Storm Brain

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a consulting firm. We advise clients on housing, finance, policy, and strategies. We also conduct financial and data analyses and offer strategic management consulting to government and commercial clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Storm Brain?

We’ve been using the same website since launching our company in 2009. However, we wanted to enhance our website’s content and visuals, so we engaged Storm Brain to help build our brand image and increase brand awareness. Our goal was to transform our website into a more effective branding and marketing tool so that we could share our company and services with the public.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we met with the Storm Brain team and explained our company’s goal, vision, and mission. We discussed our services and shared background information about our history and employees. After providing them with preliminary documentation, Storm Brain recommended updating the site with new content and designs that addressed the website’s problem areas. Then, they redesigned and redeveloped our website. 

Storm Brain has added a new feature that allows people with disabilities to access our site more easily. Aside from their web design and development efforts, they’ve also helped develop our new privacy policy. Our website features a page that outlines our focus areas and main business segments, including business advisory, digital mortgage, and government contracting. We also have separate pages for each business line that discuss our offerings in more detail. 

Additionally, we have an about us page that presents our executive leadership team’s bios, a careers page that hosts our job openings, and a contact us page that features our contact information and a contact form. Finally, we have a news page, which displays everything from company updates to blogs showcasing our industry expertise. 

Since revamping the website, Storm Brain has continued to help us upload new content in the form of blogs, event announcements, and press releases for our “News” page. The team has also shared best practices for how to position new content and updates effectively. They’ve also continued to maintain the site. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Blake (Founder & COO) and Jared (Digital Account Manager), who is our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Storm Brain?

We found Storm Brain through our CEO, who knew Blake and introduced us. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Storm Brain in September 2021, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our partnership with Storm Brain has positively impacted our business, brand awareness, and marketability. They’ve helped elevate our website to be on par with other leading firms, which has enhanced our overall brand image and garnered positive external feedback.

How did Storm Brain perform from a project management standpoint?

Storm Brain has managed the project well. Working with them has been easy, and they’ve been an excellent collaboration partner. The team has submitted deliverables on time and within budget. Jared has done a tremendous job responding to our many needs and accommodating our weekly requests. We typically communicate via email and phone. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been impressed with Storm Brain’s excellent tools and technical expertise. Since they’re the experts, we’ve felt comfortable leaving the technical decisions up to them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing Storm Brain could improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d highly recommend engaging Storm Brain; they’re very easy to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm leading business development for a technology company developing next-generation EV battery materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

Our website was created over 10 years ago, and since we didn't have in-house web developers, we hired Storm Brain to showcase our brand update and new strategy.

SOLUTION

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

We shortlisted San Diego-based web developers and chose them based on their proposal and on-site pitch.

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

Key people were:

• Leah - CEO
• Blake  - COO
• Jared - Account Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My company had key personnel changes within the Business Development and Marketing team. I joined the company in Jan, 2022 which required a bit of a restart. 

The key goal for the website redo was to have it go "live" ahead of our Series D investment announcement and press release. This was expected to happen in June, 2022.

• First key milestone was the "homepage" where StormBrain demonstrated both website style and content. My company's executive team provided detailed feedback and StormBrain was ready to move to the next stage.
• The next key milestone was the full site review. The site was fully functional and ready for my company's final feedback.
• The last milestone was final signoff and go "live". This was completed ahead of our Q2 board meeting and a few weeks ahead of our investor announcement.

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

Management style was formal checkpoints conducted in an informal, friendly way. We followed a clear process and I always knew what information or content I needed to prepare for the next checkpoint. 

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

With limited direction/guidance, Storm Brain was able to convey our message in a clear and creative way.

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

StormBrain's process and execution met all the requirements, so there wasn't anything significant that was missing. One possible improvement could be more formal checkpoints to make sure the process meets timing milestones. It worked for us, but it might be harder to cross the finish line with other clients.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the lead executive at the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

We hired them to come up with all sorts of ideas — they completely strategized from top to bottom the creation of our new website, and the advertising and marketing strategy that was implemented at launch, and have been running ever since.

SOLUTION

How did you select Storm Brain and what were the deciding factors?

Top to bottom, from he beginning of the proposal process, they were able to inspire confidence. We knew they could handle the job, and the lofty goals we had.

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

Following the proposal process - we worked with them on strategy, in developing the website core features and backend functionality. Moved from there into the front end design elements. A few months of the build process, and we were live. Once live, we began working with them on an ongoing bases - SEO and PPC campaigns.

How many people from the Storm Brain team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Maybe 5 or 6 at this point. Project managers, and developers/designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are constantly seeing growth, month over month, and this is a direct result of the activities and marketing efforts performed by Storm Brain.

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

Weekly calls, email --They are prompt and responsive.

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

Their team, their responsiveness, and their ability to deliver on their promises.

