Bop Design

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager of Kravitz, a retirement plan consulting firm. We are business-to-business providers of specialized corporate retirement plans.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bop Design?

We were rebranding and remaking 3 different websites for different parts of our business. Our old websites didn’t give us the ability to update content since they were simple Drupal sites and not WordPress platforms. They were clunky and not user-friendly. We wanted them to be much more intuitive, user-friendly, and mobile-responsive. SEO [search engine optimization] also had to be improved so that we could connect to the needs of our target market. In the process, we wanted to adopt a unified look across different functions. Generally speaking, we wanted more contemporary and professional-looking websites since we hadn’t updated them in several years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bop Design redesigned our content management system and provided SEO consulting. We have a lot of content, and Bop Design has spent a lot of time working on SEO, titling everything properly and setting up the right keywords. We already had high Google search rankings for our field — cash balance plans — but their team made it better through content management and page setup.

One of the features we needed on the website was a membership section for the training and certification program we offer for financial advisors. They would have the ability to sign up and pay for the program, after which they would have access to special content such as training videos. They could also take online exams. Bop Design found a WordPress plugin that helped us create this, and they set up an online payment solution.

One of our other websites centers on a special part of the market, with a different login membership section set up by Bop Design.

Bop Design designed ads, stationery, and other content for us. They also took charge of a renaming project for one of our businesses.

We worked with 4–5 people from their team, who remained constant throughout the project. They had a well-organized project manager in place. She was our main contact. She updated timelines and managed expectations on a constant basis. We also worked with a designer and a web developer. At the peak of the project, I would email our project manager daily.

How did you come to work with Bop Design?

We sent out an email to companies we were interested in. We described our brand, who our target market was, and what our needs were. We reviewed 8 options and received proposals from 4 of them. Bop Design went through an interview before submitting a proposal. They asked a lot of questions and did their own research on our company and field. Rather than telling us what they’re good at, they focused on our needs. Also, we wanted to work with a B2B-focused company. There were many big, expensive players in this area, but Bop Design was mid-range and understood working with small firms.

How much have you invested with Bop Design?

The cost of their work between 2015 and the beginning of 2017 was in the range of $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Bop Design in June 2015. The main part of the web development was finished in 6 months, but we had other work, including redesigning our stationery. We launched the site in February 2016. It was delayed in order for us to add more content and to match the start of our peak season.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our overall page traffic has increased by around 30%. The number of lead-completion forms being filled easily doubled what we had before. Bop Design integrated the call to actions into all the pages of the site. It is generally better setup, and we receive great feedback on the site.

How did Bop Design perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything they delivered was on time or ahead of time. Any delays were on our end. There was a tracking system in place within WordPress, where I could see the team’s action items. Bop Design’s creative director was a part of the process. Our project manager has been the best one I’ve worked with out of all our past vendors. She is incredibly organized, communicative, and detail-oriented. If something needs to be done, it will. We’ve had many quirky, special needs for our site, and Bop Design has found solutions for all of them. They have a thorough knowledge of other vendors and solutions, including choosing web hosting services or anything else. They’re also reasonably-priced, compared to many other people in the market. They are transparent with pricing and timing when something might incur additional costs or other complications. We always knew what we were getting into.

What did you find most impressive about Bop Design?

We were impressed by their ability to understand our unique business needs, specifically around B2B marketing. Bop Design has brought a strategic business development and sales understanding to everything. Rather than aesthetics or technical sophistication, they care about what will actually work for a business. Bop Design’s business development director, Jeremy Durant, was involved at the beginning of the project. He continued to touch base throughout to make sure they understood our business needs and that the project reflected them.

They were really good listeners. If we gave them feedback that a design or a website map wasn’t quite the way we wanted it, Bop Design would revise things quickly. They really did their homework and had excellent responsiveness and communication.

Are there any areas Bop Design could improve?

The only time we ran into issues was when their team was behind on things. Bop Design’s team has a relatively small team. When we had rush jobs, we couldn’t always get them done. Being so good makes them always busy. If they expanded the team, they would be even busier.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Bop Design?

I did a lot of research before choosing Bop Design. If the client is in the B2B space and looking for a strategic web design, branding, and marketing firm, Bop Design is an excellent choice.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a Managing Principal, specifically for the sales and marketing efforts of Perr&Knight. We provide insurance consulting and software solutions to the property and casualty, and accident and health industries. This includes actuarial consulting, product development, insurance policy and forms consulting, regulatory compliance, state filings, licensing, technology consulting, statistical reporting, data services, and predictive analytics. Our software includes StateFilings.com, which is a leading cloud-based state filings management solution.

