97 Switch

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of property management at Marathon Management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

We needed help with the digital marketing of our new multi-family housing development in Vancouver, Washington, since it was a brand-new apartment building. Our goal was to rent as many apartments as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

97 Switch helped us with marketing strategies for our new building. The team executed a marketing plan that included different venues, including Google Ads, direct email, and social media advertising on Instagram and Facebook. 97 Switch also created a blog for the property and enhanced our company website. Additionally, the team did SEO work.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Jeremy and Madi.

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

A colleague found 97 Switch through a Google search. I selected the team based on their experience.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $56,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–October 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw a significant uptick in traffic to our housing development via Google, which was exactly what we wanted. We had a busy summer, and 97 Switch did a remarkable job.

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

97 Switch delivered work on time and within budget. The team was very organized, detailed, professional, and accommodating. We mostly communicated via emails and Zoom.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I’d like to give kudos to Jeremy. He was a true professional and a great guy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

97 Switch was good and very experienced.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was the first time I worked with a company like 97 Switch, and we had no problems.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Signature HomeStyles and SideGigster. They’re essentially the same, but the companies feed each other. SideGigster is a lead generation company, and Signature HomeStyles is the platform.

We thrive in the gig economy. If someone wants to make extra money in five minutes, we give them their own website, and they drive traffic to it and get paid a weekly commission.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

The primary goal was to develop branding and positioning to attract people to the gig economy through an online selling channel. We wanted to create a website that converted people to sellers, or SideGigsters, as we call them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

97 Switch provides a turnkey service that includes marketing research, brand development, branding guideline development, marketing strategy, brand tone and positioning, and website development for the SideGigster piece of our business.

They’ve created and deployed a marketing strategy in three areas: building a website entirely from scratch, developing a digital marketing campaign, including the assets and execution, and developing a communication strategy with our engaged users, encompassing Klaviyo emails and text messaging. For the predominant workflow, we use Klaviyo and execute marketing campaigns through Google and other platforms. Additionally, 97 Switch has done quite a bit of custom work; they’ve built our custom server to intake information that plugs into the APIs of one of our databases.

What is the team composition?

At some point, there were around six teammates. Jeremy (Founder & Managing Director) is the owner. Kevin (Frontend Developer) has built a lot of things and has been able to execute and figure it out. Madison (Content Marketing Coordinator) executes most of the marketing content and runs the digital ad campaigns. David (Web Designer) does a lot of scripting and creative work behind the scenes; he’s worked hard to have videos made.

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

We were introduced to them through a referral about a year ago. Someone recommended them, and we had a conversation. We weren’t ready to move forward at that point, but we circled back later, and they were able to engage quickly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in February 2024, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site has solid conversion rates, so our customer acquisition costs are in the single-digit dollar range. This week, we’ll have eclipsed over 1,000 new sellers entering the platform, but it’s still early in the program to see the long-term reward compared to other things we’ve done. Overall, there’s probably a 70% increase in productivity.

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

97 Switch delivers on budget and on time. In fact, they’ve been able to get many things done early. The team is also very open to input and collaboration, so they have a lot of flexibility. We made some changes to the project, and they were still able to deliver the website early; they’re swift.

They’re very communicative. We use a combination of phone calls and emails that feed into an internal project management system, but they don’t force us to use it. I’ve worked with many agencies over the years, and vendors often tell you to learn monday.com or a different frame they’re pushing through in Jira. Someone like me might have worked and been exposed to these platforms, but it’s a big distraction for the people on my team to learn and figure out these tools. 97 Switch uses their internal system, but they don’t put us through that and force it into our stream. They’re very conscientious of the interaction between businesses.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Not many companies can develop and execute a strategy well, but 97 Switch can. I’d congratulate the whole team; the company is outstanding.

