Traktek Partners

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the senior art director and then senior digital marketing manager for the company. I worked on any and all things digital, from website redesigns, email welcomes, and re-engagement emails to SEM, SEO, and third-party digital campaigns.

What challenge were you trying to address with Traktek Partners?

My company had a challenging environment, in that it was owned by one individual that could easily shift priorities based on a whim. We needed to develop a roadmap for a new website design, solving the issues we had with our current design at the time. It had been done by an agency that really didn’t understand us as a company or how our data model was set up. The challenge really was to understand how customer data flowed through the sales funnel, but also to design a beautifully functional, responsive website that worked for our core demographic, which was 65+ years.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had our own development team in the company, and Traktek created the frontend and worked with two other partners to turn over those assets and all their specifications to our in-house team. We were using the Sitecore CMS. The solution was quite complex, given how our products are built. Information has to flow the right way and into the right parts.

In addition to the website design, they handled a robust series of SEM buys and landing page designs. I worked closely with Traktek to set those up and establish the nuances of how they’d work. They also designed a series of trigger emails personalized for each customer.

Traktek worked on our SEO as well, including keyword and content optimization. They identified the richest keywords and optimized those for different sections of the site, while also working through a proper PPC campaign. At the time, the email series were designed through Adobe Campaign, but we recently transferred that to Salesforce.

What is the team composition?

Cyril (Managing Partner) was our lead contact. We also worked directly with Scott (SVP Account Director), who was a CMO at our company at one point and understood our data modeling. Jennifer (VP of Marketing and Client Services) was one of our contacts for SEO, SEM, and PPC. The email part of it was done with either Cyril or Scott, depending on what layer they needed to get into.

How did you come to work with Traktek Partners?

I started working for this company seven and a half years ago, andTraktek had done some prior work for them when I joined. When I first started in the company, Mark (VP Director of Technology) guided us through some of the backend CMS, building some landing pages. They have a number of deep-dive experts that can simplify problems and solve them in novel ways. We worked with other providers that seemed to have all the bells and whistles, but they couldn’t deliver, and it became apparent within a month. Traktek was able to turn on a dime and to be reactive without being a reactive company, meaning that they weren’t just going to jump and do something without having the experience and skillset and being able to talk through it. There are always things happening in the world that we can’t prevent or control for. Prior to COVID, we were always accounting for terrorism, because most of our customers are US citizens traveling overseas. We would have 15 different campaigns going on, trigger emails, SEM, the social component, and so on. Traktek would jump in to help out when we couldn’t turn quickly as a company.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was $1 million–$1.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Traktek in March 2014. I left the company in May 2020, I last worked with Traktek in November 2019.

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

Success for the company was getting a new customer to book within eight months. Traktek was able to shorten that a bit through the redesign they made on a welcome email series. People would have certain scores based on where they came from and what they were searching for, and we became more streamlined with that. It worked out rather well.

We almost doubled the engagement and time spent on the page through their SEO work. We had a target of $25–$30 per lead on the SEM side because the average price point was $1,700–$25,000 per customer. We were selling high-end lifestyle experiences. Our cost per lead used to be $65, and we got it down to $20. Because of the improved SEO, people would spend a bit more time on the page. Content was written more appropriately, and it got in front of more eyes at the right time. From there, the engagement would be longer, and we were able to understand behaviors and utilize our welcome and reengagement email series. The net result on those was that the conversion rate and bookings skyrocketed from 5–6 per email to triple that. Traktek not only produced designs in a more robust, responsive way, but they also spoke to the reasons why people did what they did and why they were navigating to a certain place. They made technical and content recommendations and guided us through them based on what trends we were seeing.

How did Traktek Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

We had multiple in-person meetings per week. When they weren’t in-house, we’d have 2–3 scheduled calls per week.Traktek was always on point with deadlines. Delays were always due to shifting from our side. For example, we’d decide to revisit a booking funnel for the website or the way an email looked. My former company was very much driven by the numbers, and what we saw visually was a complement to that, not the driving force behind it. It’s all about 35–40 years of legacy data that gets churned, moved, and cleansed. Traktek provided schedule updates during our regular meetings, and they had a deck ready with all the results week over week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There was a time when the owner of my company couldn’t find a good CMO after going through about 20 of them. We called Cyril and Scott to actually sit in our office and run the marketing for a while. There was some good trust there.