We have offices in Santa Monica, Boca Raton, the New York Metro Area, Fort Worth, and over 100 insurance professionals. We’ve been around since 1994.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bop Design?

Our firm has been in business for 22 years, so we've had a website ever since the Internet was around. Slowly but surely, our marketing department wound down here at Perr&Knight. We had people leave and we didn't replace them. We made the decision as a firm to outsource our marketing department, starting with a complete redesign of our website, which was totally outdated.

We were doing nothing in terms of organized content marketing, and we needed to hire a firm to help us with rebranding. Everything from a new website, new brochures, new booths and table tops for conference exhibit halls, content marketing, and marketing via social media which we had never done before. Our target market is the entire property-casualty and accident-health insurance marketplace: insurance carriers, managing general agents, and reinsurance companies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In short, Bop managed the entire process of web redesign and continue to manage the ongoing content marketing efforts.

Once we chose our firm, we started with the website. That was the very first thing, just getting that website up and going. Their initial proposal to us, the initial phase, was to build out the website. They completely did the artwork, colors, and website design from scratch.

They updated the wording of our insurance content using some of the content from the old site and new services that we had added since our old website had been updated. That process was collaborative, very back-and-forth. I would get my consultants that know different things about insurance to provide me with updated content, I would give it to Bop, they would have their professional writers make it sound good and salesy, and then add it to the website.

Once the website was up and running, we switched over to the second phase of the proposal, which was ongoing content marketing. They are, in all essence, our marketing department at Perr&Knight. I work with them just as if I had a staff of people in-house working on content marketing.

They write all the blogs for us. They have a 30-minute interview with our subject matter experts on a topic that we provide. Their professional writer takes all the notes that she took and writes the blog. Then that comes to us a couple of times for edits. She's a writer, not an insurance person, so it's out of context sometimes. We just clean that up a little bit to make sure it's contextually right, because we're talking about detailed insurance and actuarial stuff. It’s very minimal though, as she does a great job. Afterward, they post the information for us on our website.

They’ve done new brochures and redone our booths. For example, since we launched the website, we started a new department called predictive analytics. It's a big thing in insurance right now. We had to develop a brochure from scratch so that we had marketing material to take to clients and conferences. I called them and said, "Hey, we have something new that we need you guys to design. Here's some of the content. Make us a brochure." Once the brochure was made, we have to add that to the website. Additionally, we needed to add that service to our home page and develop a page for it on our website. That would go back to them, and they would deal with the website again. We're about to launch that new service.

They’re actively working to help us build our brand in the insurance arena through our website, marketing efforts, social media, and SEO. They keep us relevant on LinkedIn. About once every two weeks, they will send me a list of 20 articles, and I tell them yes or no to each one. What they’ll do is pick that article and schedule it to show up on our company's LinkedIn account, so Perr&Knight is always out there as a thought leader.

How did you come to work with Bop Design?

Bop Design was one of 7 firms to whom we sent our RFP. One of the reasons we initially included them was because they were in Southern California, which is where our headquarters is located, although we later found out that geographical proximity doesn't matter with Bop Design since we communicate regularly via email and phone. We liked their proposal the best in terms of strategy, design, support, and price.

How much have you invested with Bop Design?

Between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We engaged Bop Design in February 2016 and launched the new website in October 2016. The original timeline to launch was 6 months, but the delay was entirely our fault, as we weren't as responsive as we needed to be.

Phase 1 was to build out the website from scratch, do all the design work, take the content provided and make it look nice and professional, and change the wording to make it more salesy. Once that ended and launched, it was just ongoing content marketing at a monthly fee for whatever we need. I don't know what I'll need 3 months from now, but when I do, I'll just call them, and they’ll do it. Plus, the website is not just a done deal after launch; it's always evolving. So we have been working with Bop Design regularly since the launch; they’ve become our marketing department.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I have nothing but positive things to say about Bop Design and their entire team, from Jeremy [business principal] down the line. They are the best vendor I have ever worked with personally, and I’ve worked with a lot. Traffic has increased since the new website. They put together for me a 15-page monthly report going over all of our Google Analytics, AdWords, and AdRoll. It's pretty detailed, and it's all metrics. It compares month over month and the same month over different years, like May 2017 to May 2016, and the difference is phenomenal. Yearly traffic has gone up to 76% in May 2017 versus May 2016.

Their quality of work is the best. I have received many compliments from clients and friends, as well as our employees (and with over 100 employees, it is hard to please everyone). You can visit Perr&Knight’s website and see for yourself. All of the blogs, since October 2016, were written and designed by Bop’s very professional writers and designers after a pain-free 30-minute interview with one of our experts. They make it so easy. We provide the content expertise, all insurance-related, and they turn it into a great piece of content marketing. They also drive all of our social media marketing and advertising. And we are seeing results in leads and new business come through our website.

