Ambaum

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner and dentist at 410 Dental Associates.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BTown Web?

I wanted to create more of an online presence through Google and other search engines to entice people to come into the office and increase patient intake.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a website, but BTown Web redeveloped the entire thing. BTown Web and their partner optimized SEO and initiated PPC through AdWords to increase business, and they also created a secondary pop-up that to set up appointments. Mostly, they've worked to increase our overall online presence. We are in the top three results when people search for dental services in our area, and potential customers can learn about the office and receive an incentive for coming in when they visit the site.

We didn’t provide anything other than pictures and logos. They gathered ideas from looking at other websites, then we discussed what we’d like to see on ours regarding color scheme and graphics. They integrated our patient information sheet so people could fill it out online and then be transmitted to us, which helped make our patient information digital. We currently don’t have a way for patients to schedule an appointment for themselves, but we are able to contact them after they fill out our online form. BTown Web also wrote service descriptions for the site.

What is the team dynamic?

I have a personal relationship with both team members, and they keep my front office manager updated on how things are going. They also inform us when we need to make any SEO changes.

How did you come to work with BTown Web?

I’ve known Chad [Founder, BTown Web] since childhood, and I’ve known Matt [Programmer, BTown Web] for quite some time also. Chad did a lot of work and SEO stuff for a friend of ours who is a lawyer, and the relationship was very successful. I decided to make the jump and have BTown Web do our website instead of the company we had doing it previously. They weren’t doing SEO related work, and we wanted to get involved in that, which is the main reason we reached out to BTown Web.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial cost was about $2,000, and we spend $200 a month for them to service the site and any additional cost for clicks.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together about 2 years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we first started with BTown Web, we searched for dentists and we weren’t popping up in the results. Now, we’re consistently in the top three results, and our presence has increased dramatically, which has brought in more patients. They’ve really done a nice job of getting our name out there and helping people know where to find us. We get a lot of referrals from AdWords, but that’s a separate click so the data is different. We’re getting a lot of website traffic and patients coming in by offering the incentive. We’ve done well with that because it rewards people for considering us.

How did BTown Web perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great. They’re constantly checking to see what we might want to try in terms of dental terminology to increase website traffic. They do a really nice job in communicating with us, and they’ve been on time with everything they’ve done. We haven’t had any setbacks at all, and they’ve done a great job of keeping everything running.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I trust them, and I realize I may be biased because I know them personally, but they’ve done a great job with keeping us informed and helping us go from having a non-existent online presence to a strong one. I feel confident in the work they’ve delivered, and I’m very pleased with what they’ve done to help us get our name out there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There haven't been any large issues with anything they’ve done for us. I have no negative feedback for them at all.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Guided.com provides custom packaging and print for small to mid-sized businesses, creatives, and entrepreneurs. The company is one-part manufacturing, one-part e-commerce and sales. We’ve been in business since 2008, and I am the founder and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BTown Web?

We had in-house development, but wanted to focus it outside the company’s walls, with a goal of reducing cost and increasing domain knowledge against what we were developing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BTown Web has been responsible for general maintenance and keeping the Shopify site up and doing what it should be doing. They are also involved in a digital marketing capacity, managing our Google ad spend, SEO and SEM. We have involved BTown Web in every design refresh of our website’s UX and overall navigation.

How did you come to work with BTown Web?

An associate, or the friend of a friend, had a relationship with BTown Web. Through it, we developed one ourselves over the course of a year. After that, we decided to move all our development outside the company walls, and into an outsourced situation.

How much have you invested with BTown Web?

We have an ongoing monthly retainer which we scale up and down depending on the project. I would rather not provide specifics.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with BTown Web in April 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BTown Web is involved more from a digital marketing perspective, helping us maintain our AdWords campaign and so on. We will be disclosing these KPIs and metrics once we’ve had some data points, but, in broad strokes, our ad spend and our customer acquisition costs have seen positive trends. This is a new field for us, so I consider it a win. I imagine that we will figure out precise metrics over the next 6-8 months.

