Craft + Code

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of DVC Resale Experts

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are resale brokers of Disney Vacation Club timeshare.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Dark Matter Digital to accomplish?

• Manage and improve our search engine optimization.
• Manage and improve out pay per click marketing.
• Manage our website, improving it's effectiveness and performance.

SOLUTION

How did you find Dark Matter Digital?

Online Search

Why did you select Dark Matter Digital over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Dark Matter Digital were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Dark Matter Digital has helped us rank better for more key terms than our prior SEO company. They have also greatly out performed out prior marketing agency with our pay per click advertising. We're growing far faster now, and spending far less than we were with our old agency.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

With a lower marketing spend, they're helping us to be more visible, as well as convert a higher percentage of viewers as incoming leads reaching out to our company, both through SEO and paid advertising.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Their timely delivery and responsiveness have been outstanding!

What was your primary form of communication with Dark Matter Digital?

Virtual Meeting

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

They care. This should not be novel, however it definitely is. They're highly responsive, and it feels as if they're a part of our team with common goals.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Dark Matter Digital could have done differently?

Nothing comes to mind. They've been amazing with everything they've helped us with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Manager of a food & beverages company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Bakery fast-casual

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Dark Matter Digital to accomplish?

• Revamp the current website

SOLUTION

How did you find Dark Matter Digital?

Breef

Why did you select Dark Matter Digital over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Passionate CEO

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Redesign and revamping an existing site, including platform transfer and recategorization of menu.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The updated site is not only visually appealing, however, shows improved SEO performance, including the number of search sessions and site traffic.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Brandon, the CEO, maintained great communication with us through the whole time. Although it was a bit stressful putting all of the details together in the last few weeks since we had a hard deadline, he worked past the usual business hours to make the project come to life.

What was your primary form of communication with Dark Matter Digital?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We chose Dark Matter Digital over our other bids because of Brandon. He is truly passionate about what he does and has expertise on web development and SEO. Brandon's zealous attitude is really what convinced us to take our project to this company.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Dark Matter Digital could have done differently?

It seemed that Brandon, the CEO and our main contact, has a lot on his plate at times, so having another POC would have been helpful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technical director at Rico Engineering Group. We’re an engineering company, and we provide construction services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dark Matter Digital?

We needed some help with rebranding and web development. Our goal is to strengthen our credibility and ensure that the company is presented well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dark Matter Digital handled the development and design of our website using Webflow. They wrote content for the site and designed the logo. They built the site from scratch. We just launched the website last month and are still in beta mode.

What is the team composition?

We work with the project manager, and he has other people working with him.

How did you come to work with Dark Matter Digital?

I actually found them on Clutch. I shortlisted a bunch of companies, spoke to each one of them, and requested proposals. Dark Matter Digital’s proposal matched what I was looking for, and their pricing was within our budget.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about $1,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together on this project in July 2022, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Dark Matter Digital produces high-quality work — the website they’ve delivered is simple and perfect for a startup company like ours. Moreover, the graphics, presentation, colors, and pages are all polished and look modern. Overall, they’ve done everything we asked them to do.

How did Dark Matter Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate with them through phone calls and hold virtual meetings via Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work is impressive. They’re really good at making graphics, logos, and presentations. Also, they have the ability to take what the client wants and turn it into an actual product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. There’s always room for improvement, but for this project, everything has been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate with them, get engaged, and be clear on your RFP. They also have a questionnaire that they provide to their clients, so make sure you give that back to them. It’ll help them have a clearer understanding of the requirements.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a customer service representative at Pool to Spa Services. We work with customers in the North Central Washington region to take care of their pools and spas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dark Matter Digital?

Our website was outdated and not functioning in the ways our expanding business needs it to. We were looking to achieve better branding design and a platform easier for our customer base to browse and quickly get the information they need and reach out to us in a way that's manageable for our smaller office staff.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking at designing our own site to allow for our staff to make changes easily or simply going for a redesign on a basic platform. We had an appointment with Dark Matter and really appreciated the honesty and how they took the time to get to know our business and needs and made useful recommendations. The time and personalization put into our project really showed up.

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

After a few meetings via phone to discuss our goals as a business and our ideas for the website redesign, we started the project. The Dark Matter team was great about staying in contact with us, even going into our busy season and we were able to follow along with the status of the project all the way.

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

We were in contact with 1 member the whole time, but I know there were about 3 others working on our project and they did a fantastic job!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The web leads are much more thorough and customers provide a lot more information that we can move forward with.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager was very easy to get ahold of and communicate with! Brandon was also flexible with our spread out schedule and available at good times even though there was a time difference.

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

We were really impressed by the personalization and thought they put into the icons on our website! As well as how they incorporated branding continuity from our service vans to the website. They were extremely creative and professional.

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

Not that I have noticed, but we will continue to be working with them as our website hosts.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the VP of a commercial real estate firm. We are one of the highest volume producing agencies in our market area.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dark Matter Digital, and what were your goals?

