Boomtown Internet Group

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Menninger & Associates Financial Planning

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Boomtown Internet Group?

Redesign our website completely within a two week span, due to timely restrictions.

What were your goals for this project?

To redesign our website in order to make it more interactive.

SOLUTION

How did you select Boomtown Internet Group?

Boomtown is a client of ours and we are familiar with their work.

Describe the project in detail.

Boomtown did a complete facelift on our site, making it very dynamic and interactive. We requested them to work on a website provider that not many people use, and they finished days before we requested from them.

Very thorough communication and quick responses. We will absolutely work with them again in the future. Thanks again Boomtown!

What was the team composition?

We were put in contact with James, who is the Web Technology Director. After speaking with James, Kristen, who is the Creative Director, walked us through the aesthetic layout of the page.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback that we received about the new look of the site was overwhelming.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very good, they were on top of emails and communicated quickly, making adjustments when needed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The timely communication and thorough description throughout our entire project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that we can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of Carpey Law, and I'm a lawyer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Boomtown Internet Group?

I needed help with digital marketing and SEO, which is why I hired Boomtown Internet Group. We collaborate with them, so that we don't overlap with one another.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had an existing site that wasn't up to snuff, so I met with them and agreed to hire them. They laid out and designed the site after discussions with me, and put it out with my approval. Then, they started optimizing the site. Whatever needed to be done to make the content more optimal, we then changed it, and we've improved it. We've done at least two re-designs, if not more. The last one was several years ago. We usually chat by phone or by Skype, and once a month we've gone over how the site is doing from an SEO perspective. They usually send me a report on Google Analytics, and as a result of that, we set expectations for the months going forward.

What is the team composition?

I've worked with both the owner and co-owner and on the day-to-day, I've worked with other employees that have helped with SEO. Anytime we've done a redesign, there have been several people from their group that have worked with us. We also have a programmer that I work with on a regular basis, too. We interact once a month, and as needed.

How did you come to work with Boomtown Internet Group?

I was referred to them by another business owner that had utilized them or knew about them. For my selection process, I interviewed several digital strategy partners, but I decided to go with Boomtown because they're local to me, their level of experience and expertise was up to par with what I needed, and the face-to-face meeting we had together went well, too.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together for the past 12-14 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Obviously, because I've been working with them this long, I've been happy with the results. They've done a good job of communicating with me over the years to improve things, too. I've gotten high quality leads, and a sufficient number of leads as well over the years. Sometimes it ebbs and flows, depending on what Google is doing. They've been a key addition to the work I've been doing over the years.

How did Boomtown Internet Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They've performed quite well. We typically communicate via phone and email, although I'm sure they have a project management tool they use internally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I find my main point of contact very easy to communicate with, and very responsive. In my business, many of the leads come from word-of-mouth referrals because we're dealing with people all the time over the years. Any effort that I can do to increase those referrals, increases my bottom line. They've assisted me in viable leads that come from other sources than word-of-mouth, as well as the other types of marketing that I do. They've been very helpful to me, as a small business owner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would only ask for more leads in general. While they're not perfect, and we've had to improve things along the way, they've always been open to that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to figure out what your expectations are and see what they have to offer. Make sure they're a fit for your needs. I would also find out who their other clientele is and see if they've worked with anyone similar to what you do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of The CPAP Shop. We supply CPAP and sleep apnea equipment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Boomtown Internet Group?

We’ve worked with Boomtown Internet Group for eight years on SEO and some paid advertising.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Boomtown Internet Group has performed multiple SEO services for us over the years. They’ve done keyword research, working hand-in-hand with us to understand our market and building SEO campaigns from scratch. They also did technical SEO, which involves updating our website to attract users through Google and other search engines. Lastly, Boomtown Internet Group has developed content for us.

What is the team composition?

We work with three people.

How did you come to work with Boomtown Internet Group?

We did local research in the Philadelphia area. We had a conversation with Boomtown Internet Group, and it was very positive. Our relationship has grown over the years.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $7,000–$8,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our collaboration started eight years ago and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started working with Boomtown Internet Group, we’ve consistently increased our market share. Their team has done a great job understanding Google’s changes and helping us adapt accordingly.

How did Boomtown Internet Group perform from a project management standpoint?

Boomtown Internet Group is excellent from a project management perspective. We have a weekly conference call where we look at what their team has done in the past week, how the website is performing, and what changes we can make. Boomtown Internet Group uses an internal project management tool, but we don’t have access to it. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Boomtown Internet Group understands technical SEO to a very high degree. We’ve benefitted significantly as a business from their internal skills and tools.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

Any advice for potential customers?

To start, make sure you know what you need Boomtown Internet Group do, whether it’s technical SEO or paid advertising. Then have an in-depth conversation with their team. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our business is Anserve, which is a 24/7 call center mainly for the medical space. I’m the president of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Boomtown Internet Group?