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

Not at this time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Rocky Mountain Cannabis is a recreational cannabis retail company that caters to Colorado. I am the director of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

We needed an updated website desperately, and the team at Storm Brain was incredibly amazing and acted swiftly to help us launch a new site in a swift timeline!

SOLUTION

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

We've worked with them for SEO in the past, and new they were the ones to go to for this new website launch.

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

Stormbrain helped with EVERY aspect of this project. From product photography, optimization, web design and development, and everything in between. I couldn't be happier with how much they've helped us out here.

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

3 Team member worked with us on this project. The owners Blake and Leah are always so great and easy to work with, and Jared is so incredibly quick to respond to our requests to this day.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are so proud of our new website. We don't have much to go off of other than the fact that our team and customers are so happy we made the switch to a new website. The pages load faster. The design is cleaner.

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

Stormbrain is incredibly friendly, transparent, and willing to help us with anything marketing related. They communicate effectively by way of zoom and email and are always open to last minute meetings if we need.

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

The fact that they are so easy to work with and are experts in the marketing realm is so important to highlight here. We have a limited team, and the ability to use them brings so much value to our company as a whole.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Photographer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

We are working together with Storm Brain on my company Social Media Marketing and SEO. The results was great, my positions grow in Google and Instagram attract new audiences.

SOLUTION

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

I found them here on Clutch, based on great review from previous customers.

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

At the first meeting, we worked together to set the project goals. My main goal was to find new clients and grow my social media (Instagram and Facebook). After a short time, they get back to me with ideas for my approvement and we started our collaboration.

I am not sure about full range of tools they used but for sure we run ads on AdWords and Facebook (Instagram). I was easy communication and they always listen to me.

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

My main contact in their company was Leah, but I assume that some other people was working on this project too.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Adwords campaign was successful, we reach a good conversion rate, about 10 - 15% and bring new clients with whom I am working with now.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had a zoom calls and weekly updates, I am pretty happy with this.

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

Response rate and attention to the details.

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

No, not really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Development Director for a type of financial institution called a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). We provide small business loans to LMI borrowers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

We are a fledgling organization that needed a digital presence built from the ground up.

SOLUTION

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

They have done many outstanding projects before for our executive director.

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

• Kick off meetings to discuss goals, timelines, needs, etc.
• StormBrain delivered new branding.
• StormBrain began website development.
• After several editing phases,
• StormBrain finalized the website.

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

• Blake & Leah Nolan - founders & COOs
• Jared Kavalle - project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a beautiful brand and website.

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

They use nice animations and screen shots to explain things easily and clearly. They are great with communicating directly and quickly.

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

That a small team could do such much work.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Walters Management is a common interest development company located in both San Diego and Riverside Counties. I am one of 3 Senior Vice Presidents in the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

We need someone to take over our social media program, deliver consistent messages to our homeowners and to assist with counteracting reviews from individuals that didn't understand the difference between the HOA and the management company.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They assisted us with a revamp and rebranding of our website.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

This is an ongoing effort that includes regular delivery of content, advice and new ideas about how to improve customer and client relations.

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

We work with the owners Leah and Blake and media specialist Hilary.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Much of what we are doing does not have a measurable ROI, but we have enjoyed an increase in our Google ratings and have a better presence with our clients.

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

They are friendly, helpful. receptive to comments and feedback and timely with deliverables.

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

Their personal approach provides us with confidence that they care about our company.

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

Spell check!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

RealDoll is an adult entertainment EComm company newly based in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm their current Social Media Manager and Content Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

Our goal with StormBrain is to elevate our digital presence by curating our site and implementing a solid base and strategy with SEO. They have far exceeded on both goals.

SOLUTION

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

With the nature of our company, it's already difficult to try and source an agency to help with what we do. StormBrain not only accepted the challenge of navigating a space where we cant say or show to much of what we do and showed us ways where we can do just that.

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

SOW with StormBrain stretches from Email Marketing, SEO Managment and Advertising, all the way to backend UI/UX site fixes and management. Some of the KPI's that they've delivered to us have been great ROI from email marketing and the SEO stratedgy they've implemented. With those pushes, we've been made industry standard for our niche.

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

I've had the pleasure of working directly with Jared and Blake from StormBrain and they have been not only prompt with their responses in communication but their solutions to projects as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've been very happy with the results from working in tandem with the team. v

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

I would best describe their style as both prompt and efficient.

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

They're willing to accept and overcome adversity when it comes to issues we know they haven't navigated before.

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

None visible form my end!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is a biotechnology creating technologies that enable more sustainable ways of producing ingredients and chemicals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

StormBrain was hired to develop a new website to market a cosmetic ingredient.

SOLUTION

How did you select Storm Brain and what were the deciding factors?

StormBrain was selected from a shortlist of impressive Southern California creative firms. They were the most organized and were clearly listening to our needs rather than selling based on past projects.

