Sayenko Design

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm one of the three owners and a managing partner of CORTAC group, a management consulting firm. We have national clients and a local office in Seattle. Our work supports the tech industry, as well as public sector companies that build technology for federal, state, and local governments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Design?

Our website was outdated and didn't meet the current standards in the industry, especially among our competitors. We didn't have control over the site, so a lot of the data on it was incorrect. We sought out a provider to build us a new platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team was very up to speed on what the look and feel should be. Initially, they walked us through a lengthy questionnaire to indicate what we wanted. Examples of other sites they’d built fit our customers’ expectations, and matched our competitors’ offerings. During a couple of meetings, we went through a series of design and build steps and reviews. We asked them to migrate as much of the information that we had as possible and also improve the design. They also helped give us new social media and strategic marketing abilities.

The team integrated the ability to post blogs, put on webinars, and generate leads for new clients through the website. We don't run a lot of business through the site, but as a consulting firm, we like to show value to the market. Posting articles on engaging topics helped generate interest in our knowledge base with our potential customers. After they finished the basic platform, it took us quite a while to load our own data. They supported us with the final launch, and currently have a maintenance contract to keep the site up and running.

What is the team composition?

We mostly interfaced with Mike Sayenko, the owner of the company.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Design?

We had certain parameters to choose our vendor. Initially, we did a web search for companies on the east side of Seattle. We wanted a proficient WordPress developer who would give us control of the site for future updates. Some of their clients had been employers of our current staff members, so we ran references. We didn't run an exhaustive trade study trying to find a provider, because we’d grown about 50% last year and didn't have much time. Once we were comfortable with Mike and the references checked out, we decided to go forward.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $15,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in October 2016, and wrapped up in February 2017. Most of their work was done within the first couple of months. It took us almost six months to get the data loaded.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site has only been live for a couple weeks, so it's hard to say. It's helped the most with our potential candidates. Recruits use it to check out the company, and we've gotten positive feedback that it's one they’d like to be a part of. We've ramped up our exposure to customers, and use the site for marketing purposes. One of our big anchor clients wanted to perform a strategic partnership. They were looking for more information on our company, and we were able to direct them to the site. We wouldn't have done that in the past since we hadn't felt that the site represented us well.

How did Sayenko Design perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job, and we had no issues there. They were always very responsive, and moved the project forward on our desired timeline. We used Microsoft Planner to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very up to speed on the latest web design principles, especially in the tech market. They're very flexible on where they met us, and really tried to understand our business and give us the best site possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

More exposure by the rest of the team members would be great. We were under the impression they had an office, but it turned out they mostly used meeting rooms at an office center. That's probably just a function of their size. As the company grows, it would benefit Mike to have an actual space where you can see the whole team behind him.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand that Sayenko Design can do all the work you need. We had wanted to launch the site within three or four months. Mike met that timeline, but we weren't able to do so internally. Recognize the importance of getting organized and starting the content early.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a non-profit that uses chess to teach critical and creative thinking skills in second and third grade classrooms in schools across the country. I’m the executive director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko?

We weren’t happy with our existing website and wanted to change it. We needed a new look, feel, and ease of usability. We wanted it to be on WordPress so that we could do a lot of the changes ourselves. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They first sent out an extensive survey asking us about our business, our needs, and how we use our website. They wanted to get a good understanding of who we are, what we do, and what we need. We put in things that we recommended as we started going forward. They outlined the website and then we provided our feedback. Then they were ready to start programming it. 

We supplied all the photos, videos, color schemes, and our logo. We have a “contact us” for people to provide their email and put a comment in if they want. It comes straight to our company email which is great. We had quite a few people fill it out with comments and that’s been very useful.

Once the website was done, they gave us training so that we could go in through the backend and learn how to change things and make updates.

What is the team composition? 

There were two main people. My main contact was with Mike, the owner. Robert [Full Stack Developer, Sayenko Design] did a lot of the work. 

How did you come to work with Sayenko?

I got a recommendation from somebody who had worked with them. I liked that they were local to us in Seattle even though we never met in person. 

How much have you invested with them?