We had a very old and outdated website. We were looking to start fresh from the ground up and our team in house had a lot of ideas that we wanted to incorporate to best suit our individual agents needs as well as the overall company platform.

SOLUTION

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

Dark Matter Digital was referred to us by someone we have a high trust factor in. We did interview and collect proposals from several vendors. Dark Matter was a clear front runner from the start as they were very receptive to what we needed as we came in with our own ideas and they were willing to incorporate and suggest improvements to further those goals, as well as give us a very detailed proposal.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had two key players in our organization who would be the points of contact for our project. We worked directly with Brandon via Slack, email, and phone. After the initial framework was developed, we moved to MarkUp where we would all communicate on the actual layout and watch changes and adjustments in real time. It was incredibly easy for us to work with Brandon and his team and as we are very busy this was a must for us.

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

Brandon was out primary contact for the entire project and secondarily Joel was involved in some of the backend work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have just launched our site and have already gotten excellent feedback from our clients and other agencies we work with. We have a monitoring plan in place to track our effectiveness over the next few months.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

There were many days we communicated multiple times a day, as we are very busy so when my inhouse coworker and I had time to get together to review Dark Matter was readily available to meet our needs.

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

Our site is fresh and updated and very easy to navigate. We know that one of our main data suppliers is doing a roll out in a few months and Dark Matter has already begun preparing to make those adjustments to our site in advance. That will keep us ahead of the curve rather than trying to update after the facet.

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

We have zero complaints, our entire process was excellent.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Brandon is very knowledgeable about SEO and was responsible for increasing our organic traffic and ranking significantly. He also helped us migrate our site from webflow to Contentful making sure our site health remained in the high 90s. Now only is Brandon an SEO expert, he is also very knowledgeable about website development so that came in very helpful during the site migration. This is the 2nd time I’ve worked with him and would absolutely recommend him. He is a pleasure to work with, communicates well and most importantly drives results.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dark Matter Digital, and what were your goals?

Technical and on page SEO. Our goal was to improve our ranking significantly.

SOLUTION

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

I had worked with Brandon at a different company before. He had a done a great job there so I chose to work with him again.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

The process always starts with a site health audit after which he lays out a proposal for technical seo, on page and off page. Included is some keyword research and content topics to go after.

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

We interfaced with Brandon for everything which was straightforward and efficient.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Since working with Brandon our organic volume and search ranking has increased significantly.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We communicated through slack which was great. All deliverables were done very quickly. They are very fast.

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

Their expertise in SEO was really helpful as we ran into some challenges migrating our site. Brandon was very helpful and knowledgeable about best practices to make sure everything got migrated over without breaking anything or disrupting our SEO efforts.

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

Brandon’s technical capabilities are fantastic. Don’t think our site health could be better! There were a few missed meetings so communication around attendance could have been a little better. But overall the work was great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and co-founder of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the political space focused on strengthening and preserving the guardrails of democracy. We formed around a year ago, and we’re currently three people in the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dark Matter Digital?

We were trying to update our website. One of our key initiatives for this year was an election pledge, so we hired Dark Matter Digital to upgrade our website and create a database of the people who signed the pledge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we went together through the specifications document I had built. Dark Matter Digital then created the wireframes for the database, and we iterated on that part a couple of times.

Dark Matter Digital built the solution using a few robust products, including Webflow and Airtable, which was good — I really liked that part. They also extended it in very useful ways for where we want to go in the future. For example, they implemented a way to pull in some data through a Google Services API, which was very useful. Additionally, they created an online update process for the database, which was also useful because my original update process was through a spreadsheet.

What is the team composition?

I’ve mainly worked with Brandon (Founder & CEO). I know that he had other people from his team working on the project, but we only had reviews and discussions with him during the process.

How did you come to work with Dark Matter Digital?

I contacted Clutch, and they gave me 5–6 different options for potential partners. We were hoping to have this project completed by mid-January 2022, so I wrote a document with our specifications, which I then sent to those potential partners. They all came back to us very quickly with their estimates. Then, we talked to each of these companies, and they went through their proposals.

Ultimately, we went to Dark Matter Digital because they had a good approach to the project from a technology perspective. I felt that they would get us there with a good and scalable solution. Additionally, their proposal was very cost-effective, and Brandon was very responsive.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $8,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The measure of success for this engagement was delivering the product on time and within budget. Dark Matter Digital went above and beyond to deliver what we needed, and they delivered the product when we needed it.

The solution they’ve built is a good reflection of our requirements. It meets our specifications, and they built it on standard products, which has been very beneficial because we can depend on those. Overall, they’ve created a good-quality solution.

