Baunfire

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former head of marketing communications and branding of a B2B semiconductor company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

We needed to revamp our company’s website to give it a new look and improve its functionality and UX.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Baunfire revamped our company’s site and redesigned our branding. They designed our site’s UI/UX using InVision and Adobe Creative Suite. For web development, Baunfire used WordPress. 

Initially, we had an extensive discovery phase to define the project’s requirements. Baunfire asked us for a lot of information about our company to understand our vision and determine our site’s functionalities. 

After the discovery phase, Baunfire came up with the project’s plan and timeline. For our rebranding, Baunfire first created a comprehensive slide deck with branding examples and visual references. They also gave us recommendations to follow branding’s best practices. Baunfire overhauled our brand guidelines and helped us define our overall brand architecture since the company has smaller business units. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a large team from Baunfire. Our first contact was with Juan (CEO). Then, during the project development, we had two main points of contact: a project manager and the head of design. 

How did you come to work with Baunfire?

Our company had already worked with Baunfire. The first time we contacted them, I believe it was through a referral from a PR agency we had worked with. We chose Baunfire because they demonstrated web and UX design expertise.

Before starting this project's engagement, I met with Juan to discuss our scope and goals. He also gave me a comprehensive quote and list of the services Baunfire could provide. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $150,000 in the website design and development. However, I don’t recall the budget for the branding project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project with Baunfire in January 2021, and we had a hard deadline to launch the new brand by January 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re a long-tail business, so it’s hard to talk about sales since acquiring a customer can sometimes take up to 3–5 years. However, we definitely saw an improvement in website traffic, lead generation, and SEO score. 

Baunfire was able to translate our engineers’ technical requirements into an easy-to-use website with great functionality and design. They also improved the site for better tracking on Google Analytics. 

Overall, we received positive feedback from our colleagues and customers about the new site’s usability and design. 

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

Baunfire met deadlines and stayed on budget. They used a project management tool for their internal team; however, we weren’t familiar with it. Baunfire translated the information from their task management platform into a Google Sheets file they shared with us. Overall, Baunfire’s project manager made sure everything was on task. 

For communication, Baunfire set up a Slack account for my team and me. We also communicated through email and Zoom meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with Baunfire’s design capability. They have a lot of experience in UX design and implement the best practices. 

Moreover, I was also impressed with Baunfire’s ability to translate our technical needs into a pleasing design and a functional website. I’ve worked with other agencies before, and it can be easy to have misunderstandings with design teams even after explaining the requirements several times. Baunfire understood our engineering team's requirements, and I’m considering working with them again. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue we experienced with Baunfire was an unexpected personnel change on their team due to a teammate’s personal matter. The project’s handover with the new team member wasn’t as smooth as I expected. We had to backtrack in our previous conversations to make sure we didn’t miss any date or deliverable.

I’m aware this situation was beyond Baunfire’s control; however, I would’ve preferred to work with one account manager. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend potential customers be upfront and transparent with Baunfire from the early stages of the project about their goals and expectations. This is important for any design project to avoid misunderstandings halfway through the project, which wastes a lot of time and energy.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own a photography studio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

I hired Baunfire to create a website and to help with branding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a discovery phase, and Baunfire interviewed me to understand what I was looking for and wanted my brand to look like. They created a logo and collateral and designed mock-ups that helped visualize the final product. 

Baunfire was responsible for website design, development, and content for the WordPress site. They created a sitemap and portfolio pages categorized by session type so I can easily post new photos or switch the order of the sessions. Baunfire offers maintenance and hosting services.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Juan (Founder), Jenny (Operations Manager), Heidi (Former Senior Project Manager), and Lily (Director of Design). 

How much have you invested with them?

I invested $75,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between October–November 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provided high-quality designs, and the coding provides smooth transitions. I wanted the website to look elegant and editorial, and they achieved that. The project was rushed, and they still delivered at a top-notch level. The logo is easy to use and very recognizable; I’ve seen an increase in leads and received many contact inquiry forms through the website. 

