Idea Marketing Group

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a sales and Marketing Admin for a manufacturer of a decorative concrete company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Marketing Group?

Our Website has changed a few times in the last 15+ years that I have worked here. The last change being hard to navigate. Idea brought back the ease of use to our website again!

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

Idea created our competitors website which had a seamless flow. It was a no brainer to hire them.

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

There was a lot of preplanning and flow charts to show the organization of our products on our page. There were many calls they got what our vision was. They also improved our product locator map!

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

I worked mainly with Taylor, their Account Manager but also when we had meetings, Darren, Erin and Sean were online.

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

I do not have the analytics to see any progress of success however the ease of use has drastically improved from our prior site.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The account manager was very organized, which helped to launch our site in a timely manner.

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

They all worked so well together to get out site looking the way it should have always been!

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

None. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

We run an evidence-based postpartum depression prevention intervention. Our team is based out of a University in Chicago, IL. My role as Evaluation & Implementation coordinator focuses on providing training and TA as well as developing supports and strategies for service providers who are implementing the intervention in their practice.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Marketing Group, and what were your goals?

Our website was developed nearly 8 years ago by Idea Marketing. Since then, Mothers and Babies has expanded rapidly. Our old website was no longer meeting our needs so it was time for a change!

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

We had a fabulous experience with Idea Marketing when we initially developed our website so we were eager to work with them again.

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

We had a kick off meeting to describe the many changes we were hoping to make to our WordPress site. Together, we developed a strategy plan and the Idea team built out the architecture for the website and brand board.

The home page and remaining layouts were designed and approved, content was added to the website, and we reviewed the site thoroughly prior to launch.

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

We worked with numerous team members throughout the process. An Account Manager supported with all communication between us and her team members.

We worked closely with their Sr. Graphic Designer, Creative Director, Sr. Front End Developer, and Support Manager. Darren, the President and Founder of Idea Marketing, was also involved as needed and is incredibly kind and helpful.

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

At each step of the way, Idea Marketing allowed us to thoroughly review, provide feedback, and engage in ongoing discussions to ensure that all components met our needs.

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

Idea Marketing supported us to conceptualize and bring to life a resource library. They also helped us strategically to think about how to encapsulate and reach numerous audiences through one website. We also received comprehensive training on the back end of the website prior to launch.

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

They were wildly helpful in supporting us with any concerns or challenges that came up along the way since the launch.

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

None.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of City Lights Music Inc. We have been providing live and contracted musical services for the entertainment industry since 1974. Since 2011, we have worked significantly in the television industry.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Marketing Group, and what were your goals?

We needed a new web site that would focus strictly on the capabilities we have in the television and film industry coupled with the high-end national concert market. This was focused less on my long-time company and more on the institutional knowledge I bring to the industry while focusing in on my body of work specifically over the past 11 years.

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

Idea Marketing built our previous web site for my core business and we were very happy with the outcome from that experience. The price point played a role but their ability to access and execute my vision were paramount in bringing the business to them.

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

They built this new site from scratch including helping to position the necessary collateral materials (music & video segments) that show the real capabilities of what we have to offer. More so, the many delays we experienced on our end were met with understanding and the desire to do whatever they could to get us back on track (our account rep Taylor at Idea Marketing deserves a Purple Heart for putting up with my delays!).

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

This started with:

• their CEO as we crafted the deal
• a project manager,
• a designer and ultimately
• someone who showed us how to make the site run

Additionally there were IT people who told us what was possible. We also asked their team to work with my designer and a script writer who helped a bit with the message.

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

We released the site the first week of April 2022 (7 days ago) and the reaction has been overwhelming. We shared the new site under the guise of an initial blog post both through email and on social media. In the short time the site has been live, we have received hundreds of positive responses as well as great participation on the blog post.

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

Their project management style was simple. They helped to assess my needs and then put forth a plan to execute that shared vision. We did not want to overthink the site and there is not an e-commerce component currently (but that could change down the road). The site was created to drive interest in acquiring our services and I'm confident that is exactly what it will do.

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

The quick turn on all deliverables. They were highly responsive and the only impediment with getting this done quickly was 100% from our end. Every time we baited the hook, they immediately responded with the hope of trying to build momentum. They get the perseverance award!

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

No...they operated and functioned at a very high level using industry standards and a finetuned professional work ethic.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of YellowFin Digital. We specialize in digital marketing for home service and ecommerce businesses.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Marketing Group, and what were your goals?