$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April of this year until September 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The “contact us” that they put on the website has been successful. We have more people sending us questions and information now. If I’m talking to someone, I can tell them to check out our website and it will provide all the information they need. Everything is consistent. It looks good, feels good, and is user-friendly. We needed it to be simple and usable, and it is. 

How did Sayenko perform from a project management standpoint?

They were good. Mike was really good at communicating on a regular basis. I don't have any developers on my team, so I liked that he was good about sharing information so that I understood what was going on and why. He’d explain to me why some things would take longer or cost more. 

We had calls on a weekly basis to go over things. They would send us things and we’d give them feedback, which they listened to. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The communication and organization are great. They really try to get to know your business. When we did a website several years ago, we only had one sit down meeting with the company, so I didn’t feel like they knew our business. It was great that in the beginning, Sayenko shared the large survey. I like the way they started, and they were consistent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They're very responsive, but as the client, you need to make sure that you don’t assume anything. Ask what will be happening. For the most part, everything was fine and we can change what we want, but there was just one thing that I wish we had changed and I didn’t ask about it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m associated with a legal services firm in Russia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Design?

The firm had an old website which I developed myself, but it needed a professional facelift and content to make it more modern. We also wanted to find a simplified way to upload articles and news to the website, making sure it was all trilingual—for Russian, English, and Italian. I didn’t want to translate everything manually.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contracted Sayenko Design to build the WordPress website from scratch and to do some design work such as updating the logo, letterheads, business cards, and flyers. I initially filled out a questionnaire regarding what our needs were as well as our existing resources. Then, we had an on-premises meeting where Mike, the owner and chief designer, went through a presentation—half of it was a sales pitch and the other half was regarding the technology they would use and how the site would look.

The contract was broken up into three stages including the website, marketing, and design components. During the first stage, they created a skeleton of the website and showed me the general structure of how it would look. The same applied to logos and other design work. They required additional input from me in terms of filling in the content to be used on the website. The second stage was the actual development work and the third stage was for final touches.

In terms of the logo design and other marketing materials, the primary language is Russian and I contacted Mike specifically because he speaks a little bit of Russian, so there would be no language barrier. They did some copywriting work on the English version of the site where they came up with slogans, but I decided not to use any of them as it is a challenge to do this correctly with Russian being the native language. All the slogans ended up sounding too cheesy and a little too templated, so we decided to do this ourselves instead. The work was essentially more about the functionality of being able to translate, as opposed translating the content specifically.

The project wasn’t an end-to-end development—we asked them to create a structured template and the front pages, totaling five pages in total. It was up to us to fill in all the content, including blogs, contact information, our PayPal page, and translating certain pages into English and Italian, which we’re still working on.

The site is up and running, however, the official launch will be next year after we test everything out.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with three people: Mike, who took care of the design work; Kyle [Web Developer, Sayenko Design], who took care of the technical aspect; and another team member who started to work on search engine optimization and copy but we decided to stop those efforts.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Design?

I was searching for a local firm in the Seattle area because I wanted to be able to personally contact them. As it is a site for a Russian company, I needed someone who had a basic comprehension of Russian so that they could read the existing site and see its structure. After I started looking for firms with those two criteria, I came across Sayenko Design.

How much have you invested in them?

We invested approximately $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017 and the work was completed in late July or August of the same year. If I ever need their help in the future, it will be more on a consultation basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The board partners like the site. It is modern and westernized, which is a very important cultural point and one of the reasons why I wanted to go with either an American or Western European company. As we expand, we need visual cultural cues on the website.

How did Sayenko Design perform from a project management standpoint?

Since I’m a software engineer, the whole process was a bit hectic for me as it was mostly chats and email exchange, and we spent a lot of time communicating about the same thing multiple times. I would‘ve preferred to have a big spreadsheet with checkboxes to show what was done and the follow-ups on bug issues.

All in all, the work was great. They were prompt with their responses but when it came to follow-up, I was always trying to figure out what was done and what wasn’t, and asked myself if I was getting what I was paying for when payment was due. I had to go back and take a look at what they promised to deliver and went through my own list. It would be much better if this information could be shared somehow.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are good in the design aspect, as well as answering technical questions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve the project management organization aspect, as well as a few technical things. As an engineer, I told them that at the end of the project, I needed to be able to understand the whole thing because I was going to support it from that point on. When they uploaded the site, I had to follow up with questions about how to do certain things and it would’ve been good if they had some sort of electronic form that contained detailed technical documentation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a law firm and a member of the LLC. I’m also a solo practitioner insurance attorney for policyholder side claims.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Design?