How did BTown Web perform from a project management standpoint?

Our goal in contracting BTown Web was to become able to focus on what we need to be focusing on, and not on the things which make up their expertise. They’ve been good at maintaining deadlines and keeping communication open.

What did you find most impressive about BTown Web?

As a development company, and relative to the markets they’re trying to serve, they can’t simply be developers. They need a scope of digital marketing, SEO, SEM, and so on. I believe that BTown Web has crossed these lines very well.

Are there any areas BTown Web could improve?

We’re relatively early into the relationship. BTown Web is an extension of our company, and, over time, as we undergo more projects, my answer may change. As of right now, I don’t have any criticisms.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of UX and marketing for a platform and mobile app that provides contextual relevance and search abilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BTown Web?

We have several HTML assets that needed to be created. In order for us to get to market on time, we needed assistance in taking some flat files into HTML and CSS web assets, specifically designed to our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was taking these flat files and creating the HMTL and CSS assets. They had a two-week window to create the HTML with designated animation, transition, etc. and provide fully HTML5 and CSS3-compliant code back to us with fully rendered pages so that we could integrate those into our mobile search results.

How did you come to work with BTown Web?

I actually met Chad [founder] through a mutual acquaintance here in the greater Burien area. After speaking with him and his team, we discovered that—with what they specifically focus on in the web creation and e-commerce web world—they had a skill set that would be quite valuable to my team regarding web asset creation.

How much have you invested with BTown Web?

The cost of the work totaled right around the $2,000-plus range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them two months ago. They’re still actively working for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any metrics or numbers at this moment that would show the results and benefits of their work. However, their benefit to us was a time factor. We didn’t have internal staff to bring this project to bear, so having them working with us was invaluable. They were on time with their deliveries and communicated very well along the project scope. All of a sudden, it saved us time in our own deliverables and work internally.

How did BTown Web perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a very clean project management from the early meeting. They keep the head count low as far as how many people we had to work with. There were two people at the original scope meeting. One of those individuals was the developer, and he was the primary contact for the project. As we worked through it one-to-one, the communication passed so we never had to worry about miscommunications through a second person or third-party in the business.

What did you find most impressive about BTown Web?

It’s that they’re very effective in communicating. As far as scoping timelines and meeting deadlines, they’re great.

Are there any areas BTown Web could improve?

I can’t honestly think of anything that would have improved the way the project went together.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a full-service marketing agency in Seattle. We work in the social goods space working primarily with environmental, health, safety, and all kinds of social causes in that realm of clients. We are a smaller agency. We have about 50 folks with offices in Seattle, Portland, and Boston. We specialize in PR, marketing, digital, social events, brand ambassadors if you need event staffing, multi-cultural communications, etc. I supervise a handful of accounts and serve as the day-to-day project manager for the team for those clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BTown Web?

We were looking to create a microsite for a national client. BTown Web was a great fit for working quickly and within our budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The site was built in WordPress in 2014. The purpose is to educate folks on recycling and getting the right things in the recycling bin. We wanted to drive traffic by having users take a pledge on the home page. We had the main landing page and a handful of smaller subpages to the site. The other idea was that consumers, staff, and customers, could all go into the site and access educational and outreach materials. On the backend, we had a whole research page with downloadable consumer insights. The site includes educational material, like recycling for your classroom, or access to a recycling poster you could hang up at work. There was a component there requiring a license agreement from the user since they are branded and licensed from our client.

We’ve recently gone through a refresh. This year, we refreshed the site so it was updated and had a new look and feel. We had a lot of icons and iconography, and now we have a lot more main hero images on photos just to be more up-to-date. Our company internally handled the artwork for it, but the BTown team would implement it and make it come to life, and then we would all test it together in that process.