Traktek is very communicative, and their solution space is very good. They didn’t just deliver what was expected. If we were designing something, they would deliver what they called a “safe version”, which had everything we needed and did everything we wanted, and they’d also go in a couple of different directions, which might surprise us and end up being good things. They had a good understanding of the hierarchy of things and what would work for the customer. It’s not one size fits all when it comes to that type of work, especially with the older audience we have. We wanted to empower them and keep them engaged, not overburden them visually. Traktek always offered us freshness that led to great ROI.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve been great. With my former company, it’s feast or famine, and most people don’t survive three months there, let alone vendors. It really spoke volumes to have Traktek work with the company for such a long time on different projects and different ebbs and flows of the business, over changing culture and times.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

People sometimes go into things thinking they need an agency but not understanding why. Traktek is able to look at the client holistically if the client wants that. They can do a deep dive into the background of the company and what they currently have out there and present what they see as working and as being broken. For example, they looked at our site and found 250 broken links. They found things that we didn’t even know were wrong because everyone was paying attention to their own silo.Traktek is able to see it from a thousand feet and get into the detail of where we want to go as a company. They can also make really good recommendations and work as a collaborative team player with any client.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a hotel management company, and I’m responsible for e-commerce and digital marketing.

What challenges were you trying to address with Traktek Partners?

We brought them on to support us on an ongoing basis in a number of areas, including web development and staff augmentation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They help us with web development and the ongoing enhancement of our website so that we can better provide information to our guests and book more rooms. We use Drupal as our CMS. 

They also help us out by providing resources based on where we need help. Their team has provided resources for production, creative, technical, and analytics projects. 

What is the team composition?

Our team composition varies depending on our needs. On a regular basis, we have about a dozen developers working with us. At the moment, it’s different because of the travel restrictions due to COVID-19. The demand for hotels is particularly low right now.

How did you come to work with Traktek Partners?

The relationship existed between my company and Traktek Partners before I started working there, so I’m not sure. 

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent over $5 million at this point. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we began our ongoing relationship with them in 2013. 

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

They’ve helped with so much of our core infrastructure. In the time since we started working together, our company has quadrupled in size. We’ve gone from making less than $20 million in annual revenue to making over $100 million. Their team has been integral in supporting us during this growth. They’re a key partner for us. 

How did Traktek Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

We used a GitHub plug-in. We worked in a sprint model, per my request. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their strength is their ability to identity high-quality resources and team members. They always assign the right people to our account. I can’t think of anyone that’s worked with us that hasn’t been top-notch. They’re also flexible to client needs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind for ways they could improve our relationship with them. I’d love to see them diversify beyond just supporting clients in the travel industry. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Just make sure you’re prepared to put in the energy as an organization to push the change and project through. If you can’t dedicate the time and energy to an initiative, then it’s going to be tough for a third-party agency. You need to be there to clarify requirements and work through strategy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re Colebrook Travel, and we’re an educational tour operator that specializes in nature and cultural expeditions around the world. Primarily, we’re B2B. I’m the VP of partnerships and marketing.

What challenge were you trying to address with Traktek Partners?

We had an antiquated website and a pretty complicated model, in that we have direct to consumer and B2B components. We also operate in many different special interest markets. We really needed to understand the markets we operated in, along with our value proposition and our product line. I don’t think any companies would have gotten this if they’d not had a good understanding of the tour operation business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first part of my role was to develop the RFP with very specific functionality requirements. We then put that out to a number of companies. Long story short, we chose Traktek. They not only provided good value for the services, but they also showed their ability to execute and really understand the functionality.

The website had to be integrated with a proprietary, in-house reservation system, and creating a technology platform that could communicate with the reservation platform was a unique challenge. It required technical know-how to extract data from the reservation system and put it into an Oracle database. It also had to be able to do the API calls to that database on a real-time basis.

There’s a non-customer view, which is where people visiting the website can have a very rich visual experience and see our content organized into our respective areas. There was a presentation and organizational challenge we had to win, and then, once you booked one of our programs, that’s where the backend integration came in. We used Drupal as a CMS to be able to store the website assets.

They also worked on a second project for us: evaluating reservation and CRM systems. We needed to go to a new in-house system, and it was hard to know which system would fit our methods of operation. They have the advantage of knowing the tour operator market and all the different systems. We save a lot of time by having them narrow down the field. They also brought out the candidates so we could meet them and narrow it down to the top three competitors. Traktek facilitated the meeting and proposal concepts so we could easily evaluate all our options.

What is the team composition?

They weren’t just an excellent web design shop, but they also understood the data work in the backend that needed to be done. They had a project manager, 2-3 technical experts depending on the technical aspects, and a really good designer. There was also an overall relationship manager named Cyril (Managing Partner & Founder).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from June 2015 until May 2016, and the work is completed. We’re maintaining it in-house. This was one of the requirements as we didn’t want to be beholden to an outside company. Initially, we had a retained with them because whenever you launch something new there’s invariably fixes and enhancements and tweaks. It’s been about three years since we’ve really needed their services for this particular work.

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

This was a complicated endeavor and they pulled it off. Initially, I was tracking Google Analytics and saw that our traffic volume was up 60% the first year, and time on site went up by 140%. People were much more engaged with the site than they were before.

Anecdotally, we continue to get really strong reviews and comments about our website. It has a unique design that fits our brand. They really knew how to tailor the site to our brand and style. We fit well together that way. That’s on the frontend, and in terms of the backend, people have found the reservation system very helpful. They can access their information through the “My Account” system 24/7, which has cut down on the customer service call we receive.

