Interactive Strategies

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager at a nonprofit that raises funds to help save the rainforest and its species and fight climate change.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

We wanted to revamp and completely redesign our website to expand according to our growth as an organization over the past couple of years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Interactive Strategies designed and developed our website. They started by conducting market research because we wanted to make sure we were heading in the right direction regarding site structure and the information provided. The goal was to funnel users through the site based on their interests, such as climate change, saving species, or helping local communities. The team guided us through the research process; they held focus groups with our board of directors, council members, and selected donors, both in the high and low levels.

From there, they helped us evaluate the information and guided us on how to put it together to build a website. Next, we entered the design phase. Interactive Strategies built out the site’s structure, and we revised it. We collaborated to figure out the architecture. From there, they brought in content, imagery, and such material. The final phase was content development. We needed to rewrite our site’s content, and we had about 200 project pages, plus our information pages. Interactive Strategies helped us prioritize information to meet our deadline.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four primary team members from Interactive Strategies. Jessica (Senior Manager of Strategic Client Development) got the process started, and Michael (Director of Project Management) was our project manager and primary contact. Meanwhile, Dan (Digital Art Director) was the designer, and Mark (Lead Strategist) was our guide through the whole process, particularly the research phase. Towards the end of the project, we also worked with a developer. 

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

I had done some initial research, got referrals from vendors we work with and trust, and interviewed several developers. I also looked at website award winners and found other conservation organizations’ websites aligned with what we wanted our site to be. We found a website we really liked and discovered Interactive Strategies had built it, so we contacted them. 

We had initial phone interviews with four different companies, including Interactive Strategies. When we first talked, I liked Jessica and what she had to say; she spoke about getting users down different pathways of a site based on their interests, which was something we wanted to do. From there, we had a phone call with the Interactive Strategies team, our CEO, and my supervisors, and we hit it off. Overall, we liked everything they said, and their ideas were in line with our goals, so we went from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent close to $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed the agreements in February 2021 and worked together from March–November 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Interactive Strategies’ work, we’ve seen increased donations compared to last year's same month. Improving the site is an ongoing process, and we’ll continue to get feedback and better what they’ve built. However, we were all thrilled with the way the site turned out. Not only were we happy with the end product, but we were also delighted with the process of getting there.

The site had to be online by the end of November, which is our busiest time, and somehow they made it happen. Additionally, the Interactive Strategies team was wonderful throughout the content development process. They constantly referred back to the research to ensure we were building a site our donors wanted to see, and that would motivate viewers to become donors, which is its primary purpose.

The team guided us through the process and kept us on track in terms of timelines and budget. Although these projects typically go over budget, we were actually under budget by the end, which rarely happens. Our CEO and VP of philanthropy were also involved and attended our meetings, and they were incredibly pleased with the process, too. We were all-around happy that we chose Interactive Strategies as our partner.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well in terms of project management. We had weekly meetings with many people from both sides involved. The project had several phases that they had to manage, and we were revamping all of the information on the site, so it wasn’t easy to manage. Interactive Strategies had a very quick turnaround time, and they delivered a great product on time and under budget — that says it all. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Interactive Strategies’ team distinguishes them from other vendors. The developer was amazing, and he was involved throughout the process; he sat in on meetings and resolved questions about what was possible in terms of design. Our designer was very talented, our strategist very knowledgeable, and our project manager did a fantastic job.

I was also impressed by the structure of how they worked. We had one point of contact who would send our questions to the appropriate person. Meanwhile, Mark was overseeing the entire process, so if we got stuck on anything, he was there to help. He would prompt us, talk us through issues, and as us questions to help work anything out. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish we had discussed the ongoing maintenance of the site a bit more. All plugins are managed on the backend, so it would have been nice to have that support. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to move forward with Interactive Strategies if they fit the feel of your organization — they were fantastic. For us, having decision-makers from both sides directly involved in the process really helped. Interactive Strategies had knowledgeable teammates sit in on all meetings. Meanwhile, our CEO, director of philanthropy, and VP of philanthropy were all involved. For this reason, every single meeting was productive, and we were making decisions every week.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. We’re a membership organization and serve 12 different disciplines within forensic science and their application to the law. We have many scientists who are expert witnesses in court and practice doing autopsies and identifying human remains.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

We had a very archaic website built 20 years ago, so we’d been working with operating software that wasn’t supported anymore. We felt like we needed a modern, clean look. Additionally, we had a lot of content that we were looking to organize to be logical both to our members and site visitors.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Interactive Strategies did rebranding for us. We’d recently completed a strategic plan, and the team used that to study our mission, vision, and values. They looked at our past design and logo and focused the new design on being digital-first as a practice.

