The Brick Factory

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Communications at Marketing at the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN). BCAN is is a community of patients, caregivers, survivors, advocates, medical and research professionals united in support of people touched by bladder cancer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Brick Factory, and what were your goals?

We hired the Brick Factory to help us completely redo our web site. They did UX work, graphic design and well as web development work. Our goals were to have a better storytelling experience on our web site, help with SEO, and reach more people touched by bladder cancer.

SOLUTION

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

We put out the RFP to nine firms, three of which responded. The deciding factor was the RFP pitch meeting. It was apparent both in the RFP response as well as the video pitch meeting that the Brick Factory truly understood what we were trying to accomplish and could deliver what we were looking for.

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

We wanted to stay on the WordPress platform, so all of our content could be easily migrated. The Brick Factory helped us improve our UX by reorganizing our content and presenting it differently. The next step was graphic design. They presented a series of visual representations of what the site would look like. Finally, they gave us a test site that we could look at and even make changes to.

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

I worked with three people. The CEO, the Chief Creative Officer and a programmer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's too early for measurable outcomes.

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

The project management style was almost informal. Most edits and feedback took place via email.

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

The Brick Factory had a clear understanding of what we wanted to accomplish, had worked with others in the nonprofit space, and made a host of recommendations that helped us communicate better via our web site.

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

One of the deadlines slipped a bit, but that was likely due to a very aggressive timeline for design, development and launch.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

African Parks is a non-profit conservation organization that takes on the complete responsibility for the long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. I'm the Digital Manager for the organization and am based at the head office in Johannesburg, South Africa.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

African Parks initially hired The Brick Factory to develop our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory developed our website from scratch using Drupal. We provided them with a basic wireframe, and they handled the entire development process and ensured the website was GDPR and SEO compliant. 

Currently, we manage the content, and they handle all of the web development and updates. If we want to develop or make adjustments to the site, we work with The Brick Factory to deploy these changes. 

In addition to the website, The Brick Factory assists us with our Google Ads and from time to time our online campaigns and social media.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Katie Fulton (Director of Account Management & Marketing). We also work with Todd (CEO) occasionally when we have a slightly larger project on the go.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

Our CMO used to work with Todd at another company. She brought The Brick Factory to our organization, and it’s been a really successful partnership.      

How much have you invested with them?

The Brick Factory started developing the website in 2016, and it took about six months to complete. A lot of that time was just us writing the content, but they were amazing and guided us through the process very well. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve spent around $30,000 for the whole project, but we have a monthly retainer with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Brick Factory has been absolutely fantastic at managing the website. They’ve always been available whenever we need them and always come to the table with fantastic ideas. 

I work with a very small team on a day-to-day basis and so having The Brick Factory to help me maintain and keep the website running smoothly is a great help. The time difference between Africa and the US hasn’t affected our work at all. I would highly recommend them to anyone to anyone who is thinking about using their services.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Basecamp to run our projects and make sure everything is updated regularly according to the right timelines and deadlines. This has been really helpful, especially because of the time difference between our teams. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Brick Factory is great with communication and very responsive to any queries or issues we might have. They make us feel supported no matter what, which is the best part of working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re really wonderful. I don’t have anything negative to say about them, nor any improvement suggestions.

Any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to have a plan and a budget in mind. The Brick Factory will adjust to your budget and timelines and will provide you with wonderful ideas and support.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a communications manager for IPA (Innovations for Poverty Action) and we’re a research and policy nonprofit. What we do is work with researchers to generate evidence on the effectiveness of programs targeted towards poverty alleviation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

We don’t have any in-house web developers or anyone who has more than rudimentary web development experience. We had a relationship with another web agency, but our engagement was ending so I was looking for an agency that can replace them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a monthly retainer with them, so our engagement is not solely for one project — they help us whenever we need web developer support. The things that they usually do are in two buckets. The first is routine maintenance where every quarter they implement security updates for us — we use Drupal as our CMS and Acquia as the hosting provider.

The other one is we’ll send them a one-off request for specific things that someone asks us to do. We usually receive requests from other teams at IPA, and then we’ll try to do it ourselves. If we can't, and we run into something that we don’t have the development expertise to do on our own, we’ll go to The Brick Factory. They’ll give us an estimate, we’ll approve it out of our retainer, and then we’ll go back and forth.

