Anchour

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a community bank focused on acquiring households within Southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

I’m the VP and director of corporate marketing and communications.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

We brought them on to completely revamp the website. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

During the process, we liked what they were doing and canceled our contract with another marketing agency. This added SEO and other marketing services to Anchour’s development contract.

What is the team composition?

We work with an account manager and a project manager. The two of them tag team us and manage communication. Their CEO has asked to be copied on some of these messages, as we lost the account manager to a new role partway through the project. The CEO is now one of our day-to-day contacts.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

We put out a bid to 12 agencies in and around New England. We looked at everyone’s work and thought that Anchour excelled. One of our current vendors that does branding for banks referred me to them.

How much have you invested with them?

The website redesign was a one-off project for $80,000, and we now have a retainer for $5,000 per month.

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

They’re very creative and have taken our marketing to a level that we weren’t getting from our other agency. We’ve had a 6.5% increase in visitors YoY on the new site, as well as a 2.25% increase in page views.

We’ve received feedback from both our customers and our colleagues; they’ve noticed the difference in our creative. Our work is more outside of the box now compared to what we were using with our previous agency.

For example, Anchour writes copy for our social media in a style that is attractive to Gen Z, which is our target audience. These ideas see higher engagement rates: focusing on our work culture and personal lives rather than simply our products and services. Our followers have increased by 12% across our three channels.

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

They keep in touch every other day at least, if not daily, and the project manager always follows up with my multiple times a week to give updates on the status of the projects and the hours they’ve worked. If I need to sign up for additional hours beyond our retainer, then they’ll let us know. Finally, we have a bi-weekly meeting with an itemized agenda.

They’re sensitive to deadlines and very reactive to anything we need. We can fix some things ourselves, as they trained us on WordPress but, otherwise, they can handle any issue in 24 hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re not an agency that specializes in one industry, allowing us to reap the benefits of more creative approaches, as everything is new to them.

They don’t have any self-imposed constraints that they’re worried about as far as what they can and cannot say. I told them to have free rein, and that’s been a great experience so far. They’ve come back to me with things that are creatively free, and we’re free to tweak anything we have to. Their creativity is what I’m most impressed with so far.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They weren’t expecting that many projects when we first signed with them, so there was a bit of a bottleneck. Halfway through the process, they were very focused on the contract and the parameters of the scope. I’ve coached them away from that to understand that we’ll need a bit of work out of the scope, and they’ve responded well, aligning their resources and upping their game.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re used to working with a large agency, then this will be a different experience. Anchour is well-staffed, but they’re not at your beck and call 24/7, like some marketing people expect an agency to be.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of an alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

We were kicking off a brand-new product line with our non-alcoholic beer, and Anchour helped us with all the creative and our go-to-market capabilities. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a total brand strategy from the ground up, starting with a thorough investigation of our goals and strategic plan for the brand. Then, they aligned with our image of ourselves. The deliverables were a brand logo and strategy. They’ve also offered to craft a whole D2C marketing approach for us but we haven’t taken them up on that.

What is the team composition?

We work with an account manager, but my primary contact is a design person. There’s also a secondary account person. All strategy discussions take place with all three of those resources. Finally, we’ve worked with a design person.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

I found them through a Google search for marketing companies in Maine; they were one of four companies I considered. After interviewing all of them, it was clear that Anchour’s presentation was the most comprehensive of the four. Given their background and references as well, they were best suited for our project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $50,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2022.

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

We’re only partially through the project, as we haven’t sent anything to market yet, but compared to other firms we’ve worked with in the past, we’re really doing well at staying on track with our timing. Anchour has finished all the milsetones on time, and they’ve been great about following up to get the information that they need. It’s been a very fluid partnership.

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve stayed on top of all of their people to ensure everything happens in a timely manner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication has been very excellent. I’ve also known where I’ve stood in the process, and they are prompt with their responses. Finally, their organization is very well laid out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. They’ve been tremendously flexible. I don’t have a recommendation for anyone that is better than them right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you have someone that is fully engaged with the project to act as a project manager and keep everything on task. They do a great job with a champion on both sides of the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of The Rope Company; our mission is to bring peace and beauty to people’s homes by making top-quality home products out of rope. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

We hired Anchour to help us refresh our branding and marketing. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our business needed a new logo, so we approached Anchour. We went back and forth on their packaged services until we decided to do a complete brand refresh. Their team planned to define our company, its mission, and its values. To do that, Anchour led us through a discovery process, where they identified what we were looking for and what aesthetics we liked. Then, they presented new branding guidelines, which included a new color palette, two logos, and submarks, and a brand strategy.