We were getting traffic on the Adobe Muse site I’d designed myself, but we wanted a brand new website in order to further increase our traffic and customer retention.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mike [Owner and Chief Designer, Sayenko Design] created an original website that is professionally designed and has some really nice features. It’s not only more organized, but it looks more polished and works the way it’s supposed to. I drafted my own content for the site.

They created a menu which displays all of our practice areas that is used in multiple places on the landing page, and they also created a video library. Many law firms don’t offer these types of features. We also have a ‘contact’ and ‘about us’ page, along with typical law practice website components.

They provided some feedback for the content regarding SEO, even though that’s not why we hired them. We had planned on waiting until our budget allowed for it. We mainly just wanted people that came to our website through other sources to be impressed enough to contact us.

What is the team dynamic?

Mike was our primary contact, and he also had an engineer working with him.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Design?

We contacted designers of other attractive law firm websites, but their prices were too high. We had a smaller project than what these companies were used to, so they suggested five different companies to us. After looking at these companies’ websites, we contacted them and discussed what their approaches would be. We ultimately decided Sayenko was the best fit.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2015 until November 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have specific figures, but I do know we’ve started seeing more conversions. We’ve also received good feedback from people concerning the look-and-feel of the site. I’m very pleased with the finished product.

How did Sayenko Design perform from a project management standpoint?

Mike provided us with editorial latitude regarding color schemes and structure. Sometimes, our opinions differed, but he always respected our opinion. He had some really great ideas and techniques he implemented throughout the process that were relatively innovative. The graphics and content were both placed well, and the scrolling improved the user experience. These were all things we’d never even considered, so we were very pleased. His communication was very prompt if we had any questions, and he always delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sayenko gave me a site that’s worth twice the amount they charged. It’s a great site that’s comparable to some that the more expensive companies designed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Mike is good at his job, but I can’t say he is the most polite and charismatic person via email. However, it’s still tolerable. If future clients of his are seeking someone to adulate them, they’re in the wrong place. He knows what he’s doing, and he’s not afraid to be assertive about it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of an accounting services startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Designs?

We wanted help with branding and figuring out effective design strategies to put us ahead of the competition. We work in a niche vertical in the accounting services field. 

We wanted to design a strategy to help us promote ourselves as the specialists in our local market. We have no development capabilities in-house, so we needed to outsource the work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with full website design, stationery design, logo, copywriting framework, etc. They also helped a lot with SEO [search engine optimization]. They built the website from scratch using WordPress. When they made the wireframes, they used Envision to present it to us. We wanted a site that was simple and streamlined — we don’t have any special features or functionality at this point.

They provided us with an SEO best practices document that included strategies we could try. They also gave us an Excel spreadsheet of all the keywords, cost per click, etc. They offered to do more copywriting, but we decided to pursue that ourselves.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with Mike [Owner and Chief Designer, Sayenko Designs] and Matt [Web Strategist] the most. There were 1–2 other people who were working in the background.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Designs?

We did an online search and someone I had previously worked with had worked with them. I liked the website they did for their company, so we reached out to Sayenko. I looked at 2 other local agencies and Sayenko’s price was better, so we went with them.

We have incorporated the keywords, but it’s so recent that we don’t have any results yet.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $15,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in the fourth quarter of 2016 and they had everything ready to go in 2–3 months. There were a couple of times we caused delays by not getting content to them in time. The site was launched at the beginning of August 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve tested all the links, and the site is pretty solid.

How did Sayenko Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

They got back to us the same day or within a day. They hit all project deadlines, and if there was a delay, it was because of us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mike did a good job — he delivered what he said he would. I thought the website came together really well and looks great.  Sayenko designed a fresh and contemporary website that allows us to stand out from our competitors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

US Electrodynamics Inc. is a unique service provider of satellite communications headquartered in Brewster, Washington. We provide B2B satellite and fiber connectivity so our users and customers can best service their consumer customers or government customers. I’m the senior advisor to the CEO and also a director on his board. I oversee the operations from a top level in strategy planning for the future and interfacing with customers. I review and provide assistance on our proposals to customers, review contractual agreements and oversee the company’s financial operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Design?

