Adeo Group

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a director for Dr. Andrew, an online, community-based pharmacy. We specialize in prescription medicines that treat issues that government-funded healthcare providers typically don’t cover.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adeo Group?

We hired Adeo Group to help us establish our brand. We had no website, name, or branding materials.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, we came up with our company name and branding with Adeo Group. Their team created the mockups for those materials. Once that process was complete, they developed our e-commerce website from scratch. Their team produced the wireframes, back- and frontend, and payment gateway. If we need anything tweaked, we turn to them for support.

Adeo Group also manages our social media and digital marketing processes. In addition to keywords and strategies, they run Sharpspring and MailChimp efforts.

What is the team composition?

Chris (Head of Marketing, Adeo Group) continues to be my main point of contact, but I also work closely with 6–7 others on their team.

How did you come to work with Adeo Group?

We followed a referral from another organization that spoke highly of Adeo Group. We also selected them because, after the first meeting, Gordon (Owner, Adeo Group) really helped us understand our vision for the site.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve seen exponential growth since starting our engagement with Adeo Group. We were at a standstill when we began, and we now see close to 400 orders a month, resulting in a significant amount of sales. We’ve done some really successful campaigns with them, including for Black Friday and Men’s Health Week. Every month, we have more sales, and about 20% of our customers are repeat buyers.

How did Adeo Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great to work with. We used various tools to work together during the development, so the process was very collaborative.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creativity in developing our brand is valuable. They also help us connect with our target market in a strong way. Now, even the music we choose to use in our advertisements is related to our mission.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Though this isn’t specific to Adeo Group, it would have been great if the process were quicker. We’d have liked to get up and running faster, but we had no website and needed to abide by regulations, so it took longer.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about who your target audience is and communicate that to Adeo Group. Also, have the confidence to allow them to do the project their own way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the E-Commerce Manager for Eden Mill St. Andrews. We are a Scottish drink producer that makes gin, beer, and whiskey.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Adeo Group?

We needed someone to design and develop an entirely new website.

What were your goals for this project?

As a small business with rapid growth, we needed an e-commerce site that met our needs and our customers’ needs. We wanted a friendly UX, a great look, and a site that was easy to shop. We also wanted to increase sessions, traffic, and conversions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our decision was based on recommendations and case studies. Adeo truly understood our needs and requirements, but also reflected our brand values, which were important as the website had to be both informative and convincing.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

After several meetings to discuss our requirements, it was clear that Adeo understood our e-commerce goals, as well our overall challenges and goals. Adeo then designed wireframes which we signed off on. They developed the site to our needs, and launched the site after it was tested internally and externally.

What was the team composition?

We had a dedicated project manager, but we also worked with a developer and a designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our project was developed and launched on time. Since the launch of the site, conversions have grown immensely, revenue has increased, our online reputation has improved, and staff are able to complete projects a lot quicker - overall we couldn't be happier.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They showed us updates on a regular basis and welcomed feedback where applicable, which really helped the overall project. On some occasions, we were able to advise improvements which we felt were necessary.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The company is easy to work with, and is always looking to innovate, which was important to us as we are in a very competitive market. The work doesn't stop after the project is complete either, as Adeo share ideas that help improve our website and digital marketing.

I've worked with agencies that give you the same old spiel, but Adeo was different. What they devliered exceeded our expectations. Over the course of the project, we established a great working relationship with them, which has really helped in continuing to grow our online business.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

There isn't much this company could improve on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Beaufort Securities is a traditional stockbroking firm which provides services to private individuals and corporate clients. I am the marketing manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adeo Group?

We had a fairly outdated corporate website, BeaufortSecurities.com, which we’d been using for the last 4-5 years. It was originally built for us by a different agency, and we were looking to create a new relationship, in order to have a fresh approach and look. We’ve worked with several companies over the years. I’ve been here for about 10 years, and we’ve tended to move to a new web designer every couple of years, when building a new site. We’ve actually been with Adeo Group for 5-6 years, and they’ve redesigned our website twice in that period.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The outset involved going back-and-forth with a few design iterations put forward by Adeo’s design team. Adeo Group was given a vague brief for updating the website while keeping all of the content we wanted to keep. They developed the initial wireframes into the actual working site. They ended up generating a fresh, new site for us, which matched all of our criteria.

As a stockbroker, one of the key things we want to address with the website was clients’ access to research. When Adeo Group performed the redesign, they helped meet the brief for putting research at the front and center, enabling clients to find it. We have a standard Products and Services section, which outlines everything we offer, as well as About Us, Frequently Asked Questions and News pages.

The Research and Stock Market Data sections were the main areas of focus, in terms of displaying research notes in a searchable way. The actual research reports are in the form of PDF documents, so Adeo Group built a database for us, allowing us to upload them and allow people to either search by company name, stock market sector, or simply alphabetically or by date.

