Trust Deep Branding

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Creative Director for A to Z Studio, a studio formed in 2001 to deliver integrated communications for business-to-business, business-to-consumer, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Trust Deep Agency?

This project was for the concept, marketing strategy, writing, design and development of a 24-page plus cover product catalog.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Prior relationship, knew there was a good fit for this project.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Trust Deep was brought on mainly for copy-writing and brand consulting—to work as a team to help gain the necessary insights and inputs about both the company and the Florentine Classics collection in order to successfully generate awareness and desire for the line. This project included review of existing materials, theme development, copy-writing for a 24 page catalog and proofreading at various stages.

What was the team composition?

Myself as Creative Director, working with Trust Deep, alongside our client, the company president.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our client has been happy with the working relationship and impressed with Trust Deep's theme development and writing style. As the project will not mail until 2023, there are currently no metrics to report on.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were excellent communicators who never missed a deadline.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I truly enjoyed working with Stace. He goes in-depth and seems to genuinely enjoy his work—which shows. He is thoughtful, diligent and responsive, all delivered with a smile and without an ego.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

There could be a bit more proofreading on initial concepts. Concepts were dead-on, sometimes the grammar was not.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a small long-standing real estate team in Boston.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Trust Deep Agency?

We needed a full look at our marketing and a gap analysis to re-capture the large market share we are accustomed to holding. We also needed a big step up in our social media, to improve the look and increase engagement and sales.

SOLUTION

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

We searched online for a local company who we could work with face-to-face as well as remotely. Trust Deep immediately struck us as the perfect fit! It checked all the boxes on paper and after I spoke with Stace, I was so impressed that we chose Trust Deep after our first meeting.

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

The work is ongoing and covers many aspects of our business including advertising, social media content concepts.

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

We are working with the principle, a graphics person and a social media manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our Instagram and Facebook both have a greatly improved look and the engagement is improving.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow is the best I've encountered after 30 years of doing business. Trust deep is creative, efficient and incredibly responsive!

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

Trust Deep staff is insightful, resourceful and they offer an exceedingly personal touch making them a total pleasure to work with. They were also outstanding listeners and kept their goals commensurate with ours: improved engagement and more sales.

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

Minor details occasionally fall through the cracks but it's negligible.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of Belly Laughs Comedy. I book the acts, promote the shows, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I hired Trust Deep Agency to develop my brand's vision, write a positioning statement, an elevator pitch, and developed a tagline for my company. My goals were to help grow and mature my company. To help strengthen my brand to earn more repeat customers and improve the brand's visibility.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found Trust Deep Agency on Clutch.co, and found Clutch.co from a Google search. After trading a few e-mails, and getting on a Zoom call, I was immediately sold on going with them. They captured the essence of what my brand is better than I could have ever dreamed!

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

The scope of works was to develop my brand's vision, write a positioning statement, an elevator pitch, and developed a tagline for my company. They delivered everything that was asked for on time and on budget.

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

One person did. Stace. She is Trust Deep Agency's Founder and Creative Director.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After working with Trust Deep Agency, it led to extremely increased market visibility for my company, as well as for the brand, my stand-up comedy shows, Google/Internet presence, website searches, website hits, merch sales, etc.

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

Stace's project management style was very organized, focused on my needs, creative, and polished. He replied back to every one of my e-mailed very promptly. We also got on a few Zoom calls, which I found very effective. His prior work experience was a huge influence and asset to helping me reach the goals I needed to.

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

It was impressive how seamless the entire process was from beginning to end. I was really impressed with the level of expertise that was brought to the project. Stace completely captured the ethos of my company. Everything that he produced for me completely blew me away.

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

Absolutely nothing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the creator of a podcast and online resource to support parent resilience and wellbeing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Trust Deep for a series of brand workshops.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Word of mouth - glowing reviews from a friend.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

They interviewed me and, after reading all the relevant materials I provided, came up with some alternative ways of thinking about how to describe the organization and all it stands for. The resulting brand deck helped define and communicate the brand story, vision, mission, values, benefits etc. in a consistent, authentic and compelling way.

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

I worked directly with Stace.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The brand deck that came out of this process helped shape all the language we have used for our website and project / related communications. It has also helped new employees get up to speed on the basics faster.

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

They were very clear about what we would cover in each meeting, what was required of me, what the deliverables would be and timing. Every interaction was professional and right on time.

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

They listened carefully, asked thoughtful questions, and offered frank, well-reasoned suggestions. Overall, they live up to their name by instilling a real sense of trust.