After Anchour completely overhauled our brand, they dove into a website redesign. Their team team conducted thorough research to inform the design, and then we went through 2–3 iterations of the design with Anchour. Anchour’s team switched our site from WooCommerce and WordPress to a customized Shopify site with a simple checkout process and SEO improvements. They integrated apps to help our wholesale business and made the entire site easier to navigate — they designed the UX/UI. Anchour also ensured the new website reflected the new branding they’d developed for us and incorporated our photographs. 

Anchour also offered marketing services. They focused on Facebook and Instagram, but also branched out to YouTube for paid advertising campaigns. Anchour used our photography materials for the paid ads. We also utilized their email marketing services — Anchour sent out 1–2 email campaigns.

What is the team composition?

Anchour’s senior account manager was our primary contact. We also occasionally worked with an additional seven teammates from Anchour, including their project manager, owners, creative director, wireframe designers, and developers. 

How did you come to work with Anchour?

One of our in-house teammates had seen some of the other brands Anchour worked with on Instagram. We reached out to Anchour and had good chemistry with their team, so we decided to work with them. Anchour was the one-stop-shop marketing expert we needed. 

How much have you invested with them?

Clost to $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership with Anchour started in April 2020 and is ongoing.

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

We’ve had overall positive responses about our branding, which is much better than our previous. Whenever we go to trade shows, we utilize the print materials with our new branding — we’re reached a new level of professional, timeless design.

Since working with Anchour revenues have increased, but more importantly, we are now confident with our cohesive and timeless look across all areas. We're still a small company without many measurables but I have no doubt our brand reputation is increasing in awareness and stature in the ways we want it to, this also means more customers

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

Anchour has a robust project management software and team — they stuck to timelines and our budget. We had access to their project management software, where we commented on their deliverables. Typically, we communicated through email and Zoom meetings. We would’ve had more in-person meetings, but were hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Anchour’s team was very kind and helpful — they listened to our needs. They were a team of real professionals that were serious about delivering high-quality, creative work. Also, their brand strategy team is top-notch. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The few times I have thought something was off with communication, etc. I have always felt at ease asking the Achour Team about it and they have always listened to me and have adjusted seamlessly if it was necessary. Honestly, I've had way too many irons in the fire since I've been working with them, so I've been hard to get a hold of, get material from, and not to mention when I meet with them not as present and sharp as I should be. I'm thankful they're willing and patient enough to work with someone like me.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you're new to any of this or don't completely understand any aspect, be glad you are in good hands. Anchour's team is kind, patient, caring and trustworthy people so don't hesitate to ask all your questions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a CBD company. We produce a line of full-spectrum hemp oil products and consumer packaged goods that we sell online and at large retail chains.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

They provided a range of branding services.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

Anchour leveraged the insights that another vendor of ours gathered, going so far as to sit in our meetings with the other vendor.  Once they had that information, they went behind the scenes and generated a whole new look and feel for us, including a new logo, color palette, packaging, and messaging for our new target demographic.

We didn’t want to change the name of our company; there were some high-level guidelines but, generally, we were fairly open.

What is the team composition?

On conference calls, there were 3–4 people, but I know that there were people doing the work behind the scenes. There was a project manager, a lead designer, and a couple of other people.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

We evaluated around 8–10 different companies. Anchour came to us through a recommendation from a former client. They went through an exhaustive process alongside a few other options, and we settled on Anchour because of their references and experience in the CBD industry. They’d done a couple of website for similar brands, and we loved those outputs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$49,999 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2021–March 2022. They’re now on our shortlist to work with us again in the future on digital marketing.

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

They delivered the project a month early, which helped us launch a new functional brand. This is the only hard metric we have, as the rest of the work was design- and creative-focused.

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication was excellent. We had regularly scheduled meetings and communicated with them over Slack in between those meetings. There was a very interactive process between them and our marketing team.

