Trust Deep Branding

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 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.

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.