Thrive Collective Co.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder, president, and marketing strategy lead of a digital marketing agency. We do website and app development, SEO, and content marketing. We have three full-time employees and a handful of regular contractors. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thrive Collective Co.?

I know social media strategy, but I didn’t specialize in it. As a result, I needed a consultant to provide us with guidance around our overall social media approach, especially since we were a startup.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Thrive provided consultation services to us around our social media strategy. They provided some content creation services, such as images for our posts. However, I wrote most of the content and copy that we needed. 

Meanwhile, Nicole (Founder & CEO) provided insights into our strategy, helping us find the best time of day we should post. She also helped us identify our audiences and determine how to target them effectively. 

What is the team composition?

We only worked with Nicole. 

How did you come to work with Thrive Collective Co.?

Nicole and I had been in touch previously. After talking to her, I felt that she was a good fit both in terms of experience and culture. We decided to work together on a one-month project with no commitments, and that was how we started our relationship. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $1,500. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from March–April 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The engagement was good, and we had nothing bad to say about Thrive. Nicole was smart when it comes to social media strategies, so we were able to establish a better following on various platforms. On top of that, we learned what platforms were right for us; we learned that Instagram wasn’t the best channel for a digital marketing agency. Once we realized that, we doubled down on LinkedIn and Twitter — my personal account was even involved to leverage the number of my followers. 

Thanks to Thrive’s help, we realized that we needed to do our homework first before we could truly invest in social media strategies. Consequently, we felt that we were being a bad client. As the owner of an agency, I knew what a bad client looked like, and I didn’t want to be like that. Because of this, we told Thrive that we had to do our homework first, ending the engagement. 

That being said, we plan to work with Thrive again in the future; we’ll regroup in 6–12 months. Then, we’ll discuss how we can continue moving forward once we’ve established a platform to facilitate our social media strategy properly. 

How did Thrive Collective Co. perform from a project management standpoint?

Thrive’s project management was so good that our team almost couldn’t keep up with them. Nicole was extremely organized. In terms of tools, we used Zoom and email for day-to-day communication and ClickUp for project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The main benefit we gained from the engagement was insights and learnings. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some of their creative assets didn’t follow the brand identity guidelines that we provided. For instance, some of the things they posted had the wrong color palettes and fonts. However, these were only minor errors that required easy fixes. They didn’t ruin my day. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’ll engage with Thrive on a monthly retainer, have a plan around what you want to post and talk about during the campaign, especially if you’re a new company. For instance, you can tell them three things that you want to do in bullet points or in summarized form. Nicole is great at audience targeting and scheduling tasks. However, she’s not the one who has thought leadership and expertise behind your company — it’s you who has to provide insights and content that she can use.