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5.7

Overall Score

Author: Kaitlyn Short

LAST UPDATED: January 1st, 2020

Founded in 1997, Straight North is an internet marketing agency with offices in Chicago, Illinois; Charlotte, North Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland; and Washington, DC.

It works with businesses in the manufacturing, industrial, construction, business services, health and wellness, computing and technology, logistics, supply chains, and automotive industries.

Straight North does not disclose its service rates publicly. Potential customers are asked to contact the company for a custom rate quote. This is common in this industry, as every business has different goals and needs, and there are just too many variables to offer a one-size-fits-all pricing structure.

Keep reading for pros and cons, plus Straight North reviews from real customers. 

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The Good

  • Free SEO Audit
  • PPC Campaign Services
  • Email Marketing Services, and More
  • 60+ Marketing Specialists

Free SEO Audit

Straight North offers a wide variety of internet marketing services. A free SEO audit is available to help determine how effective your current SEO campaigns are, and to show you issues that could be limiting your results. This will help to make an educated decision about which SEO services you need and which ones you don't.

So, let's look at the services Straight North offers and how they can help you reach your business goals.

PPC Campaign Services

SEO services, when done properly, will give you the benefit of having what equates to a sales agent working on your business—around the clock. Who doesn't want that?

Straight North's strategy consists of keyword research, on-site and off-site optimization, content creation, and marketing. It also offers precise lead tracking and validation reports.

Throwing together and launching a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign without performing the necessary research and due diligence required could end up costing you thousands of dollars or more, if you don't know what you're doing. Therefore, having a professional manage your PPC campaigns is highly recommended. 

Straight North will do the keyword research and implement only those keywords that offer the highest return on your investment (ROI). The service will also A/B split-test all your campaigns for optimal performance.

Additionally, Straight North has earned several awards for its top-notch PPC services.

Email Marketing Services, and More

Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your audience. Straight North will provide you with a free email marketing audit. Then, it will set up a high-quality marketing campaign strategy. From there, it will handle the design, deployment, list management, tracking, and split testing necessary for a successful campaign.

Straight North offers additional services you might be interested in, such as:

  • Display advertising - retargeting, contextual targeting and site targeting
  • Responsive websites (mobile) - web design, web development, and Drupal websites

60+ Marketing Specialists

Straight North employs a team of more than 60 marketing specialists. It has earned a variety of awards, including Best in Search Top SEO's of 2015 and Clutch Top SEO Consultants 2015. It has also been listed on FindTheBest, as well as being a certified Google Partner.

The agency has a 97% retention rate with SEO clientele.

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The Bad

  • Transparency
  • Video Marketing

Transparency

Straight North's website is very thorough; however, it doesn't give much information about exactly how services will be performed. For example, it states that the company uses an SEO strategy that is in-line with social media best practices, but it doesn't explain exactly what that means.

Video Marketing

We would also like to see more information on the agency's site regarding video marketing: if, how, and when it is used. Additionally, relationship management is mentioned briefly. This is a huge benefit for companies who are in need of cleaning up their image. However, the site doesn't expand on the extent of Straight North's relationship management services, or if they are offered at all.

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The Bottom Line

Straight North SEO has been in the search engine and content marketing business for quite some time. 

We would like to see a little more transparency about the company's available services, mainly whether or not it offers video marketing and to what extent relationship management services are available. 

We can most definitely recommend Straight North for your internet marketing needs due to its extensive suite of services. However, if you are in need of video marketing or relationship management services, we recommend you contact the company directly for more details before making your final decision as to whether or not this is the right digital marketing agency for your business needs. 

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Star Rating

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3.7

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21 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

67%

4 grade

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3 grade

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2 grade

5%

1 grade

29%

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Matt Dripping Springs, TX

Despite indications otherwise, Straight North is NOT an SEO company. Unfortunately, that’s the capacity in which we engaged. Ian, VP of Sales had a good pitch, but after signing a 6 month agreement at $5K+/mo, over two months passed with zero work. After expressing concerns, they finally delivered most of the overdue deliverables by the end of month 3, but their link building efforts were very low quality (think generic business listing sites). There is zero oversight on quality control and when Josh (director of client services) got involved, it became clear that they aren’t qualified to provide SEO services. Due to the vagaries of SEO, they attempted to disguise their incompetence, but if you need reliable SEO, this isn’t the right company.

5 years ago