From there, they came back with a proposal, and we had a couple of rounds of design. That way, we could land on the logo that we chose. The Interactive Strategies team helped us create a whole new brand for all the different business units within our organization. 

They also built a website for us from scratch using Drupal. They delivered the site in October 2021, and we decided to wait until December to launch due to internal reasons. Currently, we continue to work with Interactive Strategies on a monthly retainer basis to address fixes or changes we want. 

What is the team composition?

The team composition depends on the project. The core group consists of about 4–5 people from Interactive Strategies, including Emily (Associate Director of Project Management), and as we’ve needed other teammates’ technical expertise, they’ve been brought in. 

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

I had worked with them before at a previous organization; they’d done website redesign and SEO work. When we were putting out the RFP for my current organization, we sent it to Interactive Strategies as well.

How much have you invested with them?

On branding and website development, we’ve spent around $150,000–$200,000. We’ve broken up the investment into phases because we crossed fiscal years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The ease and cleanliness of the site Interactive Strategies built have been well-received by people. We appreciate how they help us think about the delivery of content. It has taken users a bit to get used to the new site, leading us to think about what would make it more intuitive and to make those tweaks. Overall, everybody’s been really happy with the site.

Our previous website was so old that we couldn’t have any tags there, so we had zero data about what pages people were visiting. Now, we’re in the process of building benchmarks with the new site — we have nowhere to go but up.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve used three different project management tools, and the team is great at all of them. Emily is really quick to notify us about budget creep or to note when we’re spending too much time on something and need to refocus. 

The team is also really efficient with their time, so much so that we’ve actually come in under budget. Overall, Interactive Strategies does a fantastic job at project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated that Interactive Strategies had the team that would be working on our site at the pitch. Nothing annoys me more than when someone sells something, and then a whole new team comes in to start the work and offers upsells and upgrades. With Interactive Strategies, we knew where we stood from the start — they’ve been incredible in that perspective.

For this project, I’ve had an even better experience with them than the last time we worked together. I’m more comfortable with the terminology and how making certain decisions can affect other parts of the site. Working with Interactive Strategies is a very smooth process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there wasn’t anything they needed to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to be very clear about your expectations. Whenever you do an RFP, a company will come back and probably give you more than you asked for. It’s important to know how to drill down and ask the necessary questions to make the best decisions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the web operations officer for the American Society of Civil Engineers, a professional society serving civil engineers globally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

We needed a company that could provide us with technical advice regarding the replacement of the content management system (CMS) for our corporate website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Interactive Strategies initially assisted us in developing an education process for our board members, doing cost estimations, and replacing our corporate site’s CMS. 

Our engagement then developed into a major digital strategy overhaul for our society, wherein they developed a new global taxonomy and a completely customizable, complex website that serves membership, search events, publications, continuing education, and many other facets of our society. The site is hosted by Rackspace, and it uses Sitecore CMS and an AI-driven, state-of-the-art Coveo search engine. 

Interactive Strategies saw the website through to its completion and on-time launch. They are still with us in an annual retainer for continuing work, and we’re just about to start the scoping phase on a new site development project that will increase our personalization and continue our e-commerce improvements, among other things.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with their president, director of client services, chief of technology, senior digital content strategist, senior project managers, and developers.

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

Several of our executives saw their presentation at an American Society of Association Executives meeting back in 2019. When we were going through our selection process, Interactive Strategies was one of quite a few implementation partners that we interviewed, and it was a panel that made the decision that they were the right partner to work with. Interactive Strategies actually helped us with the presentation materials we used to get our board of directors’ approval for the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested over $1,000,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In this business, and for this level of project complexity, Interactive Strategies’ quality of work is unheard of and absolutely phenomenal.

