Zahara Consult

Please describe your company and your position there.

Finance Academy is an educational organization that creates next-generation opportunities in investment, personal finance, supplemental income, accounting and business. Our innovative platform provides practical, accessible and digital education in an understandable language. My role in Finance Academy is to run the marketing activities and supervise their execution.

For what projects/services did your company hire Zahara Consult, and what were your goals?

We contacted Zahara Consult right before our official launch - with just a single idea and and a visionary idea for the future of education. Our team was looking for professional consultancy and niche expertise in marketing.

Our goals included building a platform, successful launch of our first courses, building an audience, gaining recognition and brand awareness, and achieving our KPIs for students and participants in our first educational program. This meant creating a digital presence from the ground up - from website development, through copywriting, overall content, student information, creating and developing social networks, maintaining profiles, creating groups and overall building an active community interested in finance, investment and business.

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

When selecting a vendor, we were looking for a responsible team of professionals that has the niche expertise and understands our industry and the challenges ahead of us. Another important thing for us was to find a dedicated team that would give us special attention and wasn't afraid the run the extra mile with a startup.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

They have helped us to develop a strong online presence for our academy which lead to amazing results and astonishing growth – from a startup with an ambitious idea to a leading provider of financial education in the region. To achieve that, we received from Zahara Consult a full stack of marketing activities.

First, the team did marketing research to make sure that they know everything about the industry, the scope of our work and the strategies that our existing competitors use. After that, the build a marketing strategy that included every aspect of our digital presence - social media, SEO, content, mailing list, community management in the group etc. The SEO activities included:

• SEO research
• website wireframing
• keyword research
• keyword mapping content strategy
• technical SEO

They also helped us out with the website development and the whole content on the MVP of the platform (copywriting, design, wireframe, SEO structure). We then created a blog together and followed an SEO content strategy - we ranked on the first pages of Google in our country within the first 6 months.

The team also helped us out with the execution of the social media strategy, creative copywriting for our ads, engaging content for our groups etc. Publicity, PR activities and media relations too. The project and began to function effectively in December 2020 and by the end of 2021, after almost a year of preparation of marketing activities, we reached over 4,500 course participants.

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

We've worked with a lot of different people from Zahara some of which were:

• Marketing Experts
• Business Consultants
• Social Media Experts
• Designers
• Copywriters
• SEO experts

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project and began to function effectively in December 2020 and by the end of 2021, after almost a year of preparation of marketing activities, we reached over 4,500 course participants. In no time, the website reached over 100k of unique users and over 30% coming from organic search. We also gathered over 50% of the local organic search traffic in words such as cryptocurrency, gold, investing. Our community on Facebook has over 5k active users.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between the teams was amazing and followed no by a vendor, but by a partnership approach. We were able to get an impressive amount of work done in a short period of time and everyone was very efficient and collaborative. I think Zahara's partnership approach is a great way to collaborate and it really helps to get things done quickly. What's most important, it didn't feel as if we were outsourcing our marketing activities, but as if they were done by an internal team.

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

We found it really impressive that Zahara's team was very active in the marketing process - they've given us a lot of ideas and are always running the extra mile with the execution.  Definitely exceeded our expectations.

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

There's nothing better we can recommend.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Chief Marketing Officer of SoftUni - the largest and most respected educational institution, creating professionals in the field of software engineering, digital marketing and creative design.

For what projects/services did your company hire Zahara Consult?

We hired Zahara Consult to get assistance in B2B Partnership development of our network of companies. Their work led to successful recruitment of software engineering students and long-term strategic partnerships with IT, Telecom and Finance Companies.

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

We have worked with the CEO of Zahara Consult in the past and knowing his personal dedication, professionalism and experience was the key factor in choosing the company. At the moment we're expanding the scope of work.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

Zahara Consult assisted us with the following services: B2B Partnership Development, Managing the recruitment process of Junior Software Developers and Business Consultancy. The company was in charge of the recruitment of software engineers with profiles of JS, Python, Java and C#. They contacted the partnering network and conducted the full recruitment process. Zahara Consult was in charge of a partnership development network with new partners and existing partners. They had dedicated sales and marketing efforts in expanding the network of Softuni and maintaing existing partnerships.

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

The CEO and the Digital Marketing Expert worked with us. Totally 2 people.

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

Our revenue growth from B2B deals was 20% on annual base.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had good and effective communication. They demonstrated good personal and professional skills.

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

The personal touch was very high-level. Every solution they offered was tailor-made to the needs of our company.

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

Of course in the beginning we needed some calibration of our mutual work process, but once we had it done everything went smooth.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an owner of an affiliate website which offers casino and sport betting bonuses.

For what projects/services did your company hire Zahara Consult, and what were your goals?

To build a website from scratch. We had the goal to be innovative in the affiliate field for gambling websites. We hired Zahara Consutl to build an e-commerce like platform.

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

I found them through Linkedin. They are a consulting agency so their staff has experience in various fields in Marketing. They also offer various Marketing services in Content Creation, Social Media Presence, Web Development, SEO and Google/Facebook Advertising

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They built the website combining WordPress, PHP and JavaScript

How many people from the Zahara Consult team worked with you, and what were their positions?

About 5. 2 developers, 1 SEO Executive, 1 Copywriter and the CEO himself.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

More than 1k backlinks, 1st page on 3 keywords and more than 20 pages on my website (including Landing Pages for Advertisement)

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

They were using Asana and Google Sheet as per my recommendation and preference.

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

Easy and clear to communicate with. They worked in a timely manner and kept up with the schedule.

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

I cannot think of anything in particular.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a freelance business consultant and advisor, helping recently established business owners and corporate managers to leverage their energy, skills, personal power to thrive in their businesses

For what projects/services did your company hire Zahara Consult, and what were your goals?

I've hired Zahara to redesign our website and assist with the creation of my coaching packages

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

Word of mouth - I decided to choose George and his team for their honest, transparency and focus. I feel like I am their only client

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a kick-off call and the project has been running smoothly every since

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

Web development

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We are just about to launch our site but the outcomes so far are clarity an confidence that our site will generate the traffic and revenue we need to close more clients

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

Clear, Concise and Honest

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

Their team works with integrity and other values that I truly admire.

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

No