Efir Media

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a Manager at Warmies

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Warmies® are fully heatable, incredibly comfortable soft toys and wellness products. They provide stress and anxiety relief, promote restful sleep, and are perfectly weighted to provide a calming and positive sensory experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Efir Media to accomplish?

• Update the UK Warmies website so that it aligns with the Warmies US website.

SOLUTION

How did you find Efir Media?

Referral

Why did you select Efir Media over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Efir Media were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Back in April 2023, we needed our website in the UK to be updated to align with the Warmies US website. We wanted a more modern look as well as more functionality. Efrimedia came in to update our website's design and functionalities such as pop-up banners and countdown timers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ensuring our website aligned with Warmies US and that our customers were still able to easily order products from it.

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

Deliverables were met on time and when there were issues which we didn't always expect, the team were there to help.

What was your primary form of communication with Efir Media?

Virtual Meeting

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

Being able to overcome certain issues that weren't expected. I was impressed with the knowledge that the team had when it came to resolving unexpected problems.

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

Not many at all. I would say that sometimes I wouldn't get a reply in a few days, so in future, it would be greatly appreciated to get a response to an email just saying when the team have time to look into it. I appreciate that when unexpected issues arise, there isn't always time available to look into it right away.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP, Marketing of an it services company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company designs and builds solutions that unlock data and insights, infuse intelligent automation, and accelerate organizational innovation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Efir Media to accomplish?

• We were looking for a solution to update and maintain our website in a more flexible way.
• Add a few sections to our brand website that had been hosted on 3rd party sites.

SOLUTION

How did you find Efir Media?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Efir Media over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Efir Media were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Discovery Stage: Onboarding Call, Website Performance Benchmarking 
• Site Migration From Custom CMS to WordPress: Homepage, About page anchor on Homepage, Header, Footer, Responsive layout and mobile menu, Work Splash, Work Category Template (x5), Work Single Page, Expertise Splash, Expertise Template, Funlabs, Careers, Smart recruiter integration, Contact, Leadership 
• Design: 2 creative concepts, design of remaining pages based on chosen concept (2 rounds of edits per page), up to 8 pieces of custom illustrations 
• Development and QA: Development of all pages using Wordpress, one blog post migrated, standard SEO technical set-up, day-to-day website usage walkthrough call 
• Post-Project Phase: 30-days post-project support

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website was successfully migrated to WordPress with a new blog section. We can now update it more easily, and are able to post blogs regularly! Efir Media continues to support us with post-project maintenance.

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

The project management caliber was higher than the cost of the project. It exceeded our expectations! As a service business ourselves, we didn’t expect to experience such an inclusive, structured project management service for this cost. We were expecting our team would be needed more hands-on, but found that the workflow was very streamlined and efficient.

What was your primary form of communication with Efir Media?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They showed up on Clutch with a lot of reviews, which caught our attention as this shows that they get a high volume of projects with businesses of our size. We really liked the designs they’ve done, and their portfolio shows that they have good expertise.

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

The only thing that comes to mind is that in the initial stages of determining scope, we asked for the migration of the entire existing website to the new WordPress site. However, at the end of the project, we found that the Leadership page was missing because it wasn’t included in the initial scope, which was also missed by our team. This could’ve been prevented if there was a more thorough collection of all the pages from the old website.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of ATAQ

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

ATAQ develops high-performance sports nutrition that helps athletes and active individuals perform and feel better than ever before; this is accomplished by combining the newest scientific research with the oldest, most proven ingredients that exist–plants and minerals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Efir Media to accomplish?

When we approached Efir Media, we were looking to increase and improve the usability of our e-commerce platform. It is obviously one of the most important pieces to do business online. If people find it hard to use your ecommerce platform, you lose out on sales. So that was one important piece to the puzzle. The second thing was that we wanted to update and improve on the visual look and feel.

SOLUTION

How did you find Efir Media?

Online Search

Why did you select Efir Media over others?

