Orion Concepts

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m currently a senior executive for a Salesforce implementing partner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Orion Concepts?

I’ve worked with Orion Concepts through several companies. In my current position, we needed to develop marketing materials for our new projects and service offerings.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked together on a broad range of marketing development projects. They’ve created paper-based materials for trade show advertising and digital content to improve our website and social media presence. They’re currently assisting with a project related to an app we’re building for a client.

At a previous company, I worked with Orion Concepts to brainstorm and develop different marketing materials, and we ended up using their services to rebrand the firm. They’ve also provided website development in the past, as well as outreach assistance and SEO work.

What is the team composition?

Bruce (Founder, Orion Concepts) is my main point of contact. He communicates my needs to his team, and everyone I've met has been very professional and engaging.

How did you come to work with Orion Concepts?

I was on Shark Tank and ended up striking a deal with one of the sharks. I networked with a few vendors while I was in New York and met Bruce through a mutual acquaintance. I’ve worked with him ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

I've spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2014 and our relationship is ongoing. It’s important to hold on to quality talent, so I’ve worked with Orion Concepts since I first discovered them. I have zero interest in working with another vendor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They're very gifted at what they do. In terms of SEO, they're able to easily double or triple organic web traffic. Anecdotally, they provide succinct marketing with clear messaging and have had an invaluable impact on every project.

How did Orion Concepts perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicate through email and phone. They’re very organized and have a unique ability to identify new talent. Anytime I have a large project, Orion Concepts finds the right team members to accomplish our goals.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Orion Concepts is extremely responsive, but also extremely creative. Bruce and his team are able to turn sketches and ideas into reality, synthesizing raw data into a product that leaves an impact.

They leverage existing assets to create the best results and are able to turnaround projects quickly while taking my feedback into account. Unlike other vendors, they feel like a true partner that cares about our success.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When working with any vendor, it helps to have a general direction in mind to guide the project. If you have a goalpost you can point to, Orion Concepts will take it from there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Omnia, which is a vintage clothing e-commerce boutique.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Orion Concepts?

We were using a basic Shopify site, but we really needed something that could handle the volume of products we carry and to customize the shopping experience. I was looking for a web designer that could customize a new website for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They redesigned our website by building a custom theme in Shopify. We decided to stick with Shopify as our site platform because I prefer their backend and product management tools. They completed custom work to develop the site according to my specifications, and site work required attention to small details. For instance, we needed a filtering menu. We almost have a thousand products, so the site had to be heavily filtered, but in a minimal way to accommodate all our pieces. Other project specifications included: a custom home page with a video, a zoom feature for each item on the product page, and tabs for the product page. Tabs made the product page look clean and simple. They also provided UX services, which was an important component of the site redesign.

They’ve helped build our WordPress blog, which is still in development. They do other projects for us as well such as helping with the development of the site’s creative content, organizing photoshoots, creating graphics, and designing our logo. We have an ongoing work relationship with them, and they work on smaller projects for us periodically.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Bruce [Founder and CEO, Orion Concepts].

How did you come to work with Orion Concepts?

I heard about them from someone else with an e-commerce shop, so I did a local search and met with a few companies in the area. I went with Orion Concepts because they seemed more responsive, and they understood the aesthetic that I was looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together September 2013, and we still work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s hard to exactly measure their impact because throughout the years site traffic has grown at a constant uptick. I’m happy with their work, which is a good indication of their impact. They’ve done a good job regularly updating UX design, which is important for an e-commerce site.

Users love the site. The first major site change was when they redid it to make it mobile responsive, which received a large positive response from customers. Customers keep coming back to our site, and the checkout process has been much easier for people since our redesign.

How did Orion Concepts perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really communicative. We talked over the phone or emailed about once a week throughout web development. There was a solid creative flow between us. They followed up with everything and stuck to our timeline. Whenever users had problems or issues with site, they would fix it for us, and they were always available to update or tweak site components when requested.

