Eightfold

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the owner and clinical director of Inner Balance Counseling. I do most of the day-to-day clinical tasks with our therapists. We have about 20 therapists, one intern, two support staff, and one biller. We specialize in the trauma and LGBTQ community, although we serve a wide range of clients in the areas of addiction and general mental health. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eightfold?
Marketing was one of my biggest stressors because it was out of my wheelhouse. Our website was okay — it was all I could do with Squarespace, which didn’t play well with Google. I tried doing SEO but pretty much fumbled in the dark. I wrote or hired people to write blogs, but we were getting the results we wanted. As a result, we urgently hired Eightfold to redo our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
During the initial phase, Eightfold went over my website and determined the parts I liked, disliked, and wanted to keep. They worked on understanding my vision. I didn’t want to micromanage the team, so I allowed them to be creative. I reviewed their work 2–3 times, and they implemented changes as we went through the process. They used Webflow to redo the website.
 
We’ve since launched the website, and Eightfold has provided us with SEO and blogging services. They’ve performed keyword research to make sure we gain a higher ranking on Google. Recently, the team has done some video production work for us and produced three videos for marketing purposes. We’re going to use the video to market to our clients and hire new therapists.
What is the team composition?
I’m mainly in touch with Henry (Co-Founder & CEO) and Tyler (Director of Client Strategy), and I’ve met and emailed some of their other team members. There are 6–7 other teammates working on our account.
How did you come to work with Eightfold?
My husband and Tyler had worked at another company. My husband contacted Tyler and a few other companies. We interviewed them, but we ultimately liked what Tyler and his team offered.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested around $72,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
They started redoing our website and took over our SEO efforts in March 2022, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve received so many compliments about the website, and it’s now easier for our clients to access information and get a hold of us. The site works well on a computer, tablet, or phone. We’ve got farther up the Google ranking and gained tons of referrals. Moreover, we’ve hired seven more therapists because of this increase; our eighth therapist will start in January 2024.

We’re looking at grossing around $400,000 more this year than last year. We schedule about 20 intakes per week, which is considered high in our field. On top of that, we’ve been able to start group and couples counseling sessions; two of our therapists are doing couples counseling, and we’re looking to add 2–3 more therapists in the coming spring.
 
Overall, Eightfold has done a marvelous job with our SEO and content. We’ve even started doing email campaigns with them. We send email blasts once per week, and we’ve gained even more clients and raised awareness because of it.
How did Eightfold perform from a project management standpoint?
Eightfold has met deadlines, and they’ve never gone over our budget. They’ve been respectful of our budget, unlike other teams. They’re honest about upfront costs and what they can provide in relation to price. The team is also highly communicative. They tell us their progress in terms of what’s going on and what their next steps are. As a result, we know how much time their tasks will take.
 
In terms of tools, we mainly communicate through emails. They use Zoom meetings when we go over our progress, discussing the number of intakes, website visitors, and where they originate. We do this at least once per quarter or more often, depending on what’s happening. I occasionally call Tyler if I have some concerns or questions. He’s always prompt in getting back to me.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Tyler has been amazing. He answers my phone calls and is willing to go over statistics with me and explain terminologies. He’s been extremely receptive to our change requests as we add new services to our business. Moreover, he’s been incredibly responsive and helpful with suggestions. He gives me options and helps me understand the pros and cons of each one before telling me what he thinks is the best.
 
Working with Henry has also been awesome. He and Tyler are both down to earth, and I appreciate that they don’t overuse their industry’s language to the point where I can’t follow. As a female entrepreneur, I don’t always get that kind of service. They treat me as an equal, which is truly important to me — they respect me and my business.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there aren’t any. They’ve been clear about what they can and can’t do.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Start your engagement with Eightfold now, and don’t micromanage them. It’s best to let people do what they do best. Give them the overview of what you want, and let them go. Just check in on them when they have a concern. A lot of people tend to micromanage and tell teams exactly how they want them to work, but they don’t get the best product. In other words, you should allow the team to be creative. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the content manager for a higher education academy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eightfold?