Design sensibility, responsiveness during project, expert knowledge, good project management

How many teammates from Efir Media were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

E-commerce website UX/UI design and Shopify development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our objectives and goals of increasing and improving the usability for our e-commerce platform, as well as updating and improving the visual look and feel, were both met according to our expectations.

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

Initially it was well managed, tightly managed, which is usually a good thing because if it draws out, you have usually come along with loose time management. So it was good. But I guess either one or two people left that were working on the project, and it was handed over to someone else. At that point it started to fizzle out a little bit. Then at our end, things were tumultuous and we're very busy so things didn’t move fast and there were long delays that could easily happen, where things just fell down on our priority list.

What was your primary form of communication with Efir Media?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

It was a very collaborative team in terms of work experience from the beginning. We had regular calls with the designer and the project manager at the time, and it felt immediately like they were an extension of our team, which I really liked. The designs were good, the process was good.

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

I think it was the project management part. A few changes or adjustments that were requested towards the end, that needed to happen, were dropped. I don’t think there was anything major, it was just hard. I think it had to do with the issue of the project manager changes and constant handovers. But that was the only bump faced.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Account Supervisor of J2

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

J2 is a strategic branding and creative agency dedicated to building brands who are driven by purpose to impact the world around them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Efir Media to accomplish?

• Develop and launch a new website for The Branch
• Ensure the backend was built for growth and easily useable by multiple teammembers
• Ensure the site was built with SEO in mind
• Create a sitemap and provide UI/UX expertise in design and implementation of the site

SOLUTION

How did you find Efir Media?

Online Search

Why did you select Efir Media over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Provided a wide range of services that we were interested in

How many teammates from Efir Media were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The J2 & Efir partnership began once the brand was approaching final approval. Efir was brought on to lead discovery & research for the website, sitemap creation, wireframe development, development, quality assurance of pages in Wordpress, and standard technical SEO setup (SEO meta descriptions, title tags, and alt tags).

Our two teams collaborated very closely on the wireframing, website design (concept development and implementation), animation (concept development and implementation), and quality assurance phases of the website build. Our J2 team was responsible for leading the creative direction of these phases of work in addition to partnering with the Efir design team to design the full website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• The new website needed to be able to support The Branch’s wide range of content they produce as well as clearly articulate who the parent company is and what they stand for.
• The backend of the website needed to be built in a way that supported that type of content growth they were experiencing.
• The backend of the website needed to be built in a way that made it easy for multiple people to make content changes or add new content. Especially in the flexible content areas throughout the site.

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

While Efir had established processes and tools in place, we experienced some communication and process challenges with the assigned project manager. Efir Media addressed the issue by providing a replacement project manager, who was a better fit for our needs.

The new project manager was more transparent, communicated effectively and kept us well-informed throughout the remainder of the project. We are glad that we were able to experience Efir’s intended project management process because it gave us confidence in working together again on future projects.

What was your primary form of communication with Efir Media?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What impressed us most about Efir Media was how seamlessly they were able to integrate with our team and lead the phases of the project we needed their expertise on. We were confident in our combined abilities to produce a great result. They were very resourceful and easily accessible, bringing in experts whenever needed. It was a true collaboration that resulted in a successful outcome.

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

The only constructive feedback is regarding the implementation of project management processes, which was resolved with a new project management lead on the project. This would have solved for any communication mishaps. We also need more thought and articulation in the UX phase of the process. This all-important phase wasn’t delivered in a way that gave us and the client full confidence in the thinking. It was presented by a project manager and not by the UX designer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Producer of Mario Studios

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We produce worldwide artists, projects and education

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Efir Media to accomplish?

• Craetivity
• Respponsibility
• Sense of taste

SOLUTION

How did you find Efir Media?

• Online Search
• Referral
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Efir Media over others?