We collaborated over Google Docs and a Gantt Chart; Trello might have been used in parallel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Anchour listened to us a lot, which resulted in design iterations that really nailed our vision.  This is rare in a vendor. Additionally, I loved how they sat with our data vendor and learned about our targeting demographic to craft better branding. They heard their presentations firsthand.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I thought the engagement went very well, so I don’t have any constructive feedback. Anchour was professional from start to finish.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more information you can share with them about what you’re looking for, the better off you are. The reason why the engagement went well is that they sat in on those meetings with our data vendor. Additionally, spend time filling out the questionnaire that Anchour provides you. It will make the whole process quicker and easier.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing coordinator at Threshold Brands, a home services franchisor. We have about eight brands under our umbrella, and we do home cleaning, pest control, and other similar services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

We purchased a brand in Indianapolis called Plumbing Heating Paramedics. To better market its franchise, we divided the brand into Plumbing Paramedics and Heating and Air Paramedics.

We needed to create branding for those new companies. We couldn’t do that internally, so we looked for an outside agency to help us with this process. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Anchour is conducting an entire branding process for our two new brands. They’ve created brand guidelines and helped us with brand strategy. They’ve also worked on our website copy. We have a short timetable of only a month to get everything together for this project. 

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Aimee (Account Manager) and one other teammate, but I know there are more resources behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

I found Anchour years ago; at the time, we were thinking about doing a rebrand. I started the research, but the project fell apart as we didn’t have the budget.

When this project came up, I found Anchour again, and they were open to helping us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September, and it’s ongoing. 

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

Internally, we’ve talked with people who haven’t worked on the project and asked for their input. Most people are happy with Anchour’s work.

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly communicate through email, and we use Asana for project management. We can see what they are doing at any time we need to — we can know if tasks are on hold or track. It has been the first time an agency has invited me on their project management platform, and I appreciate that. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Anchour’s curiosity is impressive. They are working on niche brands, and they’ve got to know what they’re talking about to market them. As a result, they’ve done so much research. 

Anchour is very curious about the inner workings of our business — that has resulted in a really great presentation in the end. They didn’t do just the bare minimum; they’ve gone into the weeds with how we operated. They’ve understood our brand not just from a marketing perspective but from an overall business perspective. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any complaints about their work. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know your budget going in, so Anchour knows exactly what they’re working with. Having that information helps them be able to help you better.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing officer of Franklin Savings Bank, a community bank with about $500 million in assets.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

We’d never had a strategic marketing plan or ventured into that realm of marketing, so we started working with Anchour to build a really strategic website. Our old website was really outdated, but Anchour helped bring us to this generation and gave us the website that our customers deserved. We also needed some rebranding, so they helped us come up with a new logo, color palette, brand messaging, and more.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our process with Anchour started with a comprehensive industry analysis, which included surveys that went out to our customers, target demographics, and employees. This effort helped map our brand strategy and figure out what mattered the most to our customers. Then, they compiled that research along with some other market research they had access to, and they created a PowerPoint presentation.

We went through that presentation, where they showed us how our current customers and our target demographic looked. They also gave our customers personalities and showed us who would be better to market to.

Once we figured out our brand strategy, we went into a brand design phase, where we did market research to find which colors resonated the most with our target audience. We looked at the other banks in our market to figure out how to use our look to set us apart from them and be more competitive.

We went through different phases of the design strategy, where Anchour showed us different logo and color palette options through PowerPoint presentations. If we had any feedback, they would come back with another round of revisions, and we kept iterating until we were satisfied with our branding.

After the branding process, we moved into the deliverables phase. Anchour put together our colors and logo to make different sign mockups, our business cards, a letterhead, and every other collateral that could have our branding on it. They also gave us everything we needed to keep updating our collateral with our new branding going forward.

Then, they used WordPress to build our website, as well as different variations of the Adobe Suite to show us the designs. They integrated different gravity forms so that our customers could ask questions and fill our forms right on our website instead of waiting for a separate email and handling external documentation. Additionally, they integrated different calculators on the website using another vendor’s technology.

Anchour has really helped us get on the right path regarding our strategy, and we’re looking forward to starting another project with them in the near future. Now, we will be starting a strategy session soon, where they’ll help us develop an overarching brand strategy for our bank, and they will help us lay out our budget.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with a very helpful project manager and a person who works underneath her, acting as an assistant project manager. I’ve also talked to the owner, two separate web developers, and a copy editor, so I’ve had contact with 5–6 people from Anchour in total.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

In 2020, right before COVID-19 started, our long-term marketing director was retiring quite suddenly, so we looked for guidance from an outside company for a little while before she left. She had also been looking around for marketing companies that could help us, focusing on those that weren’t specifically bank marketers, so she was the one who pitched Anchour to us.

