion is, what door to open, what to say. I’ve been trying to get message testing into their brains, trying something for a week to see if I get enough impressions and clicks but not optimizing it yet. It took a while to understand what I wanted and come up with a methodology that was comfortable to them even though it was still pushing the limits.

Most people in SEM would want to test an ad for a month. I don’t have a month to sit and wait on a bad ad. I need to find out if it’s a bad ad in days or weeks, so we’ve agreed to do two-week testing. That gave us the ability to do about five rounds over the last 10 weeks and we’ve gone from 500 impressions per day to over 1,000 while keeping the clicks about 1% to 2%. We found some decent sandboxes to play in to refine further in the last 10 weeks. We’ve started to create campaign categories to help us refine things more.

If I was harder hitting in the beginning in telling them not to think the way they’re supposed to think and if Massimo’s team listened more or did more due diligence upfront about what I really wanted, we probably wouldn’t have spent four weeks getting to that place, but we finally got there.

How did Spectrum Group Online perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s room for improvement. It’s a delicate balance. If I over-communicate, then I get billed more. If they under-communicate, I don’t know if things have been done, and I think we’re still working on that and agreeing more than we did. What are we going to cover in the meeting we have every Monday? How are we going to make sure we do accurate testing where we change just enough to be sure with the test that changed? Did we do a clever and careful and clear AB test as an example without changing too many variables in the AB test?

In the last two or three weeks, we’ve arrived into a nice rhythm, but it took us a while to get there. Sometimes I still have to ask them to show me the ads. I’m still pushing to get refined, clear, simple communication, but compared to where it was 10 weeks ago, it’s much better. I’d say we’re B+ getting to A-.

What did you find most impressive about them?

That’s a hard one to judge.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would have been better for us to dig deeper into what we want and how they do things. They were hung up on optimizing when I was asking, 'why optimize something when we don’t even know if it’s right or we could do 10 times better if we keep playing around?' I think using SEM for message testing is a bit odd. It’s not something everybody knows how to do or is comfortable with, or they want to take a more pragmatic approach. I have board pressure, fundraising pressure, and my boss’ pressure. For someone to say let’s let it sit for four weeks, that’s not a startup. We have to go faster. I pushed them beyond their comfort zone. That was good. I think if they have a client like me next time, they’ll know better and they’ll run faster.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a large manufacturing company with a global presence. We have 1500 team members and 1.5 million square feet. We primarily focus on creating logistics packaging and design. I’m our head of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spectrum Group Online?

We needed help in running Google ads, understanding how search engine marketing and search engine optimization work. We also needed help structuring both our site’s architecture, content, changing our language, understanding user behavior in order to increase qualified traffic to our website. Specifically, with ads, we wanted to bring in qualified leads. I understood what I wanted to do, but it was more efficient for me to work with someone who is an expert in it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped in the copy of the ads and understanding which ads were most effective in terms of delivering users. They have been great in helping me get very efficient in terms of cost. What I consider an acquisition, from their eyes is a person calls us for a quote or more information or they fill out a form. They have helped me drive down that cost considerably. They have helped me with the architecture of the site with things like meta tags, the language we use to set up the different elements of our website to bring in the users, to put software on my website, and some tracking what user behavior does. It’s inexpensive, lightweight software. I’m changing my site and I’m adapting it based on their recommendations.

What is the team dynamic?

The head is Massimo [CEO, Spectrum Group Online] and he oversees things. He has great insights in terms of Google. I also work with Alyson [Online Marketing, Spectrum Group Online] who is kind of a partner of his and is great at helping me understand the content of my website and what is appealing to my target audience. I work with Jen [SEO Specialist] whose specialty is Google Links and infrastructure. They also have another assistant who facilitates. I have about an hour meeting with them monthly and they send me reports in the interim.

How did you come to work with Spectrum Group Online?