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

How many teammates from Efir Media were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Branding Development Web Design UX/UI Design Logo + Layoutdesign for all pages and blocks mentioned above.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

List of work the agency did for me:

1. Home page blocks: 

• Topline with menu and logo
• Header with a call-to-action - About us with statistics
• Projects; for example, collaborations with Bella Poarch, Olympic Games, etc. 

These are separate blocks that differ from the music and advertising sections.

• Advertising - Music - Ed.Tech
• Partners & Statistics
•  Contacts

2. Careers Pages: 

2. 1. Home 

2. 2. About

• Text block about us 
•  Mission - Career path (Resume, to be specified later) 

2. 3. Cases

Two similar pages with minimal differences in preview sizes and text descriptions. They will also look similar to the corresponding section on the homepage.

3. Case - Three similar pages (Ad/Music/Ed.Tech) with minimal differences in preview sizes and text descriptions. The structure will be identical on all pages. 

4. Contacts + Layoutdesign for all pages and blocks mentioned above.

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

From the beginning to the end, everything was perfect and the team was always available for me. That's not very common, and I appreciate it.

What was your primary form of communication with Efir Media?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Taste, professionalism, quality, and responsibility. This may seem like a standard of quality, but not everyone can achieve it.

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

I never worked with a company such as Efir Media; they were amazing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a department manager at BluWave

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

At BluWave, we connect specialized consultancies, senior advisors & board members and independent consultants & interim executives from our network with the business builders who need them, providing fast and on-point solutions to over 500 private equity firms and thousands of private and publicly owned companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Efir Media to accomplish?

• Create a new, cutting-edge website.
• Improve clarity of information to website users.
• Enhance website visually to align with new brand guidelines.
• Optimize site performance on both desktop and mobile for Google and other search engines.

SOLUTION

How did you find Efir Media?

Online Search

Why did you select Efir Media over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Efir Media were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

For the ongoing Phase 1, Efir Media helped us with managing our old website while we prepared for the new website project to begin. This work continued during the process of the design and development of the new website, and will continue on our new website.

For this Phase, the scope of work includes updating security patches and plugins, fixing bugs such as editing form titles and making specific elements clickable, upgrading WordPress to the latest version, upgrading to GA4, anchoring URLs to certain sections of pages, and adding icons to the hero section of main web pages.

Phase 2 involved designing and developing up to 15 unique pages which were designed in Figma, and developed into Wordpress Gutenberg and then finally integrated with Marketo, Terminus, LuckyOrange (via GTM), and Drift.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Previously the Core Web Vitals from our site were graded poorly, but after launching the new site, we are in the optimal range in every category.

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

During the project, we felt comfortable expressing our ideas and Efir Media was receptive to our needs. There was never any pushback, and the project manager was a valuable addition to the team, always providing helpful guidance. Overall, the project management was handled smoothly and efficiently.

What was your primary form of communication with Efir Media?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What impressed us the most about Efir Media was their dedication to understanding our brand and business. They took the time to get to know us before diving into the project. I recall at the start of the project, they had a 1 hour call just to understand what our business does. It was clear that they cared about delivering a solution that truly met our needs.

We also appreciated that despite some of their team members being off-shore, they were readily available to communicate with us in our time-zone throughout the process - and we never had any issues with responsiveness or timeliness.

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

We had a great experience working with Efir Media. The only suggestion for improvement we noticed was when we needed additional work that was out of scope and required new estimates. It would have been helpful if they provided more detailed explanations upfront about the amount of time required for the work.

We suggest adding a next level of detail in their explanations to avoid any surprises later on. That being said, the team was very agreeable and were extremely receptive to hearing our viewpoint - both sides were comfortable with the outcome.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Introduce your business and what you do there. Please describe your company and your position there. HostHotel Systems is a 29-years old hotel management systems company, leading the Spanish and Portuguese markets in the field. The company is currently providing services for hotels in 13 countries, by delivering best management systems for hoteliers and their guests. I am the brand manager at Host Hotel, working on improving brand awareness of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Efir Media?

