Workshop Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director at Hilldrup, a moving, storage, transportation, and logistics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Workshop Digital?

We wanted to increase our organic Google ranking and be more visible online. Our company has various locations and business lines, and we were trying to figure out how to best show up online for our clients and prospects. Therefore, we hired Workshop Digital for SEO services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Workshop Digital provides us with SEO support and advises us on digital advertising. Initially, we had kick-off calls for them to determine who we were as a company, decide how best to assist us, and set a budget. 

Within SEO, they’ve assisted us with various projects. For keyword research, we’ve relied on Workshop Digital’s expertise. They’ve proposed keywords to us, and we’ve provided feedback when needed. Workshop Digital has created blog briefs where they recommend blogs for us to work with and have helped our content creators figure out the best blog topics. 

As our business has grown, we’ve increased our engagement with Workshop Digital because we’ve needed more support they’ve been able to provide. The team has offered us help with PPC and with various advertising opportunities. 

What is the team composition?

On average, four teammates from Workshop Digital, including an SEO specialist and a manager, work on our account. We’ve also worked with team members who focus on paid advertising. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $80,000 a year with Workshop Digital, for a total of $500,000–$700,000 on this project.

How did you come to work with Workshop Digital?

When we were looking for an SEO partner, we found Workshop Digital through a referral from another agency partner we worked with. Our partner had used Workshop Digital before and recommended them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Workshop Digital’s work has met and exceeded our expectations. We’ve seen increased organic traffic and leads for various KPIs in our business lines. I don’t have any specific numbers because we have different KPIs every year in different business lines. Still, we’ve grown our budget with Workshop Digital based on the great success they’ve showcased through their KPIs. 

They’ve been a great partner, always willing to adapt to whatever we need. Moreover, Workshop Digital provides insights and recommendations before we have questions about them. When we have questions about our business and how to approach it, they offer advice on dealing with some instances based on keywords or our goals. 

How did Workshop Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They have great project management; I’ve been very thankful for them. Workshop Digital delivers work on time and within budget and communicates well. Michael (Former Senior SEO Analyst), a former teammate, and everyone who has worked with us after him have been great. 

The team offers a regular cadence of reporting and updates and is always available when we need something in between these updates. As for communication, we mainly use email and Google Docs. 

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Michael was on our account for many years and was super proactive. He understood our industry and business and was a wonderful asset in providing recommendations and helping improve our SEO visibility.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Workshop Digital’s biggest strength is their ability to understand our business. They’re an excellent partner who doesn’t just meet our needs but anticipates them. The team also provides recommendations for things we might need that we aren’t even aware of. Overall, Workshop Digital has been very proactive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they need to improve. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be open and honest about your business’s challenges and opportunities; this will allow Workshop Digital to formulate a great strategy to ensure your brand continues to succeed on the web. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of content and digital marketing for Performance Foodservice, a company part of a larger umbrella company called Performance Food Group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Workshop Digital?

We needed help with our SEO efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Workshop Digital handles our SEO and PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, and other search engines. Their team has done extensive keyword research and helped us with on-page optimization. They've also improved our page structure to make it more indexable-friendly for search engines.

Most recently, Workshop Digital has been helping us with schema markup to help search engines understand our locations better and improve local SEO. Therefore, their work has included a lot of technical and on-site optimization.

What is the team composition?

We work with a PPC analyst, an SEO analyst, and a couple of other specialists from Workshop Digital's team. One of those teammates focuses on local SEO. At every meeting, there are typically 3–4 teammates on the call.

How did you come to work with Workshop Digital?

I knew Workshop Digital from a previous job. I used them around 5–6 years ago and found a lot of success in using them for SEO and PPC. Thus, when this project started, I contacted them directly. Initially, we did an onboarding process, during which they put together an audit.

Their team audited our digital assets and identified opportunities and challenges. I presented Workshop Digital's findings to our leadership team and was authorized to proceed with a proposal, which we signed and started the actual project.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay a monthly fee of around $15,000–$20,000, not including our ad spend.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the first quarter of 2023, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we started this project, we knew we were performing badly because our previous SEO group wasn't paying attention, so our rankings were horrible. For example, our primary keywords were organically ranking on the fourth or fifth page of Google search results. Workshop Digital has moved a couple of our key terms up to the first page of Google search results.

Before they joined, we were already bidding on our own brand terms, so that wasn't an issue. Still, Workshop Digital has been working to help us with competitive keyword bidding. They've helped us with a lot of our competitor terms, building out campaigns and resulting in positive conversions.

We know that it takes a long time to move all of our primary keywords to the top of Google search results, so we know it'll be a long journey. However, I anticipate to keep working with Workshop Digital as our partner throughout that journey.

How did Workshop Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Workshop Digital's work is very buttoned-up. Everything has been well-documented, and they've done a good job of providing their different disciplines in multiple areas. They've kept tasks segmented separately and tracked those tasks. Thanks to it, we've been able to share that information with our internal IT group and our third-party development company, allowing us to create to-do lists for all the stakeholders.

Moreover, there has never been a mission creep or a budget negotiation. Workshop Digital has really worked hard to optimize our rankings, positioning, and bidding within the allowed budget; they're very ethical about it.

As for collaboration tools, we have a shared Google Sheets spreadsheet that includes our documentation. Workshop Digital uses that spreadsheet to deliver reporting so that we can see everything in real-time. Email is our primary communication tool, and we use Google Meet to have monthly video calls to look at the past month's performance, as well as to plan the strategies for the upcoming month.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I would like to give a shout-out to our SEO analyst. She's excellent and understands the challenges of our current platform. We run on a not open-source-friendly platform because it's a much more secure platform managed by our IT group, so it's not as simple and easy to use as WordPress. Still, the SEO analyst has been extremely patient and knowledgeable about what we do.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Workshop Digital is a very pragmatic, consistent, and disciplined agency, which fits us very well. We know what to expect from them and how they work. Others might think that their approach is not enough, as they expect an agency to throw things against the wall and see if they stick.

Workshop Digital does test concepts, ads, images, or taglines, but everything is very controlled. In case it doesn't work, there's limited damage, and they can simply pivot and test something else until they find something that beats the control.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything Workshop Digital could improve on. The team I'm working with is completely new to me, but we've established a good partnership. I've gotten to know how they work and feel extremely comfortable with them, so there's nothing I would ask them to do differently.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Know where you want to go so that you can provide them with defined business goals and challenges for them to overcome. If you don't come to them with that, the campaigns will be very basic. If you don't know where you're going, you won't know when you'll get there.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Marketing Officer of Northern Neck Virginia Insurance

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Home and auto insurance

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Workshop Digital to accomplish?

• Improve search engine performance
• Test PPC strategies

SOLUTION

How did you find Workshop Digital?

Personal relationship

Why did you select Workshop Digital over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Workshop Digital were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Workshop Digitial dramatically raised our digital presence. The SEO program has taken us from invisible to ranking for several hundred search terms. Organic web traffic has seen double digit growth every year, driving lead generation and brand awareness. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We've seen double digit growth in organic site traffic and online leads have tripled during the pilot program.  

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We consider the WD team to be part of our internal team. They always deliver on time and the quality of the work has been excellent. They are thorough, attentive, and easy to work with. The Agency principals are available to us and responsive to questions and concerns. It's a great relationship. 

What was your primary form of communication with Workshop Digital?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Big-time capabilities with a local vibe -- they are friendly and enjoyable but seriously capable. In other words, they're pros. 

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

No.