We wanted to work on website design, SEO, and lead generation with an outside partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve done two website development projects with them using WordPress. We had a number of kickoff meetings with their developers, finding that we had too many pages on the site and needed to simplify the UI/UX. Our teams reviewed the existing site to select what we wanted to pair down, staying in touch throughout the development to update us.

For their SEO services, they used to do link building to boose our standings on search results. At this point, they send me a monthly report on how we are ranking for certain keywords and phrases. We have them on retainer so they can track referrals, monthly traffic, and post a few blogs each month. When Google changes its algorithm, they advise us on the changes we need to make to stay relevant. 

What is the team composition?

There were three of their team members assigned to the project.

How did you come to work with Boomtown Internet Group?

We weren’t happy with our current provider, so we reached out to our trade association for the call center industry. Their team came recommended through other companies within our industry. That encouraged us to reach out to them. We considered two other vendors and visited their facilities to meet with their staff. That meeting was at least five years ago and went very well. We decided to bring them on based on that. 

How much have you invested with them?

Over the course of our engagement, we spent between $110,000–$140,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The two website builds have tremendously changed and upgraded the look and feel for our site. The more recent site build made our platform much more interactive and simple from the client-side of the development. That’s definitely been driving traffic and online leads upwards.  

How did Boomtown Internet Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They were quick to respond and easy to work with, speaking our not-so-technical language. We were in communication at least once every week. They kept our team on track and focused, providing us information on what we needed from us to help them build the best possible product.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re quick to respond to us. Even as a smaller company, they’re able to make adjustments within hours of us alerting them of a problem. They’ve given me contact with their ownership whenever I need it. Issues are resolved quickly whenever changes need to be made—they’re speedy with their responses.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In their advertising campaign work, they could create a better system for working with clients in that area.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the STEM Outreach Liaison for Penn State Center for Science and the Schools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Boomtown Internet Group?

We needed to build out a database that could be easily searchable and has a lot of criteria behind it. We wanted our team and the researchers that we work with to be able to look up schools—elementary schools, high schools, private schools, higher education institutions, tech schools; the whole gamut of K-16 education—in Pennsylvania that best meet their needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Anyone can build a site using WordPress, but I knew that, as a user, it would take me a whole year just to do what they did in 180 hours. They used MySQL in WordPress to build the database. It’s open source. They used Apache Server and software also involved with PHP 5.5 or greater and MySQL 5.6 or greater. The hardware was 3GB RAM that they needed or bigger, and the disk space had to be at least 5GB.

When they built the website, they built it on their side. It’s private, so they would bring me into it now and then to see if I liked it and we could tweak it accordingly. When it was ready, it had to be transferred onto a server. They can transfer to a server for you and manage it, or it can be transferred to our company, and that's what we did. Penn State was able to host the website for us.

How did you come to work with Boomtown Internet Group?

It’s really hard to find high-quality programmers out there beyond just doing a Google search. We actually have an internal group called PennTAP—they're a great group for us on campus that helps Penn State faculty navigate others on campus capable of producing many kinds of IT projects.

In this case, the size and scope of work would not be able to be completed by students, so they gave me some companies, including Boomtown, that they had worked with externally that would best fit my requirements. They really did the searching for me because they knew what to ask and I didn't. Boomtown best met my needs.

How much have you invested with Boomtown Internet Group?

Just because of the scope of where we're at, we wanted to do it in different phases. For the first phase, it was originally around $18,000 for 180 programming hours when we scoped everything out. Then there were other optional services, especially if you needed marketing behind it. Sue McCrossin does a fantastic job with that, so there are other layers available. We did a small amount of marketing with her for an additional $4,000. From building out the proposal and giving me an example of what it could potentially look like, we’ve spent about $25,000 thus far on Boomtown.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first proposal was February 17th, 2016. It took some time on my end because I had to finish up some work for them to be able to take over and run with it. A lot of the lag time actually came from me and not from them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

When they transferred the database over to me, we walked through very carefully how to manage it, because eventually I wanted to be able to manage it all myself. Jamey Hoff from Boomtown is working with me on it, putting in extra features so that I can run the system and easily teach other people we hire to be able to run it. We would like to eventually update it ourselves. They're very good about doing that and making sure you understand how to run the backend of the website.

How did Boomtown Internet Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fantastic. I have to say that both Sue and Jim McCrossin and Jamey Hoff are all very meticulous people. They want to make sure that what they give you is of high quality, and there are no kinks or errors. They really go through that process. They're very careful about what they do, and they want to make sure that the customer is happy. I felt that they're also very responsive, and they have a quick turnaround. If not, they'll tell you, "I'm working on something right now, but I'm going to get to this right away," and they've always been true to their word. If any lag time happened, it was on my end, never on theirs. That, to me, speaks volumes about a person and their abilities. Overall, they're very easy to work with. If I have a problem, they are immediately responsive and help me work through it.

What did you find most impressive about Boomtown Internet Group?

They give you a product that you're satisfied with, and you can feel confident in putting it out publicly. And I think the layer we haven’t taken advantage of enough is the other half of their company, their marketing services. You know how huge the internet is, so how someone finds you is such an important piece of it.