You can do actuarial consulting firms in New York, LA, or wherever, and we're coming up on the top organically, even at the top of these Google searches. We were never at the top before. There's a method to the madness—that's why they're a professional firm that does this. When they built our site, it was with SEO in mind, and the words that they used all helped to get us higher up organically without paying for advertising on Google searches. That has worked tremendously.

Another thing I love is, when people find us on Google or any other search engine and fill out our Contact Us form for more information or a proposal, that email comes directly to me, and I take it. I keep a spreadsheet of leads and follow up on them. I kick them off to a subject matter expert, and it turns into projects. Since we launched in October, we've had 69 solid leads that came through the website that resulted in 27 proposals worth $932,000 in proposed fees. In terms of closed and billed projects, we've closed and billed over $125,000 since we launched. Those are just leads that find us on the Internet and come to the website. I think that's pretty good, and it keeps growing month over month. These numbers are strictly people that fill out the contact form. I'm sure there's additional business coming in just when people call, but it's harder to track.

How did Bop Design perform from a project management standpoint?

We regularly have an hour-long phone call every month to go over the month-to-month report. Not only do they give us this customized report, but then they call and go through every page with me and tell me that, "We like this. This is working,” or “We got to work on the bounce rate. We want to fix that." They're constantly evaluating their efforts to me and showing me what's working and what could work better.

They are always on time and on budget, or under, and they are always available for me via phone and email even if we don’t have it scheduled on the calendar. From time to time, things pop up and I need to ask them a question or get a professional opinion from them as our marketing firm, and they always make time for me.

I would say there are 7 people I've interacted with: Jeremy, Kara, Rachel, Summer, Emily, Colleen, and John, and I interact with 4 of them regularly, if not daily.

Everything goes through me, so I'm the point person, and then I will get them to people they need, such as subject matter experts, as needed. It works really nicely.

What did you find most impressive about Bop Design?

Apart from everything they’ve done for us, everyone at Bop Design is super cool, nice, and professional. They really have a great staff. We did our due diligence by interviewing and sending RFPs to 7 firms when we were looking. I’m so glad we picked Bop Design.

Are there any areas Bop Design could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of marketing at MediKeeper, a health and wellness portal that helps employers manage their employees’ rising healthcare costs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bop Design?

We wanted to build awareness of our company through the website and drive qualified leads, most likely for demo requests. We had a prior website that had been developed in-house. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted a responsive WordPress website that would continually draw people to fill out forms, allowing us to capture who they are and follow up with leads. We wanted to showcase our competitive suite of solutions in the market via the products themselves and through our various client testimonials and case studies.

Bop Design first sent us 10 different questions in the form of a backgrounder, which helped them understand the company and our goals. Then, we had a face-to-face meeting in which Bop Design went through every answer we gave, clarified our objectives, and refined our focus. It was an unexpectedly extensive 2-hour meeting that resulted in 3 wireframe concepts. We loved all 3, but we ended up selecting the best option for our needs.

Around 8 people in total were involved in the project, including everything from design, strategy, copywriting, SEO, operations, and development. Bop Design handled the team selection, and I had no part in this. I was blown away by the knowledge of their employees. They weren’t kids straight out of school who simply knew technology. At their heart, everyone there is a marketer with special skill sets in copywriting, SEO, or technology. Because of their focus and the amount of experience they’ve had with B2B clients, I was extremely happy with the team.

We had a single key contact, but the emails we sent to that person generally go to a group box, and a lot of people were involved in responding based on the topic and expertise levels. We interacted multiple times per week, especially during more significant stages like copywriting, finalizing designs, and doing SEO.

We originally engaged them for website design and copywriting, but, once the project concluded, we continued the relationship with pay-per-click management, SEO, and further development. Their professionalism was obvious, so we wanted to find a way to keep exploring and using Bop Design’s expertise.

How did you come to work with Bop Design?

I’ve been working in the San Diego marketing industry for nearly 30 years, and I’ve reviewed 7 agencies that I thought could be good fits, based on my past experiences with them. Three of them were shared with the management team, and we all agreed to bring them in for a presentation. Out of those, we selected Bop Design, specifically because of their extensive B2B experience. Because Bop Design has a 100% focus in this area, we found them to be a more qualified option. They also had outstanding experience with driving lead generation and weren’t only focused on building a pretty website.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Bop Design in July 2016, and the site was delivered in November. We have an ongoing collaboration. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our lead count has quadrupled since launching the new website. The abandon rate has been decreased, while time spent on the website has increased. Most satisfying of all, I’ve heard many customers and prospects say that they love our website, which wasn’t something I heard before. We’ve had good feedback both on the subjective and the objective side.

