Straight North
Moving Company
Best part of the experience?
Straight North was hired to build a new website and provide SEO services for a moving company in order to drive a more organic traffic and increase leads and sales. The SEO work is ongoing.
Change about the experience?
I don't think so. They’ve quickly addressed everything I asked them to do, change, or fix. I had a few things that I had forgotten that I needed and they did them without a problem.
Overall Feedback:
The project went smoothly and the redesign surpassed all expectations. Straight North's team was always prompt and assigned experts to very specific tasks. The new website is now driving 10 times more organic traffic than its previous version. Straight North handles SEO [search engine optimization] and web design. We haven’t asked for social media work because we just kicked-off and want to start slower and then ramp up. We’re in our busy season and didn’t want to attract customers that we can’t properly service. It’s a very small local and regional campaign. We have a request submission box on the website, and its goal is to get somebody to fill out that box and submit a request for us to contact them, or for them to call us — we want both. Basically, we want to get in contact with them so that we can set up an in-home estimate.
- Hired for:
- Web Design
- Hired In: 2017
Yoga Business
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provides local digital marketing services including SEO, web redesign, and sales call tracking with a focus on the Chicago area. The main goal is to improve incoming sales and brand awareness.
Change about the experience?
There is nothing that I can think of at the moment.
Overall Feedback:
Straight North has improved traffic and sales conversions coming through the website. They have made a huge step forward with the website design and user flow. Straight North is approachable and honest. They helped design the website. I already had a website but they improved my Squarespace website. They helped with SEO and gave me recommendations and also help add company reviews and get us higher on various third party sites. They also helped with us tracking clicks so we can figure out where our customers are coming from how often they're calling and all of the phone calls are also recorded. We record the calls so that we can improve customer service outcomes. We don't do PPC with Straight North, we just focus on organic SEO.
- Hired for:
- Digital Marketing
- Hired In: 2017
Denis Tan
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provided extensive website improvement, utilizing their in-house CMS. They optimized content with industry keywords and supply ongoing SEO services.
Change about the experience?
Their CMS could use minor improvements. It’s great for people who want a basic, easy-to-use system, but lacks flexibility for more advanced users. Of course, this simplicity gives their CMS a wider appeal.
Overall Feedback:
Straight North’s strategies led to a significant decrease in bounce rates and increase in new visitors. They offer competitive rates and take special care to understand industry requirements. While their CMS lacks flexibility, its simplicity makes it easy to use. They used their in-house proprietary CMS to redesign our website, incorporating infographics, and the intuitive layout allows us to maintain the site and make changes as needed. They found keywords accurate to our industry and used them to optimize our web content. They also write blog posts, with any copy sent to us for final approval. Our package includes monthly SEO services in order to improve and maintain our search rank.
- Hired for:
- Digital Marketing
- Hired In: 2017
Brandon Powell
Best part of the experience?
Using a proprietary CMS, Straight North created a professional online image, improved marketing schemes, and solidified SEO features. They continue to maintain the website, including some copy writing.
Change about the experience?
Nathalie and Courtney were both great. They were quick to respond and keep us updated, and always got back to us with no issues.
Overall Feedback:
The new site receives good response in its desktop layout, and keeps its integrity on mobile devices. Organic leads and site visits are up since completion, and tracking systems will increase the efficacy of future marketing. They rebuilt our website and set up better SEO. We met to discuss our ideas, asked some follow-up questions, and then took things from there. Our original site was on Wordpress, but Straight North was using their own proprietary CMS [Content Management System]. They’re helping us with content for some of the services we’re focusing on. They’re pitching us to different websites to add us to their backlinks, and are actively working to add us to listing sites and directories to improve our web presence.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2017
Mike Knapczyk
Best part of the experience?
Straight North began by doing web design and SEO for a Weebly website. When Google ranking didn’t improve, they migrated the site onto their own platform with a proprietary CMS. They now add content monthly for SEO efforts.
Change about the experience?
We worked on the Weebly website for 5–6 months without seeing the growth that they assured me of. They were confident that they would meet or exceed my expectations by then, but it didn’t happen. They suggested that this was due to the way Weebly’s websites are structured, so Google didn’t recognize our SEO efforts. They recommended I move to a Straight North website, and we transferred over the next month or so. My satisfaction has improved, but my ranking isn’t moving at the rate that we discussed in December of last year.
Overall Feedback:
While the site’s Google ranking didn’t advance as quickly as they projected, it has improved after migration to Straight North’s platform. Its user-friendly design and relevant content upped the business’s credibility. Their transparent project management makes progress easy to track. We initially had a Weebly website that they worked on, but it didn’t perform well. We transferred it over to Straight North’s platform using their proprietary CMS. They largely recreated the website itself on that platform. They build out my website on a monthly basis and add content and links to it.
- Hired for:
- Web Design
- Hired In: 2017
Cory Sandrock
Best part of the experience?
Straight North executed a direct mailing to engage a difficult target demographic. After this initial campaign, they refocused efforts on a website overhaul and SEO keyword research.
Change about the experience?
To clarify the time horizon, we probably could have had a better conversation upfront. We didn't fully comprehend the length of time between site launch to lead generation. A number of calls with Caitlin have clarified that lead traffic will reasonably increase before the end of the calendar year.