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

I was on a tight timeline and wanted to launch very quickly, and they sped up the process to stay on that timeline. We met once a week, and they responded quickly to feedback. Baunfire was extremely organized and responsive, and if I ever had a question, they got back to me quickly. Their customer service was incredible. 

They stayed on budget and helped me to stay grounded throughout the engagement. We communicated over Zoom and email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have no development background, but they made everything easy to edit. They took the time to educate me on how to use the website and its functionalities. The team from Baunfire was personable and patient when they walked me through everything. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can come up with. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on your expectations and communicate them. It also helps to be on top of the timeline.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former VP of product marketing at Centrify, a privileged access management (PAM) solutions company. They went through a rebranding process last year, so they’re now called Delinea.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

In January 2020, we rolled out a brand-new website; it was a project that our then-CMO had started. For this project, she wanted to completely rebrand the company after we got acquired by a private equity firm, so we worked for four months with another agency and spent close to $500,000 to get everything done.

Throughout this project, I noticed that this other agency lacked experience, but we still pushed through that. However, once we launched, we were very disappointed. The site was not self-manageable, had a lot of flows we didn’t ask for, some content elements were missing, and some modules didn’t work properly. Therefore, we realized that we needed to go back and fix things. Based on my previous experience working with Baunfire, I proposed looking at them to help us do that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Baunfire focused on assessing and fixing the elements of our site that were broken and the other agency had left behind. This process included updating its look and feel, fixing some UI/UX issues, and working on front- and backend development to ensure that the site was self-manageable and focused on conversion.

As for the technology stack, the previous agency had built our site on Drupal. Drupal isn’t a tool that Baunfire necessarily uses; over the years, they’ve created their own CMS. However, we were now bound to Drupal, so Baunfire worked within it.

Among other features, Baunfire created particular modules within our site that allowed us to do things that the other agency had told us weren’t possible. For example, they built an integration with Seismic, an asset management system that allows users to share assets with buyers and track their interactions with those assets.

The other agency used a traditional approach to asset management, posting them in a repository within our CMS. However, this approach didn’t allow us to see the interactions with those assets. Thus, Baunfire worked with our business applications manager to leverage Seismic APIs and create that integration within our site.

Once Baunfire fixed and enhanced the site, we kept them on to augment our in-house team and fine-tune things. They ran monthly analyses to see which customer journeys were working and which weren’t, and we fine-tuned our strategy accordingly.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a whole team from Baunfire, including a project manager, a creative director, a content strategist, and supporting designers.

How did you come to work with Baunfire?

I had already worked with Baunfire on other projects, so I recommended working with them. Still, the company vetted four companies in total, and Baunfire really stood out from the rest for how they presented themselves and how they would fix things.

The first time I engaged with Baunfire, a new CEO came into a former company I worked at as an executive, and we were rebranding the company at the time. The CEO had previous experience working with them, so he told me to look at them and listen to what they had to say. Still, I didn’t rely on talking with one person only, so we looked at three different agencies.

Baunfire was better both from a cost perspective and for how well-rounded their proposal was. Thus, we hired them for that project and had an amazing experience. After that, I used them again for two other startup companies. When this project arose, I brought them in to fix things.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February 2020–January 2021. The first six months were focused on fixing things, after which we switched to a retainer model to fine-tune the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Baunfire delivered one of the best-performing websites I had seen in my 28-years career — we could clearly see a before and after. For example, after the site relaunch, our conversion rate increased dramatically. When the other agency delivered the site, our conversion rate was around 2.8%, and we had a high bounce rate.

Upon further investigation, Baunfire found out that our site had some dead ends that didn’t allow users to complete a full customer journey on the website. Once we rolled out our new site, our conversion rate increased to 18%–21%, which was very high for our industry. Additionally, the Seismic integration gave us insight into how our users engaged with our assets, giving us a huge advantage from a marketing perspective.

