Zbra Studios

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

While I was head of marketing for an established software company, I hired Zbra Studios to develop a completely new digital presence. We were rebranding and needed a website to serve the modern business software buyer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Zbra Studios?

Zbra Studios helped develop two websites. 

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a new website for business growth, brand awareness, and marketing initiatives. We also planned to launch a rebranding campaign based on those main websites, and gain new business around our efforts.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had contacted them about another project. After vetting and completing an RFP, Zbra Studios submitted detailed, specific, and careful proposals. 

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Building a website is typically straightforward, but it wasn't simple for us. Our marketing website required scoping, concepting, wireframing, and building a custom, easily editable WordPress theme. We built the site together in about six months.

We also created a portal to serve customer needs and attract the traffic for which we were optimizing the public website. Working from over 1000 web pages of product reference information, Zbra Studios reorganized and migrated existing content into an updated, rebranded customer portal. The site required migration, gating, and authentication. Complying with security and company policies was important.

Their extensive backend development process included scripting, problem-solving, custom coding, and UX design. On launch night, we stayed up into the morning hours. Zbra Studios supported us and solved problems the entire time, as well as during the days that followed.

What was the team composition?

As the leader of marketing, I was the only team member on my end. They provided both developers and designers. I only communicated directly with the owner, which gave me the most amazing, seamless digital project experience I've ever had with an outside agency.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The business generated brand awareness and buzz within the industry, which created an amazingly strong, modern reputation. This wouldn't have been possible without the new websites.

Those projects tripled digital optimization and positively impacted our inbound marketing, customer acquisition, and new business strategy. Their attention to detail was impeccable, and the quality of the executed work matched the price and scope we agreed upon. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We always communicated through email and Slack, and had weekly calls to keep the project moving. Communicating with Zbra Studios was seamless and easy because they were highly responsive and timely.

Zbra Studios was integral to maintaining our scope, timing, budget, and milestones. Our cadence and setup were effective, and they executed everything smoothly and quickly. They were thorough and friendly from beginning to end! 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by their professionalism and ability to put a large project into perspective. I felt like I had an entire department working with me, supporting me, and moving our projects forward. I was also impressed by the quality of their custom work. There were no quick and easy solutions. Zbra Studios built things the right way for long-term effectiveness.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I haven't had a bad experience with them. They completed everything I requested well, so I don't see areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is a nonprofit that is a coalition of leaders who cross-sector our county.  They’ve all come together to advance economic policy that grows the region.

I lead workforce development policy and public/private partnerships on behalf of the membership to advance where the county stands in terms of putting in place highly structured and effective workforce development partnerships and policy. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zbra Studios?

When we contacted Zbra Studios, our executive director had realized that we needed a visual update to our website. He had actually created the site a while back when he started in the position. Basically, we needed something that looked a little bit more professional, was easier to update, and was simpler for people who were turning to our organization as a resource to access the information that they needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a website before, but I think they rebuilt it in a totally new platform using the same background. WordPress was what we had used, and we kept that because it’s pretty easy to update. Zoey [CEO, Zbra Studios] has been really helpful along the way as we’ve been managing it now.

The purpose of the website was to provide good information to the community, not to sell anything. The site doesn't have anything that’s too different from what other companies would do. It was all pretty standard in terms of what you’d see in any basic website.

I don’t know how many resources were assigned to us. Zoey was our main point of contact, so whenever we did status updates, looked at what they were building, and did approvals and sign-offs, we always went through her. But, I know that she had a team in the background that was helping. I’d have to defer to her in terms of how extensive the team was. I imagine it’s probably a lot smaller than, say, if you were working for a large organization like Apple or something that had higher volume. Our organization isn’t incredibly complex, so I imagine she probably had only a couple people she was working with.

How did you come to work with Zbra Studios?

It was through a referral. We did look at other firms as well, but the key was the referral. It was through a mutual contact who I know personally. This contact had developed a website that had been ranked on the Forbes Top 100 Websites for Women and had worked extensively on marketing before. She highly recommended Zbra Studios. Considering her own success through that medium, I took that as something that definitely sets Zbra Studios apart. This is a highly credible resource who helped make the decision.

How much have you invested with Zbra Studios?

