Blacksmith Agency

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing and communications manager at the Medical Education & Research Institute (MERI), a nonprofit. Our organization has two sides; one is a medical institute with labs for doctors and device companies to train and work on new devices they’re researching. We also have cadavers on site for doctors and researchers to use for product testing or for studies. 

On the other side of the organization, we handle whole-body donations for people who want to donate their bodies to science.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blacksmith Agency?

We currently have two websites, one for each side of the organization. We hired Blacksmith Agency to merge the sites and create a story that explains who we are and connects our organization's two sides.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blacksmith Agency is designing and building a new website from scratch. They’re using the information from our two current websites, which have different target audiences. The team has broken up our two audiences and then brought them together to show that we’re one organization. Our previous sites were on Squarespace, and Blacksmith Agency is moving us away from the platform. They use Figma for design. 

The new website is interactive, with elements that change shapes or colors when the user hovers over them. Blacksmith Agency has built a new section with articles and news coverage about our organization. We want to increase body donation, so the team has included a sticky footer on the site with built-in forms that can be sent directly to our team when users want more information. We already had 3D tours of our facilities, and Blacksmith Agency has implemented them into our website. 

Although Blacksmith Agency won’t provide hosting, they’ve offered a plan for monthly maintenance in case we need it. They’ve also given us an option for a yearly plan to provide site updates.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 4–5 teammates from Blacksmith Agency, including David (Project Manager), Kris (Director of Digital Strategy), Joel (Lead UI/UX), and Brett (Experience & Customer Strategist). 

How did you come to work with Blacksmith Agency?

They reached out to us through a cold call. We were already thinking of redoing our sites because they weren’t up to par with what we wanted. Blacksmith Agency’s call sparked us to move the project forward. We had conversations with two other companies to ensure we were going down the right path. Ultimately, we chose Blacksmith Agency because they were very transparent with their pricing, the steps, and the design process. 

From there, we had to get approval from our board because the project wasn’t budgeted for 2022 or 2023. Blacksmith Agency provided documentation about the pricing. They also met with our medical director to go through what they could offer us, which made it easier to get the project approved. 

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of the project will be over $110,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Blacksmith Agency has been able to portray exactly what we asked them to. Our executive director and I have been very happy with the site's look and design, making our organization look like the state-of-the-art institution it is. Soon, other organization managers will give their opinion on the site's progress. 

Overall, Blacksmith Agency has been really good bout listening to us. We're such a unique organization that we appreciate their outsider's perspective. They let us know when they think something should be different, and we discuss their ideas. Many of their suggestions have stuck because they make sense. 

For example, getting the homepage approved has taken more weeks than initially planned, and Blacksmith Agency has listened to us every step of the way and made design suggestions that make sense with the site's flow. 

How did Blacksmith Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They've delivered on time and stayed on budget. They meet all their deadlines, and any delays have been on our side. There have been a couple of instances where they've had to iterate a couple of times for Blacksmith Agency to make a non-negotiable change, but we've gotten there eventually. 

We have weekly meetings through RingCentral to ensure everything is on track and to review the progress. They send us notes after every session and keep a record of every meeting we've had so that we can use them as a reference.

Aside from meetings, we have multiple email channels and use Slack to communicate. If we have any questions, it's easy to get a hold of them. Blacksmith Agency has also created Google Docs documents to inform me of any assets they need for the site, such as logos. We use Figma for design feedback, and they're really good about responding. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Blacksmith Agency's biggest strength is keeping us on task while being personable. They've been excellent about developing relationships with us; they ask how we're doing and keep us on task. The team can reel us back in when needed. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could provide more suggestions, particularly picture-wise. We're a very unique organization, and we've asked for their opinion on the body-donation side of our work. Blacksmith Agency could put themselves in our users' shoes more and provide recommendations on what they'd like to see from that perspective. 

They could also be more forthcoming when they need specific materials. If I don't provide a particular logo they need, they use what's available instead of reaching out to us. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask every question you can think of. Blacksmith Agency is really good about answering our questions, even if they're about the simplest thing. They've explained what a sticky footer is, describing it as many times as necessary for us to understand.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing and Public Relations Manager at a financial services firm, where we manage mutual funds and ETFs in a range of global, niche industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blacksmith Agency?