Moreover, their accessibility is impressive. They make their team accessible to the client and have structured meetings, so we don’t have to unnecessarily call somebody on their team. We occasionally do have to call them, but they’re very good at internal communication, so people know where they stand and where we’re at. 97 Switch isn’t segmenting levels out of different types of meetings necessarily, so there’s a lot more clarity in the mission and communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t worked with many people, but this is probably the best agency experience I’ve had.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you go to 97 Switch, they’ll take you through several long meetings to define the objective. Make sure you’re working with them and being as transparent as possible about what you need to accomplish. Then, review the documentation they come back with. Once you’re aligned, you need to back away and trust them to let them do their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and president of A. Messe Supply, a wholesale distributor of industrial plumbing and heating supplies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

I wanted to make my e-commerce platform productive and profitable, so I turned 97 Switch for guidance and assistance. We aimed to make my platform more user-friendly and reach a larger audience. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

97 Switch audited our website to determine what was happening behind the scenes, how many errors we had, and how many impediments existed in our programming that prevented our audience from finding us. Then, they analyzed our website and found that its design wasn’t user-friendly, so they gave us suggestions for making it more appealing and user-friendly. We hired an external NetSuite developer to implement the changes they recommended. 

Some of their recommendations included enhancing our shopping cart and checkout experience. We also redesigned our home page and created some landing pages. The team at 97Switch gave us advice and guided us throughout the process. They handled the redesign process and helped us enhance the site's look. 

From there, their team helped figure out what was wrong with our SEO and why people weren’t finding us online. They found a lot of errors on the site’s backend and helped us fix them. When that was done, we put together campaigns and created newsletters and email blasts to send to our established clientele. We then moved into paid ads, specifically Google Ads and social media. They mainly focused on Facebook and LinkedIn. We ran the campaigns, and 97 Switch set up landing pages to promote particular products.

At present, we’re still working with 97 Switch. We’re in the process of selling our business, so we’re winding down the engagement. I’m going to have meetings with prospective buyers who want to know more about the website, my recommendations, and what Jeremy and 97 Switch have done. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 4–5 teammates from 97 Switch at any given time. My main point of contact is Jeremy (Founder & Managing Director). I’ve also worked with Lauren (Digital Marketing Manager), who helps manage our Google Ads campaigns, and Madison (Content marketing Coordinator).

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

My webmaster researched vendors and narrowed our choices to 4–6 teams. I interviewed them and liked 97 Switch and Jeremy. He was local and had a featured recommendation on Clutch. They had good reviews, too. 

How much have you invested with them?

We started out with an investment of $3,000 per month. Since doing Google Ads, the cost has gone up to $6,000 per month. We spend another $3,000 per month for the actual ads. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in June 2022, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

97 Switch’s quality is better than the firm I’ve used before. Jeremy runs a tight ship and keeps a close eye on everything. He’s highly organized, methodical, and detail-oriented. Overall, Jeremy and his team are truly focused on success and ensure that we have what we want. 

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a meeting every two weeks where we go over everything from metrics to what our next campaigns will look like. Jeremy is always in these meetings and goes over every issue and plan. After each meeting, he sends us emails of everything we’ve discussed in the meeting, including the plans we’ve made and the goals we’re targeting for the next few weeks. Lauren has been knowledgeable; Madison is great, too. 

For communication, we mainly use email or phone. Jeremy is always available through phone calls, and if he isn’t available, he calls me back as soon as possible. We have unlimited access to them within the parameters of our payments, but we never take advantage of that. However, we can always ask them questions and advice as part of our deal. It’s never difficult to reach them and get information. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Jeremy knows his work; he truly understands how the internet and marketing work. He’s well-versed in his field and knows what works and what doesn’t. Moreover, Jeremy doesn’t fool any customer. He’s frank — if he doesn’t know something, he’ll tell you. He’ll also do research to resolve any issues. 

For instance, we’ve had problems with fraudulent purchases, so he’s researched programs to help us capture these purchases and protect us from them. This shows he wants to be our partner in seeing the project succeed. He’s thorough and extremely professional. While he wants to be paid like everyone else, he’s also focused on helping us get our money’s worth. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They sometimes miss the mark in terms of writing blogs about plumbing. However, I attribute this to people not knowing much about the topic or the products. For the quality of the deliverables, I didn’t like some of their designs because they look a bit the same. There’s a lack of diversity in how they present the format. 

Apart from that, I also see them during meetings. I don’t have a camera on my computer, but I can see all the members of their team. Sometimes, Jeremy needs to tell his teammates not to look so irritated or bored. They can turn their camera off if they’re not into it. One of them has even looked like he wanted to be anywhere except the meeting, and it’s a little off-putting. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to put a fair amount of time in. You’ll have meetings, and 97 Switch will need your feedback and input. Have someone dedicated to working with the team to get more out of the engagement. They’ll perform better if they have your active participation. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Director of (a/an) eCommerce

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide B2B and B2C training in the technology industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire 97 Switch to accomplish?

