Ifland Visuals

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Jersey Road PR.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ifland Visuals?

We were trying to introduce a new brand to the market, and we wanted to communicate the vision of that brand to key audiences through video.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ifland Visuals planned the script for the video testimonials we were putting together. They also created a filming plan for each of the individuals we were interviewing. Then, they traveled to the UK to actually shoot the testimonials, and finally, Ifland Visuals performed all editing before sending the completed video.

Once the video was finished, it was posted onto our website and social media channels.

What is the team composition?

We were exclusively in contact with Crawford (Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with Ifland Visuals?

Ifland Visuals was recommended by a trusted contact.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent under $10,000 on the engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from September 2017- February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

New business has definitely increased since the release of the video. Anecdotally, viewers understood the vision of the brand we were trying to portray, and we’ve received great feedback on it. 

Ifland Visuals accomplished our goal of positioning the brand with the exact audience we wanted to target.

How did Ifland Visuals perform from a project management standpoint?

Crawford managed the project himself, and he performed very well. He made sure every step of the process ran smoothly and that the final video was delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ifland Visuals is very relational. They take the time to understand the project objective and are able to use that to produce a very high-quality video.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We were very happy with the output.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We highly recommend Ifland Visuals. We think they’ve done a great job and we’d like to work with them again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Executive Director for LFI which is an international non profit organization that fights human trafficking and exploitation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ifland Visuals?

We hired Crawford with Ifland Visuals to design and build our organization’s website and then we hired his company to help with continued maintenance and updates.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a website that clearly communicated who we are and what we do as an organization. We wanted it to be easy to navigate for our staff and for our visitors or donors.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Ifland Visuals came highly recommended by another organization who had used their services. We saw a samples of the work done by Crawford and were impressed and knew he could execute the design we needed for our website.

Describe the project in detail.

We hired Ifland Visuals to create a website that would clearly tell our story as an organization and communicate who we are and how we fight human trafficking. Crawford designed a website that was modern with a clean design and easy to navigate for our donor base and our staff.

What was the team composition?

Our staff dealt directly with Crawford who was the main website developer of Ifland Visuals. Crawford was the one from the company we worked with during the entire project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we started the project to have a modern updated website, our main goal was to have it clearly communicate to our current donor base and potential new donors. Crawford exceeded our expectations in the website he built for us.

We still get compliments on how nice our site is and how easy it is to navigate. The website has communicated who we are and not only has it helped us to keep our current donors, but it helped to provide new donors.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Crawford was so easy to communicate with and he worked hard to get exactly what our team had in mind for this website design. Crawford is quick to respond and quick to resolve any problems we may run across. He is very professional and one of the best website developers our team has ever worked with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

As an Executive Director, I was so impressed with his professionalism and genuine desire to help us build a site that would share our story well. Crawford is hard working, always kind and always quick to respond. I have never had one single issue in any of Crawford’s work.

I have worked with other website developers In the past and they were not always easy to communicate with, especially when it was not my area of expertise. However, working with Crawford was easy and communication was clear from day one.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don’t have any recommendations on improvement as Ifland Visuals has always met and/or exceeded my expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Horse Farm Tours, Inc. We do tours of horse farms in the Lexington area. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ifland Visuals?

We hired them to provide development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ifland Visuals developed our website. They continue to manage the site and take care of any problems that we have.

What is the team composition?

I've only worked with Crawford (Founder & Creative Director, Ifland Visuals). 

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together about five years ago, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been great since step one. I depend on Crawford a lot. I can’t see how the quality could be any better than what I’ve gotten.

How did Ifland Visuals perform from a project management standpoint?

Crawford is very helpful, and I would highly recommend him to anybody. Any time we’ve had a problem, he’s fixed it point-blank on the spot. Even when he was in Europe, I contacted him about a problem, and he fixed it without any hesitation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve done everything well. You can’t go wrong by using Crawford.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We haven’t had any problems at all.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of a social enterprise, restaurant, and bakery that provides jobs for people in the early stages of recovery from substance abuse disorder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ifland Visuals?

We wanted a visually stimulating and functional website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created everything from scratch, developing a visually impressive site. In their work, they enabled us to link events to the platform. We also have multiple menus that provide information that need to be accessed by interested participants. Additionally, we handle all of our recruiting through the site. So, the application process had to flow logically as well.

