Vivial

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a court document preparation services company. We prepare documents for people who want to file their own cases, such as divorce and bankruptcy. Our team also does paralegal services for attorneys; if attorneys need help with their caseloads, they can give their caseload to us and we help them prepare documents. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Vivial?

I hired Vivial for their internet marketing services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vivial provided us with SEO and internet marketing services. They asked me to sign a month-to-month contract. They were supposed to do submissions on local search directories. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people from Vivial, including Angel (Senior Digital Media Consultant). 

How did you come to work with Vivial?

I was searching for a Google Premier Partner and found Vivial there. I saw reviews about them — some were good, while others were bad — and I thought they’d do well with my project because it wasn’t difficult. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent approximately $1,500. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from January–March 2022. 

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The engagement had detrimental effects on my business. I had a significant loss of revenue. Under their watch, I also lost all the SEO progress that I’d gained over the years. Vivial knew that my site was being updated regularly, but with their work, my search rankings fell off. 

How was project management handled?

Vivial was highly disorganized. It took 90 days for them to put two words on the website, and they only finally did it when I started complaining. None of them truly knew what they were doing. In fact, one of their teammates told me they didn’t know what was going on; they then blamed it on the hosting provider, who said Vivial could update the site on their end. Then, they responded and said the hosting provider was right — this took up a week, and I was losing business.

Moreover, I gave them sample keywords, and they told me not to worry about my current rankings. However, I wasn’t supposed to be the one to give them the keywords. They were an internet marketing company, so they should’ve been able to identify keywords for us. They also said they’d submit my website to local directories, but they didn’t do that. 

Further, our contract wasn’t truly a month-to-month deal; I had to proactively cancel it. I also had to agree with their terms and conditions, so when I wanted to cancel the contract, they charged a cancellation fee. In other words, they used a somewhat misleading practice to continue the contract. It also took forever for them to acknowledge that I was canceling their services. They simply continued to bill me. 

To illustrate, one department would tell me they canceled the contract, while another would ask me about their services because they thought I was still engaged with them. They also weren’t knowledgeable; they couldn’t get into my website without going through the hosting provider, but they didn’t even know that. To communicate we used emails and phone calls.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

No, they did nothing well in this engagement. 

In what specific areas can they improve?

Vivial should improve their organizational skills. The team should perform the things they say they’ll do, and they shouldn’t mislead customers. On top of that, they shouldn’t make their customers think the contract is renewed on a monthly basis; in reality, their customers are signing a contract that doesn’t end unless they proactively cancel it. 

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Steer clear of Vivial. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Menadena. We provide marketing and communications consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vivial?

I hired them as a partner to serve my customers. I’d been searching for a marketing services provider for several years, but I had failed to find one that I felt confident could provide as good a service as our team does.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vivial is our marketing partner for our clients. They do social media, Google Ads, and SEO among other things. 

What is the team composition?

We have one point of contact. We also work with social media specialists, a chief strategist, a sector strategist, and an account strategist.

How did you come to work with Vivial?

I work through an agency, and I have 200 companies that are my authorized partners. I found Vivial through the agency. When I found them, I interviewed several levels of their organization to understand their capabilities. After a vetting process, I decided that they would be a good partner. 

How much have you invested with them?

I haven’t paid them anything yet. As part of the deal of working with them, they give me about $7,000 in marketing services a year.

Once I hit the $10,000 mark in monthly revenue, they said that I will qualify for the portal, which is their minimum, entry-level digital marketing platform service. The annual number is $400,000, spread out over 10–20 of my customers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first spoke in about August 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

They provide very high-quality services. There are limitations in the ability of a remote marketing agency to provide high-quality service to a local business. That’s the reason we work together. I’m the boots-on-the-ground partner who gets to have a deep knowledge of the customer.

Then Vivial delivers high-quality marketing services at a competitive price, which allows us to do fantastic work. We do a better job because we’re working together.  

How did Vivial perform from a project management standpoint?

This is one of the things that I love about them because it’s not my strong suit. Vivial takes care of all of the papers and does a good job of it. Our point of contact, a customer relationship manager, coordinates all of the services, keeps track of all of the timelines, and does all of the scheduling. 

All I have to do is be present and available to participate in all of that. The team makes sure that everything gets done. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like the fact that we’ve got a team. I previously had my own team of about 10 subcontractors. The great thing about Vivial compared to that other team is that we have a tight group of people who are working together on a regular basis, which is fantastic.

