Straight North
Todd McClamroch
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provides ongoing SEM and SEO services to two caramel apple brands, focusing on content creation and metadata. They manage their partner’s paid search ads on Google, Bing, and Facebook.
Change about the experience?
We’re looking to tailor and tweak our weekly reports. It’s currently through Excel, but there could be ways to expand our understanding of data to look at trends. It would be great to see further improved data visualization and trending. For the most part, they’ve given us everything we need to be successful.
Overall Feedback:
Scaling up and down to accommodate the seasonal market, the team’s flexibility has contributed to two years of record sales performance. Their ability to understand the needs and unique operational style of the business allowed them to provide the account an appropriate amount of attention. They helped us sustain profitable growth, which was our biggest organizational goal. They’ve contributed to our two back-to-back years of record sales performance in company history. We didn’t have to overspend to achieve that. They accomplished that by understanding our business and goals. Their team has been able to make sure that we’re seeing optimized growth for the right value. We’ve been very satisfied with the team and the technologies they use.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2018
John Lyle, Aqueity
Best part of the experience?
Straight North does SEO for an IT company, creating a custom strategy based on various content and linking initiatives. They prioritized certain keywords and created a ‘remote work’ webpage when COVID-19 began.
Change about the experience?
I have been really happy with the partnership. I don’t really have anything.
Overall Feedback:
Straight North has significantly boosted keyword rankings and driven inbound leads. In addition to delivering measurable results, the team excels at project management, communicating seamlessly and providing access to reports through their custom portal. Customers can expect an accountable partner. We don’t get a ton of inbound leads. It requires a lot of trust to get someone to hand their IT department over, so it’s a long buy-in process. We got an organic lead a few months after Straight North came on and closed it to the tune of $12,000 a month in recurring revenue for a three-month contract. We’ve already seen measurable results in terms of dollars. They’ve successfully boosted our rankings on Google; the average search result across our tracked keywords right now is on the second page, whereas they were on the seventh or eighth page before Straight North came on. We were nowhere to be found before, and since they started six months ago, we’ve seen gains. The lead flow and the uptick in the SERPS (search engine results page) are the two things that I measure. They’re making a difference and are committed to the partnership. They’re always good about the ancillary things, like being responsive and on time to meetings. There was a situation two months ago when COVID-19 hit, and we needed to pivot our strategy a bit, since companies are working remotely now and need remote IT setups. I asked Straight North to prioritize some different keywords and make a dedicated ‘remote work’ page on our website. Ann and her team were on it and were responsive. I asked them to drop everything for me and get it done, and they were able to deliver.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2020
Jamie Storm
Best part of the experience?
Straight North designed and developed a custom website for an education consultancy. They handled everything on the content side. The client plans to engage them for SEO and PPC.
Change about the experience?
Honestly, no. They were super flexible and helpful, and they really came through on the requests that we had for our website. I was worried that our requests were too vague, but they came back with concrete ideas that really helped us out.
Overall Feedback:
They delivered a professional site that has not only given the client a renewed sense of confidence but also played a large part in helping them grow their business. Straight North excelled at project management. Flexible and understanding, the team translated vague requests into concrete ideas. Straight North filled the gap that we’d had in the past. We had tried to rework our website a couple of times with private independent developers that were mostly into the programming side. They had wanted to be told what needed to be done; for instance, they expected the text to be delivered to them exactly as we wanted it to appear on the site. Providing thoughtful content created a lot of work for us, and we didn’t know anything about keywords or those kinds of things. One of the reasons we decided to go with Straight North is that they did provide that content side; we gave them our information through a really detailed questionnaire, and then they provided the content in a professional, edited, and thoughtful manner. The content included the keywords that were important to getting the business we were looking for. We just launched the site and plan to use Straight North for SEO and PPC.
- Hired for:
- Web Development
- Hired In: 2018
Kitchen Design Franchise
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provides digital marketing services to support paid ad efforts for a kitchen design franchise. They use tools to modernize processes. They direct national PPC initiatives and display campaigns.
Change about the experience?
No, not right now. They’re doing a good job. I trust that they’re working in our best interest.
Overall Feedback:
The collaboration resulted in increased lead quality and several months of record-breaking lead generation. Straight North is reliable and dedicates competent resources that facilitate a streamlined engagement. The team is accessible and advance their skillsets to support an ongoing partnership. We talk every other week. If I have any questions, I send Courtney an email and she replies right away. We update our campaigns seasonally and the whole process is seamless. We send them text and images that we like and their team gives us feedback because they’re the experts. She works with her team and we can see different designs quickly. It’s easy to work with Straight North.
- Hired for:
- PPC
- Hired In: 2017
Danna Hileli, Goby
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provided digital marketing services to enhance organic search initiatives for an accounts payable company. The team managed backlinking initiatives and enhanced the website including content.
Change about the experience?
I cannot think of anything for them to improve.