We had seen some of their work previously, and they were the second company that we talked to. We had a few meetings with them, and we really liked their energy and the different feel that they would bring to the table, which was why we ultimately decided to go with them. We trusted that they would create something new and fresh for our branding and messaging.

How much have you invested with them?

Including the website and the new branding, we’ve spent around $115,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and our partnership is ongoing.

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

The new branding hasn’t been out for too long — we just launched our first ads in September 2021. However, we’ve heard impressive feedback from customers and advertisers, who have told us that our new look is clean, crisp, and modern. The new website is also much more user-friendly, and customers are very happy with how easy it is to find all of the information they need.

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

We really like that Anchour uses a lot of different tools to manage the project. They use Monday.com, so we always know where things are in the timeline. It has also been easy to see where things held up, whether something is taking longer than expected or there is an answer we need to find.

We also use Box.com to manage and share files, Notion to communicate in real time and make edits, and BugHerd to comment about the website wireframes and ask for edits. We also use email when needed.

Anchour has also done a great job touching base with us, reaching out, and offering their help. As this is a new realm for us, they’ve walked us through every step of the plan.

From a communication standpoint, I had never worked with a company as communicative and open as them. Whenever we have a question, they’re very thoughtful and take the time to make sure that we understand their answer and get everyone on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Anchour’s collaboration and willingness to hear us are impressive. They don’t come up with all of the ideas; they really listen to what we have to say and take our feedback into consideration. They’re also very receptive and work hard to bring our visions to life.

It has been a great learning experience because Anchour is a really great communicator. They do a really good job of being clear about the objectives, which is also helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good if Anchour improved the frequency of the communication. There have been deadlines that we’ve fallen behind, and we’ve had to wait a couple of days to hear back from them. However, we sometimes take a long time to get back to them, too. Additionally, I know that we’re all busy, and I don’t expect them to hold our hand all the time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go in with an open mind. Marketing can be very subjective at times, so ask all of the questions you need because Anchour is a subject matter expert, and they’ll answer any questions. Additionally, don’t assume that they know exactly what you’re trying to do or what your business does, and explain your business goals clearly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Paper Trails, and we provide payroll and HR services to our clients. Our services include applicant tracking and bookkeeping.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

We were looking to conduct a rebrand to reposition ourselves in the market. Specifically, we wanted to move upmarket and work with larger clients, so we needed help with rebranding.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Anchor helped us conduct a complete rebrand. We showed them our existing brand, website, and collateral. They then helped us evaluate our brand and make decisions regarding the rebranding process. For example, we explored the possibility of renaming the company together with the team. With their guidance, we ultimately decided not to rename.

The Anchour team then moved on to redesigning our branding. In line with that, they produced new collaterals and developed a website from scratch. We asked them to make our website more dynamic than our old one, which was a simple brochure site. 

Finally, to help us reposition ourselves, the team highlighted the companies we worked with rather than focusing on our services. They also gave us the ability to post content about upcoming events and so on.

What is the team composition?

Overall, we interacted with 10–12 teammates. Aimee (Account Manager) was our primary contact and worked with us through the whole process. We also had three different project managers for each stage of the process, but we mainly dealt with Aimee.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

We searched for branding agencies in Maine, and Anchour came up. They were very positively reviewed, so we met with the owners to discuss the project. The pricing was reasonable, and the project scope they created was very detailed — we felt very confident about them and decided to move forward.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from February–October 2021. 

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

We’re still very much in the process of repositioning ourselves internally, so we haven’t launched yet. However, the feedback we got from our previous clients was positive — they felt that Anchour’s designs portrayed us as a more mature organization. 

Our goal was to look like a bigger company, so we were happy with their work.

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

The team certainly had a good account management process, but I managed them more closely after they fell a little behind schedule. The timeline was stretched out a lot longer than I would have liked, but I understood why things took so long.

In terms of communication, we had weekly calls to discuss where they were in the process. They also let me know if they needed anything from me.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They definitely had a competent team in place to deliver our needs. Many of the other companies we evaluated were a little too small for us, but Anchour had the extensive expertise needed to fulfill every aspect of the rebranding process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did an excellent job. They could’ve finished the process earlier, but the deliverables ended up being well worth the wait.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take it upon yourself to push things forward and be hands-on. The team will do a good job.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of an apparel company focusing on men’s dresses and shirts, along with other items. The ethos of our brand is to solve problems for men, particularly around office dresses. We have a product line that addresses such problems. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

We hired Anchour for their marketing and web development services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Anchour has done everything for our marketing efforts. They’ve handled our initial market research, branding, and renaming exercises. In these processes, I’ve given them mood boards, a memo of what the brand should look like, and a brand name. Our team has also provided them with our competitor websites to give them a sense of what our market looks like. 

