Adit

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The Injured Federal Workers Advocate Association provides essential services to medical providers. In so doing, we also provide our claims management for injured federal workers at no cost to the federal worker. I am director of union relations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adit?

As our network of consultants and advocates expands around the country, our marketing and digital footprint needed to be targeted to specific areas. We also needed to add functionality to our website, and then we needed to target our marketing to designated cities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had to map out a particular strategy for rolling out our website, so Adit’s work in planning was crucial. Their work during this stage and subsequent website design were both excellent. The features and functionality of the website were also critical because we needed to make it very easy for federal employees to contact us and provide us data on their injuries.

Adit did marketing for the site, and they are still doing so. They are executing social media marketing and search engine optimization, which we’ve been impressed with. It was important for our internet efforts and our digital footprint to be targeted toward the cities that we currently have providers and consultants in, and they were able to do that.

How did you come to work with Adit?

Adit was a referral from the president of our company.

How much have you invested with Adit?

It cost between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in April 2016 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

One of the things that is important for us is reporting our traffic and conversions. Due to Adit’s work, traffic has increased substantially, and with that, our conversions have continued to increase. Our returns for those investments have also continued to increase because our acquisition costs have consistently gone down. We’re pretty happy.

How did Adit perform from a project management standpoint?

On all counts, outstanding.

What did you find most impressive about Adit?

Adit was unique in their responsiveness, price, and overall the amount of care that they took to make sure that they were doing specifically what we needed them to do. They took quite a bit of time and great pains to make sure that they were very clear on our model. The Adit team’s overall responsiveness, involvement, and their enthusiasm for the work that they do stood out.

Are there any areas Adit could improve?

Not that I can think of. I could probably think really hard about that, but the fact that I would have to think so long tells me that there’s probably not something I can contribute there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Sarina Homes is an inner-city developer that works with multifamily and townhomes in Calgary, Alberta. I am the manager of sales and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adit?

Our main challenge was that our websites weren’t showing up organically on several of our searches. We also needed help with graphics, advertising, and social media.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Adit Canada does all of our graphics and they’ve been absolutely wonderful. They also did website programming, SEO, and paid-for digital advertising. Our social media was also their responsibility. That has just kicked off and it’s gone well.

How did you come to work with Adit?

Adit Canada was referred by a friend within the industry.

How much have you invested with Adit?

We have paid $50,000 to $200,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

It is ongoing. We started working with them a long time ago, well before my time. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Initially, Adit worked on our graphics, with phenomenal results. They had a great response time and very innovative designs. We decided to hire them for a whole product package and asked, “Can you design it, program it, and make sure that it’s growing organically?” Instead of distributing the work to different companies, we wanted to see how well we would do with one provider. We’ve seen phenomenal results with one of our projects, Avenue 33. We launched a project in Calgary, and even with the recession and the decline in the housing market, we’ve been able to reach our sales goal. Thanks to the website, we still averaged about 30 registrants a week when other projects were registering 2 to 5. We also have a conversion rate of 3% to 5%, which is really great for what we’re seeing right now in the industry.

How did Adit perform from a project management standpoint?

What’s great about Adit is that they provide monthly reports. These reports show everything that they have done, initiatives, how they performed, and the results that they’d like to see. They call it “the good, the bad, and the strategy.” That really helps us get the bigger picture of things. They were wonderful.

What did you find most impressive about Adit?

I think that the best part about Adit is that they’re extremely personable. Adit treats you not just as a client but as somebody that they truly care about. They are great at building those personal and professional relationships.

Are there any areas Adit could improve?

Nope, I think it’s been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a Residential and Commercial Realtor in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I operate under Farrah In the City Inc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adit?

I use Adit for business development and marketing. I wanted to create branding and market presence.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Adit created my “Farrah in the City”. They branded it and created the logo for it. It’s become very catchy and people recognize the brand!

They also built my website. We worked quite a while on that just to see who we were targeting, what kind of website we needed, and how to best capture the market from that website. In addition, the developed my social media including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. This is important because everything is done online right and helps create brand recognition.

Ninety percent of clients will go online before they'll even look at anything else. Adit was able to create traction to my website. It's also increased my closing rates because people see you, they like you, and they visually know who you are. It's recognizable. They see your testimonials too. They were able to do all of that for me.

How did you come to work with Adit?

They were referred to me by my clients I represent Kids U I looked at the Kids U's website and I really liked it. They were doing really well with it and had good conversion rates. I thought, "Let me give this a shot and see what we can do."