• Design web pages
• Design product branding and style guides
• Design conference themes and corresponding assets

SOLUTION

How did you find 97 Switch?

Online Search

Why did you select 97 Switch over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

What was the size of 97 Switch’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We have 97Switch on a monthly retainer and this review covers a few ongoing projects. Key deliverables have included design and development of five new webpages; product branding including color palettes, fonts, proprietary images and icons; conference themes including overall look and feel and corresponding digital and non-digital assets.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Time to execution

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

97Switch has exceeded expectations. They turn projects around at a very fast rate without sacrificing quality. Their team is a top-notch group of highly creative individuals. They are also very responsive when we reach out with additional questions or needs.They truly put the client first and make you feel like you are #1, even though they are servicing other clients as well.

What was your primary form of communication with 97 Switch?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their ability to deliver high quality, highly creative items with a relatively short lead time. They truly listen to the client and deliver what is needed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something 97 Switch could have done differently?

No - I value our relationship and the results we see having them on a monthly retainer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a company selling mid-range and luxury wristwatches.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

I needed help with marketing and website development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

97 Switch has helped us with web development and marketing services. To develop the website, I initially gave them some inspiration from different websites I had come across. Still, their team developed various ideas and transformed my ideas into designs based on their inspiration.

After the design process, 97 Switch built the website on WordPress. They’ve already delivered the website according to our original scope. Now, we’re working on phase two of the project.

As for the marketing side of the engagement, 97 Switch has helped us with a little bit of SEO. However, they’ve mostly focused on social media advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with five people from 97 Switch, four of whom we’ve worked consistently with.

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

My sister helped me look for local companies and found 97 Switch online. They had positive reviews, so we called them and found out they were a good fit for us. They had a welcoming essence, which was very nice.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around February 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

97 Switch’s ideas have been very helpful, and I’ve been very happy with their work. They’ve delivered a more user-friendly, relatable, and engaging website, adding more product categories and improving its overall layout.

Although we haven’t gotten a lot of traction from our social media ads, we’ve noticed an increase in our click-through rate and users’ time on the page, as well as a decrease in our bounce rate. Overall, I’m very satisfied with 97 Switch’s website work. They have a great team and an outstanding collaboration of minds who have done a great job and hit the nail right on the head.

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m happy with 97 Switch’s project management. They’ve delivered on time and on budget around 90% of the time, according to their estimates. We normally have Zoom meetings every two weeks, but we have weekly meetings during web development periods.

What did you find most impressive about them?

97 Switch’s web development work and the minds behind that work are impressive. I can’t say enough good things about their web development skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although I’m very satisfied with 97 Switch’s work, we haven’t found much success in the marketing side of our engagement. Still, those results aren’t solely on them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking to get website development work done, 97 Switch is definitely the team to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the principals of Lift Insight & Capital Partners, a group of six CEOs who recently sold their businesses to start a new company and invest in businesses to help them grow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

We needed web development and branding services to launch our new company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, 97 Switch conducted a discovery phase in which they asked comprehensive marketing questions to help us define what we wanted our brand to stand for and how we wanted it to look. Additionally, they helped us define which mediums we wanted to use and which social media outlets we wanted to employ to establish our online presence.

After that, 97 Switch took our ideas and vision and helped us transform them into a website and a marketing strategy. They designed the site from scratch, including its logo, and they helped us create the content we needed to populate it.

Now, 97 Switch continuously writes articles, ad pictures to them, and publish them on our site. They also publish our content on LinkedIn and help us execute an ongoing marketing strategy.

On our site, other leaders in the community can see who our principals are and what our methodology is, understand our background and the value we add, and see some success stories of the companies we’ve helped grow.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 97 Switch’s entire team, from their CEO to the graphic designer. 

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

We found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re extremely satisfied with what 97 Switch has built for us. We’re six board members in our company, so they’ve dealt with six different opinions, answers, and preferences. Still, they’ve been able to navigate through those differences, doing a superb job at reaching a consensual agreement and creating a unified brand.

