Asquared WordPress Agency

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Content Supervisor of a Marketing Agency, Turkey's leading marketing and marketing communication platform (both print and digital).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Asquared WordPress Agency?

The last time our website was renewed was over 4 years ago. Not only we needed a fresher look but better UX design.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We have been using Wordpress for years yet we always felt that the local solutions we found never allowed us to take full advantage of Wordpress. Being a direct partner to Wordpress, Asquared not only allowed us to take full advantage of the platform but taught us how to use certain features as well.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After around 2-3 discovery meeting, we first started on the design and had weekly meetings during which Asquared showed us how the design was coming along. After we were satisfied with the design of each and every page, the coding began and that lasted for around 3-4 months.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2: both co-founders, one focusing on coding and the other, design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

It is much easier and more enjoyable to browse through our website. It is easier to find what we are looking for with the keywords. We are more prone to work on our SEO due to the easy design.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Pretty effective.

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

Their grasp on their professions and the keen eye for details.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m part of the global marketing team for Shutterstock, a marketplace of creative assets like stock images, videos, and music. I’m a senior director in the SEO group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Asquared WordPress Agency?

As a company, we manage multiple sites, including blogs and standalone sites for administrative purposes. Several of them are based on WordPress VIP, the enterprise version of WordPress. Asquared WordPress Agency is a certified WordPress VIP provider, and they offer services to build, maintain, and change our WordPress sites.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Asquared is basically our external WordPress developer. I serve as the project manager and work with their team to make changes requested on our various sites. We have internal clients like our content marketing team, HR team, and other teams that use WordPress sites as their main platform. All the requests about making changes and redesigns, adding new features and new pages, and building new templates come to me. Then, I work with Asquared to make the changes, build, and optimize our sites.

Asquared also creates new WordPress sites for us. Recently, we had an instance where we needed to discontinue an old site and put it into the WordPress VIP platform.  Asquared was in charge of creating the new site from scratch. They did the platform setup, including the hosting certificates and the WordPress installation. They also migrated all the old media files into the new site. It was a complete project, starting from zero to delivering a site ready to be used by the respective internal team.

Our usual cycle for projects starts from either migrating an old site to the new platform or creating it from scratch. Then, we continue maintaining it and building new assets into it. We always move all the way up to achieve the needed specifications, and then we enter the maintenance phase.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with four people from Asquared. Ant (CEO) is our lead developer, and I’m also working with a project manager and two other developers. I communicate with all of them depending on the current need.

How did you come to work with Asquared WordPress Agency?

WordPress VIP is a platform where we have access to a pool of approved developing agencies for their site. We had a different agency working for us, but we had a lot of issues with them. There was a time where we were looking for a different agency.

We shortlisted two vendors from the pool of approved agencies, and Asquared was one of them. Based on our conversations and initial interview, and after reviewing their past projects and portfolio, we decided to start working with Asquared — it was a very good decision.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $57,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. I’m happy with this partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As we work on web development, Asquared needs to be working seamlessly on whatever features we’re building. They do that, and that’s the first measure of our engagement's success.

The second measurement is responsiveness. I have to make sure that whatever task we put in our ticketing system gets in the pipeline so we’re able to work on that. Asquared always gives us the best options for a solution to the issue in a very quick and responsive way. I always get a response to my questions within one hour when they’re on working time, which is great.

Those two aspects are very important for what we do here, and those are the two main measures of success for them. They’re also very instrumental in setting everything up and working with me to deliver what we’re supposed to deliver. I’ve been satisfied with their work so far.

How did Asquared WordPress Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Asana for project management. Asquared gave me access to their ticketing system right from the beginning. The process is transparent to me, and I’m able to add tickets and see all the tasks that are in progress. I have a project manager on their side who is taking care of the whole system.

I like this system because it’s not something that is locked for me, and I’m able to participate. I know who is working on tasks and how they’re being tackled. It’s all clear, and nothing is hidden.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Asquared's most impressive assets are their work ethic and development speed. Difficult tasks are done in a very quick and efficient way, which is very impressive. I’ve worked with a lot of other developers, and some agencies can be really slow. With Asquared, I have both quality and speed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve worked together for six months, and we’ve gone through three major projects. All three projects have been done very well — I can’t ask for more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go through all the steps. What I usually do with external partners is spend time upfront to onboard them. I spend some sessions walking them through our ways and giving them the rationale about what we do. I also make sure that I’m being transparent and give them all the information they need.

Additionally, I set up biweekly or monthly calls with them to go through my plans so that they have a clear vision about what they’ll be doing in the near future. Being transparent with your partners and not hiding anything is key, and it has been successful to me.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a partner of a sock manufacturer. We produce a variety of socks for people of all ages.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Asquared WordPress Agency?

We needed someone to design our website for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Asquared presented us with design ideas to choose from. We weren’t looking for much in terms of features — we just needed the website to feature our products. They delivered a WordPress website that highlighted our sock designs. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with four people. Two were from the design team, another was a developer, and one wrote the copy.

How did you come to work with Asquared WordPress Agency?

I found their portfolio on the internet, and I really liked their designs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from January–July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were satisfied with the results. Their design team understood our needs very well — the site is definitely stronger than our previous one. Our customers and site traffic also increased. A large percentage of our clients reach out via the site, and they’re pleased with the design because they can easily see our models.

How did Asquared WordPress Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Our communication was excellent. The team is conscientious about staying within due dates. To communicate, we used email and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our website is very distinct from our competitors’ sites. Asquared really understood our vision.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they could’ve done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager at Polenio, a market research company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Asquared WordPress Agency?

We needed someone to develop our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Asquared is redesigning and redeveloping our website on WordPress using JavaScript, PHP, and React Native. They’ve also done some work regarding the API connection with our mobile apps.

What is the team composition?

We mainly speak with the project manager and sometimes with the designer. There’s also a development team.

How did you come to work with Asquared WordPress Agency?

We found them through WordPress VIP. They’re a WordPress VIP company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our speed is more optimized now. We’ve also seen lower bounce rates and better conversion rates.

How did Asquared WordPress Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet deadlines and have excellent communication. We’ve had no problems.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve had a good experience with Asquared.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Asquared is great to listen to, as they know what they’re doing. I recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company sells fine Italian wine online. I'm a co-founder and director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Asquared WordPress Agency, and what were your goals?

We wanted to update our website to improve Core Web Vitals. My first objective was to optimise the site performance, because it became critical after the May 2021 Google update. The second was to implement a custom functional design that was specific to our industry (fine wine).

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was looking for developers who had demonstrated their skills through realised projects.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The scope included developing the faster version of the site in the test environment, transferring it to the staging server, and then transferring to the live site.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Main Project Architect, and a Project Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The site was developer on time and on budget. The team did an excellent work

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The day-to-day project management work and communication took place in Asana - which was very simple and effective. The kick-off and the wrapping-up meetings were in Google Meet

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

They were effective, flexible, and responsive. Really know how to make fast websites.

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

no