The Big A Ltd

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a photographer with an online website where I sell fine art prints.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Big A Ltd?

I was looking for someone to help me grow my search engine rankings and review my website from a static marketing perspective. Additionally, I wanted them to help me with ad campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Alex (Managing Director) assessed my website and set up the SEO for all my images, product descriptions, and collection pages. Moving forward, he’s given advice on how to revamp my homepage to make it more aesthetically pleasing for the user when they’re shopping for prints. Other suggestions of his have revolved around newsletter campaigns, articles, journal posts.

He also did keyword searches to figure out where I’m positioned in the web world. If someone is searching for a print, I don’t want them searching for my name. I actually want them searching for a general flower print or flower art. Alex looks at how to position me on Google so that, with time, I’ll continue coming up in the rankings.

Now, Alex is looking into my email notifications that come from abandoned carts and setting up campaigns.

What is the team composition?

I’ve only communicated with Alex, but he may be working with other team members.

How did you come to work with The Big A Ltd?

A friend of mine that is starting their own business came across Alex and recommended him to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $2,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

I launched the website in October 2020 and brought Alex and The Big A Ltd on during December of that year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The biggest thing is that our reporting shows that the technical SEO he set up in the backend and the keywords he sprinkled throughout the website are helping us on Google. Aesthetically, I’ve been getting a lot of feedback from clients that the navigation and flow through the website is much clearer than it used to be.

How did The Big A Ltd perform from a project management standpoint?

We have an excel spreadsheet where we’ll plug in any projects that come up and any ideas that could develop into a project. We work on a six-hour basis; every six hours of work he does, he opens up a new invoice — and we get our money’s worth every time. Other people that I’ve worked with only produce one or two things, but Alex works very fast. He also produces quality work. Email is our other channel of communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are a lot of things I could say, but one of the most impressive things is that Alex will make modifications to my website outside of his billable hours. He’ll come up with an idea and switch things around without billing me.

The other part is that thanks to his experience, expertise, and guidance, I’m able to write more content that resonates with my target audience. My website is now much more e-commerce friendly, rather than just being a blog.

He goes above and beyond, which is unusual when you hire people that you haven’t met before.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have anything. I find that my working relationship with Alex has been very complimentary. I respect his feedback and advice, as well as his openness and transparency. Rather than saying yes to everything because I’m the owner, he’ll challenge ideas in a thoughtful way and share solutions based on his own lens.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When Alex was recommended to me, my connection only clued me into his SEO skills. Now that I’ve seen the full range of what he’s capable of, I would shed light on that. From advertising and marketing to PR and SEO, I would share all my experience with someone I was recommending Alex and The Big A Ltd to.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We sell low intervention, organic and biodynamic wines direct to consumer. I am a director of the company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Big A Ltd?

We hired The Big A to redesign our web site to and improve the web-shop experience.

What were your goals for this project?

Our web site was clunky and did not work very effectively. The overall look and "feel" of the site was amateurish. Our business was growing and we needed a better web shop that encouraged on-line sales.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We met Alex at one of our markets stalls and started a discussion about our business. Alex quickly understood what we wanted and was very respectful of the fact that we are a small business with limited funds to spend on web development.

Alex came up with an innovative solution that would meet our objectives but keep the web development costs to a minimum. All the other web developers we spoke with either wanted to charge 6 figure sums to develop a site from scratch or simply provide a template that did not meet our needs. Alex found that sweet spot between these 2 extremes.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

W.e held a number of meetings where Alex provided practical advice in terms we could understand as we are not "tech-savvy" in any way. These meetings shaped our thinking in what could be achieved within our budget and allowed us to create a plan that Alex and his team could work with. We agreed the following changes:

1. a new layout of the web shop
2. new features including a members login area where we would engage with our customers.
3. New images and layout of the landing page
4. New layout of product pages 5
5. Added new search functions and cross references
6. relocating the site to a new hosting platform

What was the team composition?

We dealt directly with Alex as we needed a lot of guidance to help us convert our thoughts and ideas into practical solutions and instructions for his development team to implement. His patience and understanding was vital in converting our ideas into real solutions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are so happy with our new web site. Which has went live last week. We have received really positive feedback from our regular customers and we have increased traffic and sales through the site. Alex has also provided really good after-sales service and advice. I would recommend The Big A ltd to any company regardless of their size and budget.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was simple and effective with clear time lines and on-going communication. Our initially brief was rather vague and Alex ensured we kept the project on-track whilst providing the much need flexibility to meet our objectives.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We are wine experts not web experts. We didn't really know what we wanted from the site and only new where we wanted to be. They explained what could be achieved and the approximate cost impact which allowed us to make informed decisions.

Alex always managed to explain complex technical details in terms we could understand. They kept us feeling that we were in control of the project and not being blinded by tech-speak.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I cant think of anything that could be improved within the constraints of the budget we had set for this project. We are very happy with the result.