Overall Feedback:
Straight North provided valuable services that satisfied expectations and presented the opportunity for a significant ROI. The team remained accessible throughout the engagement to address any inquiries. They adapted to feedback quickly, which ensured a successful partnership. We measured their success by website traffic, and they did an amazing job. It was a short-term engagement but it had a lot of potential. If we continued for the long term, we would’ve seen a really good ROI. Their team accommodated any comments that we had. In the beginning, we needed to change the tone of the content to align with our brand. They were responsive and made the changes.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2019
Chase Anderson
Best part of the experience?
Straight North designed and developed a website for an agriculture firm using a proprietary CMS. Once the platform launched, they provided digital marketing services like SEO.
Change about the experience?
Every B2B business gets pretty technical, but I did think some of the copy was a bit generic. It was such a quick time to launch, so it wasn’t worth addressing right away. I’m not exactly sure how they could have improved it, though.
Overall Feedback:
The project was well worth the cost. Since the platform launched, the firm has received more qualified leads, resulting in a high ROI. Straight North has a reliable and efficient system that has enabled them to complete the project quickly. The website and their SEO efforts has paid for itself many times over. Over the course of the last year, we received a few more qualified leads. They also accomplished the proof of concept as well. We’re getting leads we’ve never received before. A contract can be pretty hefty in our industry, so just one lead makes the deal worth it. We probably receive 3–5 leads per month that translate into new business. We also receive more inquiries.
- Hired for:
- Web Development
- Hired In: 2018
Val Tika, LiquiTech
Best part of the experience?
A water treatment provider hired Straight North to optimize their online brand & presence. The team works on SEO through backlinking & keyword creation. They’re starting to strategize with Google Ads.
Change about the experience?
Nothing that I can think of right now. My experience with them has been good.
Overall Feedback:
Qualified leads increased due to Straight North’s skilled expertise. Their communication style was also noteworthy. Customers can expect a transparent and professional partnership. Due to Straight North’s work, there’s been an increase in qualified leads. I’ve received a lot of feedback from our sales group, and I’m excited to see what work Straight North will do with our Google Ads account. In December, our redesigned website launched. Next month, I’m going to see how it’s doing compared to our older sites. When I have looked at Google Analytics, I’ve seen positive results with a lower bounce rate and an increase in time on page.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2019
Delanie Olsen, Total Event Resources
Best part of the experience?
In efforts to strengthen their partner’s lead generation efforts, Straight North focused on SEO for a corporate events agency. Working for Google search results, they executed a link building strategy.
Change about the experience?
I haven’t noticed anything so far because we’ve experienced steady uphill results. Currently, there’s nothing to report.
Overall Feedback:
Since starting their partnership with the Straight North team, the client has benefitted from increased web traffic and incoming sales. Through a centralized point of contact and a unique tracking dashboard, keeping all parties in the loop was simple. They offered helpful, actionable suggestions. We’ve seen both an increase in rankings on SERPs as well as several lead opportunities come through the website already. It took about three and a half months to pick up, which I understood would happen. I think it would’ve been a long uphill climb if we were to have gone with a different agency.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2019
Daniel Enneking
Best part of the experience?
Straight North does PPC on Google and Bing to drive sales for a data preservation company.
Change about the experience?
I can’t think of anything measurable. I feel like they’re doing everything right, which is why we’re still with them.
Overall Feedback:
Internal stakeholders are pleased with the quality of leads Straight North has driven to date. They’re familiarity with the industry is notable, as is their fast onboarding. Customers can expect a knowledgeable partner that excels at working with clients new to the marketing world. They’ve done very well for us. In the short amount of time we’ve been open, we’ve probably saved money regarding ad clicks that don’t pertain to us. Their experience with Chicago Scanning helps them quite a bit in identifying potential conversions. I don’t have a measurement to put it up against, but, from what I’ve seen, we’re doing more business than what I thought we’d do in the beginning. We’re definitely getting our name out there. The sales we’ve spent ad money on in the last few months probably won’t come to fruition for another month or two. Our product is an elective expenditure, so people look around and see what’s out there. Our business could come months down the road based on current advertising.
- Hired for:
- PPC
- Hired In: 2019
Neuroscience Research Firm
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provides ongoing PPC support for a neuroscience research firm. They work to improve Google Ads efforts and collaborate to come up with new ideas related to the industry.
Change about the experience?
No, our relationship has been good.
Overall Feedback:
The demonstrated skill from Straight North has contributed to the business seeing substantial growth in traffic, sales, and clicks. Their enthusiasm in leading the project has instilled trust between the two teams, something that makes the engagement flow smoothly and productively. PPC was something we were really neglecting, and since bringing Straight North on, we’ve seen a big turnaround. Looking at the analytics, we can see the number and quality of links improving. The traffic being directed to our site is better. Our site isn’t designed to be a typical marketplace, but we’re seeing an uptick in sales there, too. Whenever we give a new focus to Straight North, we immediately see results from that, even if it’s just an upswing in interest for a product or focus area.
- Hired for:
- PPC
- Hired In: 2019