Our website was created over 10 years ago, and it was time for a complete refresh and redesign. The goal was for Blacksmith Agency to aid us in not only creating a new aesthetically pleasing design, but one that was modern, easy to navigate and drives traffic. We also needed their help migrating our years' worth of content over to the new website with no issues.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

After researching competitors, we chose BlackSmith Agency due to numerous reasons — one of which was we learned they did the build out of a well-known industry peer's website which was quite impressive. Not only that, they offered reasonable and competitive pricing and had the background we needed to complete this large undertaking.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We had a series of discovery meetings with the sales team and offered ideas for designs we liked and envisioned for our new website. We had weekly and bi-monthly meetings following this with the team who actually built out the new site — they addressed our concerns, gave us feedback and recommendations, and walked us through every step of the project.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with a salesperson, and 2 project managers, I believe.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The new website design is much more user-friendly and easy to navigate. It matches our values of being forward thinking leaders in our industry. The site has been up for one day, and we have already received numerous compliments. We are excited to see how traffic increases.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow worked well for both teams. The weekly meetings, and regular email communication made it easy to get our questions and concerns answered on time.

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

We were impressed with their skillset and knowledge to deal with such an undertaking as our website turned out to be. We have many Compliance hurdles to work around, years' worth of valuable content, and shareholders to deal with -- so it was great working with an agency that was familiar with the needs of the financial services industry.

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

The project took a bit longer than initially forecast, but as expected, that is due to various items we found needed addressing as we moved along.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP of marketing at Protos Security. We provide a security officer guarding program that’s backed by our technology model. 
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blacksmith Agency?
We brought them on to handle our website relaunch.
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
My company was going through a rebrand at the same time that we wanted to launch the website. Blacksmith Agency served as an extension of our team through the rebrand. They were very understanding that we were getting them things as quickly as we could; all while knowing that we were still developing the rebrand as they were coding the site. There was a lot of back-and-forth brainstorming. 

Their team helped us to advance our branding. We sent them our new logo and some new photography. They took those new assets and imagined what our website could look like. Their team took on a lot of that design work for us. Once we finalized our photography and new logo, they helped us take those elements and build them out for the website’s UI. We decided to start the new website from scratch because the branding elements were going to be new anyway. 

What is the team composition?
We worked with a project manager, sales executive, and developer.

How did you come to work with Blacksmith Agency?
I had put out some feelers expressing that my organization was looking to revamp our website to support our rebrand. Our company is in a huge growth period right now, we recently closed on a few acquisitions. We needed this website to support our growth. Blacksmith Agency reached out to us through email. I told them I was open to a first-round conversation. During that conversation, everything they were saying clicked. I loved their creative process. 

How much have you invested with them?
We invested around $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
Our engagement was from December 2020–April 2021.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 
Our new website has advanced our brand. We look more professional, and the imagery and site layout align with how we go to market. It successfully represents our services. Additionally, our organic search is up. We’re seeing more users on our site, and it’s easier for people to find us. When people visit the site, their sessions are longer. In search result pages, we’re starting to see that we’re trending upward. Our impressions are up, and we’re moving up in position for the keywords we want to rank for. We’re also getting more form submissions because we’re getting the right type of traffic and not just noise.

How did Blacksmith Agency perform from a project management standpoint?
Their project management was strong. They put together a timeline for us and showed us where we’d be if we got off track. Because we stuck to their process and stayed on the track they recommended, we launched our site very quickly. Out teams communicated through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?
They were willing to push back, when it made sense, to help us evolve the project. My team runs pretty slimly so we’d be very far down a certain way of thinking. However, Blacksmith Agency would suggest something else. We really admired their ability to present new ideas along the way to help further our vision.

Are there any areas they could improve?
They’d go quiet from time to time, rather than proactively saying that they were still on track but needed three more days to complete something. There were a handful of times when I had to reach out and ask where we stood. The project successfully finished on time, we just didn’t get a lot of check-ins unless we had regularly scheduled meetings.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of sales and marketing at Cloud 9 Software. We sell practice management software to orthodontists, pediatric dentists, and other special dental practices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blacksmith Agency?