So far, we’ve seen a 26% increase in users, an increase in our online revenues, and most importantly, through their strategic work, we were able to bring together and release the vast resources that we’ve had on disparate digital platforms. Most of this content is now searchable through our Coveo search engine, effectively increasing the visibility of all of our offerings to civil engineers who are members, those in related fields, and the general public.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Interactive Strategies has performed flawlessly in terms of project management. They’ve collaborated incredibly well with us and stayed with us through every twist and turn — we could not have accomplished this project without them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Interactive Strategies understands the challenges that our association is facing. They’ve also been very good at educating and communicating with everyone, whether it be a technology expert or a board member who has no knowledge of digital products. These are the main reasons why the project made it through to completion beautifully.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to work with them as a team partner. They are very open and they ask the right questions to really understand your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing and creative services for a nonprofit organization that deals with manufacturers. I handle our website and all of our marketing materials. We’ve recently rebranded the organization and slightly changed the name, which has also fallen under my expertise.

The organization is around 90 years old and we started in the 1930s to help manufacturers have a voice. Over the years, we’ve moved from dealing with policies and lobbying to having more of an educational role. Our mission is to help manufacturers get information education technology that enables them to make their companies better, smarter, and faster.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

We did our rebranding exercises with another firm and hired Interactive Strategies to create a new website that is more searchable, easier to navigate, and reflected our new mission, logo, and color scheme.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Interactive Strategies did a full, soup-to-nuts redesign of the website. We had a very limited budget, so we had to take on some of the aspects of the project that should’ve been for Interactive Strategies, but they provided us guidance on what we needed to do. 

We strategized on what the website needed and how people would use it. This involved conducting interviews with the staff and meeting with the senior leadership team to come up with a site structure that was slightly evolved from where it had been before. 

We also worked on a lot of searchability issues. The CMS that we were using was at the end of its cycle so we evaluated different platforms and decided to go switch to the Drupal platform.

Interactive Strategies did all of the initial designs and we chose from iterations of the two major options that we had for the style, look and feel, and color palette. The team then built the various components of the site as well as the structure of several new pages. On our end, we did a lot of the population and the migration of content from the old site to the new one. 

We launched at the end of June 2021, which they supported us with. In the months since, we’ve done some adjustments and clean-ups.

What is the team composition?

We had Emily (Senior Project Manager), Jamie (Digital Designer), Paul (Director of open-Source Development), and a strategy specialist working on the project. Jameel (VP of Technology) did of our back- and frontend development but we didn't interface with him a lot, and James (Technical Business Analyst) was being trained and came in right around the end of the project.

We also met a handful of other people around once or twice, but those were the main people on the team.

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t have the exact figure, but it was in the ballpark of $130,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership began in January 2021. We are still engaged with Interactive Strategies and are doing a monthly contract since we have our hosting with them. We’re now in the second phase of work for the things that didn’t get done under the original timeline and budget. Past that point, we will maintain our relationship with the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our site has been through a dramatic change and there are some very key differences from the old version. We have yet to rebuild our metrics but we successfully moved over 10,000 pages of content, which was a huge endeavor. We’ve also gotten good feedback from folks; they like the fresh design and the usability of the new site.

Executing our strategy and building a website with only a few flaws in the span of six months is a measure of success, in and of itself. We were able to meet our goal of launching by the end of our fiscal year. It’s the fastest our company has ever launched any product, website or otherwise.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management skills were great. The strategic help and guidance were really essential for what we did. While it wasn't anything groundbreaking, simply having that process for us to get us through all the steps really ensured that we got it done on our own. 

Emily informed us of all the tools and techniques they were using as well as the progress they were making. She was also very helpful during crunch time. Pre- and post-launch, she captured and categorized everything, even our back-and-forth emails, into the proper channels and tools. We were able to hold the line in terms of budget and timing thanks to her. 

The team members that we worked with were professional, excited, and enthusiastic. There were times when it seemed that I had a lot of other stuff going on and that we wouldn't make the deadline, but, to their credit, they finished everything on time. Their ability to communicate was also stellar.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were two areas where I was kind of disappointed. The first is that they didn't take a good enough look at our current situation, strategy, and website to really inform their decisions. These became points of confusion later on in the project. I did inform them early on that our organization is not as streamlined as I would’ve liked and that it could create complications.

I had to push them to look at the old website for them to see that we had 22 different kinds of users, which is an enormous, painful amount. This would’ve really helped inform their design choices, strategy, and scope. 