The people they’ve picked to fill these roles are very qualified. The customer relationship manager is a very patient and encouraging cheerleader. She’s always positive and never gets short with people when she’s tired, which is why she’s perfect for the role. 

The team also does a much better job with Google Ads than we do, which I’m thrilled about. Additionally, they are able to provide great SEO services to customers at a really great price.

They are very organized and offer such tremendous value, for example, they offer SEO at about $50 per hour, whereas we would do it at about $125 per hour.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When you deal with a big marketing agency, you get out of it what you put into it. We’re doing a great job as a team, but my customers have to be committed to and engaged in the process.

Vivial is only as engaged as the people they’re serving. If the customers aren’t engaged, the team will do an okay job, but it won’t be their best work. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand the process and commit to it. Stay engaged with them on a regular basis and don’t slack off. Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask Vivial questions or push them because they will reciprocate. To the degree that you do that, their ability to serve you will improve exponentially.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Funeral Director at Arndt Funeral Home, Rochester, NY. We are a local family owned funeral home that services the Town of Greece in Rochester, NY.

For what projects/services did your company hire Vivial?

We currently use Vivial for our marketing needs on the internet. They blog for us 3 times a month. Sending informative pieces out to potential clients and those that follow us on Facebook, twitter and other internet media platforms. They also follow our page and monitor our marketing platform, working to increase our google standings and increase our ratings, to help advertise our name in the area that we provide services for in the greater Rochester area.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals are to increase the amount of people that see our page, increasing our call volume and gaining new customers. As we maintain the ones that we currently have. Writing the blogs allows people to learn more about our funeral home, the industry, and why they should call us versus the many other funeral firms that are out there.

How did you select this vendor?

We met with 3 local marketing platforms companies and chose Vivial. They were upfront. They didn't try to shoot down the competitors, they were upfront, honest and told us what they could do.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Vivial made a landing page for our company that is posted on the internet. From there customers can link directly to our web page. They have made our information available to the public for phone usage as well as computer usage. With the rise of people that are simply using their phones as a computers data needs to be transmitted in different formats and they make this possible.

They also monitor how people are searching us on the internet and the search engines that they use. They enable us to be able to listen to calls that come in and monitor those speaking on the phone. Classifying if they are good calls or if they are calls that are not related to our business.

They send us monthly reports that break down all our marketing needs and they follow the trends and let us know what we need to do and how we need to word things too make us more marketable on the the internet. My role in this project was to help set up, design, give information and OK the final designs. I also proof the blogs that they write up for us each month making sure that the information is correct according to the laws, rules and regulations for our state and local area.

I also give information to them for blogs, ideas of what they can write about or facts that need to go into the article. The vendor does an exceptional job marketing our company and managing our marketing platform on the internet. With customers no longer using phone books, and replacing it with the internet they help us field this new age of marketing. Also, helping keep out negativity that may arise on the internet.

They are building us a strong marketing platform and they maintain the sites across all forms of media like face-book, twitter, etc. It would take me forever to try to advertise across multiple platforms and they have combined all the information and the broadcast across all the media forms out there for us. Maintaining whatever need to be done and keeping our technology on the web up to date.

What was the team composition?

I spoke with the sales rep. The original platform representative, Linda Royal and from time to time the person that was making the actual landing page. Otherwise, I simply talk with Linda Royal for all my marketing needs and she answers my questions and finds out the answers and gets right back to me.

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

Yes our business has moved from page 3 to the front page when googling. We have increased amount of phone calls. We also have had clients that have said they found us through the Vivial website. So the cost of doing business is economical for our small business.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent. Linda Royal and I speak once a month to go over all the marketing platform information, growth and decline. We make necessary changes. If I have any questions or concerns I simply email her and I receive a same day response. If I ask for changes to the platform in anyway the are completed almost immediately.

The tech team there is very efficient and always can help me answer a question I may have or explain why things are the way they are on the Internet and Linda discusses ways that we can change things, alter things, and improve things on our end.

Linda is excellent in explaining on how to navigate the system and teach me how to use the tools that we have. Linda also helped me set up the system so I can remote access it on my lap top at home during Covid-19 and on going. I also am able to access the system from my Samsung phone, which I had issues with before.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

What I find unique about this company is their ability to help any company no matter how BIG or small you are. We are a small family owned company that covers our town and they treat us like any other company out they. They enable us to compete with our competitors that are out there and have brought us to the front page on google. We have received many phone calls just from that they worked out to become a client. We would not have had them as a client if we were not on the front page.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As of right now I am very happy with everything the way that it is set up. I am happy with the response that htey give us and all the work that they do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Simple Kona Beach Weddings. We provide full service wedding planning for intimate destination beach weddings here in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vivial?