He recommended layout and content ideas to us. We produced the copy and content, but much of it was based on his suggestions. 

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Crawford (Founder & CEO, Ifland Visuals).

How did you come to work with Ifland Visuals?

I’d heard of his good work and reached out to him. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in June 2017, and the project wrapped up in December 2017. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Both quality and functionality have been great. Our feedback indicates that people are impressed with the ease of navigating the site while being able to see the way the brand comes to life off the pages.  

How did Ifland Visuals perform from a project management standpoint?

They follow through on their promises. We spoke directly through text and calls. Everything was handled remotely.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Crawford was great at finding the soul of our business in order to translate it onto the website. They made the process easy, explaining how certain decisions would impact the way the site looked. He talked me through the project without confusing me with technical jargon. The personalized service was really impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Tell him everything that you want, and they’ll deliver.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: I’m the vice president of operations at the company.
 
Respondent 2: I’m the vice president of sales. Our company specializes in working with indoor athletic facilities—mostly tennis court areas—for athletic clubs, country clubs, colleges, universities, YMCAs, and so on.

We specialize in the implementation of an LED tennis lighting system. On top of that, we have highly durable and reflective white liner material that we apply to ceilings and walls, with insulation behind that. HVAC and energy-efficient lighting are our specialties when it comes to the facilities we work with. We have 30 years of experience working with various athletic facilities.
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ifland Visuals?

R2: Amongst a number of challenges, the biggest one was that one of the company’s competitors bought the rights to the web domain with our name. We used a different URL for a long time. When we finally had the ability to purchase the proper one, our rankings on Google were lower. This was relative to where our company actually is with regard to reputation, and how much business we do in the industry annually.

We had some big SEO challenges in getting our name out there online. We were ranked 80th for “indoor tennis court lighting”, even though there are only 3–4 companies doing what we do. That was the big challenge, and it encouraged us to find out how we could optimize our website with regard to SEO, and what were the best practices we could apply to landing pages.

R1: We’re a small company without a specific person for marketing or SEO efforts, so we’ve taken that responsibility upon ourselves. While we are people who learn as they go, it’s certainly not our expertise.

We were looking for someone to provide guidance in all of the various entities my colleague highlighted. At the same time, we wanted to take ownership of solving the challenge and move things along. We looked to Ifland Visuals to better position us for growth and forward strategy. The big thing for all of us was to get our Google search rankings higher than they previously were.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

R2: Crawford (Founder & Creative Director, Ifland Visuals) created and managed an ongoing strategy with regard to Google Ads. This included running analytics reports and assessing that data.

What is the team composition?

R2: I only worked with Crawford, but it sounded like there were 1–2 other people from Ifland Visuals involved.

R1: Almost, if not all, of the conversations, were solely through Crawford. He may have had other people working behind the scenes, but he was our only point of contact if we had a question.

How did you come to work with Ifland Visuals?

R2: I believe Crawford built out our website prior to my time at the company, using Squarespace. I don’t know how our owners originally connected with Crawford.

At some point, a couple of years ago, one of my bosses mentioned his prior work with him. I reached out with a couple of questions about SEO and Google Analytics.

The owners of our company own a prominent tennis club. We don’t know with certainty, but there may have been some tie with some previous workings that went on within the family businesses.

How much have you invested with them?

R2: We spent $9,000 annually.

What is the status of this engagement?

R2: We worked with Ifland Visuals between March 2018–December 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

R2: We didn’t really have any buttoned-up goals. It was pretty general, such as increased awareness for our company through increased website traffic. That boost in traffic meant increased conversions.

R1: The main reason we don't have hard metrics is that we were just getting it off the ground. Our goals were to successfully set things up and track the information. We wanted to see how our rankings responded month to month—whether growth was happening and whether website visits were increasing or maintaining.

How did Ifland Visuals perform from a project management standpoint?

R1: Project management felt a bit hands-off at times. We had a monthly call where we reviewed the month's progress. We’d then set month-to-month goals based on whatever kind of information we were seeing from Google Analytics and our website activity.

Within that month's span, it was pretty rare to connect with Crawford. Perhaps that’s just the nature of what we were doing and there isn’t a lot of communication needed.

