Lightburn

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Lowlands group is a restaurant group located in Wisconsin, and we have eight restaurants in the greater Milwaukee area in Madison. I’m the marketing specialist, focused mainly on digital marketing and anything that has to do with our website, social media, newsletter, and communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We hired Lightburn to provide web development and design services for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lightburn is developing multiple websites for us. We first provided them with visual inspiration or the websites of other companies within the industry. The designer took those ideas and put together something new while highlighting the different areas that we needed to bring more focus to. 

We started with the e-commerce shop, which their team built on Shopify. They found a template that worked for us and integrated the whole site with our social media pages, specifically Facebook and Instagram. Their team then trained me and the merchandise manager on how to operate the site’s backend.

Once the e-commerce site was launched, we moved on to developing our company’s main website along with four different restaurant websites. For this, Lightburn is using the WordPress multi-site platform so we can easily toggle between different backends. Their UX designer is also mapping out the wireframes and creating high-fidelity designs through Figma. 

What is the team composition?

Stacy (Lead Digital Project Manager) is my main point of contact. She gathers information from her team and I gather information from mine, and we often have discussions with just the two of us. I’ve also interacted with Caitlin (Lead UX/UI Designer), who does all of the wireframe and high-fidelity designs. Steve (Lead Frontend Developer) is the lead programmer, but I don’t have any communication with him. 

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

When we were rounding up possible agencies to work with, we narrowed down our options to more local providers. We ended up with Lightburn and two other companies that were a bit further away from our area. We really liked the fact that Lightburn was close because it would allow us to meet in person and it meant that they would be familiar with our restaurants.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re at about $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We reached out to Lightburn in August 2021 and kicked things off in November 2021. Our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our websites are very clean and easy to navigate. Lightburn has highlighted a lot of visual content and built these sites so that information is easier to find. They’ve really designed them with accessibility in mind, which is something we previously didn’t have on our website. 

We have actually seen a 60% increase in our e-commerce sales, and we’re now selling more merchandise than gift cards, which is pretty exciting as well. 

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been really wonderful so far. They’ve done very well in terms of sticking to the timelines and budget.

We meet via video call every week, but I’m in contact with the project manager via email almost every day. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication is really great. Whenever I reach out, they always get back to me within the same hour. They also always update me on how things are going on their end or bring up new ideas that we can try. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. Lightburn has been extremely pleasant to work with. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Lay everything — your goals, your problem points — out during the kickoff meeting. Their team does a really good job of soaking up information and making deliverables that align with that. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager of an online retail Christmas store. We’re based in New Berlin, Wisconsin.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We engaged Lightburn for our website development and design project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

From start to finish, they designed our Shopify website and created all of the data inputs we needed. Their outputs were based on our requests. One of the core features that they created was enabling users to personalize their ornaments. They're in charge of maintaining the website and running the marketing side of the platform.

For the marketing side, they’re focused on SEO and Google Shopping. As part of that, they’re in charge of creating our content and visuals.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with 2–4 people from their marketing team and 1–2 people in charge of maintenance. We have one main point of contact for each team.

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

I researched and found them on Google.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000–$150,000, which includes the cost of our ads.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing collaboration began in February 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our engagement has been positive, considering the work that they do. We’re growing steadily every year, and we hit the numbers that they project every year. Overall, we’re happy with our growth.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a good project management process. We give them a budget and they stick to it. We communicate with their team through email and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication skills and their ability to deliver our requests that match our budget has been impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start working with Lightburn because they're a great team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-owner and co-founder of a direct-to-consumer hair care product business. We sell a specific hair care tool, and we built our offerings around that tool.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

Our company didn’t exist in 2012, and we hired Lightburn to help us launch our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lightburn built our initial website from scratch. The team added content and implemented UI/UX design. On top of that, they ensured that our platform was user-friendly. Since then, Lightburn has also helped us rebrand three times.

