Bop Design

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to manage websites for other companies, so I'm fairly knowledgeable, although my technical knowledge is a little bit outdated.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.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We do speech coaching and presentation skills training, primarily for corporations.

What is your position?

I am the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

It all involved a rebranding of my company. I have had the company since 1993 and, in the past, I was primarily focused on creative direction and production for large corporate events. Then, in 2008, I began to refocus primarily to the speech coaching. In 2011 or 2012, I contacted Bop for a complete redesign of my website and a new logo. They also helped me go through the renaming process. They provided support for all that.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It's primarily been design work, and now it's extended into some content marketing. They've also done development and the back-end – the whole nine yards.

How did you come to work with Bop Design?

Actually, as the other part of the process, I was relocating from Chicago to San Diego. I wanted to find a local company here in San Diego. I went through a typical search process on the Internet.

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

To do the logo design and create the entire website and everything, it was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration is still ongoing. Probably about six months ago [January 2015], I hired them to do content marketing, which I was failing at miserably when I was doing it by myself.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I went from zero presence on the Web. I think my domain authority has gone up. They've actually had a big impact in this process of marketing because they're doing the content marketing and Google AdWords, and all that kind of stuff. I've gone from one visitor a day to hundreds.

What distinguishes Bop Design from other providers?

They're very good creatively. The logo they designed for me won an award. They have great customer service. They're very focused on customer satisfaction. They really understand small, business-to-business companies.

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

If I had any issues, you can see the growing pains that they're going through. Things have always worked out great, but if there were ever issues, it's usually based on them growing and getting more clients.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are a mass notification company. We work with a lot of larger businesses that use notifications to send out to their employees when there are disasters. Our biggest areas are disaster recovery and business continuity. We also have solutions for IT [information technology] alerting, to automate notifications to various employees.

What are your role and responsibilities?

I am the senior marketing manager. I handle most of our digital marketing, so the website is one of the things that falls under my responsibility. We have a team of about four or five here. We have a designer, copywriter, and marketing coordinator. I manage our relationships with vendors, sales, and all of our digital marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal in working with Bop Design?

Our old website was awful. It was bad from a usability perspective. On the back-end side, it was very hard to make updates and to change things the way we wanted to. We wanted to update our site to have a little bit more of a modern look.

We like to think of ourselves as an innovative, cutting-edge technology company, and our website did not represent that. So, one of the biggest goals was to do that, to make it easier to manage on the back-end, and to improve our search engine optimization as well, so that we're in the top results coming up for things like "mass notification" and "emergency notification."

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They did pretty much everything. At first, they worked on the design to give us an idea of what the site would look like. We gave them feedback on the design. They made several adjustments and then took on the full development of the site. We used WordPress, so they were not only working on the front end but also designing the back-end interface so that we could make changes to various pages. Bop Design did everything, pretty much, from start to finish.

What was your process in selecting Bop Design?

We wanted to make sure we were working with a local vendor, so that we could have some face-to-face meetings as we were going through all this. The first thing we looked for was Web companies in San Diego, and Bop came up as one of the top ones. I think there were five to seven companies that we made initial contact with. Probably four of them ended up responding and coming in to meet with us. We met face-to-face with those four different companies before we finally ended up selecting Bop.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

I'm sorry, but that information is confidential.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

When was the project completed?

I think we started looking for vendors around November [2014]. It was the end of November, or the beginning of December when we first started working with them. The relationship is still ongoing. We have a monthly retainer with them to handle any issues that come up with the site – any minor changes that we need to make. They also monitor general things on the site, make sure that our version of WordPress and all the plug-ins are up to date and that there aren't any problems going on with the site.

What were the results of the project?

The general feedback for the site itself has been completely positive. We hear nothing but good things about the way it looks. On the back-end, we're very pleased with the way that it's set up. It's a lot easier to make edits than on our previous site. It's sort of night and day from the way things used to be, so from that perspective, it's been all positive.

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

As far as SEO, it does take some time for that to bump up, but we are seeing some improvements in some of the more specific keywords that we're targeting. We haven't, as yet, seen as much improvement in the broader ones, the big ones that we're looking for, but we're still hopeful that with more time we will get to that point.

What differentiates Bop Design from other vendors?

The biggest thing was that the scope was never an issue after the project started. You always begin with an initial idea of how the project is going to go, and then things change through time. With other vendors, when things change, they would say that these changes are out of scope and that we have to add this much more money to the project. We never once had that conversation with Bop.

Things changed pretty drastically halfway through the project, and we had to do a soft launch of the site before we did the full redesign. Even with a big change like that, there was never a discussion about us having to pay more because things changed. We made this agreement at the beginning, and their job was to deliver it, period. I really appreciated that, because it allowed us to focus on the project itself without having to worry about there being incremental costs along the way.

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

Not much, to be honest. They've been great to work with and very responsive. The communications with them have been good – very organized. I can't really think of much else that I would say to improve. I guess that's a good thing, but we've never really had any issues with them.

What advice would you give a future client of theirs?

I would say to have some metrics and some goals in line – some very hard, specific things that they would like to achieve at the end. Then, make sure you are measuring your progress against those. It's very easy for a vendor to just finish a website design and say they're done. But, you want to make sure you have something as measurable and concrete as you can to compare to once the project is finished. That will more easily allow you to gauge success on other factors beyond just having a new website.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of CHRISTIAN@PS-BUEHLER.COM

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Manufacturer's Rep

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bop Design to accomplish?

