In a Nutshell
pros
- Rigorous freelancer screening process
- Tiered marketing plans according to client budget
- Company provides ongoing monitoring and quality assurance
cons
- Mayple is still relatively unestablished
- Its talent pool is smaller than more generic offerings
- Its providers are freelancers rather than in-house staff
Mayple Marketing Tools at a Glance
Best for: Those with tight budgets that need to be 100% sure that the talent they find is up to the job
Key uses: Companies that need digital marketers but don’t have the resources in house
Price: From $790/month (for a monthly marketing budget up to $5,000) to $2,990/month (for a marketing budget between $15,000 and $30,000). Enterprise pricing is available for larger budgets and proposals are free.
Free trial (or Guarantee): Users can get a proposal for free.
SEO
SEO is one of Mayple’s core competencies and it has a substantial pool of elite freelancers who specialize in all areas of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Clients that have previously been burned by hiring dud SEO contractors needn’t worry: Mayple looks for long evidence of outstanding SEO practice before adding an SEO contractor to its roster and will even interrogate references the contractor provides to make sure the success stories aren’t fabricated.
In addition to collecting a pool of talented freelancers, Mayple also has a comprehensive onboarding and talent management service to ensure that clients get the results they need and don’t squander precious marketing dollars.
Every Mayple client gets a dedicated account manager who will assign a freelancer from the company’s talent pool according to the tier the account is on and the information the company supplied during the onboarding process.
That onboarding process assesses:
- How the company would measure success
- Whether their needs are short term or long term
- Whether they have previous experience in hiring digital marketing and managing remote SEO talent
Companies are able to gain complete visibility into the experts that have been assigned to work on their account. They are able to see why the company’s technology has recommended that they be assigned to the account and even peer into the gritty details of that resource’s success stories—they can even see which companies the freelancer has previously worked with.
Mayple represents a truly revolutionary way for companies that want to get all the advantages of a freelance marketplace (gaining access to a wide talent pool) without taking a gamble on unknown contractors that might end up wasting the business’ money.
Brief
Mayple realizes that the key to a successful digital marketing initiative is being clear about objectives. For that reason, the platform allows business owners to create a brief in order to help freelancers provide the most value. The entire brief form takes only 2 minutes to fill out and allows companies to share information about their target buyer personas, their company, and its main offerings.
Combined with thorough keyword planning and research, this can help SEO contractors hone in on both the best search terms and those most likely to bring the right type of customer onto their website.
Pricing
Unlike many digital marketing agencies, Mayple works by charging a set monthly fee that varies based upon the value of the campaign which clients are managing through it.
The company also offers a free initial proposal for prospective clients that want to get a feel for how much they would need to spend and offers custom pricing on large scale engagements that involve monthly media budgets of more than $30,000.
Maype makes money by receiving a commission on the money which it passes on to its freelance pool. For clients there are no additional fees—such as software licenses—beyond the fixed monthly retainer cost.
Customer Service
In order to ensure that companies get significant value from their investment, Mayple provides ongoing monitoring and quality assurance to ensure that its talent is delivering value to clients.
The Mayple team pulls together a monthly activity report for each account which flags areas for improvement and uses automated tools to scan configurations—such as PPC campaigns—for compliance with industry best practices. Additionally, the system will display any red flags that demonstrate areas which need to be improved urgently.
In the event that these red flags are raised, Mayple’s account manager might decide to reassign resources to the account or pay closer attention to this aspect of the campaign going forward to ensure that the trend is not repeated and to make sure that resources are spent properly.
The review system uses a combination of digital and electronic inputs. For instance, Mayple asks customers to provide them with view-only access to their Facebook and Google accounts in order to gather information to help assess campaign performance. Users are able to revoke the permissions at the source at any time.
Additionally, all Mayple clients receive a dedicated account manager. Users are able to set time to speak with their account manager or they can reach out to them via live chat/email (this is implemented with Intercom).
After the onboarding process is complete, Mayple assigns a media planner, project manager, and digital producer to the account. They define strategy and put together a detailed 6 months plan which will include defining KPIs that can be monitored against campaign performance.
In addition to monthly consultation calls, users receive a live monitoring tool to track all campaign performance.
Bottom Line
Mayple puts a unique spin on how traditional digital marketing agencies operate, pairing companies with some of the best digital marketing talent on the planet and putting highly experienced account managers in charge to help ensure success. Companies gain access to a highly effective value proposition at a fixed monthly price depending on campaign spend. Sound like a win-win proposition? We think so too.