The second area of frustration is in how it seemed as though the designer, though we loved him, got set in the work that he was doing. At times, we were pushing for something a little different and some of the things we expressed never came to fruition. I'm not unhappy with what we ended up with, but I would’ve liked to have seen some of our site’s complexity reflected in the design. Always felt like we were going forward the middle ground.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say just lean on Interactive Strategies and take advantage of the suite of tools that they’ve chosen. Be really open and honest especially in conversations around the budget. It worked really well for us to have everybody put their cards on the table. The team doesn't promise anything that they can't deliver and they're very upfront about what they can complete, which made everybody comfortable around the time of the launch. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing, so I head the marketing department at a global moving, logistics, and relocation company. We’re a 140 million dollars company and one of the largest independent moving and storage companies in the US.

We have a sister company that focuses on global mobility or corporate relocations. On the other hand, we have both a consumer side, which is residential or household goods moving, and a commercial side, which focuses on really big, complicated commercial moves, laboratories, data centers, museums, schools, and offices.

A third side of the business is recruitment. We really must have quality people to do everything for us, particularly from our crew standpoint. We need top-notch drivers, who are very difficult to find because not only do they drive across the country, they also serve as customer service managers because they manage people’s needs and expectations in their relocations, which are extremely stressful situations.

We also have crew members to pack and manage the warehouse, and then all of our administrative positions. We’re very focused on training, so recruitment is another piece of the puzzle.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

Particularly from the consumer standpoint, the business we get from moving household goods really serves as a cash engine for the organization. Therefore, the website is meant to be a lead generation machine. We drive people to our site, capture them via a form that goes into our proprietary CRM, and then distribute our leads to our various salespeople so that they can be followed up.

Two years ago, much of the team and I were new to the company and were coming on board. The marketing function was pretty latent and quite siloed for a while. Before our arrival, a previous vendor had built the website on Drupal. It was done quite poorly, and there was a lot of code from the previous site essentially floating around and constantly breaking things.

Thus, the website was an issue because we only had one landing page, and it was a form with a 93% abandonment rate. It was very long, and there was a lot that needed to go into hooking up the pipes on the backend to our CRM.

In addition, the site was highly unstable. We had crashed a couple of times — the form would break and wouldn’t communicate to the CRM. It was quite problematic, so we needed a lot of work in Drupal to really make sure it wouldn’t crash.

The commercial and residential sides of the business had ideas on what they wanted, so we needed to navigate through the strategy. From a marketing standpoint, we had a pretty clear understanding of the objective, which was a site that served as a lead generation machine. Most importantly, we wanted to move from Drupal to WordPress so we’d be able to update the site without a problem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Interactive Strategies came from a strategic standpoint to really listen and work with us to ensure that we had a cohesive website that integrated all of the sides of our business with its very different audiences, translated well into a UX standpoint both in desktop and mobile, and told the story we wanted it to tell.

They really focused on a very comprehensive discovery meeting, and then they went off and met individually with each of the stakeholders, including Chuck (President & CEO).

As for features and functionality, we were looking for a modular approach to WordPress. Since we were looking to move all of our websites across the organization, we made sure that the site was easy for us to update, looked clean and crisp, and offered a lot of flexibility and scalability.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with three primary people, and then we have people phasing in and out. First, we have Emily (Senior Project Manager) as our project manager; she is absolutely fantastic. From a strategic standpoint, Leslee (Director of Strategy) has helped us lay out things, work with various stakeholders, listen to what they say, and come up with a good strategic direction that integrates with our brand.

We’ve also worked with Jameel (VP of Technology & Dev) from a technical perspective. For the website and its communication with the CRM, he worked very closely with our lead in digital, Chris (Director of Digital Marketing), and our lead developer to make sure that we had all the programming done so leads could migrate easily.

As we’ve moved to more and more webpages and adapted forms, we’ve continued to work with that team on an ongoing basis.

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

Chris brought them to the table. He had known Bruce (President & Founder) and just spoke very highly of Interactive Strategies.

When Chris came on board, another vendor was helping us to keep the Drupal site going, which was a constant back-and-forth. Unfortunately, that vendor really went south with us, and we had to part ways. They had offshored some work, and then we had issues because the offshore source hadn’t been paid, so they came back to us. It was just a mess, and we were there, sitting and looking for our site to get done.

Essentially, it was early September, and our high season for residential usually starts in April, so we needed something up and running by early April at the latest. We had looked at another team located out of Chicago, but Interactive Strategies was local, which was important to us since the other vendor and nonlocal team had turned out to be very difficult to work with.