I’m not sure what the total bottom line was, but I want to say it was somewhere around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It started about six months ago, but I could be off on that. It was in the fall of 2016, I believe. I think we went live in early January of 2017. I’ve had to reach out with straightforward questions since then, and they’ve always been really helpful with that, even after our contract officially ended. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s been easier for us to update the site, which is really key. We’re a very small organization, so we needed it to be very easy and manageable. Our members have commented that visually, it looks nicer than the other website. It’s easier to find information. In terms of traffic, that’s something I need to remind myself to follow-up on. I’m kind of curious. We don’t track it because we’re not trying to market ourselves, so I can’t speak to that metric.

The key metric we care about is our membership, and I think as we become more sophisticated as an organization, we probably want to rise as more of a thought leader. I think more people will visit then. But, we keep it small and useful for our membership and community members.

How did Zbra Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was great; we had no issues from that perspective. It was all very smooth. They were very easy to work with. From somebody who used to be a consultant who had to do client-facing work, Zoey has amazing client service skills. I know from having been held to a high standard myself that they’re very easy to work with. It was a very seamless process.

What did you find most impressive about Zbra Studios?

At the beginning, before we did the actual design, Zoey took the time to do a formal assessment with us. That’s pretty typical, I think, but the questions she asked were really thoughtful. I felt like they were really trying to get at who we are and what kind of people we prefer, looking a little bit more beneath the surface of what the website is and getting a feel for us as an organization. Overall, she was a really good listener. She knew how to probe and ask questions. Drawing from my own consulting experience, if you don’t get that assessment step right, then the rest of the work tends to fall down. I felt like Zbra Studios was really solid with that. You get off on a good foot, and then the project is really well managed.

Are there any areas Zbra Studios could improve?

No, there’s nothing off the top of my head. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of communications for a medium-sized synagogue. We also have an associated school and have a total staff of 300–400 people, depending on the time of year.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zbra Studios?

Our 10-year-old website was incredibly outdated. It couldn’t be managed internally at all, and the company we were using charged very high monthly fees for basic updates and maintenance. Consequently, we were looking for a complete overhaul.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zbra Studios used our existing site as a starting point, but as we got deeper and deeper into the process, we realized that most of it was a throwaway. We ended up rebuilding from the ground up. It’s a WordPress site that uses a number of plug-ins for the different features we needed.

Our website is both an informational and awareness tool, but it also serves as a means of updating our members on what is happening at the synagogue and as a platform for our blog posts. Recently, Zbra Studios also helped us launch a new calendar system since the old one was a part of a separate member website and didn’t function properly.

We’ve done many different pieces like this over time, but much of the effort, in the beginning, was only about developing a user-friendly site with SEO potential, which would be appropriate for both our members and the general public. Zbra Studios has also been working on our email marketing, completely redoing our templates and helping us integrate best practices into those.

Our head rabbi is well-known nationally, so Zbra Studios has helped us upgrade his podcasts so that they are searchable and available through a podcasting service.

We generally worked directly with Zoey Smith, the owner, who handled all the interfacing with our organization and assigned tasks to Zbra Studios’ designers and developers. This created a wonderful experience for us. Whenever she was away, we also worked with other project managers.

How did you come to work with Zbra Studios?

I was brought into the project after Zbra Studios had been hired by my predecessor. I believe that a member of the synagogue recommended them.

What is the status of this engagement?

I don’t know what the start date was. The new site launched in March 2016, and I believe that there was a long process before this because once we realized that we needed to trash the old site, we had to figure out what we wanted.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our general online presence and searchability have improved dramatically, and as a result, we get many more hits. With the old site, when searching for “synagogue Los Angeles,” despite the fact that we are one of the biggest in this city, we didn’t show up on the first page of Google results.

Zbra Studios has walked us through updating our Yelp and Google profiles. We’ve spent a ton of time working with Google Business to sort out how we could establish a better presence. This has increased website traffic and has helped people find our head rabbi, who, as I mentioned, has a big national presence.

We’ve gotten great feedback on the new site. People are able to find what they’re looking for simply and easily. The old site wasn’t responsive, but the new version can be accessed on smartphones and tablets quickly and easily. It’s changed our user experience dramatically.

How did Zbra Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Zoey tends to provide very realistic timelines. I work with volunteer teams for our synagogue, so there’s a lot of variation on how quickly they can get back with answers. Our last time sheet had a span of 5–8 weeks, depending on my team’s response time. Zbra Studios learned how to build this in fairly, given our nonprofit status. Generally, if they say they will hit a deadline, they will.