How did Dark Matter Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Dark Matter Digital does an excellent job sticking to schedule and budget. Brandon was very responsive throughout the process. For example, we could communicate with him if there were any issues, and his team quickly addressed them. We’ve mainly communicated via email and Google Meet, and Brandon has shared many documents through Google Docs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Dark Matter Digital’s strength is their responsiveness. Whenever we had any concerns through the process, they immediately grasped them and updated what they were doing to address them. We appreciate their willingness to collaborate and make things work very much.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Dark Matter Digital has done a very good job, so we will continue to work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Dark Matter Digital is very good at working quickly and cost-effectively, and they work very closely with great tools. The tools Brandon used for our context, Webflow and Airtable, are very useful, so if those tools fit your environment, they’re a very good choice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the President & Founder of my Luxury Hospitality Firm that specializes on providing exceptional Learning & Development to hotels and resorts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dark Matter Digital, and what were your goals?

I felt that my initial branding and logo aspects were not as exceptional as they should have been. This I hired DMD to refine and reinvent the company for 2002 and beyond.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found them online and after speaking with them and receiving their pitch I was sold on their services.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Redesign of existing logo, branding guide development, font selection, branding guide, social media banners/icons, Favicon

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

One member worked with me; the CEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The outcomes were full completion of the project in a timely manner. Not to mention products I am very excited about and cannot wait to implement across my company and social media.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

I felt that the communication was quite excellent and they used a variety of tools to connect with me whenever they needed things from me. Slack, email, and text were all implemented to allow close communication.

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

Their approach and personalization was outstanding. I really enjoyed the process and how easy it was to get in touch with the CEO to communicate about the project.

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

None that I can think of. Everything went extremely well from beginning to end.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a marketing firm as a fast track to project management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dark Matter Digital, and what were your goals?

Wow, I don't think I've ever written a bad review but at this point my hands are tied. STAY AWAY! I hired Dark Matter Digital and within the first month I had an issue with communication. It took 2-3 weeks for someone to get back to me. They never answer the phone or respond to emails.

They finally got back to me and apologized and said they were M.I.A. because of COVID and then changed their number without telling me or updating their social media or website with the new info. I gave them the benefit of the doubt because of COVID. I explained that I was using a large chunk of our budget to retain them and that I needed them to communicate with me. I stressed this factor a lot.

They assured me it wouldn't happen again and apologized. Then I paid them $325 to design me a new website, letting them know that this was time sensitive because of the holiday rush. They quoted me a 7-10 day turn around and said it wouldn't even take that long but they "wanted to be safe". Another month went by without any communication despite my multiple attempts via email, text and phone.

Then they lied about a server issue with GoDaddy to cover their ass as if they had no control over the situation. Someone finally got back to me and apologized again and then set up a time to speak with me the following day to demo my site. That was the last time I heard from them.

It's going on 3 months now without my website, no refund and ZERO communication. They have my number and email address and I have reached out over a dozen times in 3 different ways. I own a business, this is highly unprofessional. I have NEVER dealt with a company that was so incompetent, unethical and unresponsive.

I am now out of my advertising budget for this years holiday season and I have absolutely nothing to show for it. They didn't even do any work for the retainer I paid them, just "research". I will be filing a complaint with the BBB and looking at alternative options of recuperating the funds spent on their "services". I don't even know what to say.

DO NOT CHOOSE THIS COMPANY!!!

SOLUTION

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

They had good reviews... at first. They seem great at first and then take your money and don't deliver work or respond to you.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

I hired them to design a new website and to retain for marketing/PPC campaigns.

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

one, the owner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Nothing. They didn't do anything except take my money.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

There isn't any. It's nonexistent.

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

They're horrible.

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

Every single aspect of the business needs to be improved.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an Associate at a Wealth Management firm. Our firm specializes in investing for high net worth clients in private equity, private real estate and private debt.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dark Matter Digital, and what were your goals?

We had a majority of our design already prepared by our designer but we needed someone who could help us with the execution of the design and make all our designs workable. We needed someone who was familiar with web development and graphics so that we could smoothly transition from static designs to actually converting them into workable elements.

SOLUTION

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

We found Dark Matter Digital through Wix - the platform for we used for our website development.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

After we submitted a collaboration request through Wix, Brandon from Dark Matter Digital reached out to us and we explained our needs to him. Our requirement was to convert our existing static designs into a fully functional website. We shared the mock up designs with Brandon and he was very forthcoming and understood our requirements in no time. We used Wix for our website development. We also wanted our email signatures to be converted into a workable format which we could not figure out a solution for without Brandon's help. Brandon developed a HTML code for our email signatures which we were seamlessly able to use in Outlook.

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

Brandon was our main point of contact at Dark Matter Digitals. He was the only person we communicated and worked with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Within 24 hours of launching our new email signatures, we received great feedback from our clients and partners on how well they looked. We have yet to launch our new website, but we anticipate a similar reaction to it as well.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We communicated daily with Brandon and there was no delay in his promised timelines. He delivered all required items as we expected and made all the changes we asked for in a timely manner.

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

For us personally, we were impressed by the following:

1. Brandon was extremely forthcoming
2. There was never a lack of communication
3. He very clearly understood our specific details
4. They did not shy away from working to get us what we needed, even if it meant multiple revisions.
5. Did not charge an excessive amount for projects

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

We are thrilled with our partnership with Brandon and Dark Matter Digital, and we would definitely consider him for any future project we wish to embark on.