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

97 Switch has performed very well, and they’re very responsive. We can call them any day at any time, and they come back to us no later than the next morning. During development, they mapped the project out with Gantt charts and provided us with the timeline expectations. Additionally, they’ve always ensured to get answers from us within certain deadlines so that they can do their job and stick to those timelines. We usually use Zoom and Google Meet to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

97 Switch excels at listening to our needs and providing us with insights into the state-of-the-art methods and designs to accomplish our goals. They’ve even stretched our vision further. For example, we were looking for a visual feature on our site, so we showed them some other websites as examples. However, they showed us newer websites whose visual elements were more exciting and had more visual energy, helping us add cutting-edge technology to our site and enhance our vision.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Whenever we’ve had issues, we’ve let them know; they’re incredibly responsive. I would only encourage them to keep doing what they’re doing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Agree on what you’re trying to accomplish from the beginning so that everyone can stay on task and knows what success looks like.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Northern Lakes Mortgage, a consumer-direct mortgage company operating in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

They helped us with website design and development. I reached out to 97 Switch with a very specific use case in mind: to integrate some third-party services within a new website while also achieving a number of aesthetic goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

97 Switch started with basic branding exercises, including word clouds and mood boards, and designed all of our fonts and other elements. It was a very collaborative process, and they took feedback well. Moving forward, they built our site with all the required integrations: Apple Business chat, an RCS function, Experian and more. The site was built on WordPress.

97 Switch presented a suite of design options, we chose three, and then they created all three concurrently, allowing us to pick our favorite at the end. We shared designs over email in PDFs.

In terms of the features of the website, the whole site is built to funnel users to fill out a form. We have a half dozen APIs that scan the devices that users are on and perform different actions depending on they hit our form button. 97 Switch built out quite a few pages and included technologies where users can sign things electronically, view videos, and access our social media presence.

After building the website, we’ve moved into more ancillary services. They’re going to be providing maintenance for the site as well.

What is the team composition?

We work with around five people: Jeremy (Founder & Managing Director) is my main point of contact, and he handles the web work as well; Madeline (Graphic & Web Designer), who helps with design; Kevin (Web Developer); and Lauren (Content Marketing Manager).

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

We found them through a service provider aggregator. I liked that they were local to Chicago like we are.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was around $28,000 upfront, and we’re now at $500 per month for website maintenance. Their hourly rate is around $150 an hour for web revisions, accounting for $1,000–$2,000 per month extra for us. Their marketing is $11,000 per month as well, and we’re going to move into that soon.

In total, we’ve spent around $33,000 to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very satisfied with how the website looks. We have clients who’ve told us it looks very nice and makes us appear legitimate. They’ve also said that they’re more likely to do business with us now because our website no longer looks cheap, which is a staple in the mortgage industry. There are any qualitative data yet, as we’ve only made aesthetic changes; the marketing work is coming. 97 Switch has completely exceeded our expectations, though.

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very communicative, and they get back to my emails, phone calls quickly. We use Zoom for video conferencing as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their strongest point is their small, curated staff. They’re a bit more agile and quicker to get things done with shorter approval processes. If I want something executed, then I talk to the owner, and he assigns it to the right person and it’s done in a day. Speed and communication are definitely their standout characteristics.

Their web design is also very good; they’re above average in every category. I’ve seen a number of other websites, and ours performs well and looks very nice in comparison. 97 Switch is also very prompt and transparent with their pricing.

Rather than being just a web design house or website developer, 97 Switch was able to accomplish both in one pass. Additionally, they weren’t just “yes men.” We came into the conversation with some specific tasks we wanted to execute, but we didn’t end up following through on those based on their advice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more proactive, especially around suggesting new things for the website. I don’t know if that’s a service I should expect from them, however. I don’t really have much criticism.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as complete as you can in what you want. I’m not sure how they would perform if they were tasked with creating something from nothing, so I would be as direct as possible. Once there’s a wireframe and a scaffold, they’re great at fleshing out the idea. They benefit from having a clear direction.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO of a holding company with 6–8 sub-companies. One of the main companies we have been working on is Option Hotline. It’s an educational website based on the stock-options marketplace. We provide education, rather than option trading or trade execution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

We needed additional marketing support and effort.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They devised a digital marketing plan for us based on our requirements. Their strategy includes leveraging Google Ad words, websites, and email marketing. 

What is the team composition?

We work with five people from their team.