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

Baunfire delivered on budget and was very collaborative. Although they had a content strategist and a creative director, our team contributed heavily to the content creation portion of the project. We were pleased to sync up and align to define the content we would put into the site.

Basically, we treated Baunfire as our own team members and embedded them 100% into our processes. That approach was very helpful, especially during the first six months, because everyone was very disappointed with what the other agency had delivered.

Baunfire’s team was part of the weekly team meetings with our creative team. Our senior director of creative brand worked closely with them, and she had a fun time, which is what a website development project should be about. As for collaboration tools, we used Slack and Zoom.

Teammates who had never worked with Baunfire noticed a big difference working with them compared to working with the previous agency. They listened to our needs and guided us on best practices and how to build certain features.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Baunfire knowledge went beyond traditional web development. Our previous agency constantly told us that they couldn’t do certain things to the site. However, when Baunfire came in, they told us that, in reality, the other agency didn’t want to do them. Those requirements were doable, but they required putting in a little more effort.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was nothing Baunfire could have improved on; they were close to perfection. Since I first engaged with them, they’ve evolved into a company that delivers best practices, so I don’t see any flaws in their work. Next time I have the opportunity to work with them, I won’t even bother to interview other agencies.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as open as possible, explain your objectives clearly, and go into details. When talking about website design, a lot of people focus on the look and feel. However, Baunfire has a great project kickoff process, during which they’ll ask you questions you might not have thought about but should be thinking about.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior creative producer at a cloud and network security company. I oversee and manage the creative process within our marketing department. We have a team of about 40 people that work across web design, video, and content editorials. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

We launched a completely new brand in 2022, and we needed Baunfire to support and oversee how the brand was implemented across the web and our design aesthetics as a whole. We brought them in as an essential partner to help update and refresh our brand as it related creatively to our website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came to Baunfire with a technical overview of what our new brand should look like. Our team relied on them to guide us in adapting the new brand and interpreting it across our designs on the web and otherwise. They mainly used Figma and Adobe Creative Suite for the design and Drupal for the backend development. 

At present, Baunfire serves as an extension of our team as we work for our entire organization. We have a guideline of what we want to accomplish with the new brand, but their team helps us execute and evolve it.

What is the team composition?

We work with around five teammates from Baunfire composed of three designers and one producer.

How did you come to work with Baunfire?

My manager and I worked with Baunfire on various projects in the past. Having a history of working with them and knowing what they could do convinced us to hire them for this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $120,000–$150,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2022, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new brand’s engagement and views have increased to hundreds of millions based on the creatives that are out in the market. Aside from that, we’ve increased the number of visits to our website.  

For qualitative feedback, Baunfire’s expertise in design is extremely high. They’re one of the premier design agencies in the Bay Area, and the quality of their work is unmatched.

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciate that they’re always available and responsive. They acknowledge if they receive a new request or any feedback. The team adheres to dates and commits to deadlines — they’re truly wonderful. 

For communication, we primarily use emails. We use Zoom for calls, and we’re in their Slack channel, too. Our team uses Asana and Trello internally, but we don’t share project management systems with Baunfire. They use their own system to manage their end of the projects we have with them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with their design expertise. They’re a well-oiled machine in terms of project management and execution. Moreover, the team doesn’t require much handholding or instruction. We can come to them with ideas, visions, or rough guidelines, and they’ll understand our needs and execute based on those.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. They’re always on time and deliver high-quality work. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend Baunfire to anyone looking for web design support. Their digital knowledge and expertise are well-known in this area — they’re among the best in the business. They not only know things from a design perspective but also understand UI/UX.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a VP for a manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

We hired them for branding and digital marketing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started by explaining who we are as a company with our brand and messaging perspectives. Baunfire followed up with a series of calls to our stakeholders and various experts within our organization to better understand the company. They also spoke to technology experts and individuals from our marketing and sales departments to fully conceptualize what we’re trying to do. 