What did you find most impressive about Zbra Studios?

What’s most outstanding about Zbra Studios compared to other vendors I’ve worked with, is that they’re very generous with their time. Zoey responds to emails immediately, and no question is too small or too big. If she doesn’t have an answer immediately, she will send it to the team and is very efficient and quick in looking something over and coming up with multiple solutions. This has been incredibly helpful for me, as I answer to a volunteer committee and board. She has been amazing in helping us find solutions to all our various issues, and the delivered product is fantastic. Zbra Studios is my favorite out of all our vendors.

Are there any areas Zbra Studios could improve?

I don’t have anything big to mention. It has occasionally taken us a couple of tries to get something right during the design phase, but Zbra Studios is always willing to go back and work on something with a bit more direction

BACKGROUND

Describe your company and what you do there.

We’re a strategic coaching firm working with small and mid-sized companies to help them with their growth. I’m the president. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zbra Studios?

My website was outdated. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zbra Studios helped build a new website from scratch. They designed everything from top to bottom: coding, frontend, and backend. Lead generation was the main purpose of the website. When my website was built several years ago, I believe WordPress was known, but a lot of designers were still working in HTML. However, I’m not sure what technologies Zbra Studios used. That was more under the category of “I don’t need to know, so I’ll just leave that up to them.”

At the time, we added a private password-protected client area. We called it the “Client Café.” It was a resource center for housing assessments, worksheets, and articles, as well as a repository of tools and resources that we used for our clients; they could go directly to that area and access the material. On our original site, we had several pages of resources that were outward-facing with service providers, books, or software that we recommended. They built the database for us so we could just add these pieces very easily to our website without needing to bring in a web developer each time.

We discussed marketing and strategy in general after the website was built, and the reason I say that is I’m comparing it to their current services, which I know are pretty extensive on the backend. At the time when I worked with Zbra Studios, which was a while back, things were really different online when it came to marketing the website. Social media was in the newer stages; it’s crazy that it wasn’t that long ago. It’s changed a lot.

Throughout the process, Zoey [Web & Marketing Strategist, Zbra Studios] was my main contact. She facilitated the entire process. They had designers, coders, and other resources on the backend. I interacted with one of them once the site was launched; he taught about and gave me a tour of the database that we had built. But, for all intents and purposes, my interaction was with Zoey in coordinating everything.

How did you come to work with Zbra Studios?

They actually were a recommendation from one of the clients I was working with, who was a copywriter. He did a lot of work with Zbra Studios and was really impressed with them. Then, one of my clients was looking for a web designer. So, the copywriter, Zoey, and I got together for coffee so we could meet together before I recommended them. After working with her, in conjunction with the copywriter and my client, I was really impressed with the way that Zbra Studios handled the entire process of building out his site and working with him on the strategic marketing side. That’s why I hired them for my site.

What is the status of this engagement?

The website map was started in December of 2009. It took them about three or four months for the design. It wasn’t anything long or inconvenient. They did two different designs at two different times, with updates along the way and service whenever I needed. My relationship with Zoey has extended beyond that because of additional things that she’s done over time. I do reach out to Zoey for questions. She’s also hired me to help with her business over time, so we talk quite often. I know her target audience, as a result of our work together, has changed, so I try not to take up too much of her time. She’s very generous with her time in helping me. I transitioned over to the HubSpot marketing system several years ago. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website has always been extremely reliable. Everything worked with no broken links. It was very clean coding. I had people tell me that. When we transitioned over to HubSpot, Zbra Studios was phenomenal in helping us make that transition.

How did Zbra Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

I found them to be extremely reliable, dependable, and responsive to questions by phone and email. They were on time in terms of deadlines that I had set with them throughout the design.

What did you find most impressive about Zbra Studios?

They always seemed very customer-centric in their working relationship. I never felt like I was intruding by asking a question. Regardless of how naïve or elementary my questions were, Zoey has always handled them with the greatest of respect and professionalism.

Are there any areas Zbra Studios could improve?

No. It’s been exciting to see them grow. Even in 2009, they were at the forefront of what was going on in terms of web design and what clients were looking for. They’ve really done a phenomenal job over time in continuing to evolve themselves through their knowledge, expertise, and processes. That continues to keep them at the forefront of their industry for their clients.