They also inserted a feed for share price information from another third-party provider. Old iterations of our website actually had a subdomain hosted by the data provider. It was templated to look like the rest of the site, but it wasn’t actually on our server. This was annoying for us because, when we needed to change our navigation, headers or footers of the site (as we do on a regular basis), we’d have to tell the third-party provider to update their template as well. What Adeo Group managed to do, with the help of the third-party, was to use an API feed, rather than having to display the subdomain microsite with all the data, in their formatting. We’re currently taking the raw data from the provider, and formatting it into pages which are actually on our main website.

On an ongoing basis, they provide monthly support, which we don’t have to use that often, given that my colleague and I in the marketing department are IT-literate. We handle most of the day-to-day editing of the site, and creation of new sections, by ourselves, using the content management system developed by Adeo. We only need to call on them for completely new pieces of work which involve a bit more technical insights.

For example, we’ve recently had to ask them to integrate a new widget, which connects to our email marketing tool. We have data-capture forms in different areas of the website, and calls-to-action for people to register on our mailing list. That was beyond my level of expertise, and I needed Adeo's support.

What is the team dynamic?

What we find quite often with agencies, as a longstanding client, is that they don’t always look after us, as much as worry about winning new business. The main reason for staying with Adeo for so long is that they’re still small enough to care.

Jonathan Mitchell, their senior developer, was the one who built the first instance of our website. Whenever I send an email to their support team, Jonathan still tends to deals with it, within an hour. He knows the site inside-out, and can identify what the issue might be, and fix it quickly. In contrast, with some of the large organizations we’ve worked with in the past, or ones with big teams, which aren’t as hands-on with each individual site being managed, we can sometimes suffer from longer waiting times and delays. Someone would have to navigate their way around the website for the first time and take a longer time to fix the problem. With Adeo, although they do manage a lot of websites, the main development team is also part of the support team. This allows them to quickly resolve any issues that arise.

How did you come to work with Adeo Group?

I wasn’t involved with the selection process, but I do remember that they came through the recommendation of a former member of staff who used to be our chief finance officer. He had worked with Adeo Group in his non-executive capacity at another firm, and set up a meeting with them so that we could learn about what they were capable of doing for us.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial build cost of the website was around $26,000. We currently pay $800 per month for support.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Adeo Group around 2012 and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

When first going live with the responsive website, we saw a massive upturn in our traffic figures, in the region of a 50%+ increase, month-by-month. Relative to our competitors, we had been late to do this and suffered as a result, in terms of Google rankings. When we became responsive, Google factored that in and put us higher in rankings for people looking for stockbrokers in the UK.

Adeo Group’s work has been helpful, but it’s only the beginning of the process. Because of the advisory nature of our business, we still have an offline component. There is a telephone relationship which brokers have with clients. The website is good, and we were able to follow leads through the process of first coming to the website and registering an interest. We also use systems outside of the platform in order to manage the ongoing process, and the revenues generated from particular leads.

How did Adeo Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re probably one of their easier clients to deal with, since we’re not particularly demanding after the initial build. This is testament to Adeo Group's ability to meet our brief and develop the site the way we wanted it at the get go. 

I have get-togethers every 6 months with Yusuf Chauhdry, their sales director. The majority of the team is based in Glasgow, Scotland, but he travels around the country, and comes to see us in London, to make sure we’re happy. When we do have issues, he’s quick to get a member of the team to respond to us, and put forward suggestions for fixing whatever the issue may be. I’m happy with how they’ve project managed what we’ve asked of them.

We have an ongoing support arrangement, but it’s not unusual for us to go from month to month without any communication if things are going well, and I don’t have anything which needs be addressed. They don’t necessarily reach out to me on a monthly basis, but I don’t want them to.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The straight-talking nature of how they do things. There are many agencies which promise a lot and don’t deliver very much, whereas I always know what I’ll get with Adeo Group. They haven’t let me down up till now. I appreciate the fact that it is a small team, and they know the website and what we do. Over the course of the relationship, they’ve come to understand what our requirements are, so it’s easy to have conversations with Adeo Group on an ongoing basis.

There are many agencies which don’t necessarily understand the financial services sector, which can be a hurdle when initially trying to explain to them what we want a page to do, or what a functionality should be. I’m busy in my role managing the marketing here, and don’t have too much time to detail specification documents for Adeo. I can have a telephone conversation with them and outline something broadly within an email. On 9 out of 10 occasions, they will get the gist of what I’m trying to address, and I don’t have to spend a lot of time explaining what I require.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m very happy, both in terms of the site Adeo Group built for us, and with the level of interaction I’ve had on an ongoing basis. They could perhaps come forward with more ideas on how to improve the site on a more regular basis. We have 6-monthly catchups, and there is a number of hours of support per month where we don’t use up most of the time. It would be good if they were more proactive in offering to use that time for making improvements on the site.