Performance and content agency Suzzie uses Freelo to track deadlines and budgets

Katerina Jozifova asks on behalf of Freelo
Zuzana Sevcikova answers on behalf of Suzzie

Hi Zuzka, can you briefly introduce yourself to the readers and say something about your marketing agency? What services do you offer?

Sure, I'm happy to. Since 2016, I am intensively involved in online marketing. I primarily specialize in performance marketing. My main domain is social media, including paid advertising, strategic web content and e-mail automation. I also write about topics from the world of "online" on the blog Suzzie.cz . I have completed several public and individual trainings for clients from B2B and B2C field. I mentor tradesmen and start-ups in marketing in cooperation with Impact Hub.

Zuzana Sevcikova - executive in Suzzie agency.
Zuzana Sevcikova – executive in Suzzie company.

Marketing agency – in my opinion these words evoke a slightly negative connotation on the market, so I try to avoid this term. We are a team of freelance marketing specialists. We specialize in web and social content, as well as paid advertising and emailing. In our team, you'll find great creative people, each excelling in a different area of ​ marketing. I do appreciate every member of our team who helps the clients to succeed in the ”online jungle“. 🙂

At the beginning of every month, I schedule tasks for each day in Freelo. Thanks to that I have an overview of what I have to accomplish every single day.

There is strong competition on the market of digital agencies. What makes Suzzie different from the others? What makes you special?

Most important difference is probably that we do not present ourselves as a marketing agency. 🙂 Our potential clients usually have bad experience with marketing aganies from the past. I try to make sure that our clients are not afraid to contact us and have a good feeling. So we adapted the communication on our website accordingly.

Another difference is that everyone in our team has several years of experience in the field and is constantly improving. I often notice situations where a junior gets a job in an agency, leaves after a few months (years) and starts to work as a freelancer. Often happens that someone junior works on projects in the agency and the work results correspond to that. I definitely want to avoid this in the future.

I'm glad we're breaking the myth that you can't just work online. Therefore we belong to the so-called floating agencies. We do not need to pay expensive office rent, we reduce the costs and the final price of our work for clients. We work and communicate mostly online, so we do not waste time with meetings, etc. We are available for our clients with ideas online and offline of course.

I notice that companies' approach to content marketing often consists of focusing on the target product or service. Little is said about what the customer will get out of it.
Members of the Suzzie team.
Members of the Suzzie team.

In your experience, how do Czech companies approach content marketing today? Is there growing interest in these services?

Interest in online marketing services is growing. I can tell that the coronavirus crisis has probably helped, because everyone wants to be “online“ now. Knock on wood, the quantity of work in this situation if high and has a positive effect on us (in a good way). 🙂 On the other hand this means there is higher competition – on both the social networks side and on Google side. We have to do more to help the client.

In Freelo I can see how much time and budget we have left until the end of the month. Therefore, I'm able to do something extra for the client or warn him that we are over the budget limit.

I notice that companies' approach to content marketing is often focused on targeting product or service. Little is said about what the customer will get out of it. That's why we optimize a communication strategy for our clients, which is based on the customer's purchasing process. It means that we try to address the customer with a message that reflects his purchase phase. Then we try to distribute such a content to places where the customer is.

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Which trends do you consider the strongest int the marketing at this moment?

It is definitely automation for me. I think that in all fields, automation is an increasing topic. From a marketing perspective, we can imagine this as delivering the right content to the right audience at the right time. In practice, this is a bit more difficult to achieve, but the idea is good. I am glad that we can offer such automation to our e-shop clients for example.

Furthermore, I can't talk about trends, because these things we know for a long time, but little is still being done – such as messenger marketing, which is actually also a form of marketing automation. For me it is certainly also good quality content, which is missing in many companies, both in the form of articles or video content etc.

I like that Freelo has all features that we need for our work, but at the same time it has a simple user interface. When we switched to Freelo, most of our team knew Freelo from other projects already. I think it was a rather welcomed change for everyone.

How many people is in your team and how do you cooperate? Tell us more about workflow.

Our team consists of 5 specialists focused on copywriting,SEO and PPC advertising. We also cooperate with other external experts who provide us professional photography services and video content for our clients.