We needed help creating our website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eightfold has designed and developed our website from scratch. They’ve also developed our branding, icons, fonts, typography, and color scheme. They’ve used Figma to stage some of the designs; they’ve also used Drupal. 

They’ve created a content strategy — a multipronged approach that includes our email newsletter lists, blogs, and social media — and produced content for our blog.

What is the team composition? 

I’ve seen between 10–15 teammates on our calls.  

How did you come to work with Eightfold?

Eightfold’s CEO sought assistance from our office a long time ago before I worked here, and we just happened to recall him. They submitted a successful bid. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $500,000–$1 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and the partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Eightfold’s SEO approach has been really strong; according to Google Analytics, our users have increased fourfold each month.

Eightfold has created a unique, fluid design that’s never static, and the brand they’ve created is comprehensive and robust; they’ve left no detail untouched. 

We’re very pleased with the comprehensive approach they took with our content strategy. They write strong, robust articles for our blog that align with our brand and course offerings. 

How did Eightfold perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email, phone, Zoom, and Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Eightfold has strong attention to customer service; they make sure we’re happy. They attend to our needs and our questions very quickly. 

I’m completely impressed by their content creation for our blog. The articles they write are so in-depth and informative and have a great call to action for our services. I’ve contacted Eightfold's CEO to let him know how phenomenal I think he’s doing. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes they lose track of priority tasks, and we have to remind them a couple of times, but they’re getting better at that. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to contact Eightfold and contact them frequently; they’re open to that. Synchronous communication is their strength; they respond more effectively and quickly via phone calls and in-person meetings than via emails. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing and product at Credit & Debt, a financial services company that provides free financial resources, products, and coaching. We’re an owned subsidiary of IDIQ, a leading credit monitoring and identity theft protection company with a focus on financial wellness.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eightfold?

We hired Eightfold to take our existing web application and transfer it into a mobile app with improved UI/UX design. We also wanted to send real-time push notifications via the app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eightfold transferred our web application to an Android and iOS mobile app. They developed the app’s MVP using our existing backend coding and calculators within the web app. We designed the app’s UI/UX in-house with Eightfold’s guidance for best practices. Our UI/UX designer created a mapping workflow with things Eightfold’s developers needed to know. 

Eightfold used one of the leading bank-connecting technologies in the industry to develop the app’s main functionalities. The app offers the ability to connect the user’s financial institutions to our calculators so that a consumer can connect their checking accounts, credit cards, mortgage, and student loans. The app automatically syncs up those accounts and gives users insights about how they might be able to improve financially. 

The app developed by Eightfold also offers users insights into their real-time spending trends and the categorization of certain financial transactions. For example, if a user has a debt payment coming up, they’d get an alert through the app that'll also come through push notifications. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Steven (Co-Founder & CTO), Henry (Co-Founder & CEO), and Mike (Senior Web Developer). I also worked with Eightfold’s project manager and other specialists.

How did you come to work with Eightfold?

I had worked with some of Eightfold’s team members at my previous agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $150,000 with Eightfold. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Eightfold developed the app’s MVP from September 2022–January 2023. We’ll continue to work with them on an optimized version of the app, as well as app store optimization and analytics.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our measure of success for this project was to have a live app by January 2023. We gave Eightfold a short timeline to develop the app and have it available in app stores. Eightfold achieved our goal of developing our app’s MVP in three months.

Moreover, we received really positive feedback during testing about the app’s design, functionalities, and UX. 

How did Eightfold perform from a project management standpoint?

Eightfold was incredibly responsive. I’d send an email and get an answer within seconds, or Henry would pick up the phone and call me. We had weekly meetings through Microsoft Teams, and Eightfold’s project manager was present in all of them. We also had great communication through Slack. 

Moreover, Eightfold was consistent with meeting timelines and providing updates on Jira. They created a project management calendar at the beginning of our engagement to map out all the project’s milestones and ultimately met them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with Eightfold’s communication and work quality. They were great at communicating realistic timelines and ensuring they were able to meet them. There are usually unexpected situations in development projects that modify the timeline, but Eightfold anticipated this so it wouldn’t affect our calendar.

