Bird Marketing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Virtus Contracts Ltd is a principal contractor that provides design and build solutions for interior fit out and refurbishment projects for commercial property in the United Kingdom. I am the Marketing Executive in charge of heading up all aspects of marketing and promotion for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Bird Marketing Limited?

The project was to update the look of our website. We wanted a complete redesign that would compliment the recently updated branding and company logo.

SOLUTION

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

I researched digital agencies online and approached several of the most visible companies I could find on Google. Bird Marketing were shortlisted based on their digital presence. I read numerous reviews from their previous clients which showed they had delivered great websites in the past.

I also appreciated the level of professionalism during my initial discussions, and this experience was a really positive factor when deciding to engage Bird Marketing.

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

A great deal of what we wanted to achieve was discussed in the early briefing stages when Bird created the proposal. In terms of efficiency I found this to be a useful exercise because the web design team at Bird already had a good idea of what we wanted in the first design meeting.

We had a first draft homepage design that was done to brief and I was impressed with their grasp of our brand. There were three subsequent meetings during which the designers ran through the template for the services pages, contact us page and the about us page too.

I recall there being four meetings all in all and each one focused on a certain area of the website, with the last meeting being a snagging exercise before sign off. The process was well thought out and a nice straightforward way to work through a multi-phase project in my opinion.

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

I talked with Lewis Ward all the way through. I believe he is the account director and he did a great job of walking me through the stages of the project. Jack and Philip were both in the design team and I was very happy working with them throughout the process. Clearly very knowledgeable and proficient in their roles.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website looks professional and is definitely up to date with the current times. It will definitely be a much better conversion tool as there are sections on the new pages that give us space to highlight previous projects and provide key information about the basic services we provide.

However, the website does not have a huge number of pages, so we are now working with the SEO department there to augment the website to improve visibility online and create pages to cover more of the specific services we offer.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Overall it has been very effective. Communication was primarily through emails and over the phone. I always received prompt responses and the office phone number was always answered too. The format of the meetings meant little time was wasted with back and forth. It was a pretty efficient process and I felt understood and accommodated right from the beginning.

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

The communication aspects were a great part of working with Bird. I noticed that not all of the companies on the shortlist were as responsive to emails, and some didn’t answer the phone at times either. Bird Marketing Limited cares about our business and provides a good outcome. They lived up to expectations.

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

After the website design project we have started working with the SEO team. These are completely separate departments within Bird so there has been some double handling of information, but other than that Bird have been really good to work with and I am looking forward to continuing with them on developing the digital marketing strategy for Virtus.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the operations director for an IT company that works with both corporate and nonprofit clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Bird Marketing Limited?

We needed someone to build our new website and a secure, online portal

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a bespoke, online, client portal to use for communication between my company and our clients. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were a referral from another supplier.

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

They built a secure online client portal that allows clients to sign up for our services and acts as a way to communicate and pass along documents securely. The scope has been expanded numerous times based on many meetings and discussions about its capability and functionality. They also built our new website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The signup rate for new agreements has increased since we started using the portal, and the new website launched last month.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed by one person at Bird, which made it easy to track over time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The constant movement and innovation that could be included in the systems stood out to us.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Some of the design work could’ve been improved, but this could also have been my personal preference.