From our side, my colleague and I took on a lot of the responsibility. We talked about changes to the strategy every couple of days. I’d say communication felt a little remote, it was pretty scarce unless we reached out directly to ask questions.

One of the main goals was to increase our online presence. I can’t say how many sales we got directly from working with him, but we made more than we spent on one project alone. Crawford helped us lay a foundation that we’re able to run with as we progress. He helped us better understand all of these systems and how everything works online.

What did you find most impressive about them?

R2: We’ve only worked with him, so we don’t really have a comparison. During phone calls, he did a good job of communicating what they were doing and why. He did a good job of laying out the plan, its strategic aspects, and what his team was doing to work toward those high-level goals. The communication was pretty good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

R2: I don’t know if it’s necessarily an improvement, but one request on our end was for us to be more engaged from an SEO standpoint. Maybe that wasn’t possible, but it’s what we were hoping for. We were hoping to be more involved with the projects and the steps we laid out.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

R2: When working with a company like Ifland Visuals, it’s important to establish what the goals and expectations are right away. One thing Crawford said right at the beginning—which I think is fair, especially in this realm of business—is that it’s a very unpredictable and uncontrollable environment.

There isn’t necessarily a “do this” and “do that” to get results. Our company is in a different position now than when we started with him. If we were to engage with someone like Crawford now, I know we’d have more specific goals and requests over a certain period of time. It’s really important to have those goals ahead of time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a facilitator for the Katherine Harvey Fellows program. The Fellows are a group of young leaders (25-45 years of age) who work in the for-profit sector and have a heart for service.

This 18 month fellowship (with incredible support from Santa Barbara Foundation) gives the participants the knowledge, connections and confidence to be better volunteers and board members.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ifland Visuals?

In 2016, the Fellows wanted to move more of its curriculum online. The rationale for this was to "flip the classroom" - students would READ or WATCH content in advance of class. By doing this, the monthly class sessions would be more focused on discussion/workshop and less on lecture material

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted an easy-to-use internet site that could have each class "module" for the Fellows. Materials needed to be easy to access, have compelling discussion questions and provide information on upcoming meetings and additional resources.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Ifland Visuals had done some online learning work with other entrepreneurs. Crawford was able to show specific examples of how an instructor used online tools to make classroom work more productive.

Additionally, Crawford's strength in design allowed us to blend our corporate brand identity (Leading from Within) with this specific program (Katherine Harvey Fellows).

Describe the project in detail.

Ifland Visuals built an 18 module online workbook for the Katherine Harvey Fellows Program. This included links to relevant articles, TEDTalks and other resources tied to each month's topic. Topics range from "hard" learning like Fundraising and Evaluative Thinking and "soft" learning like Storytelling and Inner Fitness. Each module used WordPress to keep a consistent look and feel.

What was the team composition?

Crawford Ifland was the lead designer. He worked with me, my co-facilitator, the office staff and small groups of Fellows to design each module. Crawford worked on tight deadlines and often added significant value to both the look of the portal and the content we were using each month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The online portal is consistently rated as one of the top aspects of the Fellows program. We have built on the initial product and updated it for each cohort of Fellows (we are on our THIRD version of the portal in 2020). We have also used the DISCUSSION BOARD function to encourage interaction between class sessions.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Overall, workflow was consistently good. Crawford was clear about his production timelines - and all of the contributors were able to work with his deadlines. Our office staff worked closely with Crawford to integrate our classroom content with the corporate website (where we host four other leadership programs).

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Crawford ASKS GOOD QUESTIONS. He adds value by bringing his experience to bear in strategic discussions. He is also open to new ideas and experimentation, which is a wonderful attribute for a design partner.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I hope we can bring Crawford Visuals into our product development work EARLIER in the process. The strategic input Crawford has been able to give has been super valuable... including him on some of the early development work would be a nice improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a real estate agent at Sotheby’s International Realty.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ifland Visuals?

We hired them to handle all of our Google display ads.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

He handles the design and promotion of our ads. Narrowing in on our demographics and compiling the data is also part of their responsibilities. Once a month, they give me analytics on individual properties and those campaigns. We break it down by city, age, income quadrants, and their interests. 

What is the team composition?

I only work with Crawford (Owner, Ifland Visuals). 

How did you come to work with Ifland Visuals?