How did Traktek Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really organized and systemic about having project meetings and being clear on actions, deadlines, and responsibilities. The frontend project finished on time and budget; the backend project was a little more complicated but it fit within the range they gave us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand our industry and challenges and needs and come up with well-thought-out, clear solutions. You’re working with principals of the company as well; you’re not hiring an agency that has you work day to day with junior people. Traktek puts you with skilled people who know what they’re talking about. They’re very thorough and have good expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only challenge we faced is that we’re a small company without a large budget. I wouldn’t call it an improvement because they worked within our budget, but we always struggle with trading off between how much we can do ourselves and when we need to hire an outside firm with expertise. Better prices would be my only improvement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Quest Travel Adventures. We’re a travel company that specializes in trips to the Azores and the Canary Islands.

What challenge were you trying to address with Traktek Partners?

We wanted to generate leads and increase site traffic.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Traktek Partners provides all of our media. When we began working with them in 2014, they designed our website. We’re currently in the middle of a site redesign because we wanted to provide more information about our services, simplify the UI, and make the site cleaner and easier to manage. We also wanted to be a more visually active site; today, when people look at travel packages, they want visuals.

Traktek Partners is adding more photos of our team and staff to the site, since customers want to know who they’re interacting with. We’re working with Traktek Partners’s designer to create lead pages and menus and to determine what click-throughs to have on the main page. We’ve done a couple of video designs with Traktek Partners, for which they compile photos, video footage, and audio. They do all of our backend marketing and manage our social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

They also handle our weekly emails; we provide them with content, and they create the email with a call to action and send it out to our database of clients. They regularize our marketing efforts; rather than sending out one email, they ensure we have emails and promotions going out every other week. They also make sure our Facebook content is updated and that people are engaging with our Instagram photos, liking and clicking through to them. The team tracks different analytics, such as visits to our site and different pages, outgoing emails, and email performance.

What is the team composition?

On a day-to-day basis, we work with their marketing manager, who coordinates everything. For website design, we work with two members from the design team. We work with Cyril (Managing Director, Traktek Partners) and another team member on the marketing plan.

How did you come to work with Traktek Partners?

We were a much smaller company at the time we were looking for a vendor, so we wanted a smaller marketing company that could help take us to the next level. Another travel company recommended Traktek Partners. We selected them based on their pricing, services, and the overall buy-in we’d have to do from the start. They seemed flexible and willing to work with us as we grew.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $200,000–$250,000 on the website redesign. Our budget was a little bigger when we initially onboarded Traktek Partners, but once we had everything set up and just needed maintenance and design services, we pared down. They’ve been really flexible about our contract; they don’t try to sell us anything we don’t need. They price out projects as we go along.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work with Traktek Partners began in June 2014, and it’s ongoing.

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

They specialize in travel marketing, so they really understand who our client is and what makes our services unique. They’ve helped us increase revenue and generate leads. We’ve quadrupled our business because Traktek Partners has taken our small travel company to the next level. Since we started working with them five years ago, we’ve entered a much bigger field. I also credit our sales for this, but having a modern website and being able to get information out has certainly helped. Overall, the partnership has been a big success.

How did Traktek Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciate how flexible Traktek Partners is, especially compared to other companies I’ve worked with. If my team has questions, comments, or concerns, somebody from Traktek Partners usually responds within the same day, if not definitely by the next day. They’re easy to get in touch with. We primarily communicate via email, but if something is urgent, we can call anytime.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Traktek Partners has a great creative team. They presented a couple of different site designs, and it was nice to see a range of options. Also, they haven’t tried to sell us anything pre-packaged; instead, they tailor the site and their services to what we do and how we want to move forward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We always want things done faster, but website design takes a while. I’d probably say this about any company.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be honest about what you’re looking for and what your budget is. The more they know about you and what you want, the better they can pitch to you. Budget isn’t one-size-fits-all; they can create a scalable plan and budget if you’re straightforward.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a global business directory of fishing and hunting outfitters found around the world with reviews posted from their clientele.

For what projects/services did your company hire Traktek Partners?

Strategy, design and build the website from scratch

What were your goals for this project?

A functional on line business directory with crow sourced reviews that was easily searchable.

How did you select this vendor?

Had worked with TrakTek Partners on other projects

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

1. Website Design & Development
2. Brand Identity Development
3. User Experience Design
4. Marketing Strategy
5. Search Engine, Website & Channel Analytics
6. Search Engine Marketing

What was the team composition?

Project Leader (1), Project Administrator (1), Developers (5)

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

Without TrakTek Partners building our site, we would not be in business

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Bi-monthly face to face review meeting with constant updates via email. The project was very organized and documented

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are knowledgable, professional and constantly looking for ways to improve. They saved money and time on the project

Are there any areas for improvement?

No