I just wanted something different. Everybody does the same thing. If you actually look at realtor websites, they're all pretty similar. There's nothing unique about them. There's nothing that really stands out. I just wanted something that stood out from the competition.

How much have you invested with Adit?

It cost between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in 2011 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Adit's work is very different. It's competitive. They have a flair for marketing.  If you were to look at my website and compare it to other Real Estate websites, you’d see that it's unique. They understand how to create that uniqueness in their marketing.

They dedicate someone to work with you depending on your need. If it's marketing, I have a go-to person. On top of that, they're constantly tracking your website to see what it's doing what's working and what’s not.

They'll always make suggestions on new marketing techniques. In my business, business development is really important. They always look for ways to create new business development opportunities.

The website and the pictures are colorful and animated. If you go to my Facebook page, everything connects. They manage the Facebook page. If you go to Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, you’ll find that everything just flows through with branding and their logos.

The way they managed to do that I think is very unique. I don't think a lot of people get that with their companies. People often ask, "Who did your website? Who did this?" People recognize it, they see it, they know it, they identify it, and they bond with it. I think that's why I would definitely give him a five on that.

How did Adit perform from a project management standpoint?

They're really good. They're actually on top of it because they use a system called Asana. Everything is time-lined. It's usually them chasing me for deadlines. They're pretty good at sticking to deadlines.

Adit has a good team of people. As a realtor, we're always out there and we don't always sit at our desks. They're pretty good with that. They're pretty good at holding me or my employees accountable for stuff.

What did you find most impressive about Adit?

We're based in Canada. When I first started with Adit, businesses weren’t so aggressive with social media, even Facebook. Nobody was doing what they're doing because the US always seems to be a bit ahead of us in terms of marketing. FiTC was ahead of the game with marketing techniques. Adit brought that in for my company.

Even today, they're going to be doing some new campaigns for me that I've never even seen out here. They're always ahead of the competition. I guess that's the advantage because they have that market in the US that they can leverage. Most companies here tend to use local markets. I like the fact that we can stay ahead, even if it's marginal.

Are there any areas Adit could improve?

They were a growing company. Initially, the timelines took a bit longer than I expected to get things done. Back then, their team wasn't as large. I think as growth came in, they've since hired a significant number of people to stay on top of things.

In our market here, it's really hard to have employee retention. Sometimes, when it comes to employee retention, you've got to start all over again. We've had those growing pains as well with them. From my perspective, I've had employee turnover. From their perspective, they've had employee turnover. I don't really know how you fix those things because that's just normal in a market.

Initially, Ali was the only person that I was in touch with. He's one person. Maybe you're not getting enough of his time, or whatever. As a customer, I'd get frustrated about that. Over the years, things have obviously changed. He seems to be much better now at following up and getting back to people.

It's just not him anymore. It's a team. I think it's just growing pains for everybody all around. Those things get captured pretty quickly. He's easy to give feedback to. If you give him feedback, he'll tend to do something or at least talk about it and see how he can do it better.

I can't really say that there's anything negative. The negative part is really just the growing pains in getting to know each other's business and having a go-to person when you need it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an eye clinic. I’m an optometrist and the owner of the clinic.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adit?

We wanted to increase our marketing and brand recognition.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Adit did all of our AdWords, helped us with our newsletters, marketing, and designing, and helped us with our homepage and SEO [search engine optimization] as well. They did content marketing in the beginning, but they don't do that for us now. We had a designer, and then they took over. Once the site was designed, they took over the rest of it, and now handle running it and adding pages to the website.

How did you come to work with Adit?

We had a mutual friend who introduced us.

How much have you invested with Adit?

It cost between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together now for over 4 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our SEO is really good; we're trending really well. Our conversion rate has increased thanks to Adit. People are always asking me, “who's doing your SEO and AdWords?” 

How did Adit perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a portal, and we work together. They're generally on time for most projects. I enjoy working with Adit.

What did you find most impressive about Adit?

I think Adit works really hard, and they try to help their clients as much as they can. They try to come up with innovative ideas and reach out to you. They're always keeping track of everything, so I know things are taken care of.

Are there any areas Adit could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We specialize in selling loose diamonds and bridal jewelry such as engagement rings and wedding bands. I am a co-owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adit?

We needed some guidance in creating an e-commerce website, and in addition, marketing for that website and for our products. Adit was very supportive in helping us come up with the original concept and idea for the website. In addition, they did all the design work really fast, actually. We had one meeting and then, they came back to us a week or two weeks later with the full design for the website, and they had pretty much a marketing plan too.