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

StormBrain managed a project where a complete replacement of an existing site was to take place over the course of 3-4 months. The process was to make slight changes to the brand and create a website that was capable of growing with our young business.

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

We worked with the co-owners Leah and Blake as well as the project lead, Tracy.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site is still in its infancy but is already trending much better in organic search than in the past. It is easy to use and update as well as simple to navigate.

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

Extremely organized and never missed a deadline (unless it was our fault!).

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

The dedication, responsiveness, and organization related to the project plan. We were always informed, and we trusted that things were being represented accurately.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

DIG is a manufacturer and distributor of drip irrigation products, battery operated controllers, and solar powered controllers for automating irrigation. I am the president of the company and started it over 40 years ago when I came here from Israel.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain?

We wanted a full redesign of our website.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to create a more user friendly version of our existing website that also serves as an educational tool for people who want to learn about drip irrigation.

SOLUTION

How did you select Storm Brain?

Our marketing team did extensive research online and interviewed multiple different companies. We checked yelp and other review sources and made a list of our top choices. We then had a 15-20 minute call with each of them before ultimately deciding on Storm Brain.

Describe the project in detail.

We have three main pages for our website since we cater to three different audiences. Our distributors sell to homeowners, professionals such landscape contractors, and growers/farmers.

Each of these markets requires access to different sorts of educational tools, and our website is designed to provide each of them with useful information. So each of our website sections had to be individually tailored to these groups, which is quite a design challenge.

What was the team composition?

Our team consisted of a graphic designer, marketing coordinator, and IT technician, while Storm Brain's consisted of a few developers, graphic designers, and a project lead.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since we have just relaunched our website as of a week ago, it is too difficult to give specific metrics. But the feedback from our users and employees has been nothing but positive.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was terrific. Both teams responded quickly with whatever information was required. The communication was always positive and all of our issues/changes were always able to be sorted out.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Storm Brain's communication and friendly demeanor made them very easy to work with. They also, obviously, are very good designers which is why we initially chose them. We were constantly changing things to the website, and it was already a difficult project to begin with, and they did a great job and responding to these challenges.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly, I can't think of any.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on Feb. 12, 2021.

Eric Levy

Marketing Coordinator, DIG Corporation

Consumer Goods

51-200 Employees

Carlsbad, California

$10,000 to $49,999

Jan. 2020 - Ongoing

Project summary: 

Storm Brain provides website redesign services for a drip irrigation manufacturing company. The project includes migrating web assets from Ruby on Rails to a WordPress platform.

Feedback summary: 

The project is still ongoing with the final details being polished. The team at Storm Brain communicated regularly and responded in a timely manner. They acted quickly and professionally on changes to the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company specializes in the manufacturing of drip irrigation and alternative powered irrigation controllers. I work as a marketing coordinator and manage all internal and external marketing communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Storm Brain, and what were your goals?

We hired Storm Brain to redesign our website, which involved moving a highly customized backend over to a new web platform. It was quite a tedious project and involved many, many hours. Our goals were to move all of our web assets successfully and into an easier-to-manage format, and also to redesign the frontend of our website.

SOLUTION

How did you select Storm Brain and what were the deciding factors?

I researched companies within our area that are highly reputable and then interviewed each company to find one that would align with our goals and budget. Storm Brain seemed to be the most knowledgeable during our interview and was able to address all of our questions and concerns without us even having to ask specifics.

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

The key deliverables of the project were a full website redesign and to move all of our web assets from Ruby on Rails to WordPress. First, our team was interviewed to help Storm Brain understand the structure of our current website and why we designed it the specific way that we did.

It is built from scratch and highly customized, which made it very difficult to move the backend. We also have three different customer bases which made the frontend difficult to redesign as well since it had to be appealing to three completely different markets.

Storm Brain mapped out a detailed plan on what they would do and how long each portion of the project would take them. Then there were many months of back-and-forth trying to get everything set up correctly. We were extremely nit-picky on many details of our website and Storm Brain was able to meet every challenge that we laid out. The website ended up coming together very nicely.

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

We mostly worked with Blake, one of the founders, and Tracy, one of the senior project managers. I'm not sure quite how many worked on their team, but there were some in IT, some in design, etc..

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are still finishing up some final details of the project before we go live.

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

In the beginning, we had weekly, or bi-weekly calls to get everything organized. We were provided a scope of the project that described each portion of what was to be done, and how long each of those portions would take.

Since then, we've had weekly and sometimes daily communication via email and zoom meetings, depending on the nature of the communication. They always respond in a timely manner and were on top of each aspect of the project.

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

We have been working together for nearly a year now and every single time that we have asked for some small change or tedious task, it was done quickly and professionally. They never made it seem like we were bothering them and were always happy to help.

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

I'm sure everyone can always improve on something, but there are no specifics I can think of at this time.

Overall rating: 5

Quality: 5

Schedule: 5

Cost: 5

Willing to refer: 5