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

I spoke to roughly 20 agencies and searched online for candidates. After narrowing it down to three local candidates, we put them through a formal process with extremely specific questions. We chose 97 Switch as the best fit for our company, unanimously.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $40,000 to date.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around September 2020, and the relationship ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We regularly look at analytics and metrics on everything, and one of the most pleasing to me is the improvement on one of our websites. It required extensive work, (bad images and content, a general broken down state, etc.) and 97 Switch dramatically improved it.

Their work is making a marked difference in what we do, and, more importantly, in what we get. 97 Switch has been a real partner to us.

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

They send weekly updates on metrics and analytics, as well as a running total of their hours. We have bi-weekly Zoom calls that follow an agenda they send ahead of time. 97 Switch is available and responsive — I can reach out anytime through email or phone. They deliver what they promise and do well at staying within budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

97 Switch is a down-to-earth partner that can get right into business. Beyond their commitment, they’re also personable, as well as spot-on when discussing deliverables. Their team quickly delivers a well-done product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think 97 Switch needs to improve. However, as quickly as we’ve changed during the engagement, we’ll be accelerating that change in the months to come, so they’ll need to adapt.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Based on my experience, 97 Switch is a beautiful fit for companies in the early stages of looking to expand quickly. They’re beneficial to companies that need help with structure and strategy in the media world. I’m sure they’d be great with larger companies, as well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an investment consulting firm that services institutional investors. I’m one of the firm’s managing directors and owners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

After going through a rebranding exercise and logo improvement process, we needed a vendor to develop a new website that reflected those changes. We opted to not use the group that managed the rebranding and logo exercise because they were a little flat with their maintenance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial scope of the project was to create a layout for our brand-new WordPress website. We already had a site map, so we knew roughly what pages we wanted, but we didn’t have a basis for the imagery, colors, or wording.

97 Switch helped us with all the content for our website, handling the editing while we did most of the writing. They also assisted with finding photographers to create content (headshots, sitting shots, etc.). We leveraged their guidance on best practices for uploading these images.

We were impressed with the efficacy of their initial work, and it was done on time and on budget, which is incredibly important to anyone building a website, so we retained 97 Switch for ongoing social media support and general marketing work.

What is the team composition?

Jeremy (Founder & Web Designer) led the group, Josh (Director of Digital Marketing) was in charge of imagery and social media, and Lauren (Content Marketing Manager) acted as the copywriter.

We had them do some graphic design work, which was outsourced to another firm, but an internal person helped with some tasks, meaning we interacted with four people in total.

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

We found them on Clutch. When the rebranding project with the marketing freelancer started to go badly, I decided to bring in a firm to handle the website. I didn’t hire another freelancer, as I wanted to have the certainty of more support despite us not knowing exactly what we needed.

My husband has done web design in the past and suggested I look on Clutch. I screened for Chicago and Midwest firms, and 97 Switch seemed to have the type of services we wanted, as well as the potential for ongoing support. They had a reasonable fee and nice success stories — we spoke to some of their references on Clutch, and 97 Switch was highly regarded.

How much have you invested with them?

The website work cost $10,000 total, and there were additional fees for copywriting. We now pay them $250 per month for maintenance and hosting.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with 97 Switch at the beginning of August 2020, and they finished the website in October 2020. We didn’t launch it right away, however, because we wanted it to coincide with the end of the year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were impressed with 97 Switch in every regard and enjoyed working with them. There wasn’t a set goal per se, but, in hindsight, we’re pleased with all of the positive feedback we’ve gotten, including from my husband, who’s worked for a very big ad agency and had experience with web development.

We also appreciated all of 97 Switch’s insights and recommendations. The cost was exactly what they said it would be. Our contract clearly established what was part of the budget and what would be additional, and they gave us a clear cost for the additional items. They delivered the site well ahead of schedule, too, giving us plenty of time to plan for additional launch tasks. We were also able to send links to our clients.

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is very important in web development, and 97 Switch established it the right way. We chose them as a provider because we knew that they would tell us what we needed to provide and do in order to move forward.

Initially, we had bi-weekly Zoom meetings. They were very good at getting us to establish specific individuals who’d be responsible for the work. We didn’t report to them as an entire team — they made sure we had individual leads for specific components of the website development: technical aspects, content, and imagery. This system arose from 97 Switch’s experience — if they just left it up to the team, then tasks might not get done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the reasons we aligned so well with 97 Switch was that they were in the same position in their industry. We joked that, for firms of our size, we punch way above our weight. They understood that our website had to legitimize us, and they gave us candid and expert advice on what we should be doing to accomplish that goal. To me, that serves much more than website design. We went to them with a site map, and any other firm would’ve come back with a simple layout and template, but 97 Switch coached us in ways that went beyond that.