Are there any areas Boomtown Internet Group could improve?

I can't really think of anything for them to improve upon. They're unique because they’re a small company. Your project isn’t getting passed from person to person; you know the people that are working on your project, day in and day out. I think that actually gives them more of an edge to what they do.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Boomtown Internet Group?

As long as you have a good understanding of what you want, and the clearer you can be about your expectations, the easier their job becomes. I drove out to see them and we went through exactly what I wanted. They were impressed that I could come to the table and say here's what I'm looking for, and walking through that was really great. On the other hand, they might get a client who doesn’t really know what they want, and they can help you through the process. For the layout and the design, they can think through how should things appear and what the user journey is. Anyone can design a website, but people that are skilled in it know how to design them well so that they attract the right users.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the program specialist and underwriter at Elite MGA, a retail and wholesale insurance brokerage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Boomtown Internet Group?

We needed help with a plethora of marketing initiatives.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with Boomtown in creating software, websites, marketing agendas, and search engine optimization. Everything is done remotely. We have online rating systems that are proprietarily owned and designed around our special needs. On top of that, Boomtown recommended the vendors for payment authorization, digital signature, and agency payment methods. They've helped us with finding new vendors that are cheaper and had better services. We've worked with them to switch servers and have GoDaddy accounts over the years. They used WordPress to design all their software and websites. We have automated PDF generation and automatic bordereau feeds to our carriers that send nightly reports so that no one needs to touch the transaction. We've added payment access and digital editing/signature to our website. We have online landing pages that are places for our clients to download or upload items and make changes to their policy. It's basically a servicing portal that they've set up.

Boomtown has designed logos, advertisements, and flyers for us, as well as pop-up banners and blog designs. Our constant contact email blasts are also managed by Boomtown. They’ve created online biographies for all of us and set up online vendor relationships. We've pointed them in the direction to go, but they really ran with the relationship in setting up the links and link exchanges. I do manage the Facebook and LinkedIn and social media myself, but that’s with help and guidance from Boomtown. We decided to manage it ourselves because of the small relationships we build to get our clients in the door, but we do take their expertise into consideration when we're doing advertising.

How did you come to work with Boomtown Internet Group?

It was through personal relationships. We were friends with the owner. We did have other companies under consideration, but the turnaround time was nowhere near what Boomtown promised because they'd already been in our project for years. Moving them out and putting someone in didn't seem attainable at that time.

How much have you invested with Boomtown Internet Group?

For the most recent project, we’ve spent about $60,000 in the past 12 months. Lifetime, it’s been $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

For the most recent project, we’re in phase four of six, and it's been going smoothly. We've worked with them for the past ten years. Boomtown told us we're the longest lasting customer they've had, and probably one of the first relationships they had when they were starting up. We've been here the entire time, and we definitely challenged them, but they've overcome a lot of the challenges. We continue to work with them as we grow to design new products and software.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

From an underwriting standpoint from the insurance industry, we have gone out to different insurance carriers. They've seen our systems, and they've been impressed with the expediency and the workflow. This is good for us because you want a quick turnaround with insurance. Boomtown has ensured that our software can do that. We're getting a lot of positive comments on the mobile and web apps—that they are easy and quick to use, straightforward, and customizable.

Since we implemented social media, we've gotten an increase of 40% in referrals per month from that source. Overall, they've helped grow our business from right around $500,000 to over $3,000,000 in size. They've been our partner, and they've helped us grow. They've certainly been flexible as we've been flexible with them. In regards to results, it's been on the high-end of what we've expected. They've certainly blown that away.

How did Boomtown Internet Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We're in 50 different states so they have to be very flexible, and there's constant room for error that’s not on their end. They've exceeded our expectations and been very flexible with the changes we’ve had to make. They didn't make a mistake where we were misled by the people that we're working with. We told Boomtown to do one thing, and they did exactly what we told them. It wasn't exactly what someone told us to do, so they were very good at conforming to what we needed in making those changes, although they didn't make the mistake. It may have been made by someone else, but they were certainly quick to respond and get it fixed.

On a daily basis, I'm constantly in contact with the programmer at Boomtown, Jamey Hoff, and he's constantly interacting with us, making changes and decisions on our behalf in regards to technology. We used Google Docs. That's all I've used with them. I know they do utilize other tools, but I haven't used them.

What did you find most impressive about Boomtown Internet Group?

It’s their turnaround time, expertise, depth of knowledge, and different varieties of ideas that they bring to the table.

Are there any areas Boomtown Internet Group could improve?

Just the pricing. They put out a high-quality product, but the pricing is certainly on the high side in comparison. But when you need something quick, precise, and done correctly, you're willing to pay that. You get what you pay for, but we're very pleased with what they do. They've certainly been easy to work with, but I don't know if it's always been over the years that someone's been there to respond when they've been on other projects. That has since changed now that they've expanded their employees.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Boomtown Internet Group?

Don’t look anywhere else. I don't know what else to say that I haven't already in regards to their reliability, turnaround time, and expertise.