Thus, we went down and did a visit to Interactive Strategies. They had wonderful offices, and we could tell that they make sure their workers are well-rounded and love what they do. We really liked that happiness component, and it was really cool to see it, so we engaged with them. From that point on, we’ve worked very closely with them and really pushed hard.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent approximately $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in late September 2019, and we took the time that we needed to get the site up and going. We continue to work with them for website support and any type of technical development that we need, such as new updates and module integrations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the website in the middle of March 2020, when the entire world was falling apart with COVID-19, but we still managed to launch on time and under budget. We even turned over to them and used the remaining money to have them help us with some content migration, which was beyond fantastic and worked out beautifully. We were also able to implement landing pages, which we weren’t able to do before, and that has helped our organic figures immensely.

Furthermore, the design fits exactly what we needed it to do — it’s a lead generation machine. We’ve looked at the performance of the site and really put the website through its paces. We have very little downtime and are well above 99.95%. We’re now pumping more leads than ever before, both through organic and paid traffic, which has been just great. Our leads are up 100%–103%, and our bounce rate is down below 50% in some instances.

Also, it’s been interesting to see that we’ve actually had a decrease in time on site, but that’s exactly what we wanted because we want people filling out the form and calling us for a lead. Therefore, we’re now able to really pull people all the way through the site and into our sales.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Our primary project manager has worked hard to ensure that we have weekly updates and very detailed weekly reports. They use Jira for project management, and the schedule is followed to the letter and kept in a smart sheet. To that end, they lay out any additional recommended services, whether it’s additional SEO or content migration, any of those things.

If we have any questions, they’re willing to talk it through. They’ve been responsive and fast to answer any concerns or issues on our end. Also, if we say that we might run late with something, they make sure we understand the impact on the schedule. They’ve also helped us to understand where we stand in terms of budget and so on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were comprehensive. Additionally, I’ve been working with agencies for a long time, and Emily is one of the best people that I’ve ever worked with, so I’ve been very impressed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

For this particular project, I didn’t see anything that I wanted to change. The website is everything we wanted and more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Interactive Strategies really cares about strategy, project management, and being on budget, so be crystal clear with what are the purposes of your site. If you don’t know, then work closely with them from a discovery standpoint to really pull that through.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of digital marketing and fundraising for Special Olympics. We’re a nonprofit that runs events, sports training, and activities for people with an intellectual disability. In my role, I oversee the digital fundraising and strategy departments as well as all our digital channels used for fundraising and product. Additionally, I manage all of the consumer-based websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

We brought them on to handle our paid search and paid social.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Interactive Strategies does our paid digital marketing. We work on all of the search parameters and spend. We’re a federated model so they’re working with us on strategy for delivering search terms based on our budget and then hitting revenue goals within that.

Their team also does call to action (CTA) testing for the pages we’re using, and they do the same thing in social. Each month, they work on matching the overall themes and campaigns that we’re running. Then, they produce the creative and write the copy that goes into the paid search ads on Facebook.

They’ve also provided some of their other offerings. Their team builds out custom web pages for different campaigns. They’ve also done digital marketing outside of fundraising.

What is the team composition?

We have our account manager, a day-to-day account lead, a creative team lead, a day-to-day creative team member, and a secondary individual who assists on the account.

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

We did an RFP looking for an agency that specialized in paid search and paid social. My senior manager is the one who found them, possibly through a Google search because we hadn’t heard of them before. We were considering five other agencies through the RFP process.

They were on the top end of retainer costs compared to what we were formerly paying. However, we felt so confident in their work as well as in the way they set up the retainer and KPIs that we knew it’d be better for our business in the long run.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Cost per dollar raised is the main KPI for the fundraising program. We’re always looking to reduce the cost per dollar raised, especially in search, to make it efficient. Interactive Strategies has done a phenomenal job of helping us achieve that.

We’ve seen tremendous success with their strategy in search and have been able to make a significant amount of budget savings every year because of that. For the social, it’s not always something they can control based on how costly it can be to reach those people because of different social platform dynamics. As long as we hit our budget each month, we consider that successful

Interactive Strategies has also done cost acquisition campaigns for us in the past. Through their work, starting in the test phase down to the implementation phase, they were able to stay under our KPIs of about $1.50 for an acquisition. Their team has consistently hit goals with us and is very honest about different platforms they think are too costly and not worth the investment. It’s been absolutely worth it to make the retainer investment because, over time, we’ve seen such dividends from our partnership.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

As far as project management, account management, and strategy go, Interactive Strategies is phenomenal. I’ve never worried about them as an agency. Everything is always so easy. Their team is very buttoned-up with their presentations and clearly outlines the goals, strategy, and KPIs. From a client's perspective, it’s a wonderful experience. They constantly hit our deadlines and consistently perform for us. We’re incredibly happy with our partnership.