The project we're currently working on involves new content creation, messaging, email campaigns, look and feel, collateral, marketing, and a new website. We had some brand guidelines in place, and Baunfire has been helping us to fine-tune those. They’ve also been helping refine our go-to-market (GTM) strategy in certain channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram; we’re looking to get into TikTok in the future. 

I’ve worked with Baunfire in the past at other companies and used them for projects like building a website from scratch, creating new pages, and creating infographics. Baunfire also gives clients  CMS tools to make changes to the website, so every company can make changes without external help. 

What is the team composition?

The team size varies, but the team we’re working with now consists of 4–5 people. We work with a project manager, a creative team, and a content team; we also work with Juan (CEO). 

How did you come to work with Baunfire?

I met Juan about 20 years ago, and we’ve stayed in touch. I’ve used Baunfire for every company I’ve worked at since then. 

How much have you invested with them?

Each project and company I’ve worked at with Baunfire has been different, and the price varies heavily based on the project. The most recent project was over $200,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in the beginning of 2002, and the engagement is ongoing because I’ve continued to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their quality of work is exceptional, and Baunfire is incredibly easy to work with. Some of the ROI is measurable, and some isn’t, but they’ve assisted us with brand recognition, awareness, and the brand's strength. The email campaigns we work on create new opportunities for our business and the company. Overall, we think it's money and time well spent.

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet deadlines and always keep a steady line of communication; if there are any delays, they communicate that to us clearly, but for the most part, they're on time or even ahead of schedule. We communicate via Slack, Microsoft Teams, phone calls, and texting. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They bring value, creativity, and efficiency to the table. They’re well-versed and can impact an organization regardless of size or scale. They do everything very well and for a reasonable price, and I’ve been able to build a very strong relationship with Baunfire over the years. They have a customer mindset and understand our needs instead of just instructing us on what to do. 

Baunfire is also tech-savvy, and they know how to work in multiple industries. They make beautiful, high-quality deliverables, and every aspect of their firm is incredibly strong. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing we can come up with at this point. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand what your goals are and what you want to achieve. Know specifically what you need to improve upon so you can help them understand what you’re looking for out of them. Once you figure out what will help you move the needle to improve your business, they can help you do that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of people and marketing for a data center developer and operator company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

We had previously worked with Baunfire when we were engineering our website. When it was time to refresh and update things, I reached out to them for help since we were on a time crunch. The project started over the holidays, and we needed to update the website for an upcoming company announcement.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Baunfire changed a few of the photos and design elements of our website. It wasn’t a complete rebrand since they still used some of the previous site’s designs and attributes. The number of pages stayed the same, but they worked on making everything more interactive. They added links to our bios, for example. In terms of tools, they used Figma for designing the site and another tool for staging the website.  

What is the team composition?

I mainly worked with Lily (Project Manager) and contacted her whenever I had a question, needed something to be tweaked, or noticed an issue. I spoke with Juan (Founder) a few times and with some of their designers.  

How did you come to work with Baunfire?

I found Baunfire online when we were searching for local firms in the Bay Area. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our most recent project lasted from December 2022–January 2023. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The overall feedback for Baunfire’s work was truly positive. 

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

They met deadlines, though we slightly increased the budget at the end of the engagement because we wanted them to do more work. However, it wasn’t a huge shift in the budget. To communicate, we used emails. If we needed to connect for a call, we used Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their teammates were their strength. For instance, Lily was such a good project manager; if it hadn’t been for her, we wouldn’t have been able to stay on track and deliver the project on time. On top of that, we were impressed with their flexibility and willingness to work with both early-stage companies and larger businesses. This meant that we could scale our business with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, it wasn’t clear who our designer was. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be bold in asking for what you want. If you don’t like the design, tell Baunfire. They’re truly receptive to feedback and collaborative. In our case, I had a number of comments on their design, and the team made sure to address them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the former senior director of digital strategy and innovation at NETGEAR. I was responsible for transforming our website’s overall look, feel; I also handled the customer experience for a few brands we had. These were big brands that our company talked to Wall Street about since our company was a publicly traded one.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

I needed to work on Arlo, which was a company that came from an acquisition. Specifically, I needed to rebrand their entire website and prepare them for an IPO in the stock market. I also worked on Orbi, a new product line that was pivotal for the growth of our company.  