It’s been really easy working with them. I've previously worked with agencies that delivered work extremely late, or the work was completely different from my specifications, but these issues never occurred with Orion Concepts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re extremely helpful with creative work. For instance, working with an agency that does web development and design, but can also design business cards, flyers, and sign ins has been a great bonus. This aspect of their company has created an ongoing relationship beyond web design work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They work within a budget, but as a small business we always want more work for the same value. I wouldn't say this is necessarily an area of improvement because they do good work. Overall, I'm really happy with their work and the scope of what they provide.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have an idea of what you want, and what is really important to you. While they are very knowledgeable and utilize current design, they always gave us a lot of different options. It's part of the creative process to bounce off each other, so it's important as a new client to know what you're looking for. Have examples and references of things that you like from other sites. This helped me during our collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

NexGen is a dietary supplement company. I started the organization myself in 2015, and brought on a partner during the early stages.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Orion Concepts?

Orion Concepts created every facet of my brand, as well as developing our website. After attempting to market our product independently, we sought additional support for our digital marketing efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first step of our work was developing a brand identity. We designed our logo, and then chose colors and photography. They’d offer an array of very different options, and branch off based on my choices. The timeline from August to October involved all the prep work, including packaging design. That step took a lot of work. We had to follow very specific guidelines, including certain sizes for fonts and typography.

Once we had the base materials established, we created similar iterations with altered verbiage, names, and colors. We soft launched in October. It took a few weeks to have my products manufactured, then we started delivery and sales. They ran our digital marketing efforts starting in the third month, including social media, ad words, and remarketing via e-mail.

What is the team composition?

Bruce Morgan, the founder and CEO, has a few people working under him, but does a lot of the work himself. He had support with AdWords from a Google verified professional. We provided a lot of hands-on involvement.

How did you come to work with Orion Concepts?

I was referred to Bruce by one of the top digital agencies in New York City while I was prospecting. I was getting high quotes, upwards of $50,000, for the amount of work I needed, including web development and initial product design. I called Bruce, and we met up for lunch shortly after. He was local, situated about 30 minutes away. As it turned out, he was interested in nutrition and fitness, as well.

How much have you invested with them?

For digital marketing, including email and social media posting, we spent between $1,500 and $2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I first contacted Bruce at the end of July 2015, and our project lasted six months. The business partner that I brought onboard liquidated my business for over $100,000, all in cash. He left my checking account with an overdraft. I plan on working with him again when the time is right.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a large jump in metrics following Orion Concepts' work. During the first two months of sales, I conducted grassroots outreach on my own. We made $5,000 in November and $11,000 in December. When Orion Concepts started our digital marketing, we saw an increase to $40,000 per month by February. We made so much revenue that I increased the monthly budget, hoping to hit the $50,000 mark. For every new customer required, we invested money back into the business and let it grow.

The whole process was absolutely effortless on my part, besides picking the materials I liked the best. It was simple, straightforward and quick work. We built a robust client list fairly quickly; by month three, we had around 2,000 emails. I know that a lot of the sales came from Google AdWords and Facebook, because where our customers came from was trackable down to the click. Our business was very short lived, so it's tough to gauge results. Ultimately, I had between a five- to seven-times return on my investment.

How did Orion Concepts perform from a project management standpoint?

We were in close, daily communication as things quickly took off. We would text and talk on the phone, and had lengthy e-mail chains full of CC’ed contacts and many attachments. We used three different cloud drives for all our different projects. He was easy to get ahold of, and highly involved.

What did you find most impressive about them?

He knows that I'm the boss, but he has no problem suggesting alternatives to my decisions. Giving useful suggestions and opinions means a lot more than just packaging products and shipping them out, which anybody could do. If and when I'm ready to launch my next business, I'm calling Bruce. He's not just logging hours mindlessly. If he knows there's something different or better to offer, he'll give you that option.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Definitely stay open minded about everything, and take his opinion and his advice. Remember that you're hiring Bruce because he's a professional in his field. Chances are, your company is probably product or service based. You wouldn't be hiring a designer advertiser or a marketer if that was your area of expertise. Know what you should and shouldn't take from him. It's your business at the end of the day. You're footing the bill, and are ultimately responsible for everything that happens, good and bad.