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

Not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a CPA firm with a regional firm located in Massachusetts, and we have around 125 employees. I lead the division that focuses on outsourced accounting solutions, providing everything from bookkeeping to CFO advisory services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trust Deep Agency?

The division I led was a brand new division within a well-established CPA firm. Since our company had been around for over 50 years, I came on to build an entirely new division and we went after industry verticals that we weren’t known for having expertise in. As a result, I tried to find a way to rebrand our division by changing the brand image and awareness that we had. Overall, our goal was to highlight that we were working with high-tech companies and startups, and we were nimble and new. To achieve our goal, we searched for a potential provider. 

Before working with Trust Deep Agency, we collaborated with a different provider. When we tracked metrics such as click-through rate (CTR) and lead generation, we weren’t really successful, which led us to work with the Trust Deep Agency's team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Trust Deep Agency team spent time to know about what we do, what we were all about, and what we wanted our image and brand to be. They then helped us distill everything down to a singular brand message. On top of that, since we were trying to develop an SEO strategy, they supported us in creating new content that we could put out to establish our expertise in our new practice areas. The content also helped us develop our credentials within different industries.

Some of the content they produced included e-books, blog posts, and emails which were all placed on a pillar page. A pillar page helped people see valuable content when they visit our website. The team already finished the content development stage, but they continue to tweak things here and there.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with one primary account manager, and he's one of the founders of Trust Deep Agency. He’s present at all of our meetings, and he coordinates everything behind the scenes. In fact, he went through the discovery process with us.

How did you come to work with Trust Deep Agency?

We solicited proposals from a few different agencies, and we listed down our top three. We didn’t want to go with a company that was too big or small. Once we narrowed everything down, we chose Trust Deep Agency because they presented us with a proposal that we felt really got what we were trying to do.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing collaboration started in March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve laid out a plan on how we could achieve our goals. We’ve gotten no traction doing the branding internally, and when Trust Deep Agency came in, we’ve been very pleased with their work. With their incredible work, we keep adding things to the engagement.

Though Trust Deep Agency sends us reports about their progress, we independently verify the metrics we’re achieving. In connection with that, the team has managed to increase our CTR and inbound inquiries while decreasing our bounce rate. They’ve also raised the number of people who read our blogs, emails, and more.

How did Trust Deep Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They diligently schedule meetings, timetables, and content that we need to develop. On days when we’re extremely busy, they don’t demand us to quickly finish things. Instead, they gently push and encourage us to stick to schedules. We use Teamwork as our project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're impressed with their ability to quickly understand what we’re trying to do. They’re capable of distilling our ideas into a brand message and developing a strategy to get our message across. As a result, we’ve been receiving multiple regular inbound inquiries, which made a huge difference in our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t want to sound like a self-promoter or cheerleader to Trust Deep Agency, but I don’t know if there is anything that they could improve. Perhaps, they could’ve been a little more forceful with us about keeping deadlines since they’re very nice about it. They should be a little more aggressive about holding clients to their end of the bargain.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with Trust Deep Agency, and listen to what they have to say because they have a lot of ideas. Don’t go to the project thinking that you already know what you want the project to be. In my case, I came into the project with the mindset that I already knew what I wanted them to do. Luckily, I was receptive to their ideas and because of their team, our project turned out to be much better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the co-founder and CEO of a financial services company. I started this company around a year ago along with my partner, and we were recently bought out. It was a short but very successful run.

My background is in fintech, and I actually ran another company for around 20 years, but I then sold it to a public company and retired. When COVID-19 hit, I, like many other people, got bored, so I decided to create a neutral platform to integrate data so that investment analysts and portfolio managers could get independent and neutral data from the large data providers of this industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trust Deep Agency?

Trust Deep was involved in the branding of our new platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we were out trying to raise money, Trust Deep came in and helped us put together our branding and messaging, which was very impressive. They also helped us develop our website and the pitch deck that supported our efforts.

Initially, we spent days talking about our business, its key attributes, and our key motivation. They also asked us to describe ourselves, namely my partner and me. From there, Trust Deep helped us came up with our branding and mission statements.

Then, we started developing our logo, which was an interesting exercise for me. After that, they developed our website, and finally, they created our pitch deck in PDF.

What is the team composition?

Stace (Founder & Chief Trust Officer) was the creative person in the project, so he worked a lot on the branding and the presentation. Dave (Design Director) designed the logo and the website.

How did you come to work with Trust Deep Agency?