The team has also built our website, and I’m still using them for our post-launch marketing. Essentially, they’ve worked for us from soup to nuts in the past two years. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with nearly their entire team, including Stephen (CEO) and Joshua (Partner & President). Meanwhile, Aimee (Senior Account Manager) has been my main point of contact, and I’ve worked with their creative team through her. That creative team includes Jessica (Project Manager). 

As we transition to our post-launch efforts, I work with a representative on their marketing side. She connects me with their website developers and Google and social media ad buyers.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

I interviewed a number of marketing companies. Meanwhile, I used Clutch to identify and hire Anchour. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested over $100,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around August 2019, and the engagement is ongoing. 

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

We’ve received rave reviews for our website, branding, and name — everybody has given us positive feedback. The website is the main customer-facing asset we have, and it’s truly well-done; that’s the feedback I’ve received from numerous people. 

Given that, I’ve been extremely pleased with everything that Anchour has done from a quality standpoint. In fact, I’ve recommended them to numerous other people. 

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

Anchour has managed the project well. They’re highly organized when it comes to any given number of things to be tinkered with in our post-launch campaign. For communication, we talk every other week through a check-in call. If something’s imminent, we’ll jump on a call and make sure everything is approved and we’re all on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Not only does Anchour have aesthetic appeal and world-class creativity; they also offer a full service. Other firms focus on branding, while some of them focus on post-launch marketing. Some companies do branding and post-launch marketing but don’t necessarily have in-house developers that make great websites. By contrast, Anchour can do essentially everything for a startup. As a result, we don’t have to engage with multiple companies. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. Anchour does a terrific job and has a speedy turnaround time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let Anchour be creative. They will take your idea of what the brand should look like, but you must be open-minded when it comes to their ideas. Their team is incredibly creative and insightful, so if you’re going to pay them and spend time engaging their team, listen to what they have to say. Their resources truly know what they’re doing. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of marketing and communications at Good Shepherd Food Bank. We're the primary food bank in the charitable food network in Maine.

We have a network of over 500 partner agencies, including food pantries, meal sites, senior centers, school programs, and healthcare facilities.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

We needed help with web development, graphic design, and marketing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Anchour developed our WordPress website. They handled everything from the design to the content. The team now helps us with SEO and PPC and manages our Google Ad Grant of around $10,000 per month.

We've since expanded the scope to include graphic design services. Specifically, the team is working on creating new logos and brand guidelines for us. With each logo they create, we go through the details like line width and color scheme. They make recommendations and ask us for approval until we end up with a final product. 

Anchour has also conducted an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) audit for us, and they're currently working on making our site ADA compliant. The team plans to install Recite Me, which will translate the site into various languages and add a screen reader function for people with ADHD.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is our account manager, but I've worked with almost all their teammates. I've worked with the two co-owners and various graphic designers, web developers, auditors, and UX designers.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

My predecessor sent out an RFP and selected Anchour.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between $100,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2015 and is ongoing.

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

Anchour always delivers beyond our expectations; we're satisfied with everything they've done for us. Their SEO work is incredible. The team is on top of the latest trends and is always recommending new strategies to us. 

Overall, their impact has been immeasurable — knowing that we have them looking out for us is incredibly reassuring. Furthermore, Anchour provides an in-kind match for the monthly fee we pay them, which is rare for a vendor. That really demonstrates their commitment to fighting hunger and the local nonprofit landscape. 

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

Anchour is always on budget and on time. We use Asana, which works amazingly well when it comes to tracking their work. To communicate, we use email. Everything has gone smoothly, and our partnership has been great. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Anchour makes sure that we fully understand what they're doing, which we appreciate. The team walks us through each step and explains their thought process, which is phenomenal. We've learned so much from them, which could be helpful in the long run. The Anchour team is passionate about their craft, which is apparent in their incredible expertise.