As the brand manager, I consider the website to be the virtual business card for any company, and in our case the website was not satisfying the brand needs, as it was old-fashioned and did not reflect the volume and scope of work Host Hotel is engaged in. We have challenged Efir Media to design a website for us that would improve our brand image not only in the current Spanish, Brazil, United Kingdom and Portuguese markets where we are already leading, but also in international markets, where we’re aspiring to grow to.

SOLUTION

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

We have gone through a whole website building process, where Efir Media was involved in the design stage. Our company provided the requirements of the site, after which Efir Media team went through market research and product discovery, wire-framed design concepts with different solutions for each product page, and implemented the latest relevant design trends on user interface.

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

The Efir Media team that has been working with our company was the Project Manager, who was leading the communication and processes and the designer who was responsible for the design concepts and user interface.

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

When researching for a web design agency we were looking for the best value for money option, that would be competitive, have high standards and quality of work, have a nice portfolio of projects, be responsible and be in-the-know of the latest trends and technologies. Efir Media was the only agency that fulfilled all the needs and requirements, having a very sensible taste in design and having clear processes of work, within a rational budget.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As the website is not Live yet, there are no data-driven results that could demonstrate the impact of the website design, but the whole team loves how the new website is going to look like and we are excited to enter new markets with it.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Efir Media has managed the project very well. Considering the initial rush from our side to get the final results in earlier deadlines, the workflow was flexible and it all processes were worth the implementation.

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

Efir Media has impressed us by their timely responses, very punctual delivery of deadlines and constant updates on the project. They supported us through this journey when the project was still in very draft state, and not only covered the design services, but were invested in making suggestions and ideas on company pages that have actually changed our original ideas for the better. They have a fantastic sense and taste for design and are competent in their field.

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

During our collaboration, there has not been any process or content issues that we would like to change.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO. We sell products and services to ticket brokers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Efir Media?

We hired Efir Media because we were trying to rebrand and redesign our entire branding structure. We’ve been doing well and wanted to make ourselves stand out amongst lower-level sellers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided us with a new logo, website redesign, and brand book. 

What is the team dynamic?

The first person we worked with was Adley (Head of Operations), and then we worked with Fred (Head of Sales & Copywriting), Marianna (Project Manager), Alex (WP Lead Developer), and one other individual. 

How did you come to work with Efir Media?

We really liked their portfolio and saw their reviews on Clutch, which was why we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between October 2022–January 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

We were under the impression that everything was being completed in-house on their end, but recently found out that they had posted on Upwork and that every person on our team has been outsourced from Upwork. 

We paid everything upfront, and the project was not started until two months after we’d paid. The project was supposed to be completed by the end of December, but we received nothing from them, and there was very little communication throughout that time. We had to go in and ask why nothing was being completed to get anything started on their end. The entire project was crammed into December to try to meet the deadline. 

We plan on getting a lawyer involved because it’s been such a mess. 

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

We’re not happy at all with the website or any of the interactions we’ve had with their firm. Nothing good has come out of this project. 

How was project management handled?

Their communication with us was not good, and the project wasn’t started until much later than it should have been. Our project manager changed three times over the course of our interactions with them, and we weren’t in communication with any of the designers throughout the project. The first project manager we worked with was pulled off of the project because he was so unprofessional. We communicated almost exclusively over Slack. 

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

The only thing they delivered to us that we were happy with was our brand book. 

In what specific areas can they improve?

They could be transparent with customers at the beginning of the sales call, and they could take more responsibility for mistakes that are made. There needs to be accountability on their end, and there is none. They should also get an in-house team instead of outsourcing their work because posting on Upwork is something that any client could do by themselves. 

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

We wouldn’t advise anyone to do business with them.

Company Responses

The service provider responded on January 31, 2023. 

