Defined Digital Marketing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the Communications and External Relations manager for the Washington College Access Network which was a statewide collective-impact program that ran under the College Success Foundation.

My role was to re-imagine our website to reflect the new strategy. My role was to work with a contractor that would be able to help us envision how to best develop and organize our web presence for all of our stakeholders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Defined Digital Marketing?

We were in the process of re-vamping our image and brand and wanted a flexible website to go along with our new statewide engagement strategy.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a new website that would take users through different engagement levels - starting at awareness of our programming, moving to introductory low-investment activities and ending with intensive training for deeper engagement. We were also looking for a site that would be easily updated as our programs evolved.

SOLUTION

How did you select Defined Digital Marketing?

I was referred to Defined Digital through another vendor. I had discussions with other colleagues throughout my organization about their experiences working with different vendors and none of them had any agency or vendor that they would recommend.

After meeting Amanda in an initial scope of work conversations - our team was eager to work with her due to her experience, availability to work in our timeline and job estimate.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we landed on our vendor, we asked Defined Digital to help us organize the content from our original website, develop the journey map of a typical visitor, develop a wireframe, work to help edit and revise SEO based content, design and develop the overall look and feel of the website, develop a statewide searchable database for college students experiencing homelessness database and provide upkeep training for multiple staff.

What was the team composition?

• We worked with a visual designer and Amanda on our compelete overhaul
• I was the main point of contact, but she also worked with another staff member from our team

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Increased traffic to our database of resources
• Better search rankings
• Frictionless web browsing from our stakeholders who were able to access materials, sign up for large campaigns and register for intensive trainings

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Amanda was great on keeping is on task and on our requested timeline. She was clear with all her expectations and was detailed in her responses for questions that we had about the whole process.

This was the first time any of us redesigned a website - so it was extremely helpful to have someone that could answer our questions throughout the process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed with their attention to detail, the ability to do project requests and requirements. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing, in fact, I referred Defined Digital to other parts of my organization.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager of an outfitting business. I’m in charge of client interfacing, answering emails, and other office work — until last year, I also handled invoicing. I have a lot of years clocked in the company now and I want it to be successful.

We take people on hunting, fishing, packed trips, and other adventure outings in the wilderness of Montana. Besides the wilderness, we take clients on private land hunting and fishing trips.

We also provide family lodge services, river trips, horseback riding, and we’re a recreational business that covers the gamut. Our company has been operating since 2005 and we have grown with the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Defined Digital Marketing?

This is our third website change and upgrade. The overall goal of the project was to redesign the website. 

I’ve learned a lot and I have eight degrees in marketing, but at this point, the past mistakes I’ve made helped me see the specific needs of our company. I can write good content, but I know nothing about websites. So much has changed since I first started with print materials for advertising to the current website and web design. That is a field all in itself that I don’t understand well, so I needed someone who I could trust and whom I had access to.

I hired Amanda (Digital Marketing Strategist & WordPress Consultant) and Defined Digital Marketing because I’m not that tech-savvy. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Defined Digital Marketing redesigned our website — they’ve included tools to keep the site secured, updated, and monitored. Amanda also changed our whole email to G Suite and Gmail.

What is the team composition?

I work with Amanda and her team at Defined Digital Marketing.

How did you come to work with Defined Digital Marketing?

My daughter is a graphics designer and she recommended Amanda. They worked together in the past and that was a stroke of luck for me, otherwise, I would have never found Defined Digital Marketing. 

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost $2,500. I got the deal of a lifetime, and since I didn’t know what I was doing with the site, I required more attention than most clients. Amanda’s quote is at a reasonable cost — it’s another thing I like about them because their services are more affordable for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on the project in October 2019 and it’s ongoing. I initially started the project and stopped then because I was busy, but she was patient, so when I finally had time to start again, we launched in October 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Defined Digital Marketing provided us with a functional, easy-to-navigate, and handsome website. The organic search traffic is also up — that in itself is a point for Amanda. Now, I get 3–4 emails coming in for our business.

Amanda provides us analytics and good summaries — I can now see how many people go here to hunt, fish, and more. Their reports have been helpful on how I proceed with what I want to present on the website to draw in more hunters, fishermen, and others. 

The fact that Amanda keeps our website secured and monitored is huge. When a client goes on the website and something isn’t working, she handles it immediately. 

How did Defined Digital Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

I like the fact that Amanda is accessible and she’s quick to answer questions; I can get in touch with her no matter where I am. There were times when a client couldn’t fill out the forms on our website, they had to email us, and Amanda was on top of that. That’s important to me because our company is very in touch with our clients.

The website care reports they provide each month are thorough and helpful to our marketing. In the past, the reports that I’ve gotten from other people weren’t helpful because they didn’t have any metrics to back them up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Amanda is always good at staying up to date; for example, the Termageddon, the privacy and data act and policy, helps protect us against being sued. It’s a huge deal for us to prevent any kind of lawsuit. Amanda is always on top of those important changes that I’m not familiar with.

One thing that I really like about Amanda is she lays out everything so I understand it. I’ve had Google Analytics for a long time but having someone to help me understand and follow it is a whole different thing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know if there’s anything to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Amanda is good at looking at what they have, their needs, and walking clients through the process. You need to listen to her and follow her advice. She’s not going to tell you something if it doesn’t look good, and she doesn’t try to do more than what she can do.

For example, when I asked her to handle our social media, she told me that she doesn’t handle social media, which is okay. It’s great to have somebody not try to do everything but just try to do what they do best.