This is still a nationally-used site. We get a lot of real-time feedback. With that feedback, BTown Web is able to make edits for me if we want to change something. They are really quick to go on and edit something, or we have a newsroom page that links to different articles about the client. That shows a preview image of what the article looks like so they can grab that image and then link to the article online. From doing Google Analytics, we realized that this PDF called MythBusters was the most popular downloaded resource on the site, so we ended up turning that into its own subpage that’s an interactive page with tiles that flip over.

How did you come to work with BTown Web?

This is something that needed to be produced within a month or two. We had worked with them on a couple other projects and knew they could handle something of this scale on such a short deadline. They were able to do the project on time and within budget.

How much have you invested with BTown Web?

I don’t have that information.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2014, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

To date, we’ve had more than 17,000 people take the pledge on the home page. We continually have new folks coming to the site. The idea for doing the refresh was to try and show folks that have come in the past that there’s a bunch of new material here. It seems the more that we get the word out, the more new folks come to the site. We added social integrations, so we have a social feed on one of the subpages. We did a whole video series, and they will mainly get promoted through social.

How did BTown Web perform from a project management standpoint?

We completed both the initial launch of the page and the refresh on time. When those processes are happening, I communicate with them almost every day just to check in, or if I need to provide them with something new, or if they have an update on their end of something that’s not working and they’re working to fix it.

What did you find most impressive about BTown Web?

There’s not a lot of process to them. I would say they’re lean and mean. I work very closely with both Chad and Andrew on this site, and they are both very accessible. If I have an edit on the site, I can email Andrew directly and he’ll get back to me pretty quickly. That really helps when we get real-time feedback from different folks across the area.

Are there any areas BTown Web could improve?

No. It’s definitely a very good relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company sells recreational oxygen canisters, which is a new type of energy and recovery product. I’m a company officer. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BTown Web?

Originally, I hired them for a website redesign. Since then, they’ve done 2 sites for us. I wanted to stay current and keep our performance high.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done the website redesign, SEO, and paid search for us. I did some sketches and wireframes for the website projects. The second time they redid the site, they offered more creativity than they did the first time. The sites are built on Shopify, and SEO was on-site. They do ongoing web development and maintenance.

How did you come to work with BTown Web?

They were referred by someone we were working with on social media.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in 2012, and the work is ongoing. It’s less project-based and more like a vendor partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our conversion is up, and navigation is easier.

How did BTown Web perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very thorough and responsive. They’re not the fastest but they get everything done.

What did you find most impressive about BTown Web?

BTown Web follows-up very well and pays attention to detail. They manage a lot of moving parts. If we have a problem that’s not directly related to them, they go the extra mile to help us. We're a small company and I see them as a partner.

Are there any areas BTown Web could improve?

They could stay more current with new technologies regarding website design and conversion performance enhancements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We create and manage brands for companies all over the world. I am the managing director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BTown Web?

We needed a developer who understood how to incorporate a design that ranked well, looked great visually and was also optimized for ad conversion. We wanted to find someone we could work with long-term, understood the value of longer-term relationships and had our best interests in mind.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BTown helped bring life to some core assets of our clients, including a comprehensive database with over a million records, sortable by various customer filters. They also managed to create an extensive set of landing pages to help optimize PPC advertising and worked on a custom WordPress theme specific to one of our client’s needs.

How did you come to work with BTown Web?

BTown Web was a referral. However, we did look at several companies before ultimately choosing BTown Web, and I am glad we did.

How much have you invested with BTown Web?

Over $50,000

What is the status of this engagement?

Our projects are always sort of never-ending, but every time BTown Web had to meet a deadline, they did.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The entire staff at BTown Web was fabulous. They not only managed to ensure our projects were built securely, but also provided the flexibility we needed to scale and customize. Almost every meeting sounded like conversation you’d have with a partner, which is exactly what we were looking for versus a service provider who just wanted to keep selling us stuff.