How did Bop Design perform from a project management standpoint?

They promised to deliver the site on November 17, and they did completely within budget. I was not expecting this, as I’ve had late deliveries from every other firm I’ve worked with. This is the nature of the work, so I was ecstatic by their punctuality and cost.

Through my background in marketing, I always thought I was a good project manager, and I was used to having this role. In this instance, though, I was not the best person for this task. The person assigned to me by Bop Design did an outstanding job in terms of project management. On the day of signing the contract, I received an email notification with all the key milestones, responsible people, due dates, and descriptions. I truly believe that Bop Design was able to deliver the project on time because of their strong project management skills. I never felt bugged, always felt supported, and clearly felt that they were moving the project along.

What did you find most impressive about Bop Design?

They did a fantastic job developing the website and built something that I’m proud of, delivering it on time and within budget. But, in today’s environment, clients mostly want to work with nice people—genuine human beings who care about things. Having a sense of humor and good camaraderie is important. Through this project, I had the chance to meet and work with some terrific people. I consider that a privilege.

Are there any areas Bop Design could improve?

With previous agencies, we always found items to correct. I don’t think that anyone’s perfect, but Bop Design has done an outstanding job of looking at our clients’ needs and addressing them.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Bop Design?

Look at a couple of competitive solutions, try to understand what you want from a new website, and share it with the agencies. This will give your provider the ammunition they need to truly come up with a creative concept that meets your needs. In my case, Bop Design grossly exceeded my expectations and gave us more than we hoped for—not only in terms of design and looks but also in terms of functionality and results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

TAG (The Accounting Group) is an outsourced accounting and software solutions firm.  TAG provides outsourced accounting B2B services and is a Sage Construction Software Partner.  With five office locations throughout Southern California, we focus on small-to-mid-sized companies and high-net-worth families.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bop Design?

Bop Design was selected by TAG to redesign our Wordpress site and optimize the brand identity. They provided SEO, CTA's to drive business leads, and integrated our different company divisions.

We have four distinct divisions here, so we wanted to keep them separate on our website, but also make them a cohesive story on how they all kind of fit together.

We had a previous WordPress website. It was not responsive and not very elaborate. It was pieced together, with not too much content, very little infographics, and an unpopular color scheme.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As I recall, they came in with two or three separate ideas. It was a team approach on how they thought they were going to elaborate the divisions, focus on separating the services that we provide, and what the audience was that we're going to reach. They explained SEO to us: how pages rank, and how to capture all the keywords to help our website rank.

They made our website responsive and easier to scroll. On our previous website, there was just a small template, a small frame; it that barely captured one page. We could put a lot of content and information within one long, scrolling page. They changed all our colors, so we went from four oranges and yellows that were completely ugly to four different colors that represented a different division within TAG. It made things a lot cleaner and easier to navigate.​​​​​​

What is the team dynamic?

Jeremy took the lead and was more like the project manager. We had Kara, who was doing all of the design and branding work. There was another person that helped with SEO and content, and probably one other person. I don't know how many other people working behind the scenes.

We had same people throughout the whole project and we communicated at least once a week; we do check-ins.

How did you come to work with Bop Design?

I came in new to the position. I didn't think the previous team was a great fit, so I interviewed four different firms, they came out and gave us proposals and pitches. Our whole team, the management team and I, all decided that Bop was going to be a great fit. They weren't priced the lowest nor were they the highest price, but they gave us the most detail in their proposal. They really listened to all our needs, captured them in the proposal, and outlined exactly what they were going to do for us.

It was extremely easy. The proposal was so detailed with all the different pieces they wanted to work on; they put a calendar in with due dates. We knew where we stood every week, and we could check on the progress they were making. If anybody held up the project, it would have been us, TAG, coming to agreement on making decisions. It really moved along exactly how they proposed that it would.

How much have you invested with them?

I reach out to them almost quarterly for different small, little projects. They've helped us with three landing pages for Google AdWords, and they also tweak those and continue to maintain those. I'm working with them right now to create new pages for our construction software division. We've eliminated a software on our page and added a new one, so I'm working with them right now. In total, maybe 20 grand.

What is the status of this engagement?

It was four year ago. Bop works with TAG on an on-going basis to add more pages and functionality to their website. Bop also creates landing pages for Google AdWords and works with TAG to make sure the PPC campaign is running smoothly and on-budget. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've definitely seen an uptick in traffic which has resulted in at least quadrupling our number of web leads. So a lot more people have been finding us on the web either organically or through these Google AdWords. We probably only had maybe 2 a quarter, 3 a quarter with our old website, and now we're consistently at 15 to 20 a quarter, which has resulted in a lot of new business for us in different regions of the country.