I have a very small marketing team. As part of our transformation from a family business, we decided to do rebranding for the organization. One of the first things we wanted to get started on was the website. We wanted a site that’d be more on-brand with where we wanted to go as well as create a website that was going to present more of a customer journey than the existing website did. We decided to bring on Blacksmith Agency.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled a complete rebuild of our website, included all of our new branding. We kicked off the project by confirming the desired scope of work that had been articulated in the service legal agreement. We worked with the Blacksmith Agency team to iterate through different ideas that would align with our ideas. Our team wanted the website to be more of a lead-generation platform with a focused customer journey.

Blacksmith Agency presented ideas to us, and we’d request changes or confirm our understanding and acceptance of those ideas. We worked through different types of templates because they have a really interesting approach to the way they build sites where they build reusable templates for all types of pages.

These pages have different features and functionalities attached to them such as filters or drop-downs. It’s a lot of technical work on their side but in the end, they present something that we’re able to manage on our own and expand as we need. We came to an agreement on the template types, and they put together a test site and framework.

Over a period of weeks and months, we did QA on that. We brought in all of the website detail that we wanted to carry over from the old site and then created new content and messaging where appropriate. It was a standard process for bringing up a website and Blacksmith Agency was with us every step of the way.

What is the team composition?

Steve (Business Development) was our primary point of contact. At any given time, there might have been 2–3 other team members who’d come in and out of the conversation.

How did you come to work with Blacksmith Agency?

We heard about Blacksmith Agency through their outreach efforts. They found us, and we just happened to be exactly in the market for the types of services they offer. We had a conversation with them and were impressed with their messaging and the way they expressed their intent to help us and how they’d do it. We didn’t spend a lot of time looking at other companies to do the work because we were really impressed with the thoroughness of the effort they were putting into the sales cycle.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested roughly $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was from September 2020–April 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They got everything done within the expected timeframe. In itself, this is a testament to the work they do. It was exciting to see everything come together. Blacksmith Agency has a terrific customer-centric sales process where they work with us to deeply understand our needs. It’s too soon to tell whether we’re going to hit our goal numbers, but the quality of the work is terrific. I’d be surprised if we didn’t get to where we wanted to be.

How did Blacksmith Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, project management was good. We had weekly checkpoint calls. If we needed to move a meeting due to urgent tasks or because we didn’t need to meet, they were flexible in doing that. As we were walking through the QA process and discovered things that needed to be fixed, we had daily calls that were put in place to try to walk through the changes and fixes. They were aggressively on top of those so we could get up and running. 

It helped that we weren’t talking to many of their team members. Having Steve as our primary contact allowed us to know exactly who to go to when we had a question or problem. Steve would help to get those resolved himself if we had a challenge. Or, he’d bring in the right people if it couldn’t be addressed on his own.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Blacksmith Agency brought a lot of great ideas to the table, both during the sales process and website build. Because we were a small team, there were a number of us who were working with them through the creative process. When they’d present an idea, it was often something that really resonated with us. It was very helpful to have their expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve loved more of a tangible project plan. We knew the plan and what was coming in sequence. But as things were crossed off the list, it was hard to keep track of what was done and coming next. I never expressed a need to get a tangible plan so I’m sure if I had, they would’ve provided it. We had a lot of trust in Blacksmith Agency working through the process we had with them. I never had concerns that we were off track or not moving things along.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go into your engagement with a good understanding of what you can expect from the bottom of your budget range to the top. That way, you can make informed choices as you’re working through the creative process. Knowing what’s going to move you up the budget continuum is something that's beneficial.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Alloy, which is in the supply chain technology space. I am the EVP of marketing at my company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blacksmith Agency?