We have a standing weekly meeting. Within one of those meetings, we usually go over the monthly results depending on what week it is. On bigger projects, we’ll have an initial meeting to talk about brainstorming and what we’re thinking. Usually, we’ll come back and have a separate presentation on how they’re going to execute the strategy. Then, we usually have a wrap-up meeting at the end of a project to go over the results.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Interactive Strategies is easy to work with. They really listen to us and our ideas. Some agencies tend to push their own agenda. However, Interactive Strategies is collaborative. That makes me feel comfortable with the work they’re doing. I know that they hear us and are invested in understanding what we’re doing.

Their team is getting into our mindset and always produces exactly what we’re thinking. There’s not a lot of back and forth because they nail it all the time. That speaks to how they invest in knowing about their clients and the work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there haven’t been any areas that need improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest and upfront about your goals and what success looks like to you. We’re all very honest with each other and that has made us successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for a 501(c)(3) that works with electric cooperatives to strengthen their relationships with members. We create a lot of marketing resources and educational materials for electric co-ops.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

One of our core values is commitment to community, so we wanted to recognize people in local co-op areas who were making a difference in their communities. We decided to do so through a social contest.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Interactive Strategies helps us with our social contest, which we’ve now done for five years. Initially, we spent time talking about who we are and what we’re doing. They looked at all of our creative, brand standards, and look and feel, and then they created the contest’s main design accordingly. They created all of the promotional resources, a playbook, and a how-to guide. 

Each year, Interactive Strategies creates new contest designs and provides us with 2–3 options to choose from. They also develop the main messaging, do the copywriting, and provide all of the metrics. They handle outreach and manage all of the contest entries as they come in. They read through the entries, contact members if something is missing, and ultimately approve entries. 

They create copy points and print and banner ads. The team also manages and places all of the media. In terms of social media, they’ve placed ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We have worked in conjunction with them to create video. 

What is the team composition?

At the beginning of our partnership, we worked with three people, and that changed to two. Our main contacts are the director of marketing and the project lead. However, different resources come in and out, from the copywriter to the head web developer. 

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

A friend of mine knew the owner of the agency. I’d been looking for agencies in the DC area that we could work with on a digital campaign. I looked at some of their work and realized that they have a really good connection with nonprofits and creating value and recognition. We met with them, and they were an excellent fit.

How much have you invested with them?

Over five years, we’ve spent less than $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began around February 2016, and it’s ongoing. This is the last year we’ll be working with them on this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Over the last five years, we’ve reached 4.5 million people in our co-op communities. We’ve had over 175,000 visits to our campaign microsite and more than 758,000 views to our contest submission and winner story videos. 

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Interactive Strategies is extremely responsive and collaborative, and they’re really easy to work with. Once they put together their project plan, we stick to every deadline. They’re very high-performing.

They’re also very prompt and dedicated. For these campaigns, we often get submissions at the last minute. Also, for a couple of years, the submission window ended on a weekend, and Interactive Strategies worked all weekend to make sure that all of the nominations were up to speed and included. 

We communicate via email. While planning and then during the contest, we have bi-weekly meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The level of focus on our account distinguishes Interactive Strategies from other providers. They really make us a priority. Their responsiveness and creativity are also great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re really great to work with. My creative director and I are really disappointed that our partnership is ending after this year.

Any advice for potential customers?

Know your business and what you’re trying to achieve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization works on protecting wildlife. We primarily operate in the US, but we do some international work. We have field offices across the US and do lobbying, community organizing, and education.

I’m the director of member acquisition. I focus on acquiring low-dollar donors digitally. Facebook is a big driver of new donors, but we also use paid search and our website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

We were trying to grow our digital acquisition program while investing our money strategically. We had been working with another agency that said they couldn’t grow our digital program anymore. However, we saw other organizations in our industry continuing to grow.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought on Interactive Strategies to grow our program efficiently and with a positive net, and they’ve been able to do that. When we brought them on, I provided them with access to all of our accounts. They did an assessment and determined what we were doing well and what we could improve on, and then they presented that to us.