I sought a partner to help with my marketing efforts and to enhance my already good online presence, helping me go from good to great.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I have several areas that Vivial assists me with, that I don't have time for on a regular basis, being the person who services nearly every aspect of my business. 

Vivial helps me select the best posts to boost on Facebook and IG (the cost of which is worked into my package), and we periodically review the results, and make changes based on performance. I have the freedom to choose which posts are active and complete, although I am provided with guidance. 

The Vivial team also writes blog posts for me, based topics I brainstorm with them. Before the content is posted and broadcast, I am able to add to and edit each post as I like, and/or send feedback back to the writing team to make edits.

I also have a pop-up add, and they assisted me in getting my Google Business profile set up and running (something I'd neglected to do, since I don't have an actual brick and mortar business). They also submitted my business to countless online directories.

Their team also supported me in getting the SEO on my current website built up, as much as the web platform I currently use allows. 

I also opted to have a promotional video for my business created. They contracted with a video creation service and connected me with a local videographer to create the content for the video, which I use on my website and have posted on other platforms.

What is the team composition?

I have a main point of contact, Tricia (Digital Account Coordinator), who’s fantastic. In the beginning, I worked with a sales representative, and a different teammate managed my onboarding and introduced me to Tricia.

How did you come to work with Vivial?

I may have received an email but can't remember, and I looked into their company. Unlike so many emails I have received, Vivial was a real business, and they have been in business for a long time and had positive ratings. I also liked the fact that they customized their services based on their clients’ needs, which appealed to me.

How much have you invested with them?

I pay a flat monthly fee. It’s nice to not worry about the nitty-gritty of how much I’m spending per month, since this flat fee includes all of the services mentioned above.

What is the status of this engagement?

I've been with them since October of 2019. The project is on-going.

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

My rankings and exposure online increased. It’s nice to have a solid online presence because nearly all of my business comes from the internet, from folks looking to do a destination wedding here in Hawaii. Their team helped with my web presence in general.

It's nice to have a partner who makes sure the digital marketing processes unfold correctly. I’m also not an analytical person and Vivial helps to track metrics that I wouldn’t normally follow.

How did Vivial perform from a project management standpoint?

We normally communicate via e-mail and phone. I meet with Tricia monthly and before we start the call, she addresses what we’ll cover. I add anything that I want to discuss on the agenda. Tricia reports on our progress throughout the month.

Vivial set up a dashboard that’s comprehensive, allowing me to see what is and isn’t working. While I have full control over the project, Tricia provides advice and implements any ideas we discuss.

If I’m unhappy with a blog post, they arrange a meeting with the person in charge of the process. We talk about what I want my customers to read and they’re receptive to the feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provide personal attention, which makes a difference. If I have a marketing issue, I call or email Tricia at Vivial, and she quickly responds. I’m in a person-oriented business and it’s nice to feel that personal touch from my marketing company. I feel that Vivial actually cares, and that I’m valuable to them as a client. I worked with other marketing agencies where once they hooked me into a contract, that was it. No personal touch, ongoing support or guidance. Vivial feels like they are a part of my team, a valuable one.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue I've had is with the blog writers. I am a published author, and am very picky about how I present myself and my business to the public, so I am picky about the content created as well. I've never received a bad article from them, but I have had to edit or request edits to every single blog post.

However, they have been extremely open to feedback, and they have been working with me to create content that is in line with what matters to me and my business, and that, to me, is the most important thing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear with your objectives because Vivial has a lot of different products. They’ll cater their offerings to your needs. My sales representative listened to my concerns and then shared services that were pertinent to my search.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner and operator of JAMCO Wildlife Control in Northeast Ohio. I provide a service to residents and commercial companies to remove nuisance animals such as rodents, raccoons, skunks, and ground hogs from their homes or property. I depend on quality marketing and advertising to generate customers.

For what projects/services did your company hire Vivial?

I hired Vivial to design my webpage and to provide marking strategies to generate customers in my service area.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted to have digital advertising and marketing to residents and buisnesses within a 15 mile radius of my company. I also wanted a user friendly and professional webpage for customers.

How did you select Vivial?