Creae a website that stands out, represents what we do well and makes it easier for customers to get in touch with us

SOLUTION

How did you find Bop Design?

Online Search

Why did you select Bop Design over others?

• High ratings
• Company values aligned
• Our needs were understood very quickly

How many teammates from Bop Design were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Create new website

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Website launch

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

Very responsive, accommodating, supportive.

What was your primary form of communication with Bop Design?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Professionalism, team work, making it easy on us.

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

I can not think of any. It has been a great experience.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr. Department Manager of BiOrigin Specialty Products

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Manufacture parent rolls of specialty paper and tissue products for a variety of markets and applications

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bop Design to accomplish?

• Redesign website
• Product launch

SOLUTION

How did you find Bop Design?

Online Search

Why did you select Bop Design over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Bop Design were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Rebranded and built new website and helped launch a new product, including launching google ads, adroll, and linkedin ads as well as landing page creation and update and content development

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Increase in website visits and time spent on site, launch of new product that resulted in sales

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

Always deliver on time and always respond to our needs

What was your primary form of communication with Bop Design?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

How quickly they're able to create and deliver 

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

Not sure

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Locance Inc

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Locance provides cloud based geolocation services for regulated gaming compliance and IoT decide managements

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bop Design to accomplish?

• Branding refresh
• Website development
• Content creation

SOLUTION

How did you find Bop Design?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Bop Design over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Bop Design were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Web content creation, web design and development and seo, digital marketing and marketing plan development. Launch of new website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Intermediate deliverables per a detailed project plan. Final launch of website.

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

Solicited feedback, communicated timing dependencies and needs, applied input and provided rational for alternative approaches. Managed scope, completed milestones and followed through to deliver what was promised on time and within budget.

What was your primary form of communication with Bop Design?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Bop Design's collaborative approach, broad expertise, and discipline were impressive.

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

None come to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the COO of a government defense technology provider. 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Government Defense Technology Provider

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bop Design to accomplish?

• Revamp website

SOLUTION

How did you find Bop Design?

Referral

Why did you select Bop Design over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Bop Design were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Completely new website / design to include all content 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• On-time  deliverables and clear expectation setting up front

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

Yes. They were very timely and responsive. Great to work with.

What was your primary form of communication with Bop Design?

Virtual Meeting

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

Tailored solutions to us, not cookie cutter.

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

Not that I can think of

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Marketing of Inovar Packaging Group

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Inovar Packaging Group is a nationwide maunfacturer of labels and packaging materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bop Design to accomplish?

• Website redesign for 8 sites
• Larger leads through site
• Optimize SEO and google presence

SOLUTION

How did you find Bop Design?

Online Search

Why did you select Bop Design over others?

High ratings

How many teammates from Bop Design were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Bop Design created rebranding for our company along with website design for 8 seperate websites (one parent site, and seven microsites). They worked on design, website content, website data transfer, and much more.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We only launched a week ago but I would say that a successful launch and transfer of content from 8 websites in a 2 day launch period is extremely successful. 

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

Jess and Kara from project management team were extremely helpful and provided excellent communication for our team. They always responded within the business day or within 24 hours and I greatly enjoyed working with BugHerd during the implementation process. 

What was your primary form of communication with Bop Design?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Communication was top notch and post launch communication has been at the same level of excellence. 

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

I was pleased with all aspects of Bop Design's work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Marketing Manager of a business services company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

As a trusted provider of global employment background screening and workforce monitoring services, Accurate Background empowers organizations of all sizes with the confidence to make smarter, unbiased hiring decisions at the speed of demand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bop Design to accomplish?

• Transform our US-focused website to a global website with options to toggle from region to region
• Integrate 2 external websites under our current domain.

SOLUTION

How did you find Bop Design?

• we have worked with them in the past

Why did you select Bop Design over others?

• strong understanding of existing tech stack

How many teammates from Bop Design were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We were initially tasked with integrating our two newly acquired companies (located in countries outside the US) to our website in only about 4 months. We had just worked with BOP on a successful rebrand, so we shared with them the project and they took on the project with confidence that our aggressive timeline was doable.

Initially, we relied on BOP to advise on best practices in managing a multi-site layout with additional regions that need restrictions on what what can be editable. With the technical set up established and a content plan in place, the BOP team took the ball and ran with it.

In about 1 month from kicking-off the project, BOP had already turned our initial vision into a reality by building out our new site in a testing environment. We experienced some were minor delays with internal approvals leading up to launch, but never from anything the BOP team caused. As our timeline shifted slightly, BOP was always able to accommodate, allowing for a successful website launch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It is too early to tell what impact this project had on our bottom line, but we expect it to be significant. The general feedback I have received from all team members has been nothing but positive. Their responsiveness after our website launch has been very helpful. There are currently no urgent errors on our new website, which is something that I am most pleased with as an internal project manager.

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

Yes. Their organization skills not only helped us all remain on track throughout the entire project. Close attention to detail would also help us catch and address potential errors proactively. All deliverables were met on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Bop Design?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their expertise and technical knowledge shouldn't be ignored, but I was most pleased with their teamwork ability. We had several agencies included in this project and new team members in different places in the world, but BOP came in and immediately I felt like they had been apart of the team for years.

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

We had one brief issues with our emails not sending to each other, but that was out of our control