They mainly run our digital ad programs, including Facebook, paid search on Google and Bing, and display advertising. Beyond day-to-day management of our digital programs, Interactive also does the creative and copy for our display ads. They designed our forms and created copy when we moved over to a new system.

They also help us with email strategy and creative. They help us plan out our budget every month, such as estimating how many new donors we think we can get with a certain spend. 

What is the team composition?

I work directly with three people, and they attend our weekly meetings. There are also designers and content developers on the backend; they come to the meetings as needed.

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

We work with another firm that handles our statistics, and that firm recommended Interactive Strategies because they had clients working with them, and they were doing a really good job.  

How much have you invested with them?

We have them on a monthly retainer. We spend about $200,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company began working with Interactive Strategies in August 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve continued to steadily grow the program, and every month, it just gets better and better. In fact, they’ve done such a good job growing the digital program that the head of the organization wanted to invest even more in digital ads.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re amazing — I never have to worry about things not happening. Interactive Strategies is extremely organized, and they never miss a deadline. They’re so enthusiastic and want to do a good job. They put everything into their work. 

They communicate clearly. We communicate on a daily basis via email. They present at our weekly Zoom meetings and provide monthly reports. Their team pulls data from Google Analytics. 

They also attend a monthly KPI meeting with the firm that recommended them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their smart strategy sets them apart. They incorporate creative and audience targeting into their strategy. The team also figures out ways to work Facebook to our advantage, as it’s constantly changing. They come up with really smart ways to target audiences and get the campaigns optimizing quickly so that we’re ahead of the game, especially for Giving Tuesday or end-of-year fundraising.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No — they’re amazing.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be open with your data so that Interactive Strategies can see the full picture. Also, remain open-minded — they might have some strategies that you’ve never tried before, but it’s worth trying those out. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an international trade nonprofit. We are committed to increasing market access for farmers and workers in the global south so that they can get a better deal on the products that they sell. Cocoa, coffee, and bananas are some of the things that the farmers produce. 

I’m the digital communications manager at my company, so I manage all of our digital channels with them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

We had an old website that was about five years old and we really had a difficult management system on the backend. The other issue we had was our platform wasn’t really serving any of our target audiences at that time. 

We have two target consumers. Our first consumers are generally people who are in the US who typically buy things. The other one is potential businesses that can become our certified partners. Previously, our site offers everything for everyone and we wanted to move away from that and actually create tools that are useful for our target audiences.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started the practice in March and they were with us from the beginning. They conducted strategy sessions with our team to verify the research that we had like SEO and content strategy. They built the website itself in WordPress.

We have a couple more projects that were more technical in nature such as creating a portal for our customers and the brands we work with. In that system, there was a product finder that was connected through API integration with our internal system. This was my third website redesign and we rewrote the entire website with their guidance.

Interactive Strategies did the design as well, that was a really cool part of the process. Before, we had a pretty standard nonprofit website. Now, you can actually donate to us too. Additionally, we now have products and photos that were not there before. After launching our campaign, they helped us build a campaign site and craft additional components for that.

What is the team composition?

I interfaced with at least 5–6 people, including a project manager, designer, strategist, and developer. However, I know that there were more people involved on their end.

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

We had a pretty expensive RFP process. They were recommended by another company. During one of our RFP processes, a different company decided that they weren’t going to pitch but they suggested we reach out to Interactive Strategies and they pitched, which is great. We interviewed 14 different firms since we’ve never really spent so much money on a project before, and we wanted it to be the right fit.

In the end, we had four final interviews with me and my supervisor. It was pretty much a no-brainer for us to choose Interactive Strategies. They had the right price and they were the perfect balance of having a vision on how to make the process easier for us. They also had the idea of how to make our website more useful while also having a good design aesthetic and be functional in nature.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $200,000 dollars for the whole project including the portal and product finder.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Interactive Strategies from April–August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's been such a dream working with them. It’s been about a month since our site launched and so far we haven’t hit all of our SEO goals at this point. Despite that, everything has been great.

Our platform has really beautiful backend and very easy to use. The web itself is a massive improvement on what we had before, I really love it a lot. It’s been really awesome and fulfilling to tell the stories of farmers in different places around the world and the brand that we work with.