I joined our company earlier this year and I’m the first head of marketing that the company had brought on board, so I was really putting a lot of foundational components in place — the website was one of those things. Our prior website was a static platform that sat on GitHub, so I wanted to move it off of that onto a content management WordPress system. As such, we looked for web agencies that could help us do the migration. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They set up the CMS infrastructure for us including the hosting. They also built our website as part of the process. We wanted to take advantage of the migration to do a refresh in terms of our look and feel of our content. The team also established standard layouts that could enable us to set up web content ourselves — as the marketing team — that’s the value of the CMS. Prior to that, we had to rely on our engineering team to make any changes to our website which was cumbersome and a burden for the engineering team. 

We also had a blog hosted through our marketing automation, so we had different domains in our previous setup. It was important to us to bring everything under one domain. They took care of setting up the infrastructure and layouts and we took care of the content. 

Process-wise, we went through a design phase before moving into the development. During the design phase, Blacksmith had a designer involved who had given suggestions on things. As we were getting close to wrapping up the first phase, we realized that it still was not quite what we wanted, so we decided to take another pass through the design and layouts in order to arrive at the website we have now. They provided input on core design elements such as the layout of the pages, font recommendations, and sizes — for us to work through the full design and development process.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with a primary project manager who worked with us throughout the entire process. There was a designer during the design phase. After that, we had one developer we were in contact with during the development phase. He also had people on his team that were working on our project.

How did you come to work with Blacksmith Agency?

I looked for different web agencies and checked what my network had used. I connected with a former digital marketing manager that worked for me at a previous company. That person was working for a company that uses Blacksmith Agency — the team set up their website and they did a couple of phases of work for them and was still their agency on retainer. 

In total, we vetted 4–5 agencies. Blacksmith Agency stood out because their salesperson demonstrated that they could be a strategic partner to us versus just someone who could build a website. 

We’re a small company and their cost was also a big consideration. Most of the companies we were looking at were in our general price range, but we didn’t really want the relationship to be just tactical in nature. That’s why I really liked the fact that Blacksmith Agency was able to provide some thoughtful strategic input about the things we should be doing differently during the sales process.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from August–December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ultimately, the success metric was more milestone-based — making sure that we got everything we wanted in a timely fashion. Our website officially launched last week and the whole company was really happy with it. The ability of the Marketing team to update our website without needing to burden our Engineering team is going to be a huge benefit moving forward as well. Overall, we are very pleased with the end result.

How did Blacksmith Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

There were a couple of hiccups along the way where I felt the need to have a separate session with our project manager, apart from our standard working sessions. During those sessions, I provided them feedback in terms of things that I felt could have been done better. I think it happens with most relationships with vendors. Upon having conversations with Blacksmith Agency, the concerns that I raised were addressed quite quickly.

The project itself ended up taking a little bit longer than we had originally anticipated, but frankly, it was more on us than it was on them because we were trying to explore some different branding and design elements which required a few iterations to get right.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work relative to their price point was well worth the investment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were moments where I felt it wasn’t the strategic relationship that I had expected, where it felt like they were just trying to tick a box to be finished with it versus making us feel like we were getting the customer service level that we wanted. After we had a conversation about that, it reverted back to what I expected. They rectified things pretty quickly once I actually told them my feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear in terms of what you want your design, brand, look, and feel to be. Even though they have design resources, I recommend coming into the project with specific design elements, font type, size,  spacing requirements and then working with Blacksmith to determine feasibility — especially from a web performance standpoint and best practices with regards to how that would render on the website.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a tech company that primarily serves K-12 educators and students. Our product’s an educational digital portfolio that enables educators and students to show their growth over time.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blacksmith Agency?

We had a website that didn’t match our company both internally and externally. When new users visited the website, it wasn’t clear what the action they needed to take. This left money on the table. We decided to solve those problems by starting from the ground up.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged Blacksmith to entirely overhaul our website including design and development. They managed the process from ideation through the development of every pixel on the site. Their team created a structure and built a new website with a lot of new features that enable us to market better.

What is the team composition?

We directly worked with a business development teammate. We had an all-hands meeting with a lot of their team, which was 5–7 folks on their end. Day to day, we worked with a project manager and a developer.

How did you come to work with Blacksmith Agency?