How did Bop Design perform from a project management standpoint?

They're always on top of it, so very organized. They respond within 24 hours if I have a question. They get on the phone or a GoToMeeting, so we're seeing exactly what they're working on, and they don't nickel-and-dime you. If I have questions, they're not going to charge it to an hourly rate. They just kind of take care of it. And they're easy with their billing. For any of the new upcoming project work, they're just very fair in their pricing.

I mostly would just email Jeremy or Emily, or who is ever in charge of whatever they're working on. If I recall, there were a couple of different tools that they used when we were building up the website. Some had to do with changing up the sitemap and/or adding content. There were a couple of technology tools that they used to streamline things and make it a lot easier for us to all be on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bop's pricing, turn-around time, and attention to detail is fantastic.  They are a great team to work with and are dedicated to providing the best services and truly want their clients to succeed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I keep working with them. It's been a great relationship, they're easy to work with, and I've definitely recommended other companies to reach out to them. I think it really started from the beginning when I went on a long process with interviewing three or four other firms to take on this project; I knew that they were going to be a good fit. And they haven't disappointed yet.

Do you have any advice or recommendations?

I think it's always good to compare proposals and pricing - so you don't necessarily have to go with the cheapest solution. You should get a better understanding on the team and their approach, and make sure that the proposal is really what you're looking for. All the pain points of your current website that you don't like, explain everything that what you're looking for so that whoever you hire really provides the best solution and walks you through exactly what you're looking for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the Founder and CEO of VeraVia. VeraVia is a boutique integrative health and wellness retreat that provides customized all-inclusive, comprehensive, and structured programs based on each guest’s unique health goals in a high-end luxury Five Star resort setting. All of our programs include our 4 pillars: fitness, nutrition, naturopathic medical, and wellness (behavioral) in a holistic approach to treat the whole person from the inside out. Our all-inclusive programs range from our 3-night Reboot Express, to 1, 2, 3, or 4 week stays. Our clients are typically busy professionals who are looking to make lifelong changes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bop Design?
We searched a lot of companies, but most of them were very large companies, which we weren’t interested in. Once we found Bop Design, we set up a meeting with them. We liked what they had to say, so they were the only ones we interviewed.

We wanted to rebrand because we were new. I had come up with a logo and name on my own. When we met with Jeremy [Principal, Bop], he recommended that we come up with a name that could be trademarked. Based on that, they [Bop] did research on names that could be used and that also could be trademarked for our specific type of business. Then they came up with 5 or 6 options, and we selected what we liked from those. After the initial naming and branding of the company, they also helped with original website design and creation, ongoing SEO including regular blogs, e-books, social media management, and Google Adwords campaigns.

As a new company in a high-end luxury space having to compete with numerous well-known brands, we were able to achieve approximately 170% growth year over year, obtain numerous press releases in major publications, and rank at the top of SEO search results for our major search terms. Bop also assisted with ongoing website refresh designs to keep our site looking modern and refined it to align with our brand as we grew and modified our company focus. They also added new features to benefit our clients.

Our target market is the high-end, international luxury wellness traveler. Bop effectively assisted with targeting quality leads that were interested in our product and could afford it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
We didn’t have any web presence at all. We told Bop we wanted our brand to be a luxury, high-end boutique type of product that was highly individualized and customized. Based on those descriptions, they came up with the website design, logo design, taglines, etc. They now manage the SEO for our account and write blogs for SEO purposes.

What is the team dynamic?
I worked with the 2 principals who were my main points of contact. At the beginning, I spoke with them once a week over the phone or in-person. We also communicated daily via email. Now during the maintenance phase, I speak with them once a week. They would send drafts, and I would comment on them. They would send updates or suggestions as well. They had a team of 2 people who worked on the design side and 1 person who worked on the programming aspect of the website.

How did you come to work with them?

I found them on a Google search.

What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in August 2013 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Bop's initial and ongoing efforts helped us achieve consistent 170% annual growth rates in income and new clients.

How did Bop Design perform from a project management standpoint?
Bop effectively met all project deadlines with exceptional product deliveries and responded very well to last minute change requests from us. They stuck to initial price quotes always.

What did you find most impressive about them?
What's unique is that you get a firm with experience, technical and graphic skills of a larger firm, but with the individual attention from the owners.

Are there any areas they could improve?
I would not have them do anything differently.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to start a project with them?
They managed the process well. I don’t feel there’s something that I would advise somebody to do differently to get the best results. I trusted them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Evergent Group runs 4 staffing, payroll, and consulting companies. I’m the Marketing Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bop Design?