They also provide us with their web design services in addition to the development. One time, we were requested to add several other teams at our organization, and a research initiative section of the main navigation menu on our website. We tried to do it ourselves, but kept running into issues so we asked them to help us design the additional section of the menu.

Now it looks great and it links to all the things that it’s supposed to.

What is the team composition?

I only work directly with two people. Katie (Director of Account Management & Marketing) who is my main point of contact, and Ron (Vice President & Technical Services). Whenever we have anything we need to do on a website, I email Katie and Ron, and they will then assign the tasks to the developers on their team.

It helps us because we don’t have to worry about who to ask. They can just funnel the request to their team, or whoever needs to be working on it.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

I was looking for web development agencies that were based in DC because at the time, before the COVID-19 pandemic, I thought that would make things easier. I just did a Google search and they were one of the agencies that came up on the list. I liked that they had a bunch of case studies and testimonials from other non-profits — their experience working with non-profits was important to us.

I really liked them when I talked to them, I thought they sounded competent, organized, and they gave us a retainer rate that was within our budget — and cheaper than a lot of other agencies that we talked to. They fit everything that we needed, even though it was kind of a cold call, it ended up working pretty well.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest about $15,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since October 2018 and it’s still ongoing. Every year we renew our retainer with them, and they let us carry over unused hours to the next month, which is also something that’s really important to us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For the qualitative feedback, The Brick Factory is super responsive and they’re great at project management. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why we decided to end our engagement with our previous web development agency. 

The Brick Factory is super proactive. They reach out to us whenever our website needs to be fixed or updated, which we might not be aware of — this is also something the previous agency didn’t do. It’s just been helpful how responsive and organized they are and as I said, they not only fulfill our requests, but they are also active in sending us notices in advance.

Additionally, they’ve been thoughtful about proposing other options whenever a request isn’t possible to accomplish. They would base their options on what they know about our website and branding scheme.

For the quantitative feedback, since we’re a nonprofit, we are always trying to be cognizant of how we spend our money, especially on overhead. We do have a full communications team, but we don’t have the budget to hire a full-time web developer. Therefore, it’s been really great to outsource that role at a fraction of the cost of hiring someone full-time.

We’ve worked with them long enough that they understand our needs and who we are as a brand.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

They use Basecamp, which is really helpful in terms of project management and tracking tasks. If I send them a request through there, they’ll respond within a day or two at most. One time, our website was down for a really long time so I sent them an email and they got back to me within five minutes. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by the fact that they’re just so good at what they do, that I never have to worry. We’ve never had any problems, and they’re able to do everything we ask. Moreover, they’re really helpful in terms of being realistic about the deliverables. For example, whenever they have a bunch of requests from clients, they’ll put them in a queue, and tell us the exact date of when they'll submit the deliverables.

Just the specificity of how they operate and how organized they are, have really been the biggest things out of all the things they’re good at.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve never had any complaints about their work. I don’t think they could be any faster than they already are, considering the things that they do for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say that since The Brick Factory is so good at project management, that you should also try to be good at managing the project on your end. It helps in terms of the back and forth, and the process will go smoother if you’re organized on your end.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of communications for the US-Japan Council, an educational nonprofit that strengthens US-Japan relations through people-to-people connections. We’re a membership organization, and we also do a lot of networking events, study abroad programs, and exchange programs. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

We had been using the same website for 5–6 years. As a result, we wanted to revamp and make it easier for an external audience to understand what our organization does. However, our problem lies in the fact that it was unclear how our audience could get involved with what we could offer. Thus, we wanted to make our message clear and up to standards. Most of all, we wanted to migrate over to WordPress and MailChimp.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory’s work revolved around migrating our website over to WordPress. We were using NationBuilder and it was an all-in-one CRM. It also had a website platform and newsletter distribution platform.

The team was also responsible for transferring all our content and designing all of our pages including the home page and navigation tabs. They worked on making it easier for our users to navigate our website, and they also secured our donations platform so that people could confidently share.

They also led the migration of our newsletter distribution system to MailChimp. The migration wrapped up, so The Brick Factory continues to provide maintenance.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Todd (CEO) and Katie (Director of Account Management & Marketing).