Blacksmith approached our CEO and me via LinkedIn. We had an RFP for the site, so the timing was great. Without asking, their team fully audited our website. We liked their proactive approach to solving our problems. Blacksmith was much more engaged than other firms. They wanted to win our business and that carried throughout the project.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we ended up spending about $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in earnest in March 2020 and finished in August.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As an education company, we needed the website overhauled by the time that school started. That’s when we see a massive influx in traffic. Blacksmith hit that deadline, which was a core success metric.

Also, the quality of the new website was very high. I would definitely engage them again in future projects.

How did Blacksmith Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team accommodated us and moved quickly towards the tail end of the project. At times, however, it felt that our team drove the deadline more than Blacksmith.

When we came across challenges that weren’t in the initial scope, they were flexible. Their team gave us the option to either spend the extra money to make it right or not.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They dug into our business through an in-depth questionnaire. Their design work was fantastic and transformed our brand in many ways by influencing our collateral. Their design was exemplary and captured our audience well. Also, their developers were talented, fast, and had great ideas for how to solve our problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could’ve had a greater sense of urgency. We also came in with a specific budget. Although their team knew that we were at the top of our budget, there were times when they tried to push us to develop more features. That frustrated us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Firstly, I would recommend them to anyone. Secondly, make your timelines clear. It can be difficult to get a final date because you can’t predict what happens during it. As much as you can, settle on a timeframe.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former senior marketing director of Tempo Automation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blacksmith Agency?

At that time, the company had gone through a successful series A fundraising campaign and was looking to do a successful series B fundraising campaign. The management felt that having the right website would contribute to that. 

We were working with a design agency in San Francisco to come up with a new brand. Tempo Automation had set up a software platform to allow engineers to upload their designs, which would then be reviewed and sent to the production floor. This was very disruptive and new.

In addition, the company changed its target audience focus, so we felt like we needed to reinvent and rebrand ourselves in a way that would resonate with enterprise organizations. We also needed a website that aligned with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blacksmith Agency developed the WordPress website. They moved it from HubSpot, which is where it was previously hosted. Along the way, the team built a lot of custom tools for us in WordPress. For example, they customized a page builder for us so that whenever we wanted to build a new landing page, we could do it on our own without their assistance.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager who was our main point of contact. There were also two engineers who were dedicated to the project, but we didn’t interact with them, as well as a technical support teammate. 

How did you come to work with Blacksmith Agency?

I got a cold call, from them and it happened to be just the right place and the right time. At the time, we hadn’t determined a formal budget for the website rollout, but when the project finally came up, we began working with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $25,000–$30,000. After the rollout, we had an ongoing retainer with them to do maintenance and enhancement work of $5,000 per month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The bulk of the work took place in December 2017 and January 2018, and the app was rolled out in February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a great experience, and the team was easy to work with. The custom page builder that they made for us was very helpful. The first iteration of it wasn’t usable, but they were very responsive in terms of addressing the issues and providing a solution.

How did Blacksmith Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

The team managed and structured the projects very well while being agile enough to make changes on the fly. I appreciated their responsive and structured manner, as well as their ability to respond to changes and challenges very quickly. 

Their billing for time was fair and reasonable when it came to the iterations, which was different than other agency experiences I’ve had in the past. Our project manager was very good at keeping everyone on task, including our internal teammates. 

At the time, I wore many hats and the website rollout was just one of them. So, it was great to have a project manager who was tracking not only what her teammates were doing, but also what we were doing on our side. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They offer very good value for money in that their resources are in Arizona, which is a more affordable area. It feels like you’re working with top people at a lower rate. Working with them provided a good combination of value for money and quality of work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Blacksmith Agency probably should’ve been a little bit better about explaining upfront why one approach would be better than another. There were certain things that had to be rethought-out in going from the design agency to Blacksmith Agency.

For example, they mentioned that the animations wouldn’t work well. So, I think they could’ve done a better job of explaining why one coding language would be better than another. Maybe some things were lost in translation because we didn’t work directly with the programmers. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You will get the best value out of Blacksmith Agency if you have a definitive project. This means knowing what you want, having a design, and having a timeframe mapped out. The team is very good at bringing their resources in.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior marketing manager for HPI Real Estate investment and services. We’re a full service commercial real estate firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blacksmith Agency?