I’d known Crawford and respected his business reputation. He asked us for the opportunity to show that he can earn better results through Google display ads and showed us a few case studies. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $5,000–$10,000 for his services.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the first month, the number of impressions we were getting blew our previous efforts out of the water. Because of the analytics, I’m able to see exactly how many impressions I’m receiving from certain demographics so I can the impact. My clients are very happy and I have friends across the country sending me my ads to show how widespread the exposure is. 

How did Ifland Visuals perform from a project management standpoint?

He’s performed very well. He uses an easy backend system so whenever I need to upload new information, it’s easy to do it and I can ask him to pause campaigns or run others. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re easy to work with, affordable, and get great results. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The more information the better, so it’d be great to get weekly analytics instead of monthly. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Director of Administration at a coffee shop with three locations and a coffee roaster.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ifland Visuals?

We needed someone to monitor our website, so we brought on Ifland Visuals to help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They monitor our site, quickly making any changes we need. If there are web things we don’t understand, like a payment solution not working, they’ll come in and help us. They also incorporated Stripe into our site and set up our monthly coffee subscription’s billing. 

What is the team composition?

There are multiple employees, but Crawford (Owner, Founder, and Creative Director, Ifland Visuals) is the one I work with the most.

How did you come to work with Ifland Visuals?

We actually knew the owner personally because he’s a patron of our coffee shop, so it was a pretty easy jump for him to start working with us.

How much have you invested with them?

Our investment is roughly $400 yearly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started work in 2017, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The best way to judge his performance is the quickness of his response and his ability to make changes to the site. Within a day he’ll respond, and within two days the issue is taken care of.

How did Ifland Visuals perform from a project management standpoint?

He doesn’t ask too many questions—he knows what we need to be done and runs off with it and makes it happen. It requires minimal effort on our part, which is nice. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

He is very personable, and we have a strong relationship with him.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nope, if we ask for something, even if we ask him to teach us something, he quickly helps us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a small insurance agency. We sell Property and Casualty

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ifland Visuals?

They completely redesigned my website as well as SEO

What were your goals for this project?

To have a sleeker and theme-based website

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have seen his photography and his creative skills lead me to choose Ifland Visuals.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Ifland Visuals is able to take my thoughts and with the guidelines I set, to create a website with functionality for my clients as well as prospects to easily navigate. We talked on the phone for the big stuff and email to handle details. There are ongoing consulting and services to change and update and SEO. Ifland Visuals is very responsive: making changes usually right after a phone call or email.

What was the team composition?

I was able to work one on one with the same person through the entire website build as well as ongoing needs that arise.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

I feel my website sets me apart from other websites in my industry. The goals I had set out were met. I was able to reduce my annual operating costs and I am getting much better service as well!

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Working one on one made the whole project go smoother. The project was ready before my deadline

What did you find most impressive about this company?

ifland Visuals is not a template website service. This was my number one concern. They are very creative.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was laid out: contract, price, ongoing consulting fee. Sometimes I get a warm or cool feeling when making contact with vendors and suppliers. Warm and inviting may seem corny but that's my opinion.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are the Barna group, which is a market and social research firm based in California. We specialize in providing knowledge and insight to the Christian community, and I’m the director of strategic projects and church engagements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ifland Visuals?

We were trying to create a marketing engagement site for a research project that we were doing. We brought Ifland Visuals on to help us create a site that could summarize the research projects in a way that would encourage our target audience to engage with them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a customized WordPress site for us from scratch. As a part of that, they built our CMS, all of the site architecture, and included a lot of customizations like video support and paywalls for the different pages and different aspects of our project.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one person from their team for the development.

How did you come to work with Ifland Visuals?

Our company has had a relationship with their team for a long time, so we knew that the quality of their work would be good.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $10,000–$50,000 on development in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project began in June 2019 and is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have the exact numbers on the project in front of me, but we’ve tracked lead generation and video traffic on the site, and all of those numbers moved in a positive direction as a result of the project. We were very pleased with the results.

How did Ifland Visuals perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very responsive to all of our questions and requests, and they work really hard to make sure that they never miss a deadline. It’s been a great working relationship throughout.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The level of communication was better than almost anyone I’ve worked with in the past. The person we worked with was consistently flexible, responsive, and extremely prompt to complete all of the tasks we gave him.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think there is anything he could have done differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would just highly recommend that you consider them for the project.