They also helped us create our email addresses and establish our Facebook presence. After that, we’ve retained them as a consultant on a monthly basis. Today, our relationship has evolved and the team mostly provides SEO services for our website. They monitor if our website is working correctly, and they ensure that it’s optimized. Additionally, they perform keyword research.

Lightburn serves as an extra set of eyes on our website presence, and they do oddball projects for us. From time to time, they fix issues that come up. Overall, they work as our website assistant. 

What is the team composition?

We always have two project managers closely working with us. One staff has remained fairly consistent throughout our working relationship. Then, the other point of contact changes every few years. 

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

Lightburn was recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2011, and we continue to collaborate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our relationship with Lightburn has been very positive. 

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

Lightburn is very communicative, and they guide us in everything that we need. We use Microsoft (MS) Teams for the monthly calls, and everything else is via email. 

They’ve evolved with us; they’re quick to adapt, and they’re quick to fill in what services we’re lacking. Furthermore, they’re quick to jump on whatever we need them to complete.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention and desire to see us succeed have been impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

All our communication always goes through their project manager. As a result, there’s a little bit of a disconnect between us and the people working on or project. It will be nice if they bring in their members that are going to work on our project so that we can communicate better what we want from them. If they’re able to do that, I might be able to use them for different projects at different times. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend working with Lightburn. Find exactly what you need from the team, and identify who exactly is going to do the work for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Racine Danish Kringles, and we’re a manufacturer of Danish pastries known as Kringle. We ship our product throughout the US through our website Kringle.com. We also sell via wholesale and fundraising.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

At the time we had an out-of-date website which was difficult for our customers to use, from a UX perspective — it was also difficult to manage on the backend. Therefore, we essentially did an entire revamp of our website, and eventually moved into working with Lightburn on SEO and PPC advertising.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re working with them on an ongoing basis to continually revamp our website and improve the customer experience, in addition to the SEO and PPC services they’re providing us. They’re also hosting our website, and they do a lot of management for us. We’re a very seasonal business and Christmas time is very important for us, so we try to pack in a lot of development in about nine months prior to the start of the season.

The process itself has a lot of back and forth, which is great in terms of getting ideas, before finally sitting down to implement them. We also work together to come up with mockups of the wireframes and documentation, and we’ve integrated various review sites into our website. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with many people from Lightburn over our 6-year relationship. Initially, we started with Nora (Partner & Director of Client Engagement), Stacy (Senior Digital Project Manager), and Andrew (Business Analyst). For the SEO and PPC services, we work with Clay (Director of Digital Marketing) and Nick (Digital Marketing Analyst).

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

We went through the process of looking for somebody to design and build our website. We interviewed around 4–5 different companies before settling with Lightburn after coming recommended. We had discussions with them about what they can accomplish for us and they seemed to check all the boxes. I’m still working with them today and the results that we’ve seen from their work showed me that we made the right decisions.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2015, and our partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we went with Lightburn, we’ve had great success with our website and e-commerce in general. The user experience can be attributed to Lightburn, and some of it is just because of e-commerce itself. However, we’ve certainly seen growth which we’re happy with.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re terrific project managers, and that’s actually one of the best parts about working with them. They really follow through on what they say they’re going to do and they stick to the timelines they give us. If we’ve ever fallen off a timeline, it’s probably more because of us than it is Lightburn. They provide you with a person who really has a handle on what they can accomplish, and they don’t make a lot of promises they can’t keep.