Moreover, all of Eightfold’s deliverables were high-quality in functionality and design. They listened to our feedback during the development process. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Eightfold to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend you have a very clear idea of how you want your app to look like. What worked for us was that we had a great understanding with our in-house developers about our app’s coding, so we made sure that Eightfold had access to our backend and understood our system’s architecture.

Overall, we gave Eightfold all the technical assets they needed for our project, and we had a clear vision of what we wanted to see in the end. If you give Eightfold clear directions, they’ll run with them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a distribution and logistics business. We manage and distribute products to large businesses as well as to direct-to-consumer (D2C). I’m in charge of all the different functions and all the background that goes on with all the details of running the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eightfold?

We hired Eightfold to manage our sales lead generation activities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eightfold is producing our websites and managing our SEO efforts. They develop websites to help us attract leads that could be placed into our systems so that they could be acted upon. Over the course of our partnership, we’ve done approximately six websites for different businesses. 

Typically, our process starts by explaining to them what we need and what we’re trying to do. We then give them a brand portfolio that includes the definition of the customers we’re targeting. After that, they come back to us and make proposals on how to reach those customers — whether they’re part of our lead generation efforts or an existing customer looking for more information. Once that’s defined, they go off and execute our website and we go back and forth over several iterations to hone the message and to ensure that we’re nailing the brand properly. Then, we conduct some trials and make some adjustments as we move forward.

We keep tabs on the websites they’re developing, and we check if we’re getting any traction on those platforms. If we see that we’re not getting any traction, we add some content and other posts on our websites.

Eightfold uses different tools when they’re developing, but they have an interactive tool that allows them to do a mockup and flow of a website. The tool also allows them to invite everybody involved in the project to view and comment on their progress. For the features and functionalities, that highly depends on the type of website we’re developing as well as the type of business we’re featuring. Overall, the team's main goal is to develop and share content that’s consistent with our brand.

What is the team composition?

We probably know eight individuals in their company which we’ve met at different phases of the project. The first set of individuals helped us define the project after which we were introduced to their development team. After that, we interfaced with their maintenance team that was in charge of our analytics and observed what changes we still needed to implement.

How did you come to work with Eightfold?

One of the owners of Eightfold had worked at a different company 8–10 years ago and I had used that company to develop websites. He was actually the project manager on our website development efforts. When that person decided to branch out on his own and develop his own business, we went and started working with him.

We chose to work with them because we knew that they’d be a good fit for us. We already had good communication, and we understood the process they were using. On top of that, we knew that we were going to get good results from them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent slightly less than $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and we continue to collaborate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We gauge their success on their ability to achieve the leads we’re looking for, and we see that the amount of lead generation that has turned into a prospect increases every month. On top of that, they sometimes point out things we don’t know about, and they’re able to come back to us with suggestions, which we follow most of the time.

More importantly, they’ve been able to enhance our development cycle time. At first, it took us six months to complete our first website, but they were able to make some tweaks and our most recent website only took six weeks to complete.

How did Eightfold perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a very collaborative and interactive process with Eightfold — everything is clear, and we experience no surprises with them. We hold regular meetings, typically once a week to give updates and discuss some changes on what we’re developing. We also talk about our action items going forward.

Additionally, the team provides us with a project manager who keeps track of everything. That person’s goal is to keep everything working perfectly — ensuring that we’re on schedule and we give the materials they need from us. We use Google Docs and their interactive tool to monitor the project, and we communicate through phone calls and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Eightfold’s process and knowledge set them apart. The team stays up to date with the latest trends and tools that we can apply to our projects. In fact, we always learn something new from them. Moreover, they have a very cost-effective and efficient way to do things. Overall, we have a good relationship with them because they have a good understanding of what we need to accomplish — they don’t wait to be asked because they’ve been through the same routine so many times.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not sure what I’d change at this point because I’m pretty happy with the results that we get from them. On our side, we need to make sure that we’re effective at giving them what they need in a timely fashion.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend all your time upfront planning the statement of your work and defining what your brand is before you ask them to do work. If you do your brand development properly, it may take 1–2 iterations to complete your project. Don’t just dump the project in their lap and tell them to figure it out. 