I found Trust Deep due to their pro bono work. Although they had a significant background working for big agencies and organizations, they also did a website for the environmental committee of our town, and I thought that the site was beautiful.

After I found their work, I reached out to them. I also interviewed other firms, including some bigger ones. Besides the price difference with other agencies, I felt that Stace and Dave really got the entrepreneurial side of what we were trying to do. They thought like a startup, which was very important to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000–$15,000. Their price was very low compared to other quotes we got, and I think they were betting on us for the long run. However, we got acquired a lot quicker than any of us expected.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around October 2020. Trust Deep did the logo and branding design within one and a half or two months. Then, the website development took around another month, and the pitch deck also took one month. They finished the bulk of work in March 2021, but we continued working with them on a retainer basis until we got bought out.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We got an incredible interest in our pitch deck, and a lot of investors wanted to invest with us. However, the biggest result was that we could close a deal very quickly, which is something that not many startups can do. Of course, we had a great piece of software, but the professionalism of the presentation that they created for us showed that we were a serious company.

Additionally, Trust Deep worked with us very efficiently. It all was done fast and very well. They really came through, which was what we needed — having our presentation and our website up that quickly gave us credibility.

Dave was amazing at the branding design. My wife comes from a marketing background, and she told me that she had never seen anyone come up with such great assets. Both he and Stace didn’t have experience in the financial services area that we were in, but they listened to us and put together everything in a very expressive and simple way.

How did Trust Deep Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Trust Deep’s project management was terrific. They never went over budget, and if they needed to change something from how it was originally planned, they let us know beforehand.

If I asked them to modify something from the pitch deck or create a presentation for a specific client, the task was usually done within the retainer budget. If anything were to fall outside the scope of the retainer contract, they were very clear about it. We communicated via email and text messages.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Trust Deep really tried to embed themselves into our way of thinking, and they certainly enjoyed it; it felt as if they were our teammates. Although they were very professional and experienced, it was interesting to see how they played along with our lighthearted personalities.

They showed a tremendous amount of synergy and enthusiasm throughout the process, which was something unusual. I, for example, get easily bored when talking about marketing, but Trust Deep kept it interesting. The fact that they managed to keep my focus during the branding and logo design exercises was impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Trust Deep should probably start charging more for their services. Marketing is not my business, but I felt that we got more than a fair deal from them; we got a lot of value out of it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be yourself and be very open about your personality. If you see the website that Trust Deep created for us, you’ll see some humor in there. They played along with our personalities, which is what we wanted.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the assistant manager at our restaurant group based here in Boston. We have over 10 stores on the east coast.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Trust Deep Agency?

We needed Trust Deep to help us put together our company's brand. We focused on the basics of branding such as developing brand story, manifesto, mission statements and core values. The challenge was that we had zero direction prior to this collaboration.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to finalize a set of core values and brand ideas that will act as a North star guide for all of our team members. We needed something that was more concrete to show our staff and to aid all other branding strategies.

SOLUTION

How did you select Trust Deep Agency?

I looked up branding agencies in Boston area via Google. I came upon Clutch and booked a few different meetings with different companies. We ended up choosing Trust Deep Agency because of their value and their focus on Branding only.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Stace was very compelling from the beginning, he was a great listener so that is where we started. He understood that we needed to start from the basics, and so we had workshops where we talked about the brand in general.

We learned more about the process of branding and the different vocabulary associated with branding. We did some brainstorming and story telling, and he was able to put it altogether onto paper.

What was the team composition?

We only met Stace from TrustDeep Agency, he was the founder and main executive. It was a great experience working with him and because of the project at hand, we didn't ask for brand design or anything else, therefore one person was enough.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since working with Trust Deep Agency, our board members including the CEO of our company are more able to think more cohesively about the brand. We are also more able to speak to others about our mission and our story. I think the whole process just clarified a lot things for us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Stace was always very responsive and despite the situation with Covid19, he was very supportive and accommodating. We did a hybrid of communication, we emailed, zoomed and had one in person meeting to really get to know each other (on the request of ours). When we gave feedback to Stace, he quickly adjusted to our response, I think in the end he made like 3-4 revisions without any problems.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive thing about Trust Deep was their listening skills and ability to understand what we wanted. It isn't easy to try and figure out someone else's story for them, and Stace was marvelous at it. We haven't worked with any other branding agencies, but just based on experience with people, Stace was one of the greatest listener.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I think perhaps without Covid19, there would have been a lot more layers to the experience but this is not in anyone's control. I just think there's room for improvement on our half.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the Marketing Manager for a large ski resort in the Lake Tahoe region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Trust Deep Agency?