Overall, we're thankful for their help — they've made the process so much easier, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We're always strapped for time and resources, so we love that Anchour can handle the website for us. Anchour is always three steps ahead of us; we know we can count on them to steer us in the right direction.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Whenever I encounter any miscommunication or issues, I feel comfortable approaching them about it. Anything that has come up has already been solved. Overall, we've had a delightful experience working with Anchour.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I definitely recommended reaching out to them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior digital marketing manager for a company that owns several brands with both D2C and B2B channels. My role is to oversee our e-commerce environment and web functionality as well as run the day-to-day operations and strategy of our e-commerce presence.

What challenge were you trying to address with Anchour?

I’ve used Anchour for many different projects, but my two main engagements with them have been designing two websites. One was a brand site that they launched from nothing, and the other was a rebuild of an existing brand’s site that had been on the market for several years.

What was the scope of their involvement?

While Anchour built one of the websites from the ground up, I approached them with a very rough wireframe for the other website. It wasn’t ready to go to production at all, but Anchour adapted it into a professional wireframe, which then translated into a website design we could put into development.

They’ve made a few exceptional integrations across both websites as well. I work in a heavily regulated industry with nuanced rules around advertising, and these rules differ between channels and platforms. Anchour developed a solution that makes it easier to adapt to these regulations that’s incredibly impressive. No other company in our space has this system; it’s a custom build.

They’ve also done a lot of SEO and set up content guidelines. I handle my advertising separately from Anchour, but they’ve been instrumental in setting up landing pages and microsites.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with about 10 people from Anchour, including a UX specialist, a project manager, an account manager, two developers, one designer, a content migration resource, and an SEO resource.

How did you come to work with Anchour?

They were recommended to me by an acquaintance, and because I didn’t know that acquaintance’s experience too well, I wasn’t sure what to make of their endorsement. At first, we awarded the contract to another vendor. In the process of starting with that vendor, however, we realized that we made the wrong decision and pivoted to Anchour.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just under $250,000 total, including a monthly retainer we pay Anchour to develop additional functionalities, make changes, and fix bugs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2020. Both websites have launched — the new brand launched last year and the redesigned brand launched last week — and we’ve moved on to working on a third website.

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

Although we were already one month into the project with another vendor, Anchour was able to hit our initial timeline. Our sales have been much better for the established brand since we launched the redesigned website than they were before the launch. For the brand we built from nothing, we made over $1,000,000 in sales before the end of 2020 even though we didn’t launch it until October.

People love the websites. They engage with the properties in a healthy and positive way. There’s a lot of subtle movement now on the website of the existing brand, and it will take people a while to recognize the movements. Once they recognize the whole package, it’s so much fun to watch people’s faces; they give very positive reactions. It’s very fun to watch that moment of realization.

How did Anchour perform from a project management standpoint?

They use Monday.com, and we communicate over Slack, emails, texts, and phone calls. I try to be respectful of the time difference between myself on the west coast and them on the east coast, but in the run-up to launching a website, things have to get done, and Anchour was always accessible. I could call or text my account manager at pretty much any time and she would respond.

They’re easy to communicate with. If a meeting is scheduled for 30 minutes and only takes 15, then we move on to other tasks rather than feel pressured to fill the final 15 minutes. We all have plenty of tasks to accomplish

What did you find most impressive about them?

Anchour’s ability to communicate, work, and function under time pressure without it seeming like they’re being rushed stands out. Due to extenuating circumstances on our side, we couldn’t kick off our project until much later than we wanted, but I never felt stressed working with Anchour. I have a lot of trust in them to finish what they say they’ll finish. Part of that comes from their ability to identify problems early and know what the pain points will be before they show up. They’re extremely accommodating, but they tell me if something I’m asking for will push the timeline, which is so much better than promising me everything and then not delivering in the end.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Anchour is truly my favorite vendor, and I work with many external agencies. They’re a growing company, which makes me excited for when they have the capabilities to take on more ambitious projects and timelines. When they get more clients, hopefully, they’ll find more talent at the same level as their existing talent to make their offerings a bit more robust.

I wish that I could have given them a three-times longer timeline than I did because they would have built something even more remarkable.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This is the same advice that I’d give about any vendor: clear communication in a timely manner makes everyone’s lives better. Be upfront with them about what you want to include, and they’ll say how it will affect the timeline. And there are times when I tell them we have to have a feature from a business perspective, and they respond well to that type of prioritization. This way, we receive everything we need and most of what we want, rather than the other way around.