BTown Web shared their vision and recommendations for possible future needs and helped us incorporate foundational elements which may have been a lot harder down the road. In short, they not only provided the services we needed now, but also helped us create a roadmap for the future.

What did you find most impressive about BTown Web?

Knowledge, honesty and personal attention are all traits of BTown Web.

Are there any areas BTown Web could improve?

Not really. BTown Web taught us more about what questions to ask and how to prepare for future projects than we ever taught them. It was refreshing and quite valuable to work with a partner who truly had our best interests in mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m in charge of digital marketing and website promotion for a company that produces home healthcare products. We are an online retailer, so our products are sold through Amazon, eBay, Walmart, or our own website. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BTown Web?

We needed a new Shopify site created for us. We had an old one that we purchased, but it lacked a lot of functionality. We needed to showcase our products in a better way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had an in-house designer do the layout of the website. After we sent those Photoshop files over to BTown Web, we had some calls with them to determine what they could and couldn’t do. I was very impressed that they were able to accomplish some things in Shopify that I didn’t think were possible given the restrictions of the platform. They were able to create some custom JavaScript for us. We sell drug tests and needed a way to filter the type of drug testing on our site, and they were able to do that. They were also able to add a bunch of tags in our product description. For example, tags give the technical specifics for the device or drug test, ratings and reviews, or questions. They were able to put the tags at the bottom of the product pages; one of our in-house developers had been working on that but wasn’t able to execute it. In the near future, we’ll start doing more design work with them once we get more traffic. They’ve given good suggestions on what we can do on our site to help our SEO.

How did you come to work with BTown Web?

We found out about them through the Merchant Success Manager for our account. We had 5 other bids, but we liked BTown Web’s previous work the best. When interviewing them, they gave us an overview of their design philosophy. They didn’t get into too many of the technical details but were able to articulate what we’d be getting.

How much have you invested with BTown Web?

Compared to other companies we got bids from, they were exceptionally affordable. They were almost on par with some of the overseas companies we were talking with, especially because of how good their technical capabilities are compared to most other developers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January or February of 2017. The project has been ongoing. I don’t think we’ll ever stop developing the website since it’s constantly changing based on our needs. We got most of the work done last week, and we’re currently in review and waiting to launch in coordination with our marketing efforts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We got a lot of internal feedback. Everybody was super impressed, including people in customer service and finance, as well as the executives. They didn’t expect to be impressed 100% with the first draft. It was rewarding to see that the communication between us was so good that they were able to execute on the vision we had.

How did BTown Web perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had a lot of hiccups from our end because we’re developing an app at the same time. They were able to keep pace even when we weren’t responsive. They executed exactly what they said they would. They helped us make sure we were sticking to the timeline.

What did you find most impressive about BTown Web?

It’s so important to have a great mastery of Shopify Plus. We were blown away with their knowledge of the platform.

Are there any areas BTown Web could improve?

I don’t think I’ve had any negative experiences with them at all. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Camano Center is a catering and wedding company. I’m executive director. BTown also did work for the Camano Island Chamber of Commerce of which I’m the president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BTown Web?

What we wanted originally was to be able to have our websites be more workable with people with mobile devices including iPhones, iPads, etc. Secondly, we wanted to be able to link more with social media. The third thing that we really liked in working with BTown was we did more working in tiling in the website. You can click on a certain subject it would take you to different websites of different parts of dining for the Chamber website. For the Camano Center catering and wedding site, you can click on outside weddings and it would take you to pictures that you could see of outdoor weddings and different features that we had.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BTown was really easy to work with in that we talked with them extensively about what we wanted. They sent us a draft of what the front page would look like. They were very quick to get the work done on their side as far as making up places for us to put information in, pictures, ways to click through the website. We were probably not as prepared for getting all the writing and the text done in the time that they were getting their part done. They were really quick which I really appreciated. We didn’t realize how much text we were going to have to write because we just didn’t really have a realistic idea of that. They helped us kind of figure out our text, making it read better and making it look better to the customer.