On top of that, before you partner with any provider, you should check if you’re going to enjoy working with them. In our case, we like working with Eightfold because they’re capable of accomplishing what needs to be done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Ammo Planet, an e-commerce website where we sell ammunition and firearms accessories to consumers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eightfold?

We hired Eightfold to help us launch an e-commerce website in a quick time frame to meet the demand of our consumers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eightfold began with our branding. At first, we set our mood board. We then went through multiple iterations to help us select the colors of our logo. In the end, our executive team decided what the logo would be and what color palette to follow for our branding identity. Additionally, the team helped create our tagline.

After that, Eightfold designed our site’s wireframes. They then developed our Magento website, and they integrated ShipStation for our inventory management and shipping needs. I think they used Contentful to design our platform. One of the things they incorporated was the specific filters for our products so that customers could easily search for what they were looking for.

The key feature that we wanted to have was to gain full control of the frontend — which would allow us to customize the website to our needs. On the backend, they helped us build data scrapers and other things. While they were building the site, they offered their hosting services, but everything was transferred over to Cloudflare. They're also responsible for creating our content and managing and maintaining our website. They also assist us with the strategy and execution of our marketing services to ensure our platform is SEO-optimized.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with about four people in the project, including Henry (CEO) who’s our main point of contact, and he has a right hand that helps with the marketing side of the project. We also work with Kayla (Project Manager), and she supports us with our writing needs.

How did you come to work with Eightfold?

We did a small version of an RFP. Eightfold was recommended through an acquaintance, and they were part of the other companies that we were scouting. We were impressed by the use cases they provided and the way they portrayed their company.  Ultimately, their SEO work sealed the partnership and was the driving force of our decision.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Normally, when we launch e-commerce sites, it would take six months to a year before we get a good SEO ranking. However, with Eightfold’s website, we’ve been able to have a great SEO ranking in four months, which has positively helped us to achieve our sales goals. In fact, in our first three months, our sales just kept increasing. At first, we managed to have $22,000 worth of sales. Then, it increased to $150,000 and $300,000.

Eightfold also created a user-friendly experience on our site, which helps us retain people on the platform when they visit. Overall, they’ve gone above and beyond to deliver good work to us.

How did Eightfold perform from a project management standpoint?

The team ensures that our communication is always at a very high level. We use Slack, Figma, and Google Sheets. We use Figma when we have comments regarding their designs and Google Sheets when we’re working with a very content-heavy area where we need to share a lot of feedback. Overall, I’ll continue to work with them and rank them above all the other agencies I worked with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have impressive customer service skills, and they’re amazing with everything, which allows us to have a smooth engagement. They really try to help and understand their clients. They also have great design skills and have strong knowledge of many platforms. As a result, they’re able to share great recommendations.

However, I must say that the most important thing for us is their excellent communication skills because we worked with agencies before that had great designers but they didn’t know how to communicate which ultimately ruined our experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve. They’re just good at what they do.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide Eightfold with the right information and be very detailed with everything that you want so that they're able to meet your expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO of an advertising and marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eightfold?

We wanted to create a brand new website for our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eightfold has been helping us develop a site from scratch. We went through a discovery phase to collect the necessary information for the project. After deciding our design style, we picked out the content for the platform from the services we offer. In addition to that, they also took care of the branding and logo design.

In terms of technologies, they use Adobe for the design. We ask them to give the site an inviting feel with a color palette influenced by the ocean. We asked for a simple, clean, and modern look for the website’s UI — I only want to display the vital information.

They’re currently working on the website’s hosting and maintenance, along with SEO and blog content efforts once we launch our site.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with six people from their team, including a lead designer, a lead coder, an art design lead, a copywriting team, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Eightfold?