We decided to do an analysis with the agency I work with on my website. We knew there were things we needed to uncover. I did a website analysis with one woman and I wanted to start employing her recommendations. She referred us to their agency. We met with them in person and figured they were the right way to go. I didn’t look at any other companies because I knew what I wanted to do and they were a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

Most of the money was up front. We now have a $5,000 ongoing retainer.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Every month our website traffic goes up consistently. Having them work for me has definitely facilitated that. I’ve reduced my cost for conversation. Let’s say it started at $200. Now it’s down to $35-$40 dollars.

How did Spectrum Group Online perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive and professional. They’d be better serving a bigger organization because they’re so good at following up and giving meeting notes. In some cases, it’s just me managing it, so I don’t need that level of professionalism that they’re providing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are really passionate about this. It’s like a hobby for them. They also teach this as a course at Berkeley Continuing Education. Being located in Silicon Valley, to have somebody so interested and it be essentially a hobby, as well as a professional pursuit, is the differentiating factor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We initially had a start where they had to get to know my style as how they communicated. They’ve adapted to that. I wasn’t getting the reports I needed and I felt we were mixing signals, but they adapted to the way that worked best with me. At first I struggled, but now we’re through that.

Do you have any advice for potential clients looking to hire somebody in this field?

You should hire someone specifically to do the job. There are so many changes with Google. Even if you’re really sophisticated, I wouldn’t trust yourself to do it on your own. It’s better to hire someone who is also not embroiled in the day to day of your website. Get someone who can take a step back and look at it from a Google perspective. I wouldn’t try to do it on your own.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a company that designs and manufactures microwave and millimeter wave components.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spectrum Group Online?

We were trying to keep our brand relevant online. We're a leader in our space and a well-recognized brand in our industry. Our target market is global. We’ve done a lot of marketing over the years, including traditional marketing, event marketing, PR, and magazine advertising. We wanted to make sure that we were as strong and recognized online as we were offline.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The process was highly collaborative. We know our industry, and they know theirs, so we had a meeting to discuss the breadth of possible keywords as well as which ones to focus on. They brought us a lot of new opportunities and ideas, and we worked with them on some of the key terms that we thought define our product set.

We worked with them on our website as well. They helped us optimize our design — both from a usability and search perspective. Since then, we've engaged with them to develop the content on the site, expand our link profile, and manage our paid search efforts. They've also contributed to our resources and solution sections on the website, looking at technical notes as well as market specific solution information.

How did you come to work with Spectrum Group Online?

I found them through a friend from a business group, and he is one of the sharpest programmers that I know. I figured that if anyone would know who's good out there, it would be him. You get bombarded with emails, and there are different levels of operators out there, so that recommendation really allowed us to cut through the clutter.

When I met Massimo, the CEO of Spectrum Group Online, I was immediately impressed with his technical credentials, personal approach, and customer service-oriented attitude. To us, this means that he knows what he's doing and that he and his team can give you a very high level of service. We saw in Spectrum Group Online a lot of the things that we see in our own company in terms of customer service, high performance, good reputation, and standing for quality.

How much have you invested with Spectrum Group Online?

I think they were very competitive. In terms of the hours and effort they put in, they can balance the ongoing program development and growth areas along with the unexpected problems and issues that come up. We’ve always had the feeling that we're been over-serviced just in terms of how responsive they are and how willing they are to dive in and work with you.​

​​​​​​What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in October 2014, and our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On the organic search side, we've seen more of our pages listed and our placement has improved. On the paid search side, they have improved our site quality score. It really helps you leverage your expenditures because you're getting more of a return on investment regarding where you place in the paid ad. They've also managed to deliver the audience share we want while still meeting our budget. They’ve optimized our expenditures on the paid site, which has resulted in a growth of traffic and higher quality leads.

We don't have an e-commerce site per se; we've got more of a quoting engine. Massimo helped us define a metric on that in terms of conversion. For the first time, we got something we can follow and measure, which has really helped. He also proposed other ways to capture that information in terms of phone-call monitoring and things like that. He’s delivered in the areas where we needed him to and has good ideas on other ways to measure and track.

How did Spectrum Group Online perform from a project management standpoint?