We looked at other websites with them to see what other businesses were doing, what worked, what didn’t work. They helped us to link to social media, and helped us with analytics so we could measure against what was going on. I gave them a couple of websites that I liked. Then we sent them pictures, our logo, and our information, and then based on our discussion and those models, they kind of came up with a design. Then we went through different versions of that design from font to color and all different kinds of things. The site is built in WordPress.

How did you come to work with BTown Web?

We had talked to a lot of different organizations that do website design, but we knew we wanted someone that was stable who we could go back to and get help from if we needed to change something or update it or needed more training. We wanted a business that had longevity and that would listen to us and work with us. I’m on the Board of Directors with another person who has personal experience with BTown, and she recommended them to us. We talked to them, and based on that conversation and based on the recommendation, we hired them. We hired them to do the website for the Camano Center first, and then we hired them to do the Chamber of Commerce website as well.

How much have you invested with BTown Web?

The cost of each project was $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The catering and wedding website was started in February 2016, and was completed in June 2016. We started the Chamber website in August 2016, and the project was completed in November 2016. We were the ones holding up the project. If we had gotten all the information to them in a timely manner, they could’ve had it done in a couple of months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t know the metrics for the Chamber. For the Camano Center site, the information is there but we haven’t really been tracking it. People seem to like the websites.

How did BTown Web perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very easy to get a hold of. They’re very easy to talk through processes with. They did training with us and after the sites were launched, we could get more training if we needed to. They gave us all the information and then it’s up to us to make the best of it. We probably haven’t done the best that we could have done with the website given the tools that they gave us, but I thought that they did a really great job. In fact, we’re looking at using them again to build our bigger Camano Center website.

What did you find most impressive about BTown Web?

What I liked about them is that no matter if it’s a phone call or an email, they’re very easy to get a hold of and you’re not having to leave messages or anything. You hear back within 12 hours. They’re very receptive and very quick to get back to you and work with you.

Are there any areas BTown Web could improve?

Probably the downside is we never met them face to face. All of our interaction was over the phone or the internet. We would have loved to have met with them one on one, but because of their location, we weren’t able to do that.  But they were very, very good and very professional. I would not hesitate to recommend them to somebody else to use.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Ecom Sales Manager of Duramax Store Inc

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an online retailer for Duramax Diesel truck parts

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ambaum to accomplish?

• Transition our online site from opencart to shopify

SOLUTION

How did you find Ambaum?

Referral

Why did you select Ambaum over others?

• High ratings
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Ambaum were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We worked with Ambaum to launch our new webstore, DmaxStore.com this past January.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The launch went smoother than expected and we have seen a consistent 10% growth year over year.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Since the launch, I have continued working with Todd at Ambaum for multiple tweaks on the new site and he has been extremely responsive and helpful through all aspects.

What was your primary form of communication with Ambaum?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Any time I have a question, I refer to Todd, the team at Ambaum are the experts and they are here to help!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO/Co-Founder of Premier Catch

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We sell premium, wild seafood from Alaska and the PNW, directly to customers around the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ambaum to accomplish?

• Gain the necessary Shopify experience and expertise.
• Support overall business strategy for our small but rapidly growing brand.
• Go live with subscription.

SOLUTION

How did you find Ambaum?

Online Search

Why did you select Ambaum over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Ambaum were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Formed digital strategy for our wild seafood brand and executed our online presence. 

Key Deliverables: 

• Starting theme selection 
• UI / UX and Strategy 
• Customization and app integrations 
• Subscription integration 
• Paid and growth marketing support 
• 3PL selection

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

10x revenue growth in three years.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Their PM was tailored towards our work flow. They were quick and timely in responses.

What was your primary form of communication with Ambaum?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I'm impressed with their general willingness to work our way - consistent with most SMBs, often in a chaotic and highly iterative fashion.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Ambaum could have done differently?

N/A