We needed to redesign 2 company websites. They had been built on a static Dreamweaver platform, with design and code being separate. Any updates meant re-uploading Dreamweaver files to the site, which was an archaic process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bop Design developed our websites using WordPress, which allowed us to manage content online. We've also used Bop Design for a redesign of our website for Suna Solutions, which was launched a few days ago.

Bop Design has full in-house resources, and they also engage independent contractors for copywriting, which was managed for us.

How did you come to work with Bop Design?

I researched a number of web companies, and sat down with a couple. I didn't get the feeling that any of them grasped the concepts or the direction which we were aiming for. After another request for proposal and Google search round, I found Bop Design. I looked at their website and read about their company. Bop Design stated that they believed in SEO, which was a big touch point. We wanted to become more searchable, and found that Bop Design practiced what they preached. They are SEO experts, and showed up first for this type of search. One of the companies that responded to our bid had a price which was 5 times higher than our offer. Bop Design understood where our budget was, and gave us what we wanted.

How much have you invested with Bop Design?

This information is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Bop Design at the end of 2015. Our first 2 websites were launched in February, 2016, and the one for Suna Solutions was launched a few days ago. We're planning on developing a 4th website for our company using Bop Design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was always impressed with Bop Design, from our first meeting onwards. We had an immediate connection, and Bop Design seemed to understand where we wanted our business to go, and what the look-and-feel of our site was supposed to be. Bop Design was informative throughout the process, giving us a deliverables timeline, and stayed on top of things. The only delays came from our end, when we were too busy to provide content which Bop Design requested.

How did Bop Design perform from a project management standpoint?

Whenever I needed something, I received a reply within minutes. Bop Design provided great customer service, and even invited us to their own web launch party. The relationship has grown and continued to flourish throughout the entire period. I was able to email Bop Design's project manager and receive a reply immediately on any question, even after the website launch. This showed that Bop Design really cared about our company, not just about the money.

What did you find most impressive about Bop Design?

We never felt that we hired a web design company, but rather that we were having some friends do it for us. If we didn't like something, we could tell Bop Design's team, and they wouldn't be offended. I could ask for any changes and have them implemented.

There are tons of companies which claim that they're good at SEO or design, but after looking at their own websites, it's easy to see that they're not optimized for organic searches, and have bad designs. Bop Design is not like that, and they definitely practice what they preach through an expert SEO team.

Are there any areas Bop Design could improve?

I can't think of anything. I was always impressed with Bop Design whenever we worked with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work at a tattoo laser-removal clinic based in San Diego.

What is your position?

I am a Dermatology Nurse Practitioner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Bop Design?

We needed a more user-friendly version of our website. Our company has been in business since 1999, so we've had to evolve along with the internet, in terms of web design. At first, it was all about print media, but things have obviously changed.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Bop Design redesigned our website, based on the existing design. They also created a mobile version of the site and performed monthly maintenance.

How did you come to work with Bop Design?

I'd heard about Bop Design through colleagues and friends, but I did my own online research. A developer whom I know, had some great things to say about Bop Design as well.

We had received at least 3 bids for our job offer and interviewed each person. The owner and Bop Design's top designer came out to us initially. They looked at the ambiance of the clinic and what our branding was. They listened to our needs and came up with a proposal. We chose them based on their proposal.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total redesign cost was between $8,000 and $10,000. We also opted for monthly website maintenance with Bop Design.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our website redesign finished in 2014. We maintained a relationship with Bop Design, but we've recently sold our clinic. Even though I wasn't paying for Bop Design's services any longer, I was able to contact them with questions, at no additional cost. Bop Design has given me some very useful information, above the call of duty.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We went from a very remedial website, to something which had a lot of pop. The medical tattoo removal field is dependent on before-and-after photos. A big problem for our company was that people stole our photography, passing it off as their own. Bop Design came up with the solution of putting watermarks on the photography, in order to slow that down. I'm not a tech person, but I was able to scan photos and upload them to the website with the watermark applied to the picture automatically, as a functionality of the website.

In addition to this, Bop Design included a slider at the bottom of each page, showing a movement between the before and after pictures. I was able to work with it, despite my limited computer skills.

Bop Design gave me a very good operating manual as well, and I could email them any time I had a question.

What distinguishes Bop Design from other providers?

I've appreciated Bop Design's consistency. They stayed on time and were good to their word, which was quite refreshing. We've had some not so good experiences with other website designers.

Is there anything Bop Design could have improved or done differently?

I wish I could say something, but Bop Design was fantastic and I've appreciated their level of professionalism. They didn't overpromise, instead they gave us realistic expectations of what could and couldn't be done.