Overall Feedback:
The website targets a specific demographic using technical terminology and topical content. Straight North tailored the project to size and need, rather than offering a needlessly expensive and customized solution. Increased traffic should yield sales leads within the calendar year. Shortly after investing in The Tooth Factory, we commissioned a direct mail piece. Straight North designed and disseminated a flyer to reintroduce our company. A promotion for five crowns at $50 each offered dentists a significantly lower price point than our competitors. We hoped a physical flyer, lingering on their desks, would have a greater impact than a missed phone call. Ultimately, this proved ineffective, and we commenced a website overhaul. Equipped with extensive company materials including logos, they started the backend redesign. Two months of prep work and research segued into content generation. Their photographer took new product and personnel photos onsite. The redesign’s first draft necessitated nominal measures: furnishing technical terminology, improving the flow of copy, and experimenting with different images. As medical professionals, our target audience necessitated a different strategy than direct consumers. The site went live in September. Unveiling our SEO push, the team continuously review keyword efficacy to improve organic rankings. Current work involves building out a calendar for a blogging strategy.
- Hired for:
- Web Development
- Hired In: 2017
Carmen Fiordirosa
Best part of the experience?
Straight North revamped the website of a CPG company. They provide ongoing SEO strategy, which includes written content about company products.
Change about the experience?
At first, the SEO content they produced wasn’t always well-researched. I know that the SEO content they're writing serves its purpose through keywords. But as a consumer, I could see that what's written is very shallow in terms of helpful information. It was all basic knowledge material as opposed to an in-depth write-up. That could’ve been a wrong expectation on my part, but I had a different vision for the content we put out. Additionally, some of the writers they would hire clearly wouldn’t do enough research on our products and we’d have to do a lot of corrections. After some communication, that hasn’t been a problem as of late.
Overall Feedback:
The redesigned website increased online sales to a point thought previously unattainable by the company. SEO metrics continue to increase each month. Straight North’s detail-oriented process works to efficiently realize the project vision. The state of our website before honestly was an embarrassment. We occupy a large market share in the automotive aftermarket but our digital presence was not evident of that. Straight North overhauled our website and really brought forth our vision. The responsive website now communicates that we’re a premium brand to every consumer that visits. We’re a small team and rely on Straight North to handle all aspects of site design and development. We’ve recently expanded into the pet and marine markets and used their GoNorth! platform to launch 2 corresponding websites this past summer. Straight North provides us ongoing SEO services as well. They write content and clean up backlinks for us. We'll approve the content and give feedback as much as we can, but they really spear-head that initiative for us.
- Hired for:
- Web Design
- Hired In: 2013
Beth Badon
Best part of the experience?
Currently working on roughly 20 creative projects, three digital campaigns, and one major project converting marketing content to new templates, Straight North has been a versatile creative services vendor.
Change about the experience?
Nothing comes to mind. We really have been pleased with everything.
Overall Feedback:
Their digital work has improved the quality of leads passed through to the sales team. Straight North is highly responsive, considerate of timelines, and proactive with insights and suggestions. They proactively seek out feedback and ways to strengthen the partnership. A lot of their work has been sales enablement pieces that help tell our story, such as print collateral and PowerPoint decks that enable our sales teams to do in-person presentations, virtual presentations, and even national conferences. They've done checklists assessments, white papers, and about 20 full product portfolio pieces (which have been versatile enough to add and remove components for specific appointments). We've also begun to work with them on pay-per-click advertising and digital media including three Instagram pages. Finally, they are working on converting current content to new templates, as well as creating new content in those templates. So in total, we have three digital campaigns, about 20 creative projects, and this one major conversion project.
- Hired for:
- Content Marketing
- Hired In: 2017
Billing Software
Best part of the experience?
Straight North supplemented internal web design efforts with multiple site revamps. Specific services provided included infographic development and photo retouching.
Change about the experience?
They could more aggressively highlight their other capabilities, such as SEO and services beyond web design. Nevertheless, this is certainly not a complaint.
Overall Feedback:
Their sleek, professional designs were frequently lauded, furthered brand recognition, and helped foster a long-term relationship. Their grounded, communicative, and consistent approach to customer services serves them well. We don’t use our website for lead generation, but instead use it as a brochure and brand communication tool, so it’s difficult to determine the impact they’ve had on our success through their designs. However, the designs have been consistently popular internally, and we’ve never received negative feedback from customers or prospective clients on any aspects of our website they designed.
- Hired for:
- Web Design
- Hired In: 2016
Commercial & Consumer Insurer
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provided marketing strategies for two sister companies. The work included rebranding to coincide with 100th anniversary celebrations and designing newsletters and catalogs, plus site redesigns.
Change about the experience?
I use them for both digital and print work. They provide very high quality for both, but their digital output for websites, social media, or online newsletters is where they really shine.
Overall Feedback:
Innovative design ties company history to the present. Straight North understands the appropriate aesthetic, and produces attractive, high-quality material for consumers and partners. Though adept at both print and digital media, they shine online. They developed a website for each side of the business, and currently assist with our retail campaigns and wholesale interactions. They help considerably with marketing strategies, particularly as we focus on clientele with high net-worth. Some of our campaigns include digital or direct mail, which they help us brainstorm. They developed an entirely new look for us, including rebranding for our 100th anniversary. Much of their involvement was technical, but they also helped design product guides and big brochures to send to agents. They helped us with our newsletters for years but haven't been tapped for that more recently.
- Hired for:
- Web Development
- Hired In: 2014