They were referred to me by someone who knew their work. I chose them because they were local, and I also felt like their work had good quality.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $10,000–$15,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been great at sharing updated designs, and their work is consistent. They also collaborate closely with us to help us make the right decisions, like buying the URL for the site and choosing the final design for it — I appreciate their communicative approach throughout the process.

How did Eightfold perform from a project management standpoint?

We keep a tight process to talk about any issues that may arise. We write down the key points for updates or changes, and then they’d distribute a timeline to their design, coding, and copywriting teams to complete the tasks on a given timeline. We communicate via Sigma, Slack, texts, and phone calls — everyone is informed on the progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their humility to take their work and change it according to our requirements is one of the best parts of working with them, and it makes me happy. Whenever they deliver something that doesn’t fulfill my vision, they don’t hesitate to fix it for me, and they’re great at turning it into what I’m after.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — they’ve made the process fluid and seamless for me.

Any advice for potential customers?

Invest in your project to get the best product; you’ll get what you pay for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an attorney who developed a unique system that we used internally in my two law offices. The system worked so well that I wanted to turn it into a business. Eightfold helped me organize and deploy the web page.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eightfold, and what were your goals?

We had to convert internal systems that were easily managed in-house to a scalable and serviceable platform in order to offer it to other attorneys. This was not an easy task and eightfold assisted in each and every step.

SOLUTION

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

After interviewing multiple developers it was clear that eightfold was the only choice. They understood immediately what i was trying to accomplish and began making suggestions to solve problems I hadn't even recognized I had yet.

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

We started by explaining the system to eightfold. It was highly technical and VERY industry-specific. I was impressed by how quickly they understood our goal. Then we had to whiteboard the potential ways to deliver the service. They assisted with every aspect of development and even provided us art and logo design assistance.

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

There were a number of people involved. Our project manager, our chief designer, our systems designer, then the art and content people were brought in.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project morphed over time, mostly due to me expanding the scope of the project. Each time every new task was done quickly and expertly. I was impressed the whole time with communication and attention to detail.

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

This project was conceived during COVID, so one could imagine that communication would have been a problem. It wasn't. Regular zoom meetings were set. At the end of each meeting deliverables were discussed, a time to deliver was made, and a new meeting was set. On the rare occasion that something took longer than expected, i was contacted, the problem was explained, a new deadline set and the meeting moved accordingly.

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

Their ability to bring insight and direction to a project to someone who has never developed a website before. Their communication and follow-through were among the best that I have experienced in the business.

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

As a novice, I don't have anything in which to compare them in this industry. However, I have been in business for nearly two decades and rarely do people do what they say exactly when they say they will. Eightfold is extremely good at delivering and communicating in ways most providers don't.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the admissions coordinator for all three of our substance abuse facilities. I work directly with all aspects of both digital and business to business marketing as well as help coordinate client care and intake.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Eightfold, and what were your goals?

Our goals were to improve our organic SEO and optimize our web domains.

SOLUTION

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

Eightfold media came highly recommended by an industry partner. My team and I interviewed a handful of companies and Eight Fold consistently was our top candidate.

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

Our journey with Eightfold began and the interview process. We had the team do a full audit and proposal. We liked what we saw and they executed the project with great success.

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

They assigned a project manager and a SEO specialist to our project. The owner of EightFold was available and a part of the process the whole way which we loved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our web domains organic rank climbed and resulted in a very good return on investment.

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

Eightfold continues to maintain constant communication with my team and meets all deadlines and targets.

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

Their level of professionalism and availability through the entire process and the outcomes were outstanding.

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

I would recommend Eightfold time and time again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and director of product development for Cloud Consent Solutions, a patient engagement platform. We offer a consolidated platform for patients to access and medical providers to compile educational materials pre- and post-surgical operations. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eightfold?

We needed help with adding a new feature to our platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eightfold helped us implement a few features in our patient education platform. It gives patients access to advisors who can guide patients through choosing premium services in disciplines like ophthalmology or plastic surgery. Patients receive a customized report with recommendations based on their lifestyle, financial information, employment, and other factors.