We trusted them to understand not just the WordPress platform, but the overall elements of website design to guide us to an effective solution. We appreciate their efforts.

There was also a very important human element, which is very difficult to establish when you work over Zoom meetings. We felt that we really got to know 97 Switch as individuals. Our business is very much focused on partnerships, and 97 Switch was a very good partner throughout the whole process. They gave honest feedback, and when they didn’t think we should invest in a task, they gave us alternate ideas rather than forcing us to do something.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything else that 97 Switch should’ve done. We hired them for website design and agreed internally that, if the project went well, then we’d hire them for social media campaigns. That too was a screening factor when hiring 97 Switch. We knew that they were also good with social. Had any of those things failed, we wouldn’t have stayed with them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to have a flexible mindset. We benefited a great deal from 97 Switch’s advice and understanding of web development and social media. We went into the relationship wanting a website that fulfilled a list of our requirements, and by being flexible and taking 97 Switch’s advice, we came away with a better product than we would’ve had otherwise. Instinctually, people will say that they don’t need this or that, and ask for the cheapest website possible, but I think that that’s a mistake. These changes didn’t affect our cost profile. We were open-minded, flexible, and sought out their recommendations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Mobile Doormen. We create custom residential apps for property management groups.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 97 Switch?

We have an internal marketing team of one—consisting of myself. As a result, we needed extra bandwidth and expertise for our digital marketing efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

97 Switch helped us improve our paid advertising campaigns on platforms like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. They set up accounts to drive more inbound leads and make the lead generation process more efficient using HubSpot. They also draft content—including the copy and images—for those ads. 

Outside of campaign management, they take part in the planning process with our company for tentpole events—such as trade shows and promotions—and how we use our digital channels. Lastly, they’ve assisted with email marketing, both overseeing the process and drafting content.

What is the team composition?

Jeremy (Founder / Web Designer, 97 Switch) and Josh (Digital Marketing Manager, 97 Switch) are my main points of contact.

How did you come to work with 97 Switch?

We sent out an RFP to multiple agencies in Chicago. We wanted to work with a vendor that was local and had a small enough team that could identify with our own small team from a culture perspective. 97 Switch met both criteria. 

Additionally, Josh and Jeremy’s intelligence and industry experience made them an even better fit. They understood the strategy and were willing to help our company develop a more sophisticated level of digital marketing.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $3,500 each month as part of our retainer.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in August 2019 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In our first full month working together, we saw our site user traffic grow by 41% month-over-month. We also generated about 50 unique leads through the site—a significant boost compared to what previously came through our system.

97 Switch remains willing to step in and help with our content-building and strategic needs. They help us with weekly and monthly reporting on metrics such as website traffic sessions, bounce rate, cost per click, cost per acquisition, and the number of qualified leads. They do a great job of being proactive and receptive to what needs I try to track. 

How did 97 Switch perform from a project management standpoint?

Jeremy and Josh make themselves available 24 hours a day. I do my best not to test those limits. If I ever have a question, they’re extremely quick to get back to me. That’s been a huge help as we’ve gotten things up and running. But what they’re really good at is ensuring that we don’t miss deadlines and moving forward on tasks as needed. If they’re not able to receive timely feedback from me on, let’s say, a marketing campaign, they still make sure to hit the deadline and execute anyway. That level of over-communication and respect for our timelines have been invaluable to us as a smaller company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It comes down to the people: the team is incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to digital marketing and project management. When working with larger agencies, I typically deal with someone very junior or share a senior team member with clients with larger budgets than we have. Jeremy and Josh do a great job making us feel heard and appreciated, no matter how we compare to their other clients. They offer great strategic thinking and product work, as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We lack a design team in-house, and 97 Switch doesn’t build much content from a visual perspective. I’d love it if they offered those services as well—I think that’s the only thing they’re really missing.

Any advice for potential customers?

With any agency, make sure that you have defined KPIs and well-defined goals for what you want out of the engagement. Those metrics should apply to you as well as the agency you’re working with.