There aren’t a lot of other service providers like us, but the ones that are around are usually well-established and have significant websites. We had a website that was getting very old and needed to be revamped to meet the challenges going forward. Our users and customers are other businesses.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Since we are unique, it’s hard to understand what we do. They educated themselves on who we are, what we do, and what our objectives were. They asked us pointed questions and showed us some concepts and their ideas. They blended in their experience with other service provider companies that they’ve done website work for. We went through the process of several concepts and drafts and worked together to make the project mature. The website was a redesign but we wanted to carry on some of the attributes that we already had in our old website. Sayenko went to some of our major customers to make sure our message was supported and in concert with the messages on their website.

We did a lot of initial work and then I needed to provide a lot of content for the site. I was overcome by other priorities and slowed the project down. We did a few things with the site in the winter of 2016, and had a draft website. It wasn’t until January 2017 that our company provided me some additional help to keep the project moving forward. We let Sayenko know that our goal was to launch the website before a conference that we were attending in early March. We got to work and were able to launch in February. They host the site and take care of our security. They also helped train a new business development person that came onboard in-house. Mike trained us to be able to do some small things on the website ourselves including updating names, changing phone numbers, etc.

What are some of the updated features of the site?

We wanted the site to be fresh and uncomplicated. We wanted the right balance of color, user friendliness, and mobile friendliness, which our previous site was not. We had a very poor “Contact Us” page and they came up with a new one. When you first enter the website, there’s a fly-in of satellite dishes and our primary headquarters site, which gave the site some animation without overdoing it. I came in with some examples of other company’s sites that do the same thing we do. We went through what we liked about theirs and what we didn’t like. We took the best of the best websites.

How many resources have been assigned to your project?

They made reference to two other individuals that did some of the work, but I never personally met them.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Design?

I did a Google search for a local small website business. I looked at some of the work they’d done and met with the principal owner, and we hit it off. I wasn’t considering other providers.

How much have you invested with Sayenko Design?

We’ve spent between $5,000 and $10,000 with them. That includes the site, the research, hosting, and the retainer.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2015, and the site was launched in February 2017. The work is still ongoing. We keep them on a retainer so that if we need to change something, we can email or call them to get it done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Everyone that we work with in the industry has seen the site, and we’ve gotten positive feedback. Our owner has a lot of close friends in the industry and they’ve commented on the site.

How did Sayenko Design perform from a project management standpoint?

They are outstanding. We communicated through email and phone. We had two in-person working sessions which really helped understand who we were working with and gave us live feedback. It was clear where we were going with the project.

What did you find most impressive about Sayenko Design?

They are customer-focused. They acknowledge phone calls and emails right away and were honest about when they could do something. We’re a small business too, so I respect that. Sometimes you just can’t do everything at the same time. They prioritized what we needed to have updated or changed. We worked together to make the deadline knowing that we could still make improvements after the site went live.

Are there any areas Sayenko Design could improve?

Nothing goes completely perfectly. For corrections and updates, we thought we were pretty clear with them about what the words had to be and what it should look like. A couple of times, it didn’t come through that way. The communication was good, and they were open to our feedback.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and director of Grasshopper Enrichment Education, which provides classes, workshops, and camps for elementary-age kids that are focused on empowering life tools. Our classes teach kids the skills that give them added opportunities in life and will help them stand out from the crowd such as public speaking, debate, leadership, manners, written communication, and science.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Design?

I had a website already, but it was outdated (mostly because I had insisted on certain design elements which I shouldn’t have). I wanted to completely redesign the website and work on the SEO but didn’t know how to do that myself.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We met with Mike [Founder, Sayenko Design] and showed him what we had. He asked about our company and what we wanted to figure out what needed to be done. He was very personal and professional in focusing on our needs and strategizing how to improve our brand. He put together some ideas of what the site would look like and made suggestions, even changing our logo slightly to make it better. He showed us options of the layout and kept in touch with us as he was making changes.