With that in mind, I hired Baunfire to redesign our key websites and help us rebrand NETGEAR, which was a 20-year-old, old-school company. Apart from that, we wanted to revamp our customer experience and the collateral that we used for investors and partners. Our team needed to re-energize and elevate the brand for it to become a market leader. Baunfire served as our main design agency for these goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For Orbi, Baunfire rebuilt a website from scratch. For Arlo, they redesigned an existing website. NETGEAR had about 5,000 web pages, while Arlo was a bit smaller with about 2,000 pages. NETGEAR’s monthly traffic was in the millions, so our work was critical. We used a variety of systems, but the two main systems we used included Trident. It was the main CMS for our main and regional websites. Aside from that, we used Google Analytics and WordPress for our blog platforms. 

For core features, the websites had various interactive videos for customers on the B2B and B2C sides. Baunfire and our team implemented some of the latest design standards around motion parallax. Moreover, personalization features were built into our websites’ design based on our audience and campaigns. Another big feature we worked on was e-commerce capabilities, allowing us to sell directly to customers. This was a new strategy for us as we were redesigning the sites. We needed to make it work well since we were competing against Google and Amazon. 

Baunfire did all the frontend design work for these projects. Although we had our own development team working on the backend, the Baunfire team remained part of the technical team. Juan (Founder) served as a technical expert that helped us code and ensured the websites’ development met the best standards possible. They used Figma for the designs and Miro boards to work through things.

Though we had an SEO agency, Juan and the Baunfire team helped us with our content creation campaign since they worked on our branding assets. They created strategies and content ideas. For example, we had a campaign to launch one of our new products. Juan and his team provided us with five campaign ideas and scenarios. One of the marketing campaigns Baunfire helped with showed a male having a tantrum because his WiFi didn’t work anymore. We called this a “mantrum”, and we had a message that said, “Don’t have a mantrum when your WiFi is down”. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 10 people from Baunfire, including Juan. An account manager was responsible for the engagement, while a project manager came in for the redesign projects. Additionally, a creative director worked in conjunction with Juan. There was also a lead designer, who was joined by 2–3 additional designers. More people worked behind the scenes, but these were the teammates we’d interfaced with during our projects. 

How did you come to work with Baunfire?

I heard about Baunfire in 2005 while I was working for another company; I worked with them for a short time in 2008–2009, and then I moved companies. When I joined NETGEAR to help them re-envision their brand, I contacted Juan and brought his team into our account because I knew they did great work. 

Overall, they left a great impression on me when I was working with my previous company, and I wanted to continue working with them at some point in my next roles — the engagement at NETGEAR was the perfect opportunity for me to do that, so we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $600,000 across two redesign projects, and we had a retainer of around $45,000 per quarter or roughly $200,000 per year across three years. In total, we invested around $1.2 million in the partnership. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This engagement lasted from August 2015–December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

To measure success, we used standard metrics such as traffic, time spent on a page, bounce rate, and conversion rate. The conversion rate was based on whether or not a user downloaded an asset, registered for an event, or made a purchase on our website. In addition to these, our team looked at our sales growth  — we needed to grow in sales every quarter and every year. On top of that, we looked at our campaign ROI. Moreover, we needed to increase our subscribers, which we reported to Wall Street yearly. It had a big impact on our stock. 

For specific results, the “mantrum” project was our best-performing campaign of all time from an SEO and marketing perspective. It was a funny story, but it showed Baunfire’s value and how much Juan’s team was integrated into NETGEAR.  

