Keybridge Web

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a membership non-profit organization that specializes in the legal education and compliance of the jewelry industry. We educate our members (and the industry as a whole) on the laws and regulations that pertain to the jewelry industry, especially with FTC compliance and Anti-Money Laundering (AML). I am the Operations Director and work with Keybridge directly on all things related to our website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Keybridge Web, and what were your goals?

Keybridge is our main contact for all updates and upgrades to our website. They help build new features on our website and help it run smoother.

SOLUTION

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

They were recommended to us by our graphics design team. They have a similar esthetic and quality.

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

Every new project starts with an initial touch-point to discuss what we're doing and why. Keybridge will then look into any plugins that work for our web hosting platform (WordPress) that might do the job we're looking for. They will then create a mock-up on the staging website, make any relevant changes, test all aspects of the new feature, and once approved will make it live. It's easy for us as they handle all the hard work and make edits quickly.

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

I've worked with about 3 members of the team, but mostly I have 1 main contact, which makes communication easier as I don't have to bring multiple people up to speed each time I need something done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't have measurable outcomes, as they're not an SEO group.

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

Everything is done on a great timeline. They understand if something is urgent and will make those changes immediately if necessary. All communication is via email until a meeting is needed, in which case we schedule a Zoom call.

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

It's very easy to work with them as they are helpful to an organization as small as ours. They're incredibly professional and organized.

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

None that I can think of, I enjoy working with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) represents America’s frozen food and beverage makers. Our members are farmers, fruit and vegetable growers, makers of prepared meals, suppliers and distributors that provide over 670,000 American jobs. At AFFI I am the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Keybridge Web, and what were your goals?

When the pandemic hit, we realized that our recently redesigned website didn't have the right features and functionality we needed to serve our members in a fully digital environment. We issued an RFP and Keybridge was hired to rebuild a new website for us that would include a member backend tied to our database and a membership directory.

SOLUTION

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

We had a pre-existing relationship with Keybridge because they were our website maintenance and hosting provider so they had already completed some small projects and website design work for us. We selected them from the RFP responses because of the good relationship we had, but also because they provided us with a series of cost effective solutions that best met our needs.

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

We went through all the typical steps for a website redesign - discovery, site mapping, wireframing, page build, editing, testing and launch. The project was done in a few large chunks - the main website front-end, followed by the member dashboard and private member-only section and finally the membership directory.

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

We worked primarily with three individuals: Mike, who is Keybridge's Director of Web Development Mandi, who is Keybridge's Lead Designer Julia, who is our Account Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we began working with Keybridge, website traffic to AFFI.org has increased about 35%, which exceeded our goals for each of the years in question.

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

We communicate primarily over email, but also use Google Docs to manage project plans and have check-in calls over Zoom as needed.

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

This company is small but mighty. What continually impresses me is the speed at which they respond to requests and always follow-up on pending tasks.

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

I wouldn't change a thing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a volunteer webmaster for the Pennsylvania Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (PASFAA), a nonprofit organization for people who administer financial aid at colleges and universities. PASFAA has approximately 1,000 members, and no employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Keybridge Web?

Our association had a previous contractor who managed our site and the membership database. Our previous site was outdated and old-fashioned, and we had to go through the contractor whenever we wanted to update anything on the site.

When the contractor announced that they were going out of business, we needed to quickly find another company who could develop a new site and database for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Keybridge Web to develop a new WordPress website and a membership database for us. 

Before we started the project, Keybridge Web sent me a milestones chart and a 12-week implementation plan. We also sent them some examples of designs and functionalities that we would like on our site. Once our council approved the plan, Keybridge Web started on the implementation and worked through the plan that they laid out for us.

Keybridge Web then went ahead and put us into production, and they were able to deliver a site that we’re very proud of. And, because they delivered it earlier than expected, they were also able to help us through our elections and annual conference and award nominations as part of the implementation.

Keybridge Web built the site in a way that made it easy for me to update and determine which menu items are available to our members only and which ones are available to everybody.

They created a section called for prospective members where people can browse the different committees that they can join, as well as a section that features our business partners, most of which are lenders or other service providers for colleges and universities. In this section, our partners’ ads are shown and are rotated every eight seconds. We also have a resource tab where people can access the resources shared by our partners.

Aside from that, they also implemented some functionalities that are only available for our members, such as the ability to manage their accounts, nominate people for awards, access and add items to our calendar, access our phone number and email address directory, post a job listing, and indicate which committees they’re interested in volunteering on, which is something we’ve always for our site. Keybridge Web also built an election center, forum, newsletter, media gallery for our site.

We are a dynamic organization — we always have a ton of things going on, and Keybridge Web made it so that all of these things are easily available in our members’ menu.

Additionally, since we’re a state association that has contact with legislators on policies, rules, regulations, and laws related to higher education finance, Keybridge Web integrated Rally Congress, which is a non-partisan tool, into our site. This functionality allows people to access a pre-formatted letter that they can customize and send to their elected officials. Other companies charge around $7,000 a year for this kind of service, but we only pay $150 dollars per month for Rally Congress and it works just as well.  

Additionally, Keybridge Web located a membership database service for us called MembershipWorks, which has been a tremendous help to the Association, not only for maintaining member information, but also for managing our training events.

The net effect is that our ongoing monthly bills are exactly the same as they were prior to contracting with Keybridge Web, but now we have an amazing website, a comprehensive membership database tool, an easy way for our members to contact their elected officials, and twice as much annual revenue from business partners.

They do a lot of other things behind the scenes — they’ve trained us how to maintain the site ourselves, scanned and archived our newsletters from the 1970s, and now, they’re responsible for keeping our WordPress plugins up to date and sending us our Google Analytics reports every month.

How did you come to work with Keybridge Web?

I found Keybridge Web through online research. Keybridge Web was actually the most expensive company out of all the vendors we looked at, but we really believed that the value they could provide us was so far beyond what anybody else offered. 

They were also the only company that provided us with a plan and milestones chart even before we hired them for the project, and that made the decision to choose them easier for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000 on the website, and we’ve probably spent around $1,200 on monthly maintenance fees and special projects ever since the new site was launched. I’d say we’ve spent around $32,000 in total so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a tenfold increase in our site’s traffic, which doubled our business partnerships. Our partners are now willing to pay more because their ads are getting seen by ten times as many people.

This increase in our partnerships has so far tripled our annual revenue. We are now seeing a $20,000 increase in revenue every year since we launched our new site.

As for the website, it looks great, it’s mobile-friendly, and it has all the functionalities that we need — we really couldn’t be happier with it. In fact, I sincerely think that it’s the best website in the financial aid industry.

How did Keybridge Web perform from a project management standpoint?

Keybridge Web has performed exceptionally well in terms of project management. They hit all of our milestones and deadlines, which allowed them to implement the site seven days ahead of schedule. They used Smartsheet to manage the project.

We primarily communicate through Zoom, email, and phone calls. They constantly keep in touch with me and respond immediately to all of my questions and concerns.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like how Keybridge Web is truly a full-service provider. They didn’t just provide us with a niche product — they’ve given us more flexibility and way better customer service than any other provider.

I also appreciate how dependable they are. They’ve always been there for me, no matter what problems I have.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maybe I just don’t know what they could do better, but I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ve definitely never seen anybody perform as well as they do.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to work as hard as they do. With Keybridge Web, you get back whatever you put into the partnership — they’ll rise up to the level of the engagement you’re willing to have. If you want a really awesome website, then you have to do whatever it takes to get back to them quickly with whatever they need to make that happen.