He asked us to write some of the text, which he changed to make it work better for SEO. We have banners, an email newsletter, contact page, registration forms, and a blog. We don’t run any processing through our website because we knew that would cost more. We have links to take us to those places. I love the way he did the pictures on our site. He changed the background and added some fun elements behind the images.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Design?

I met Mike at a BNI meeting. I was there as a guest, and he spoke. What he was saying struck me, and I knew I needed to talk to him.Sayenko Design's art background and previous work, along with their presentation and price seemed like a good fit.

How much have you invested with Sayenko Design?

We spent $5,000 on the site and SEO.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our site has been up for 3 years. We haven’t done much with it since. Mike did some maintenance in the beginning, but when the contract ran out, I took over.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

Now, the site gets lots of visits and comes up on Google more than it used to. People weren’t finding us before I worked with Sayenko. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from customers saying the site is easy to navigate and very informative. It looks really professional. People think we’re a huge company, but we’re rather small, but growing steadily.

How did Sayenko Design perform from a project management standpoint?

Mike did a great job. We had timelines, and he would touch base with us to explain different options. He met with us in person at times to show us what he had and allowed us to give feedback. He completed the project in a timely manner.

What did you find most impressive about Sayenko Design?

Mike has an art background, and his knowledge spoke to me. I’m very creative and really wanted the graphics to look good. His background made me confident in what he was putting on the page. The site is designed really well, and it’s beautiful to look at, which was important to me.

Are there any areas Sayenko Design could improve?

My partner and I are both women, and Mike would always call us “guys” in our communication over email. I thought that was funny. I would suggest not doing that to other clients. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Chess4Life is a company I founded in 2005. We teach life skills through chess primarily to elementary aged students. We’ve got the tools to empower others. Our goal is to reach one million kids a week learning life skills through chess. Our vision is to be the world’s leading provider of the tools necessary for developing these life skills through the game of chess. We’re part of Inc. 5,000 fastest growing firms. We have a short video on YouTube that shows what we mean by life skills through chess. I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Design?

I’m a not a tech person and we needed a modern, mobile-friendly website to share our vision and mission. We needed a site that would be easy to use and update. We had an existing website but had moved to a backend platform to handle registration and we needed something that would interface to the backend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

What I liked most was Mike gave us a very clear process to follow that was very detailed. I was able to share my vision and then hand it off to a detailed member of our team who was able to fill out the specs required. The process went really well. Mike delivered the product very quickly. We really liked his methodology of asking what we wanted to accomplish with each page instead of just putting content on the site. We gave them the branding elements we had and an idea of what we wanted. Mike had also helped us to update our branding. Mike mocked up the direction to go and was able to get 80% of what we wanted in the first draft. There were a few iterations because we were in the process of rebranding at the same time.

Mike is an expert in WordPress and that’s what he recommended for us. We love it because it allows us the ability modify things very easily. Before this, we had a site where the user registered on the same site and was fully integrated. Now we’ve removed that complexity on the backend which allowed us to move toward an educational front. We now have the core programs, the educational marketing, the key pieces, etc. to drive the user to registration. We needed to build out the content to make it user friendly, educational and aesthetically pleasing. It was a fairly simple site overall.

When we first started working with Sayenko, they were a pretty small team and Mike would give some work to his contractors to help on the project. I think we had three people working on the project. One time we had a call with Mike and another person who was an expert in helping with the crafting of specific words for SEO.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Design?

I knew Mike already and had met him a few times. I had seen some of this work and felt he was a great person to talk to. I reached out to him for help with our project because I felt very confident in him and the integrity of his work.

How much have you invested with Sayenko Design?

We spent under $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed in six weeks during the year 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don’t have any metrics. We looked at Google Analytics and Mike worked with us on that. We’re seeing traffic from multiple sources but no direct metrics. We’ve had a lot of compliments about our site.

How did Sayenko Design perform from a project management standpoint?

Our main point of contact was Mike. They had a very detailed, thorough process and followed through and were very good at listening to our feedback. I had a team member from our side handling the process and from what I heard, it was very smooth.

What did you find most impressive about Sayenko Design?