Personally I plan to work a month in advance. For long-term clients I have specific days in my Google calendar. I don't have to switch between several clients and I'm able to concentrate better on my work. I work faster and efficient, which my clients appreciate when invoicing. 🙂 I schedule tasks for each day of the month at the beginning of each month in Freelo, so I know what to do that day. We have repetitive tasks for most of our clients so the acitivites are scheduled ahead. I track the time for individual tasks, just like other team members. Then I can control whether we are or not within the agreed budget for the particular cooperation. Team members organize their time according to their needs – I only demand a good quality output in the agreed deadline.

Sample calendar in Freelo.
Example of calendar in Freelo. It is deliberately out of focus due to personal data.

Who are your clients? Is there any collaboration you are proud of especially?

Our clients are very diverse – through medicine to robotic automation. Automation was probably the biggest challenge. I think we handled it well in the end. Creating content that explains this topic simply and in  interesting way was not an easy task (thank you Marketa).

The result of work for a client dealing with the automation of e-shops Brani.cz
The result of work for a client dealing with the automation of e-shops Brani.cz

I am especially proud of the results of our work with a client running an e-shop with sports supplement, who gained by 600% new users from organic search during our one year cooperation. This was reflected in an increase b 200% in sales. I have to admit that I thought there is statistic error somewhere at first. 🙂

Also I have to mention our clients, for which we set up email automation – everyone returned the investment the same month. Most of them use emailing as the most conversion marketing channel with a high return on investment.

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What is the biggest challenge for you when running a digital agency?

Keep an eye on all the deadlines so I don't forget anyone. Freelo is a great help to me. Furthermore, make sure that we do not exceed the agreed budgets for clients. In Freelo I see how much time and therefore financial budget we have left for the client. Thanks to that I know if we can do something extra for the client or not due to agreed budget.

It is also a great challenge for all of us to follow all marketing news and trends. This area is constantly changing, so we have to stay vigilant so that we do not miss something.

Example of budget for a client project.
Example of budget for a client project.

Where do you draw inspiration for creating content for your clients? How do you search for new marketing ways?

We follow our marketing “colleagues“ – in the Czech Republic and also abroad. In addition, each of us attends professional conferences, courses, webinars, and some of us have also enjoy podcasts. Personally, I prefer offline trainings and conferences – I always take a lot of ideas from them. So I hope that the situation will calm down soon and we will have these options again. We also monitor the activities of the competition – thanks to this we can avoid some mistakes, or notice how the competition is doing and take the example from it.

Example of pinned links to Google Docs.
Example of pinned links to Google Docs.

We write all the ideas in Google documents – then we have links nicely together for each project (client).

What problems do you solve most often in the team and how do you get better of them?

The biggest problems are deadlines, so I plan them a few days (sometimes weeks) in advance, if possible. The reason for not submitting the task, however, may not always be unreliability, but also illness or creative crisis (happened to me as well). In addition, sometimes submissions may occur, but the output still needs editing and reworking. I think keeping some extra time is good. Thanks to this, we avoid handing over poor quality output or&missed deadline.

I am glad that we dispel the well-known myth that it is not possible to work only online. Therefore we belong to the so-called floating agencies.

Why did you choose Freelo and how quickly did you manage to implement it?

Firstime I worked in Freelo with our client Brani.cz – at that time we were still using Trello, which was unsatisfactory for us. Mainly due to the creation of tasks, confusing tracking of tasks, inability to monitor the current number of hours spent on a given project etc. I like that Freelo has all these features that we need for our work, but also has a simple user interface. When we switched to Freelo, most of our team already knew Freelo from other projects. I think it was more of a welcome change for everyone.

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Do you miss anything in Freelo?

Personally, I lack the opportunity to sort tasks in the calendar – I would like to sort them according to the priorities of the day. In To-Do lists, I lack the option of time budget, which could be visible only to those who work on the To-Do list. The time could also be reseted there as for projects.

I would also appreciate when using repeated tasks, creation of the new task even though the old one is not yet completed. That would definitely help us a lot.

Do you have any favorite resources (web, blog, podcast, book, etc.) that you think readers shouldn't miss?

So, of course, readers should not miss our blog , where they will find a lot of interesting information from the world of online marketing. 🙂

Thanks so much for the interview!

Thank you for the opportunity to be interviewed, maybe again next time. 🙂

Field Performance marketing
Team Online agency
Team size 1-10
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