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

Baunfire was on top of their game when it came to project management. They had an internal system to keep track of the hours, meetings, and projects; the team had their own metrics to ensure they were taking care of customers — I loved that. I haven’t seen an internal system as robust as theirs since our engagement. 

Moreover, we had biweekly meetings with our end customers, and Baunfire never missed a beat. Their members were open and transparent. If something took longer than expected, they’d let us know and give us a tradeoff. This transparency was important since it allowed us to be transparent, too. We could either tell them to give us what they had or give them a few extra days. Overall, their communication was great. We used Slack to communicate. 

Our team was big on Asana and Confluence, so Juan’s team used those with us. Confluence mapped well with Jira; that was where we did all of our tickets. Meanwhile, our teams used Asana to manage the entire project. As we started getting into the technical side, we leveraged Confluence as executive dashboards. We also used Basecamp depending on the project's scope. Since we were working with international members, not everyone was on Asana and Confluence, so Basecamp served as a good space for overseas collaboration. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Baunfire team was humble. We told them to keep rioting and being creative, and our management team pushed the limits of the engagement. If we didn’t like something, we’d tell Baunfire to come back to us with something better. Juan managed this responsibility respectfully. 

For comparison, other agencies would continue to win awards and rise up to become leaders. Because of that, they’d feel they were too good for an account. By contrast, it didn’t matter to Baunfire whether this was a quick $5,000 project or a huge redesign — we were treated the same. I truly appreciated this. Their humility was an intangible skill that made a huge difference in our relationship and success. This was why I continued recommending them to others. They’d go the extra mile, build good relationships, and create the best designs possible. I absolutely loved this about Baunfire. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

If they don’t understand something right away, it would be good to continue asking questions. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Build a strong relationship with Baunfire, and don’t be afraid to push them to create something you’ve never seen before. Juan and his team will deliver. Moreover, be transparent — if you’re expecting something that’s never been done before in terms of design, say it. If you’re expecting something that’s within the team’s brand, be honest about it, too, because a lack of transparency or communication can prolong tasks, resulting in you not having enough time.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of operations for a billboard company run by a real estate development firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

We wanted to completely rebrand our digital presence to express the technological advantages of our billboard company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before Baunfire started the project, they outlined each step, including what I’d need to do. They showed us examples and conducted 30–45 minute interviews with members of our team separately about what we liked and disliked. 

Then, they presented their proposal for our new digital identity. They edited our logo and completely redesigned our website on WordPress, which I chose since it’s customizable. They incorporated some existing code from our billboard. Baunfire improved our SEO, focusing mostly on headlines. I chose not to have them dive too deep into SEO, but I’m sure they could have. They also implemented CAPTCHA on the site.

What is the team composition?

I had one main point of contact and worked with 3–4 other people. A larger team worked behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Baunfire?

I sent an RFP to 20–25 web design companies and spoke with a considerable number of them. I chose Baunfire because they were really organized and presented interesting ideas. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $80,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in Q2 and wrapped up in Q3 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website traffic doubled, and our number of qualified leads increased significantly as well. Baunfire helped us effectively convey our value proposition, which increased our inbound email inquiries — this was really great. We also stopped getting junk leads as a result of their CAPTCHA implementation.

The feedback on the site was good. Our sales team was happy because they had better material to share with potential customers. Outside entities were also impressed; many reached out to complement our unique website.

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

There were no issues; Baunfire was so organized that I didn’t have to be. They followed their initial outline to the tee and provided a document for each step of the project, reminding me what I needed to do. If we ever didn’t meet a deadline, it was probably my fault. 

They used Figma to manage the project. I appreciated having one main point of contact who communicated progress and let us know what items we could change and when. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Baunfire’s creativity set them apart, and they were incredibly organized. I expected a tradeoff between creativity and organization, but this wasn’t the case; they produced really unique designs and managed the project well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing significant I’d change. Of course, I wish Baunfire’s services were cheaper, but their prices are competitive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d definitely recommend them. When working with any outside entity, it makes their jobs easier if you’re as organized as they are. They can do all the work, but they need your approval and buy-in; try to have an idea of what you want beforehand.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Senior VP of Marketing for Lease Advisors, LLC, a multinational financial services firm, specializing in REITs (real estate investment trusts).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Baunfire?