He’s thorough, detailed and has a real eye for the customer experience. He understands what it takes to have the site be visible to be able to achieve the goals we have. I loved working with him from the aspect of integrity, openness, and communication. I still use them for updates and I’ve referred business to them so that says a lot about how much I like them.

Are there any areas Sayenko Design could improve?

I’m a big picture person so I don’t really want to dive into the details, whereas Mike loves the details. I learned very quickly to hand off the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the communications director for a company, and the project we worked on with Sayenko was for one of our subsidiaries, a Hawaii-based facilities management company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Design?

We had a really dated website that lacked a positive user experience and was not search engine optimized. We had a lot of challenges, both aesthetically and technically, as far as driving traffic to the website and getting consumers and buyers to make a decision once they got there.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sayenko did a full redesign of our old website. We went through an initial design phase where they came up with comps for what the site would look like based on surveys we’d completed. In the surveys, we outlined not only aesthetically what we were looking for but also what we were hoping to accomplish with the website, including who our target audience was, their profile, what kind of decisions we were looking for our customers to make once they got to the website, and how we could build the website to make sure that it was driving them to make those decisions or address that call to action.

Sayenko provided design comps that addressed some of those needs, and we reviewed them and provided feedback. They came back to us with revised comps, and then we got into the second phase, which was building the website. Sayenko created the website, and we did the copywriting on our end. We did have Sayenko do some SEO-specific copywriting on about 3 or 4 pages that we were looking to target for SEO. Sayenko made sure those pages were optimized with the appropriate keywords, and then we went into the final review and launch phase, which was more of an internal process.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Design?

We reached out to several firms before choosing Sayenko. Our company is based in Anchorage, Alaska, and our corporate website was built by another Alaskan company. Just by the nature of being in Alaska, there’s a limited skill set and resources in web design and SEO specifically available here. Typically, when you look at website vendors, they’re either really good at SEO but not aesthetics, or they’re good at aesthetics but not the SEO.

We knew we wanted to look outside of Alaska to find someone that would be able to meet both of those needs. We looked at companies on the West Coast because we wanted someone who was closer to our time zone for working purposes, so we looked at several firms throughout Seattle and in the greater Washington area. I think we also looked at a couple in Oregon and California. Ultimately, we found Sayenko’s proposal to be closer to what we were looking for, and it was within the scope of our budget.

One of the main goals for the redesign of the subsidiary website was to drive traffic to the website and to leverage that as a marketing tool. Sayenko seemed to have a really strong skill set in that area; SEO seems to fall well into their wheelhouse.

How much have you invested with Sayenko Design?

I think we invested between $10,000 and $20,000 with Sayenko Design.

What is the status of this engagement?

We probably started working with Sayenko in mid-2016, and we launched the website at the beginning of 2017. I would say the project was probably a 6-month process. I think Sayenko’s process is typically a little tighter. The end of the project was delayed on our end with getting loose ends tied up and making sure the content was reviewed, approved, and finalized. We also had some complementary projects, such as a video for the website, that were happening simultaneously that held it up a bit. Based on Sayenko’s process, the project probably would have taken about 3 or 4 months. Going forward, Sayenko will be our main design vendor, so we have a monthly contract with them where they’ll do updates to the website and the content management system and provide technical support as needed.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

It’s still early for us to have hard metrics because the website was only launched in January. I think SEO stuff can take up to a year before you know where you sit. We checked the website about a month ago, and the traffic had gone up sevenfold. But, it’s hard to look critically at that because a lot of the traffic may be due to the fact that it’s new, we have employees visiting the site, etc. I wouldn't use that figure as a good benchmark, but at least it’s promising.

We have about 13 subsidiary companies, and this website is by far the best we have right now. We’ve received a lot of complimentary feedback from our other companies who are now looking to do something similar because of the quality of this project.

I don't think our team is leveraging the website as much as they could from a sales and an SEO standpoint, but that’s more of an internal issue than it is an issue with Sayenko. Our team does not have a dedicated website manager, so in terms of updating the blog and site, it could be a lot better. Again, we’ve gotten a lot of anecdotal feedback from other business leaders saying that they’ve been impressed with the website.

How did Sayenko Design perform from a project management standpoint?