We were in need of a massive re-brand in order to remain relevant against growing competition and a rapidly evolving target audience.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to create a splash in our very traditional and somewhat archaic industry, without straying too far from our roots. We wanted to re-position the brand as a safe and trusted destination, but also carefully distance ourselves from our parent company whose reputation preceded us.

SOLUTION

How did you select Trust Deep Agency?

Trust Deep made it clear from the very start that they had met and exceeded the same goals for other brands and offered us a clear roadmap to success.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

This was an intensive 6-month project that included a complete overhaul of our website, communications, social media, content library and visual storytelling - every aspect of the brand that touched our large consumer base.

Trust Deep led us through historical data, consumer research and competitive analysis to start. And then dove into copy and style revisions, communications strategy and an entirely new brand asset library.

At the end of the project, we were able to seamlessly unveil a new brand in an authentic manner with only positive outcomes leading to a massive increase in revenue.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a copywriter, designer, project manager, and UI/UX specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After our rebrand, we conducted audience research to see if the new brand resonated with our core audience and the results were overwhelming that the rebrand was a huge success.

We saw a 60%+ increase in social media engagement rates and double that in website traffic and transactions. Our digital media immediately resulted in 20% YoY increase in both engagement and ROI.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The relationship with Trust Deep was seamless, they immediately became a trusted partner and truly an extension of our team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Hands down their creativity. The rebrand shifted the way our entire organization thought about our marketing and operations. Our General Manager used it to rebrand her own thought leadership campaign and our parent company used it as an example to challenge other resorts to follow the same creative thinking.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would partner with them again in a second.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal of product marketing at Revenera, a company that helps software vendors build better products, accelerate time to value and monetize what matters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trust Deep?

We first engaged with Stace (Founder) and his team because we were rebranding. Our focus was on software and analytics, and we wanted to rebrand the company to make it clear. We had already come up with the name, but we needed to redo all copy and structure.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team met with us to go over what we needed. After we talked things out, we put a structure together before focusing on the analytics side.

Stace interviewed our team, striving to learn about our company and services. After that, we mapped out everything through the back and forth with our team. He put together an outline for all of us to flesh out, which put us in the right direction. From there, we went through two or three revisions for the site.

What is the team composition?

We mostly interacted with Stace. Our team, including our VP of marketing and director of digital marketing, was heavily involved in the process with me.

How did you come to work with Trust Deep?

I believe we came to work with them through a referral. After talking to him and looking over Stace’s work, I could see that he could balance the technical aspects with customer perspectives. His process also seemed very organized.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Trust Deep from August–November 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Trust Deep provides an efficient process. Stace provided great content for the site, and then it was up to us for the heavy lifting. We had a specific date for the launch, and everything was delivered well before that.

How did Trust Deep perform from a project management standpoint?

Throughout the engagement, they were very clear about drafts and timelines. Stace was always able to keep us on track. Sometimes we were slow with getting comments back to him, but he kept us accountable.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Stace did an excellent job of listening and asking great questions. Throughout the engagement, he understood what we wanted, asked the right questions, and assimilated the information we gave him. That made the entire process a lot easier, compared to our experiences with other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. They could’ve pushed us a little more to get everything together for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Stace does a great job. He asks great questions that speed up the process and gets everybody on the same page.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the president, founder and president of Innovo Benefits Group. We are an employee benefits brokerage firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trust Deep?

We were trying to build on our brand, expand our marketing, work on our website, and create content marketing materials.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We began by doing content, meaning, they wrote content for our website and other places. Then we expanded the relationship to include more general marketing services, which included strategy, brand review strategy. They’ve helped us determine how to present ourselves to the broader business community. We’ve also been working on some advertising work.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with the founder of Trust Deep for a couple of years now. Then they brought on another team member recently. I also think there’s a third team member working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Trust Deep?

We met through a personal connection. They were working with another company that I know, so I decided to give them a shot.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in October 2017 and it’s an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received positive anecdotal feedback from clients regarding some of the content that we put out there. More quantitatively, we’ve seen more incoming inquiries based on the marketing work they’ve done.

How did Trust Deep perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a great balance of managing us, knowing that we sometimes have more pressing things to do. They can balance pushing us and knowing when to defer and let us get back to them. They still make sure the project is moving forward. We just use phone and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The results have been most impressive. We’re a small and young organization, and in a short period of time, we’ve advanced our position in the marketplace to be one of the more prominent companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re doing a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d provide my full support in recommending them without any hesitation.