We wanted to redevelop our website, which was essentially an outdated, static template. It wasn’t mobile responsive and didn’t have any performance tracking abilities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blacksmith completely overhauled our website, managing the platform’s full redevelopment. Their team created mockups and wireframes. They then built the site on WordPress and implemented a whole bunch of features including CTE tracking. They also made the site mobile responsive.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 5–6 people.

How did you come to work with Blacksmith Agency?

I spent about three years talking with different agencies to understand their costs and value propositions. Blacksmith reached out to a colleague with a cold e-mail about their services. Around the time that we spoke with Blacksmith, the conversation about redoing our website popped up again. I was blown away by their approach. Their presentation was completely different than other agencies’ proposals. That put us in a comfortable position to pursue the project with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in December 2018 and launched the site in May 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They took an ROI approach to measure the results. We used benchmarks to gauge the project's success. Across the board, our metrics improved. We doubled our monthly website traffic. Internally, every single person loved the site. It was a successful project.

How did Blacksmith Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They used top-notch tools that allowed us to track their work hours. Their team utilized InVision to send us sketches and wireframes. Because of our inexperience with development, we ran into obstacles. But Blacksmith explained the process well and fielded all of our questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their approach to the entire project stood out. When we talked to Blacksmith, I remember being caught off guard because their team went through and explained their ideas in detail, discussing how people interact with online pages. They impressed us right off the bat. I appreciated the approach that their team took to the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This isn’t specific to Blacksmith but I always tell people to be mindful of their budgets. We weren’t familiar with the cost of development and assumed that adding 1–2 features wouldn’t impact the budget much. But if you’re not careful, the budget can really increase.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Vacationcondos.com, an online website where guests can book reservations for condos, predominantly on the East Coast, as well as in various locations in Canada and Mexico.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blacksmith Agency?

I’ve been with my company now in my current position for almost four years. At the time, the company was still on its first website, so they were missing out on modernizing the website.

There were certain functionalities that were lacking, so it was time to redevelop it. We wanted to give it a facelift to keep travelers and visitors engaged.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blacksmith Agency didn’t develop the new website, but they designed it. Since then, I’ve been working with them to scope out another project for us involving another property in Orlando, Florida. 

What is the team composition?

On a rolling basis, I’ve worked consistently with 3–4 teammates. Strahil (Director of Sales) is the person I usually speak to.

How did you come to work with Blacksmith Agency?

Blacksmith Agency reached out to one of our properties in Florida, and from there we established a relationship. I was so impressed with their portfolio and professionalism that I invited them to throw their hat in the ring for this project.

They represented themselves and their services very well. I was impressed with their case studies, and the intricacies of some of the work they had done for other brands. 

How much have you invested with them?

For the first project, we spent $85,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in the fall of 2017. Our engagement is somewhat ongoing. Every once in a while, they’ll reach out to see how the project is going and if we need anything. Additionally, I reached out to them about the second project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve worked with many agencies at this point in my career, and Blacksmith Agency’s approach really stands out from the rest. They learned our objectives and did a SWOT analysis. 

The team dove deep into our organization and goals before we even discussed design. They take that extra step to understand the business side of the work. 

How did Blacksmith Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly calls. The lines of communication are always open, and every time we work together, they’re always readily available for any questions or concerns. Blacksmith Agency uses Visio, which allows me to look at wireframes in real-time. 

Along the way, they ask me what I think which makes it feel like they’re a part of my team. However, other agencies don’t take the time to do that deep dive. They were willing to customize our relationship and hand over the development since we have a team of in-house developers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They use a methodology that dives deep into our product and our agency that other agencies don’t. Blacksmith Agency does great work, and they’re incredibly professional. They use tools to help clients that I haven’t seen other agencies use before, which is impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

At first, the pricing was a little stunning. But once we understood how much they care about what they were producing, we saw that the cost was justified. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

What I learned while working with Blacksmith Agency is not to be afraid to ask questions and share your business objectives with them. It’s okay to demand a little bit more because good agencies like Blacksmith Agency are already providing that.