I worked mainly with the owner, Mike, who is great, and another gentleman, Matt, I believe. I know they’re a relatively small team. Mike was the project manager and kind of our overarching point of contact. He drove the visuals and the strategic direction of the website, and then Matt did more of the technical work and helped us with some of the SEO copywriting. He also helped with uploading content and images as we finalized those on our end, and I believe he was also developing the pages.

Sayenko did really well from a project management standpoint. I think they struggle with some of the same limitations that any firm of their size does; because they’re a small team, there are always going to be little kinks or hiccups related to that. We did have to work through some of those challenges, but overall, they did a good job of managing the project and driving the process forward, and the product was great as well.

What did you find most impressive about Sayenko Design?

We have the experience of redesigning both our corporate website and our subsidiary website, and the redesign process with Sayenko was well ahead of the redesign we did with the corporate website. The subsidiary website is much more user-friendly, including the content management system on the backend, which is focused for our organization’s workers. Our employees, who are not technical or IT-specific, are able to use it and manipulate graphics and text pretty easily, whereas we’ve had a number of issues with our corporate website. There’s a huge contrast between both websites.

Are there any areas Sayenko Design could improve?

The only challenge we faced a couple of times throughout the project was regarding change orders, and I think that goes hand-in-hand with any IT-related project. With website design, particularly when you’re working with people who are not web designers, you don’t know what you don’t know. There were a few instances where our team ran into things that we knew we wanted, and Sayenko would come back and say, “That feature will cost you another $1,000.” We had assumed that we would be building a standard website. I think there was a little bit of a communication gap in the initial process, especially when you’re dealing with non-technical people who might not be flagging issues, such as a sticky menu bar that still shows no matter how far you scroll down the page. Things like that that you wouldn’t think to outline in an RFP [request for proposal] because you're not a website person, but when you get there, you realize, “Oh, we really do need that.” It might have been nicer to know some of those things up front that would be recommended to include on the site, rather than having to come back and do change orders down the road. But, I think that’s just a learning process for both sides. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Spirit Walker Expeditions. We offer guided sea kayaking trips in Glacier Bay, Alaska.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sayenko Design?

We had an 8- or 9-year-old website that was not responsive, and we needed to update it and turn it into a responsive site. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a limited budget, but we basically needed to redo our whole website. I talked to a number of different companies, and Sayenko was the only one that could do the project in our price range and appeared to have the capabilities to do it well. They had a thorough intake process, and we had a number of review processes and iterations that we collaborated with them on. That process went really well.

They built the site on WordPress, we populated it with content and photos, and then we launched it. The site is a pretty standard WordPress site. Given our budget and our needs, we didn't want anything too intricate. Sayenko also made it a lot easier for us to manage our calendar, which was great. I don't know how custom that was.

How did you come to work with Sayenko Design?

I got recommendations from friends, and I also looked for companies online. Sayenko was referred to me by another company that usually didn't do projects this small, but they knew that Sayenko often beat them on price for projects of this size. I thought that was a good recommendation.

How much have you invested with Sayenko Design?

I feel comfortable saying we spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on the project in January of 2017 and ended in February of 2017. I assume that if we want to update the site or make changes, we’ll go back to Sayenko to do that. We don't have anything else planned right now. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

One of the biggest things that drove us to make a responsive site was the bounce rate we saw from our mobile visitors. That bounce rate appears to have decreased by about 20% to 25%.

How did Sayenko Design perform from a project management standpoint?

Sayenko did great from a project management standpoint. We always knew where they were and what they were doing. They let us know when they needed stuff from us. That worked well. We mostly used email to communicate. They used a prototyping tool to share designs with us and allow us to make comments. I don't know if that falls under the project management side, but that was the only bit of technology we used for communication other than email.

What did you find most impressive about Sayenko Design?

We had a very tight budget. I would have liked to have had another $4,000 or $5,000 to do the work, but they took the project, even though it was small; they gave it their full attention and built a solid website for us that had a good visual design, which was more than I was expecting.

Are there any areas Sayenko Design could improve?

I don't know if this should have been in their service or not, but it would have been nice if they had helped us think a little bit more about transitioning from our old site to our new site in terms of maintaining URLs or doing redirects. I’m not sure that was necessarily part of their mandate, though, given the tight budget we had.