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

One of our board members worked with The Brick Factory before and recommended them. She said she really enjoyed working with the team. When we met with them, they had a lot of great ideas we hadn’t really considered before. The cost was also a big concern of ours, and we were impressed that they worked with us on a budget to find something that would fit our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $40,000 for the migration, and then we pay them $165 per hour. Sometimes our monthly invoices range from $200–$3,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2019, and we continue to collaborate with them. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our board has been very impressed with our quarterly traffic metrics. In the 3rd quarter of 2018, we had 19,000 sessions with 12,000 users. After the migration, we've achieved 28,000 sessions with 20,000 users in the third quarter of 2020. Our increase in sessions and users has been largely due to our user-friendly site. 

Additionally, thanks to the team, our platforms have become secured and our external stakeholders now feel more comfortable donating. For our newsletter platform, we had about 4,000 subscribers and that has more than doubled after we transferred to MailChimp.  

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a great project management process. We’re a very small team, so sometimes I can’t answer their emails right away. Despite that, they ensure that we’re on track and we’re not falling behind our goals in mind. We use Google and email to be on the same page. 

Furthermore, they’ve been incredibly responsive, especially Katie. If she doesn’t have an answer right away, she’ll look into it. Our old developers were incredibly hard to work with, so I highly appreciate The Brick Factory’s quick responses. They let us know that they’re working on things. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of the industry standards and how to modernize our outreach and marketing tools has been impressive. They’re very personable and easy to work with. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

To be honest, I don’t have any negative feedback to The Brick Factory. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They can help you to have some end goals in mind. In our initial meeting, we didn’t come in with a great vision of what we wanted with the website and our marketing goals. As a result, it took us a bit longer to start the project. However, if you already have a vision, that can help kickstart the engagement. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing and disability awareness director for Daniel’s Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization that empowers individuals with disabilities through music. We provide music programs and disability awareness programs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

We expanded our services online due to COVID-19, so we hired The Brick Factory to help us build awareness for our new virtual community.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped out with SEO and Google Ads. They also created a robust email marketing plan. Then they took a look at our social media plan, managed Facebook and Instagram Ads, and handled influencer marketing.

What is the team composition?

Todd (CEO) was involved early on in the project and he came in to play when we had strategic discussions, but Katie (Director of Account Management & Marketing) was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

We did a pretty significant agency search. We looked online and asked other organizations in our industry for recommendations. I found The Brick Factory on a list of the top 50 digital marketing agencies. We were looking for a partner with nonprofit experience. They won our business because of their passion and the excitement they brought to the meeting. They dove in and asked really smart questions.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $12,600 initially.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our initial engagement lasted from October–December 2020, but we’ve decided to keep working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work has successfully generated leads for our virtual community. They are responsible for driving about 1,000 new names to our existing list through Facebook Ads.

We’re still working with them because it has been a great relationship. They’ve educated us on how to use social channels and how we can maintain communication with leads. By sharing their wisdom with us, they’re preparing us to take over our own marketing efforts eventually.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

We identified projects we needed to focus on and purchased a 90- hour block from them. We outlined what we were working on, and they tracked their hours. It was great because it allowed us to be flexible. As we got to know each other, we were able to prioritize what we wanted to work on, and that allowed us to utilize their time in the most effective way.

They used Basecamp, and it is a great tool. It allows everybody to communicate effectively and it organizes all of the information.

Katie is a rockstar. She manages hours well and we’re never surprised by the bill. We meet every week to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

No matter what challenge we put in front of them, they’re able to figure it out. They have a solution-oriented approach and are enthusiastic about solving new problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on. They’ve done a really good job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring them up to speed and provide information on your business. The more information you can provide on your audience, the more successful your project will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the project director of a non-profit called Us Against Alzheimer’s, and we work towards finding a cure for Alzheimer's.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

We need to update our old Web site and make it more user-friendly. We want to project our organization in the best way possible and want our site to have great UX.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory takes the time to ask us questions about what we want to highlight on our website. Their team interviews us to understand who we are, who our target audience is, and what our current users need from the site. They work with us to find the optimal path to organize content and smooth accessibility. Using this, they are updating our site’s UI/UX. They are also currently collaborating with us to develop another new site.

What is the team composition?

We work mainly with Josh Einbinder (Senior Strategist, The Brick Factory), who is very knowledgeable and guides us to stay on the right track.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

We hired them before I started working with the organization.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2017 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site has not yet launched, but internally, our executives are extremely pleased with the work so far. The site is now well-organized, easy to navigate, and highlights our research and sponsors well. It succeeds in conveying information to be digestible and its content is pertinent to caregivers and patients.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through phone, e-mail, and track our progress through basecamp. Their correspondence is excellent, and they always ask questions if something is unclear. Their team is not afraid to reach out for more information and leads parts of our approach. 