Very well. We have monthly calls and those have been the main form of communication. Via email, they’re very responsive and always available. Each person on the team has a different role. It's been great having access to the project manager, as well as being able to work directly with the people who are executing. It’s not like you got this massive, dispersed team. They're very focused and you know who's doing what. That's been really easy to interface with.​

​​​​​​What did you find most impressive about Spectrum Group Online?

They're great in so many different ways — the service element, communication, availability, responsiveness — but I think the main thing is the personal touch. They care about your website as much as you do. They're just nice people. It's a pleasure to work with them.​

​​​​​​Are there any areas Spectrum Group Online could improve?

Nothing stands out. I don't think we've ever been left waiting for a response or anything like that. I'm excited to see them grow, add more folks to the team, and broaden their skills. If there are any areas that they’re not experts in, they work with the right people to get it done, so I don't think there's ever been a gap.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We deliver fruit to offices as a wellness benefit. Often what we’re doing is getting into the breakroom, delivering fruit to employees who want a healthier option instead of the junk food that’s normally in a breakroom. I’m the marketing manager, and I’ve been in this role for a couple years. I manage our marketing department, including our print and digital efforts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spectrum Group Online?

When I moved into my current role, we realized we weren’t doing enough in digital. We wanted to increase our presence in social media and ads. We did work with an SEO group. As part of my transition into this role, I did a bunch of classes and started learning more about the space. I met Massimo, the owner of Spectrum Group, through one of my classes. I instantly started learning from them, and I felt there was a need for us to transition from our current SEO provider to Massimo.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first step was to educate us. Massimo and Spectrum are teachers at heart, so they educated us on the rules and principles to live by for quality SEO. From there, we developed a strategy, that we’re still continuing to implement, around how we can participate more heavily on improving our SEO standings, while keeping them good and healthy. Also, on the ad space, they’re helping us a bunch with our Google AdWords, which is more on the SEM side. They’re definitely helping us build out those creatives in respect to the ads.

They also help us to investigate and learn what our keywords are, and how to get the most and best bang for our buck. They constantly give me a checklist about what we can do to help navigate the SEO in the right direction. We have an internal social media person, but we are looking at whether we can have them help us with the ads for our social media.

How did you come to work with Spectrum Group Online?

The initial meeting was in a class that I took through UC Berkeley. I took two separate classes with them, so I got to know them through the 12 weeks of the classes, and I learned a lot from them. I looked at some of the suggestions they gave us through the class, and how that correlated back to the business. Massimo and Alyson do an amazing job of educating people and really driving people to the statistics of what it means to be [search engine optimized]. That really instilled confidence in us to move forward.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work began in October of 2015, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re a national brand, and we deliver nationwide; however, we do have a very local presence. We like to use local couriers and local fruit. Part of the strategy with Spectrum was around how we can be seen on the internet as a national brand that focuses locally. We developed landing pages that are focused on that, and built keywords that are focused on that national but local strategy.

We recently worked with Spectrum to identify some metatags and meta-descriptions that needed correction. They developed the standards of what those should be, and then also helped us identify some training for our own team around how to write that content. That helps dramatically with our click-through rates and our bounce rates, as it leads people in the right direction to find what they’re searching for.

How did Spectrum Group Online perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re amazing. They’re super-responsive. I can rely on Massimo and Alyson specifically to respond within 24 hours of getting an email from me. I have a monthly call with them that’s a two-hour meeting, and they’re very willing to be available on whatever chat feature I’m using to ask them a quick question. Massimo and Alyson have visited our office several times. Their availability and responsiveness are top-notch. They meet all the deadlines, and they’ve actually helped us be more accountable in that area. They encourage our own deadlines for updating the blogs and articles on our sites.

What did you find most impressive about Spectrum Group Online?

They pair very well together as a team. Massimo is really data-driven, and he knows Google like the back of his hand, whereas Alyson is a content person. With those two things paired, they make a really nice duo. I feel they are educators at heart. They’re willing to do the work for you, but if you want to learn to do it yourself, they’re not afraid to teach you how to manage your own SEO and then back off. I think that really sets them apart.

Are there any areas Spectrum Group Online could improve?

They’ve done a great job at building their team up in the past couple months, but I think they probably need more support.