This project and agreed SOW was completed successfully with the client approving all stages and milestones enthusiastically from brand direction to final live website. For us as agency to then receive this review is therefore, frankly speaking, surprising. Sadly, it is also quite misleading. Thankfully, we as an agency rarely encounter negative feedback or reviews from clients. However when we do, we take such concerns very seriously, and seek to fully understand them in order for us to firstly solve any problems our clients have, and then to improve our services moving forward based on this feedback. Following this unexpected review, talks are currently ongoing with this client to resolve the issues that have been raised, and we hope to reach an amicable resolution soon.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an executive for a brand strategy and design studio that focuses on making brands more human and more meaningful.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Efir Media, and what were your goals?

One of our clients in the beauty industry, who we just built a new brand for, was at the stage where they were ready to create a website for their new brand and new branches of business. We needed Efir to build am e-commerce website that matched the newly developed brand, functioned seamlessly, and do it in time for our client's new academy and product line launch.

SOLUTION

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

The main deciding factors for us were definitely the previous case studies and the portfolio of the agency, as well as their willingness to work with our client's MVP price for the website build. We had thoroughly looked through Clutch and Behance and Efir Media had the most beautifully designed and best functioning websites that we had seen.

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

Efir Media was involved in designing and developing the website. We went through understanding the needed pages, designing concept through wireframes, designing the final look of the website, developing it and integrating all the needed tools for our clients website, as well as a tutorial the website management and content editing.

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

We have worked with a project manager, a designer, and developer, who all assisted us along the journey of building the website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main indicator of our successful collaboration with Efir is the website itself, that is fully-functioning, on-brand, and covering all the needs and objectives of the project set initially.

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

The Efir Media team performed extremely well in terms of project management. We never felt like anything was being dragged on or that communication was unclear. They were never unresponsive, and it never felt like our project or the details were being overlooked. It's especially impressive considering the specific needs we had during the project, and Efir has dealt with all of ours and our client's requests.

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

We're impressed with their communication and project management style, we're very impressed by the design, and the functionality of the website. After having comprehensive experience with other development agencies and partners, we can confidently say Efir Media has covered all of our needs exceedingly well.

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

The only thing that would have possibly improved the collaboration, which largely was on us and not them, was setting a clearer scope outline in the beginning, considering we have had minor changes within the initial stage of the process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Director of a SaaS business operating across Europe and North America. We work with clients in the high-frequency retail business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Efir Media?

Our website was created when the company was founded and had become outdated. Our design & development team was focused on our software product, so we hired this team to design and develop a completely new website, on an industry-standard platform, and integrated with our CRM/Marketing tool.

SOLUTION

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

We looked for web designers with experience in North America and Europe working with SaaS companies. After reviewing 4 proposals, we chose this vendor because of their prior work, price, and speed of delivery.

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

We work in 3 stages:

• Stage 1 was focused on launching a new HOME page and CONTACT page prior to a conference.
• Stage 2 was focused on adding animation to the HOME page and releasing other pages, including, SOLUTION, WHY US and ABOUT US prior to a major company announcement.
• Stage 3 was launching the remaining pages, including CASE STUDIES, RESOURCES and CAREERS.

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

In total, we worked with 6 people comprised of a project manager, copywriter, 2 designers, 1 illustrator/animator, 1 developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team met our two critical deadlines to launch elements of the website, contacts are flowing into our CRM/Marketing tool, and team members, clients, and prospects have praised the new website for telling a clear story about our company and our solution in an incredibly beautiful way.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team needed to work effectively across many different time zones and native languages (we used English), with client team members completely new to the website-building process. While language was sometimes a challenge, the vendor communicated continuously via Slack to ensure requirements/feedback and deadlines were understood and met.

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

Several individual team members went above and beyond to deliver a fantastic product on time and within budget. The vendor also researched competitor's sites and found inspiration across the web to ensure our website was clear, beautiful, and include non-disruptive elements of innovation.

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

The project would have benefited the addition of a product manager who could act as a single source of contact. This was acknowledged by the vendor and is being implements with Phase 2. Also, our product is highly engineered and the website audience includes various personas. This did cause some issues with copywriting but can be excused due to this complexity.