BACKGROUND

BioFire Diagnostics LLC is a privately held clinical diagnostics company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company manufactures and distributes its proprietary diagnostic respiratory panel, FilmArray RP, which operates on its user-friendly FilmArray system, to hospital-based clinical laboratories in the U.S. and E.U. BioFire is continuing to develop a broader test menu for its FilmArray system, including a blood culture ID panel, gastrointestinal panel, and a meningitis panel. The company prides itself in a comprehensive understanding of what matters most to its customers, and continues to make great strides to ensure that its products remain reliable, user-friendly, and on the cutting edge of innovation. 

The company also currently holds over 70 patents related to polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The company has used its extensive patent portfolio to successfully market nearly 200 products to the clinical, research, and military markets. BioFire collaborates with various U.S. governmental agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. Additionally, researchers, medical technicians, law enforcement officers, and soldiers in the field, use company devices to detect or study disease-causing organisms.

My role as the Digital Marketing Specialist is to manage day-to-day brand websites, operations of social media platforms, as well as develop, implement, track, and optimize campaigns across all digital platforms. I also create and manage new digital marketing tools, email marketing, public relations, as well as read and interpret web analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We had multiple websites for our company and products. All sites were outdated, had poor navigation, were not user-friendly, and overall lacked visual appeal. Potential leads and customers using the site could not find the information they were after, and that lead to high bounce rates and poor user experience.

SOLUTION

They improved our page by simplifying our site map and making the menu and navigation a lot easier and more user-friendly. Bop Design updated our design, implementing a continuous scroll, rather than requiring users to click deeper and deeper into the page in order to get to their information. The buttons are now much easier to use as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

The project, on Bop Design's end, is completed. They've offered us a 30-day window for SEO tracking and making optimizations. We're still within that process, but everything has been handed over to our company.

Bop Design is awesome to work with, compared to all of the other developers I've known in the past. I have no criticisms. They were always on time in terms of deliverables and execution. Our company was the slow one. The work was done during December, so everyone was hit-and-miss.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I am working with an aerospace company – Hydra-Electric.

What is your position?

I've been their head of marketing since March 2014.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BOP Design?

The company had a sub-par website with very poor functionality and usability. It was very poor in terms of communicating our message, and the company had zero marketing. The marketing function had been dormant for about two years, so I really had to rebuild the marketing foundation, and the first step was the website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It was a complete website redesign. I used to manage websites for other companies, so I'm fairly knowledgeable, although my technical knowledge is a little bit outdated. I was really looking for somebody who could help me with that. I had a sense of what I wanted in terms of information architecture, but the concept of responsive design was new to me, so I wanted somebody that could do a responsive design website. I also knew that I would be using Bop Design, or I expected to be using them, for other marketing design purposes. That kind of came later, but they've been great in that sense.

How did you come to work with BOP Design?

I'm in a marketing organization called MENG – Marketing Executives Networking Group – and I posted there. I'm sure Jeremy [Durant, principal at Bop Design] responded to me directly. I was looking for a Web design company that was specialized in business to business. We had a limited budget, so I was looking for somebody that worked well with smaller companies.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was approximately $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them at the end of August [2014], I think that was our first kickoff meeting, and then the website went live on December 9. Since then, they've helped with digital products as well as design for print and other products. They've done everything from designing our banner ads, designed our presentation folders, given me templates for our data sheets, and created the graphics for our booth for trade shows. Also, when I do promo products, if I need something higher level done, then I go to BOP.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

They were pretty much on track, time-wise. There was a little bit of delay on our part. I would say they have been very efficient in terms of turning things around and getting us stuff when they said they would. The design work has been great. I've gotten so many compliments on the website itself.

I think the one great thing about working with them is, a lot of times, they'd present an idea, and I would push back and say, "I really want it this way." Sometimes, they'd say, "Okay, great. We can do it." Other times, they would push back and say, "It's really going to be a mistake because of X, Y, and Z." They would educate me on something. We had a great working relationship. They balanced well between being flexible, but not being a pushover. They were open to my ideas, but also let me know when they felt strongly that what I was proposing wasn't going to serve our objective.

What distinguishes BOP Design from other providers?

I think what I liked was, I worked directly with the designer, and she had a great grasp of both design, UI and project management. In other web design firms with whom I've worked, the designer only focused on the design aspect. There's three roles; the project manager that keeps things on track, there's somebody who's got the design vision, and then there's the role of making sure that the user interface, functionality and usability makes sense. I think what was unique about Bop is the chance to work with a professional who could manage all three.