I selected to go with the Vivial (former Berry) Company nine years ago after researching two other companies.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

I conference monthly with Linda R., Senior Account Coordinator. Linda will review all aspects of my webpage and marketing strategies during the conference. She will offer ways to improve the site and ways to generate more customers.

What was the team composition?

I conference one on one with Linda each month. Linda will then meet with her team and share our talking points on how to improve advertising and marketing for my company. The team then gets it done.

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

Since I have worked with Linda R., the number of my customers has increased anually as well as sales.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between me and Linda R. has been wonderful. Linda is always pleasant to speak to and she is very thorough in her work.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I'm most impressed with Linda R. She sets the bar high for what an account specialist should be.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I am very satisfied with where my company is in the digital world of adverising and marketing.

Please describe your company and your position there.

• Outdoor living-Construction company

For what projects/services did your company hire Vivial?

• site design
• site management

What were your goals for this project?

• To attract more traffic to the website
• To provide a high-quality website to our customers
• To grow the company's online presence
• To have someone updating the website as needed to stay on top of the competition

How did you select Vivial?

• Online

What was the team composition?

• Owner
• Office administrator

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

We get many customer compliments on our website. The website looks very professional and it's easy to manage it. It's fresh and elegant.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They are excellent. They do monthly follow-ups with me to ensure the website is up and running smoothly. They also suggest multiple ways to make the website better.

I love their recommendations and they all make absolute sense. They truly care, they are not there pushing products/services just to get a sale.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Professionalism and friendliness are the most impressive things about the. They stay on top of their customers and take the time to explain things thoroughly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a local State farm office in Omaha NE Agent

For what projects/services did your company hire Vivial?

I was really wanting to focus on my Google map listings and social media presence with Vivial.

What were your goals for this project?

We were working towards getting more visibility in local Google searches

How did you select Vivial?

I was approached by a sales associate (Stephanie Leperriere)

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They have been creating content and posting to my Google plus platform as well as Facebeook. They do monthly Ad boosting on Facebook and check in with me month to review. I am very pleased with their services

What was the team composition?

I have been working with Stephanie and Adam Adkins and they have been amazing!

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

The results have been amazing! I was impressed with the follow-through and instant results that I received form Vivial. They did exactly what they demonstrated during their presentation

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They have a very effective workflow. They are amazing at communicating.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Professional, they deliver results, they over-communicate, they take their time to get to know my business and they are reliable

Are there any areas for improvement?

None.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the manager of a Large Well Drilling, Pump, water Treatment company in N.E. Washington State. We have been in business 40 years. We decided we needed to be more aggressive on our web page, and SEO marketing. Thats when we found Vivial.....their people have been great to work with, redid our web page, and reccommended a SEO program for us. Our results have been beyond expectation and we have so many leads coming to us off of our web page weekly, its just been great, and would highly reccomend Vivial to other companies who really want more business but are afraid to take the jump........

For what projects/services did your company hire Vivial?

New web page design, SEO, Facebook

What were your goals for this project?

I didnt really know what to hope for....but we have exceeded anything i could of dreamed of......

How did you select this vendor?

We had worked with Vivial before with our Yellow page ads

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

I already did, thats their business and they do it well, we Drill wells and we do it well........i dont do their job, they dont do mine

What was the team composition?

Sorry im out of time and believe i have said enough.......I am getting so many leads from vivial i must keep working to keep up

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

We got lots of leads as a result of their services.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great, but this survey is getting to long, and the same questions

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Becky Van Dyne........Get her if you can, she is awesome!

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nope

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is a 3 location Self Storage business and I am the Owner

For what projects/services did your company hire Vivial?

Linda Royal at Vivial Has been the Force behind Modernizing our businesses Profile for the digital Platforms.

What were your goals for this project?

My Goal was to integrate the new marketing,website,digital platforms,social media etc to bring more traffic to our business.

How did you select this vendor?

Vivial's role was ramped up steadily because of the confidence gained working with Linda Royal. She was able to slowly bring me into the modern world.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They offered small steps and strategies which began with a static web page. As I felt more comfortable we added more features and digital platforms eventually learning to use the SEO techniques and tools with Linda Royals guidance and suggestions.

What was the team composition?

Linda Royal was my person at Vivial. We worked together.

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

At the beginning of taking over this Business we were stuck in the yellowpages/paper advertising/cash and check only style which was not working well. We were consistently on the 4th or 5th page of search results-essentially lost

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very good

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of service my representative consistently provided was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not for me.