O3

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of SEI Women’s Network, an advocacy group in the financial industry. We host a variety of initiatives for the SEI community throughout each year; one of our biggest events is our leadership summit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with O3?

We partnered with O3 to build a brand new event website for the leadership summit.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

O3 built our entire event website. We started at the macro level, sharing the event information with O3, our vision, and the layout we were thinking of. From there, we established what information the website needed to have, including the agenda, speakers, and registration. We also shared the event’s theme. We collaborated with O3 to provide all the information that was needed to build out the site’s pages. We provided the content and images, and then O3 created the wireframes. Once we approved the wireframes, O3 brought the wireframes to life in a great design that carried the visual components we needed. After that, they built the site and QA’d and tested it. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with four teammates from O3, including Justin (Director of Client Services) and a designer. However, more teammates were working on the project in the background. 

How did you come to work with O3?

They were referred to us by the global marketing team at our parent company. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000 on this project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from August–December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

That was the first year we tested a project like the one we undertook with O3. We didn’t have a lot of time to get it on the market and do a lot of pushes. However, it was also the first time we did preregistration — we got over 100 attendee forms before the registration went live. All the feedback I had for O3 was qualitative. Their team was respectful, professional, and communicated clearly. We had a really enjoyable experience working with O3 — they brought our ideas to life. 

How did O3 perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Basecamp to collaborate with O3 and communicated through emails. Justin coordinated all our meetings and phone calls — he acted as the project manager. They made sure they executed all of our changes; I never had to worry that something wasn’t done. O3 was on top of every detail of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I haven’t worked with many external vendors compared to other marketing professionals in my organization. However, I think O3 was absolutely fabulous. Their team was responsive, detail-oriented, creative, and great project managers. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing for O3 to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend O3’s service to anyone. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing coordinator for an addiction recovery organization. We provide treatment, research, prevention, and education. My position is responsible for our website, technology, paid search, and SEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with O3?

They provided web development and design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we brought O3 on, they immediately understood our pain points and took us through a very comprehensive set of discovery workshops to look at our user flows. They also helped us conduct stakeholder interviews, including with board members and executive members to see what was most important to them. Finally, they spoke with our development and fundraising teams as well.

They even looked at our content and imagery and made a series of recommendations. Ultimately, we signed off on a new website and brand platform, which involved slimming down and streamlining both our content and the way that people interact with our website.

In terms of design tools, they used Figma, Flutter, InVision, and Adobe. Development technologies include Craft. Even though we have people capable of making changes to the site in-house, our old website was so limited that we couldn’t do what we wanted to with it. O3 built our new website in a way that’s very conducive to us making simple changes. We still reach out to them if our idea is a bit over our own heads, and they’re always happy to guide us through the required process.

They mainly focused on improving our navigation system to make it more user-friendly. We also integrated a new donation platform, events platform, and a new chat technology with a chatbot.

What is the team composition?

During the round of discovery workshops, we were working with Mike (Head of Innovation), Justin (Director of Client Services), and the director of engineering and development. Their UX team was also involved. We’ve worked with around 95% of their staff through the process of creating our website.

How did you come to work with O3?

They were already on board when I joined. In fact, they’d used them previously and moved away from them, but then brought O3 back in.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together on this website project since November 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Right after the launch, we had board members reach out to us and say how easy it is to use. We’ve also seen an uptick in leads from the use of the technologies they integrated, including the live chat.

O3 puts together a quarterly report and marketing plan for us that shows our metric increases quarter over quarter.

How did O3 perform from a project management standpoint?

We hold weekly status calls with them, and their communication is fantastic. They’re proactive in reaching out to us and they answer our questions in a timely manner. Additionally, they keep us updated on the progress of our jobs, including the maintenance hours that we have available.

We’ve thrown a lot at them, even after the launch of the website, and they always stay within budget and are very proactive. They keep us up to date and have never gone over on a timeline. If they have gone over, it’s because we’ve asked them to make specific changes.

We have weekly status calls with our project manager on their side. If anything emergent comes up, they get back to us instantaneously.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their strong point is the innovation side of things. When we started going through the process of discovery, they looked at new technologies and platforms to integrate with our website that we’d never even thought to consider. They think outside the box to make sure that we’re on the cutting edge of technology.

Making sure our users have a great experience from their first touch on the website is very important, and O3 delivered technology that will ensure that people get the information they need very quickly. If someone isn’t ready to call us, they can fill out a form. If they’re not ready to fill out the form, they can use the live chat, which was O3’s suggestion.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Identify your pain points ahead of time and know what issues you want to solve. You don’t necessarily need to know what’s causing the issues, but identifying what end result you want will help.