Eightfold built the feature in Python and Django to match the platform’s core. They also use React in additional features. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a software developer, designer, and project manager. Henry (CEO / Co-Founder, Eightfold) is in 90% of our meetings.

How did you come to work with Eightfold?

Eightfold is based in our town, which is in a rural area where everyone in the tech community knows each other. We found each other, I talked about the features we wanted to add to our product, and Henry said that his company had the skill set.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in September 2018 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t do much tracking for the features that Eightfold creates. The majority of the functionality is complete, and we’re in maintenance mode for the time being. 

How did Eightfold perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate once or twice a week. Even when there’s travel, Eightfold responds within an hour to let us know. They also alert us whenever our senior developer is needed for another project so that we can adjust our priorities as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Eightfold’s communication is top-notch. Also, they’re not afraid to tackle hard problems and suggest alternate ways to do things. Sometimes, we have to go with the less-than-optimal solution, but they’ll understand that and continue to offer different solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a small company. We want to get some critical projects off the ground that would require more resources at Eightfold.

Any advice for potential customers?

Know what you want to build before getting into a contract. However, also keep an open mind—Eightfold will suggest new technologies and techniques that may work better than what you’ve planned.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former digital marketing manager for Cepheid, which is a company that develops, manufactures, and markets molecular diagnostics technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Eightfold?

We wanted to position ourselves as thought leaders in our industry and realized that our website was lacking the right sort of content to get us into that position. We were locked into a content management system that couldn’t give us sufficient design capability or functionality, so we decided to hire a company that could help us enhance our UI/UX, SEO, and content strategy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a microsite for us from the ground up. Their managing director worked with us on every step of the project, including content strategy, and design, in order to create a cohesive user experience that matched tonally to our larger site.

Once we planned the vision for the project, we worked with the design team to solidify our information hierarchy for the site and then the developer built everything out. I provided the direction for the content because I understood our customers intimately. Eightfold came in from an SEO and UX perspective to translated my notes into decisions about how to animate or lay out elements of the site.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the managing director, a designer, a developer, and a couple of additional UX designers.

How did you come to work with Eightfold?

I’d worked with their managing director while at a previous company, so I recognized his name when I researched Eightfold for this project. We interviewed five agencies, including some based in Silicon Valley, but their team gave us a bold pitch that made it clear they understood our vision and could execute it the way we wanted. Their proposal also suited our budget needs well.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from September 2018–April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Despite being a small project, this ended up being a valuable investment for us. In addition to paying for the microsite, we purchased all of the templates that Eightfold built for us using Drupal. Having a new content management system and custom designs has allowed us to reach customers further down the funnel in addition to those at the top.

How did Eightfold perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly one-hour meetings where their team would outline a development plan and make adjustments based on our needs. We didn’t meet our original launch deadline, but that was largely due to our internal approval process for the site’s written content.

In terms of day-to-day project managing, I felt like Trello was an effective way to share our content. It was nice to reduce the amount of emails and I liked how easy it was to reference previous materials or leave feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were attentive to our needs and personalized their service to maximize our outcomes. The healthcare industry is extremely regulated, so we have to pass multiple layers of approval before delivering content to our customers. This site went through many iterations before we went live and the Eightfold team managed that process gracefully. They were extremely detail-oriented in terms of making sure that all the required changes were implemented.

I was also impressed by how quickly they were able to transition from idea to concept to deliverable. They bring their designers and developers into the conversation from the outset, which lets us have direct communication and makes the project run more smoothly overall.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a noticeable shift in attention to detail when we moved from the design phase to the development phase. Once the developers took over, I found myself having to spend a lot more time correcting copy mistakes and other minor errors.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to take a collaborative tone at the outset so you can set clear expectations about what each party’s role is. They felt more like a part of our team than a contractor, and I think that’s down to how we introduced and defined the project. My other suggestion is to set aside time near the end of the project so you can review it thoroughly before launching your site.