They knew what we were thinking without us having to go into too much detail. They would ask us the right questions, and they would give us their own recommendations saying: “Hey, since you want to sell this, maybe it’s a good idea to incorporate certain features on your website, which we can help you establish.” It was really easy to work with them and actually, having them on board was probably a benefit because there were so many things that I was not aware of. I have no technical background; I don’t know anything about creating a website or online marketing. With their advice, we were able to find affordable ways to incorporate different features and establish a marketing basis for the company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Adit came to us, and said: “We think Magento is a good platform for you.” We went ahead with that and now we have a Magento-based website. We’re still finishing up and adding the finishing touches on the website. It’s been almost a year since we started the project. They’ve been really patient because I go back almost every week and say: “This needs to be changed”. Maybe they spent months programming or coding a certain part of the website, and then I had it changed because I didn’t like it. They’re very patient and never have any issue or problem with doing that. That was a good thing; that was good about them.

They did SEO [search engine optimization], social media, and pay-per-click marketing. They came up to us with a proposal for SEO marketing and for social media marketing. They talked us through it and explained what it is very thoroughly in detail, so we were aware of where every penny went. We never felt like we didn’t know what we were paying for. They made sure we were informed and aware of everything.

They told us that they’ll be doing extensive SEO and social media marketing. They sent us a schedule for the social media marketing, so we know exactly what is being posted on what days and on what applications, like Facebook and Instagram. We discussed briefly some sort of print ad or radio ad, but then we decided that since we are an e-commerce website and today it makes more sense to just go ahead with the social media marketing, that we would maybe address the print ads and radio ads in the future if we needed, but not to do it right now.

How did you come to work with Adit?

We contacted Adit because we had gotten their name through a reference. Then we saw their online portfolio and saw their work. It looked good, so we went ahead and called them.

How much have you invested with Adit?

It was between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I approached Adit two years ago, and they gave me a brief outline and quotation on what the website would be like and how much it would cost. I didn’t really get back to them right away; I was still shopping around at that time. Then as we decided to move forward, we actually didn’t start the project until maybe a year later. It’s been about a year where we have been going back and forth.

We created a website, and then I had the website changed completely. They pretty much created the website that I wanted originally, and I was happy with it, but then I saw some of our competitors. I worked in India in the industry for a while, so I realized some of the features we might need and I went back and told them, so that delayed the project because the features I wanted were very extensive and complicated and they would take a lot of time. We put the project on the back-burner and let them work on it for a while. That was primarily my fault and not theirs. They were very on top of their game when it came to getting things done and getting work done when they said it would be done by. They pretty much give you a deadline for every task that they have that’s related to your project, and they meet that deadline. Oftentimes, they beat the deadlines as well and give you something earlier.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We haven’t actually started the marketing yet because the website is just about to go live.

How did Adit perform from a project management standpoint?

Really well. They use an application called Asana, which allows me to see exactly what’s going on at all times. I can see everyone on their team and what specific work each team member has added. I can add comments to it, they can add comments to it too, and we can have discussions on each task. I was always in the loop and everything was really well organized. There was a calendar too.

As far as project management goes, they have a team member assigned to every aspect of the website, whether it’s marketing, the design, the coding, or the accreditation for an e-commerce website. Each little thing has someone who is in charge of it, and then there are multiple employees that help and get the work done. They were really good as far as project management goes.

What did you find most impressive about Adit?

I think what distinguishes Adit is that I don’t feel like I’m not just another client when they work with me. They give me a lot of personal attention. That could be because they were fairly new as a company when I met them, but even now I know they have many clients all over the country and in Canada, and I still feel like I can call them at any time of the day. I have their personal numbers now, so they don’t mind. I call them sometimes at night if something pops into my head and I need them to know. They treat you like family; like your company is their company. They give me the importance that I want.

I know a lot of other companies, for example, that if I tell them I need a certain feature incorporated, that would just be a task and as soon as that task is done, it’s done. With Adit, it’s more like I give them the task, and then they come back to me, and say, “Hey, there are so many ways to do this, and we feel, personally, that this is a good way to do it; we can save you money here; this might look better in the design format.” They give you a lot of personal attention and make you feel like you are not just another client pretty much.

Are there any areas Adit could improve?

No, not really. The only thing is that they have part of their team in other countries, so very rarely but just sometimes, there might be a delay in some sort of work because of the time difference. That’s not really something that they absolutely need to fix because there haven't really been any issues that stem from that; it was just very minor.