First of all, we started out with Emily [VonSydow] in charge of project management, then I got switched to Kara [Jensen], and at first I was like, "Wait a second, we were supposed to have a project management person. It's not right here." Then, they explained to me that Kara is well versed in all three of those areas, and I was just enormously impressed in working with her for all three. Since then, once the project wrapped up, Emily has been our project manager; she has been great, too. I feel I can go to either of them.

I've just really been impressed with the caliber of the people at Bop Design. I liked the professionalism, efficiency, and the flexibility they offer.

The other thing that really impressed me, in them winning our business, was their knowledge of content marketing. I think that is the differentiator. The other thing that I really appreciated is that working with the post launch has been fantastic, in terms of working out a very reasonable monthly retainer. That's been really effective.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

They migrated the color of our logo, and it wasn't apparent until after the fact. They probably thought that we didn't really have a color palette, that it was OK if they just punched it in one direction. But, this should have been a more explicit conversation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a custom software development company. We actually partner with many different companies to provide them with development and testing teams.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I am responsible for the marketing, sales, and delivery teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Bop Design?

Our website was really outdated, and we hadn't made it a focus to work on the website. We had managed to gain new projects and clients without having to do that, I guess. Although we have great internal development teams, I just thought it would be easier to work with Bop Design, to move it off our plate and have them help us with designing a website that reflected our value proposition, and also to develop a site, and help us with the launch. They really helped us soup to nuts.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

I met with Kara [Jensen, creative principal at Bop Design] very briefly. I think we probably spent a couple hours together, maximum, and from what I recall, I just told her what I had in mind. I had some documentation, but a lot of it was just in my head. She said, "OK, well here is the process." She laid out a really simple process of how it was going to work, which actually I was really concerned with in the beginning because it was almost too simple. She took that information, went away and told me to trust the process. I call it the "Kara magic."

She came back with a couple of different designs, and they were great. She really got it very quickly. From there, we chose a design them, and then we worked on imagery, we worked on graphics to get certain concepts across. The last piece of it was the copywriting. We had a couple of hiccups, like you would with any project, but I really think they did a great job of putting it all together.

Kara really helped us with understanding our value proposition and translating that into a really simple design, which was great. Then she and her team selected all of the graphic and photo elements. I created a baseline for the copy, but then they did all of the polishing, which was great. They really simplified and made my words a lot easier to understand. Then they went into development. The site is built on WordPress. They helped us with the launch, they worked with our IT [information technology] group to launch the website, and they continue to maintain it for us when we had changes.

How did you come to work with Bop Design?

I think I've met with Jeremy [Durant, the business principal at Bop Design] at a networking event. It was many years prior. He and I talked a little bit. It was one of those things where it's like, I really need to redo the website, but I never got around to it. I talked to him many years before.

I actually engaged several other marketing agencies locally, for the project, and I wasn't really happy with their whole approach. They were making it a much bigger project than what I really envisioned. I called up Jeremy and said, "Hey, Jeremy. I really just need someone to come in and help us take our value proposition. We have a buyer persona, we know who the target audience is, we know who our ideal companies are, and we have that compelling value proposition, I just really need help in translating it."

He said, "Sure, I can absolutely help with that." He came in, and the first time I met with Kara I felt really comfortable. I really felt like she really got it really quickly. Unlike other marketing agencies, they weren't trying to come in and reinvent the wheel, so to speak. We just really connected with Kara and felt like she really understood what it is that we were trying to do. That's how we got started.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I paid $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They rebuilt our website in the first quarter of this year [2015]. We started working on the project in January, and I believe we launched end of March, and we still work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We received really fantastic feedback from customers, from our own employees, even from people who are applying for jobs. I've been building up the marketing and sales team, and people comment, "Wow, your website is so easy to understand – it's so clear. We totally get what you do." To get that kind of feedback, compared to what our site was like, it was such a poor representation of who we are. For the Bop team to take that and turn it into what it is today, I really commend them for that.

How did Bop Design perform from a project management standpoint?

I think I mentioned a couple of hiccups but, overall, working with Kara and Jeremy has been a really pleasant experience. With timelines, everything always takes a little bit longer than you had originally envisioned. We tried to pull that back in as much as possible. We had to swap copywriters or copy editors midstream, which was partially a reason for the delay. Other than that, I think that the entire project has been really successful.

What distinguishes Bop Design from other providers?

I really think of them as a marketing and graphic design agency. For me, the strongest service line that I've worked with them on is graphic design. I think Kara really differentiates the company, and just does a fantastic job of understanding what it is that we're trying to relay, and putting that into a design format that is simple, elegant, and easy to understand. She's really talented.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

I would just say that Kara, for example, is really talented, and working with Kara is different from working with some of the other members of their team. They're responsive, they're very service-oriented, they really try, but she's just really talented, and I think that's hard to replicate.