The Brick Factory listens to our feedback and creates alternative solutions if something doesn’t work out. They are efficient and immediately respond to delays.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are extremely responsive and are very good at explaining their enhancements. They walk us through every question and help our team stay on task. The Brick Factory uses a very personable approach and is easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that they understand your organization and be open with them. They are experts in understanding how users navigate a website and knowing what is important to your organization will help them find the optimal solution for your UI/UX.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the deputy director non-profit organization that focuses on educating the public policymakers and the media about international relations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

Our research is very dense and data heavy. We work primarily in the foreign policy space with lengthy research and analysis reports. Our challenge was to present this information in a visually interesting, interactive, and compelling manner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory provides general web development and prepares visualizations of certain reports as requested. For our visualizations, we provide them very in-depth Excel data on international affairs including risk indicators and business implications. They analyze the data to develop multiple graphical options.

After we review and approve the chosen graphics, they will finalize the interactive graph or info chart to be digestible to a broader audience.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with their CEO, senior strategist, and another strategist.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

I was not responsible for procuring their services, but we've worked with them since the inception of our organization.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2008 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our graphics are visually attractive and interactive while still conveying the important information from our spreadsheets. Their work allows us to promote ourselves to a broader audience through social media, our website, and e-mail listserv. Their visualizations really connect us on a personal basis to our audience.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

They are always very timely in answering questions, e-mails, and calls. They take our questions very seriously and want to provide the best product for us. They manage a variety of different clients, but they never neglect our needs.

Their team quickly sets clear timelines and budgets. The Brick Factory keeps our projects organized and clearly communicate to us through e-mail and phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to establish clear timelines impresses me and is very helpful because it helps in planning for projects. They are always upfront, and I feel like they are doing their best to look out for the organization. They feel like a part of the team, care about our mission, and want our voice to reach our audience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust in the team. Get them involved as early as possible. Involve them in your mission and they can really deliver high caliber results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Associate Director - Conversion Optimization of an education company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provide higher education and continued education options, including degrees, certificates, and credentials. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Brick Factory to accomplish?

• Build our main conversion form
• Parter with internal CRO team to design and iterate designs for the conversion form
• Manage technical coordination between IT and web dev teams
• Provide ongoing support (design, dev, technical expertise, etc.) to enhance conversion form

SOLUTION

How did you find The Brick Factory?

Previously worked with

Why did you select The Brick Factory over others?

Had worked with previously with great success

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

The Brick Factory team essentially became an extention of our team throughout this project. We started by laying out what fields neede to be on the form, what values they needed, where they needed to be passed, etc. Then moved to design and technical conversations. 
The Brick Factory provided some initial comps, that we tested in user research, and had several iterations of prior to dev work. They also worked directly with our Web Dev and IT teams to ensure that data was secure and passed seemlessly into the correct systems. 
After building the form, The Brick Factory partnered with our team to create a method to AB test the new form against the prior form and ran QA on the front-end and form-submission side. After the initial rollout and launch, The Brick Factory has continued to provide technical leadership on the form, and design and development work to continue to iterate and improve the form. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The form launched - on time (and subsequent releases have all been on or ahead of time)! The conversion rates increased significantly, as did conversion volume. We also have more accurate data and more trackable data (some of the project requirements). 

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

The Brick Factory has been amazing to work work. They are on top of things and proactive on projects. They find the right balance of quality and speed. It's actually amazing because they do both - give high quality, with short turnaround times. They have helped guide and lead us when we needed, and parterned effectively with our team to create an ongoing working relationship. 
They take our needs and concerns with respect, and collaborate with us (at the whatever level we ask for) to help solve our needs. 

What was your primary form of communication with The Brick Factory?

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

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

Simply put, they acted like internal employees, caring about our company and doing more than just cranking out a project. This is seen as they provide accurate timelines (not just ones that sound great), technical expertise and guidance that takes many aspects of the business into consideration. 
For example, they understood a big technical risk, and designed a whole database, system, and process to solve this risk. They identified this need and created a solution that has worked effectively for well over a year now. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Brick Factory could have done differently?

Desinging for mobile vs desktop. Their approach is usually desktop first, as it is faster to get things on the page and ultimately saves us time and money. But, it also makes moving to mobile challenging. Would consider designing starting with mobile on some projects.