We communicate in many different ways, including through phone and email. They’re currently using Airtable to manage the projects that they’re working on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First of all, we like their project management, and the fact that they don’t make promises they can’t keep. They’re also great at idea generation and we always come to solutions by working together on ideas we want to integrate into the website, such as Apple Pay. they’re also very efficient in their costs, especially for the results we’re getting.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are times when we’ve had hiccups, and you’d imagine that’d be the case over a 6-year period of working together. We’d have miscommunications or something similar, but I don’t think there’s something they really need to work on. Obviously, the last year has been a curveball for everybody, so maybe times have slowed down a bit in terms of what they’ve been able to accomplish. However, they’ve been upfront about the challenges of working out of the office so it’s nothing that I didn’t expect.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For anyone who’s looking to work with Lightburn, I would say to shop around and do your homework. They’re capable of a lot of things, so you have to figure out what’s the best fit for you. Ultimately, it’s nice to be working with a smaller firm that is really personable in nature, and I think it's great that they value that type of relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior digital marketing manager for a large B2B. I oversee the development of our corporate websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We hired them to assist with developing. They were brought on to assist in some larger projects that we just didn’t have the time and bandwidth to do internally.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lightburn is working on our CMS platform, with CMS development specifically. The platform used was Kentico and the technologies used were Microsoft, .NET, Angular, HTML, and JavaScript. There was an existing build of the project, and they just plugged into our IT group who had been previously doing all of our development. 

The first website was a content hub that we had on our website. In addition to providing development, they also provided UX as well. We weren’t happy with the platform we used before, so they played a big part in designing the functionality of this platform. They consulted with us on best practices and now we’re engaged with them on a much larger project.

What is the team composition?

We work with about a dozen people. Aside from project managers, there are a number of developers, folks helping with content entry, UX designer, and the architect who helps us drive the whole direction of the process.

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

We found them on the Kentico website. In the beginning, we were actually looking at WordPress, but another vendor had recommended Kentico. We were very impressed with Lightburn’s knowledge, their ability to present information to us, and their ability to answer questions thoroughly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in April 2019 and the work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We track the performance of the site overall and we’ve had significant improvement over organic SEO based on this project alone. One of the drivers of this project was to empower business users to be able to put the content in themselves using the user-friendly tools that Lightburn built for us, and that was a success.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a very quick turnaround time. Our current project manager is very thorough, team-oriented, and gets back to me fairly quickly on any request that I may have. They communicate very well and are flexible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re just a great partner and they really try to understand what we’re trying to do. We’ve developed a great rapport and trust with them because we’ve really benefited from having their consultation. It’s been such an easy process working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing off the top of my head.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and your position there. 

NXT Power is a new manufacturer of advanced power quality solutions. Our transformer-based power conditioners and uninterruptible power supplies provide complete power quality solutions to clinical, analytical, industrial, scientific, printing, and retail technology markets.​Started in 2020 by a group of power-quality experts and industry veterans, the NXT Power team is here to solve your power problems, provide unmatched customer service, and bring you and your customer's next-level power protection. I am the marketing lead for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We hired Lightburn to streamline our current branding and develop a website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had our overall brand message already, but they helped us refine our language and update the branding to make it more clear. They incorporated these elements into our website and collateral they created.

What is the team composition?

We work with Stacy (Senior Digital Project Manager), Tracy (Senior UX Designer), and Kate (Content Manager) primarily.  

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

We interviewed about seven agencies across the country that we researched on Google. Lightburn was willing to drive to us during a pandemic and discuss their proposal in person. I appreciated the effort that they put in. That showed they were invested.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website has not launched yet so metrics will be hard to gauge. However, the landing page built upon hire and the sales collateral they assisted in creating has helped us generate leads and conversations with decision-makers. They helped us stand out amongst the competition and in the industry.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management surpassed my expectations. They provide detailed project updates through Asana where I can also make edits and suggestions. Stacy kept everything on track. She sent me a weekly status report every Thursday that included how much of our budget we’d spent, what got done, and more. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their efficiency is impressive. They always deliver on time. I used to joke that it felt like we were their only client because of how responsive and quick they were. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

With the amount of data being provided, it can be overwhelming to any agency though a cute double-check across all projects being worked on can help prevents these minor hiccups.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have everything prepared in advance, from the who, what, why, and when.  This prevents any delays in the process. Also, keep up with constant communication. If you have an idea in the middle of the night, shoot them an email as those ideas lead us to incorporate 360 imagery on our site.  This idea was met with open arms and implemented with ease.