But I can tell you that in the months since it went live, our Google Ads traffic has significantly improved both from the previous two quarters and year over year it quadrupled. Most of the results happened in September even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since they built the campaign site, we’ve seen our email audience doubled in size through that campaign and also because of the beautiful and appealing website. At present, we have a more credible looking website and people want to spend more time on it.

There was a weekend where we were getting a massive sign up and we were expecting to have 1000 new followers, but instead, we got over 6,000 thousand followers halfway through the campaign. The team was so delightful and so easy to work with. 

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was super strong. We had such a tight turnaround and they were really kind and transparent through the project. They kept the project moving on a very quick timeline. The team really made things so much easier including introducing me to a system I hadn’t used before. 

Interactive Strategies were always available and if any issues came up, they were really able to come and pivot when things came up last minute. We also had helpful tech meetings with the team where we can really make decisions and ask questions, do a little bit more probing than a project manager might do. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a really strong design and UX knowledge. Further, the team was really good at development and design work. Interactive Strategies listened really well and they went out of their way to understand what we needed. Additionally, they also understood what our audience needs and what they were looking for through examining the data and surveys we’ve done. 

Aside from that, they also do a good job of managing people and handling complex processes such as redesigning websites. It was really hard to do this work remotely but they made it easy because they were kind and genuine people. I highly recommend them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m having a hard time thinking of anything specific that the Interactive Strategies could improve on. Overall, they handled everything gracefully.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Knowing that they’re experts, future customers can let Interactive Strategies do their thing. I think they really shine and are able to give something that you never would have realized.

I would definitely recommend going with them because they’re great professional folks and they are always ready to do the work. The first option is to use this as an opportunity to just get a new website. The second one is seizing the chance to have a conversation that your organization needs about your brand and messaging as well as your goals and audiences.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing at Union Plus. We’re a nonprofit organization created by the AFL CIO. We provide benefits and savings programs for union members across the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Interactive Strategies?

We brought them on because we had a website that didn’t function well. There were challenges related to how the website engaged our consumers and getting our consumers to understand our product offerings. We wanted to make sure we had an engaging website that was easy for consumers to interact with all our different programs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website is hosted on Drupal. The Interactive Strategies team worked on all of the creative aspects of the website’s full update. They also helped us with the voice and tone of the site as well as updated the backend. The objective was to receive effective updates on our analytics so we could better track what our users are doing.

Interactive Strategies also made updates to the data infrastructure. They did some discovery on how the data infrastructure should be set up and communicate with one another.

What is the team composition?

We had three main contacts — a web developer, Leslee (Director of Client Service), and Jacob (Senior Digital Project Manager) — but there were about 7–8 individuals on the team.

How did you come to work with Interactive Strategies?

The partnership started before I joined my company. When I joined, I had some conversations with them about their capabilities and was very impressed. I signed them on to do this larger project with revamping the website.

How much have you invested with them?

For this project, we invested about $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This specific project lasted from June 2019–September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are one month post-launch and have already seen a significant impact. For one, there’s been a 12% increase in our number of users. Among all of our users, we’ve seen a 10% increase in the number of sessions, an 11% increase in the number of page views, and a 5% decrease in bounce rate.

What’s more, there’s been a 10% increase in generated revenue, and we’re continuing to see that climb. We’re seeing very significant improvements in our business metrics and we expect that to only grow over time.

I’m very impressed with Interactive Strategies and the individuals on their team. They’ve done a spectacular job with everything we’ve asked them to do.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed exceptionally well. They’re a prize partner of ours, and we consider them a valuable part of our team. I bounce ideas off of them with anything having to do with development, strategy, and business. Their team is very smart and insightful.

They think about our business and take the time to know what we need; they really contribute as true team players. I don’t know what we’d do without them. They’re exceptional strategists and members of our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Interactive Strategies is less often in sales mode and constantly thinking about what they can do to earn more money for the agency and much more focused in contribution mode. This ultimately does lead to sales opportunities, but they’re truly thinking about how they can contribute to our business.

They use their knowledge and ability to contribute to figure out how they can further our business. It’s very refreshing to see that kind of approach from an agency. I know they’ll always be very honest and will tell me the best ways that I can use their services to make our business better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve been the best agency I’ve worked with, and I’ve worked with many. I do not see any areas that need improvement or that they could do better in.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Tell them exactly what you need and don’t need. Be very open and honest, and they’ll be responsive to anything you share.