We wanted to promote our brand and increase market-qualified leads (MQL) through digital marketing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Baunfire acted as the digital arm of our organization. They organized multiple collaborative strategy sessions and asked questions about our MQL scoring and how we offer services and categorize customers. We provided information about our company and target customer personas; our goal was to increase business. They presented several strategies — along with empirical evidence of their efficacies — so that we could make decisions together. 

They created and executed a digital marketing strategy to drive potential customers to our site. They developed omnichannel marketing assets, including print ads, direct mail campaigns, booth designs for events, native content, Google Ads, animated ads for YouTube and other channels, and leaderboard ads for rich content sites, such as CNN and ESPN. Their social media marketing strategy targeted a number of posts for each branding purpose, including generating engagement and redirecting users to our website. They implemented account-based marketing and encouraged us to cross-pollinate our products.

When we first engaged with them many years ago, they designed and developed our website using PHP, WordPress, and their own platform, which integrated with other platforms we were using. Their design team optimized the UX to improve our site’s capture rate and facilitate our organizational needs. They ensured the project was NetSuite compliant and integrated easily into our business tools, including MS Dynamics, Salesforce, and Power BI. They hosted and managed the site after building it and provided analytics on end user activity, including information we requested and additional information they deemed important.

They utilized SEO best practices and updated the site to maintain SEO through Google Panda and Google Penguin algorithm updates. They translated our site into seven different languages, hiring native speakers of each language to ensure the translations were spot-on and written in the correct dialect.

What is the team composition?

We always dealt with 5–10 members of Baunfire’s team, including Juan (Founder) and Lily (Director of Design). On the web design team, there was a content specialist, an architecture design specialist, a UX designer, a social media specialist, and a graphic designer. They assigned a strategist to each project we hired them for, and a channel manager and logistics teammate were assigned to each channel.

How did you come to work with Baunfire?

A connection from an executive group I’m a part of recommended that I include them in my RFP process. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $600,000 with them over two engagements. Our first engagement was over $100,000 per year, and our second engagement was $200,000 in total. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We first worked with them between October 2011–May 2016; our second engagement lasted from September 2019–December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With Baunfire’s help, we increased our overall revenue by 37–38% quarter-over-quarter (QOQ). In our first engagement, we saw a steady 22%–23% increase in qualified traffic to the site QOQ for several years. Our MQL also increased by 14% QOQ. Our brand awareness grew exponentially by triple digits over the course of our engagements; we won business from our competitors due to Baunfire’s strategies. They had a strong understanding of design best practices and our strategic initiatives.

How did Baunfire perform from a project management standpoint?

I expected a lot from Baunfire, and they delivered. Their ability to manage me and my team was outstanding, and they accommodated the addition of new KPIs. Their reporting dashboards were crucial to our ability to scale; we allocated more marketing funds based on the success of their strategies.

Their team was consistent; the teammates we met with when we signed an agreement were the same ones we worked with throughout each project. We met bimonthly with each channel manager, and they were willing to have calls at late hours or on weekends. Slack was our everyday communication tool. They used Microsoft Project and Asana for project management and uploaded assets to Brandfolder for us to view.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was evident that they were passionate about their work. They were always 1–2 steps ahead of other consultancies we’d spoken with. I could always count on them to go above and beyond. I felt like my needs were their needs, and they took ownership of the end goal.

They are consistently the first agency I turn to for digital marketing support. They’re experiencing hyper-growth right now, which is a testament to their organization. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d change about the partnership.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you work with Baunfire, come to the table with your objectives and let them define the strategy to achieve those goals. Think of them as a consultant, strategic partner, and digital agency all in one.