We had a manufacturing client reach out to us through a referral and while we wanted to help this referral, the manufacturing space isn't our niche. Through some friends we were referred to Idea Marketing Group because of their specialization in manufacturing/industrial websites. We partnered with them to update a very dated website with a new custom designed/developed WordPress website.

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

We asked around our digital marketing network and were referred to Idea Marketing Group as the industry experts that we needed.

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

We had a kick-off call to discuss our client's needs. From there, we were provided with a wireframe to approve and then we were quickly given a list of deliverables and dates. Everything went smoothly and we actually finished on budget, 3 weeks sooner than expected and delivered an amazing customer designed/developed WordPress website.

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

We worked with 3 people from Idea Marketing. We worked with their President, a project manager and designer.

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

We just launched the new website this month so it is still very early to have measurable outcomes. That said, the client loves their new site and has already gotten several compliments from customers about the new look and ease of use compared to the old site.

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

We had weekly meetings with our project manager. Our communication was done through zoom and slack and was seemless! The responsiveness from all three contacts at Idea Marketing was next level. They kind of blew us away at how quickly they would get back to us with answers from our team or the client.

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

I'm not sure if the quality of the finished project or the high level of communication were the most impressive thing about Idea Marketing. Both were amazing!

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

There really is nothing I would ask to have handled differently or better. It's flawless.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the president of a wine and craft marketing agency.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Marketing Group, and what were your goals?

As part of our core business, we help businesses align themselves with the wine industry. Strategy is our strong suit. We engaged Idea Marketing Group to come up with a tactical plan to develop a large-scale custom website that was a bit outside of our skillset. The tactical plan they developed became our roadmap which saved us countless time and money.

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

We've worked with Darren and his team at Idea for several years. They know their stuff! Especially when it comes to custom website development.

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

For this project, the final deliverable was a tactical development plan that we could execute in-house. We met over a series of zoom calls and Darren helped us boil down our many ideas and possibilities into s single plan of action.

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

For this project we worked with the founder directly. However, given the scope and depth of research. It is clear that the final product was a team effort.

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

The tactical plan saved us countless hours and allowed us to finish the project 25% under our estimated budget.

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

All in all the process took 1 month. All communication was done via Zoom.

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

When it comes to web development there are numerous ways to achieve the same outcome. What impressed us most was Their ability to cut through all the options and come up with an elegant plan of action.

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

Not that I can see. Idea Marketing is a well-oiled machine!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director for an investor relations and financial communication firm. We work with a wide range of public companies on their company narrative and how to communicate with investors

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Marketing Group?

We hired them to redesign and develop our two WordPress websites.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a marketing site and another for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and reporting metrics. They also provided some UI/UX design. Since the project ended, they also update and fix bugs on the platform.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Darren (President & Founder), Taylor (Account Manager), Haley (Frontend Developer), and a couple of developers.

How did you come to work with Idea Marketing Group?

There was a mutual connection between one of our partners and Idea Marketing Group.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in February and ended in October 2020.

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

We’re happy with the designs they’ve implemented on each of our websites. They accurately reflected our brand and the look and feel we discussed in our initial interview. Idea Marketing Group clearly conveyed the messages we were trying to get across.

How did Idea Marketing Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They met most of our deadlines. We generally used email to communicate with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Darren is very knowledgeable and communicates what they’re capable of well. Whenever we had questions or spoke with him, he provided several options that would meet our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We could have used more communication around our deadlines at the beginning of the project. However, this improved throughout the engagement and they’ve communicated very well over the last few months.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing coordinator at Robinson Resource Group. We’re a premier boutique executive search and coaching firm. We help organizations find, secure, and develop their current and future talent.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Marketing Group?

We had been working off of the same website, making updates for a number of years, and had reached the limit of what we were able to do with it. We wanted to find a partner who could help us build a completely new website that would provide us with a visual rebrand. 

We wanted to bring in new fonts and a new color palette and incorporate a new tagline. We also wanted to provide a better UX for visitors to our website by creating more movement for a better visual impact, integrating a lot of new video content, and incorporating clear calls to action overall. 

Our organization felt that it was important to build a website that allowed us to have the flexibility for the future in terms of breaking out of the template that we were in, being able to get some longevity out of the website, and managing it ourselves on the backend from a content perspective.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idea Marketing Group did custom WordPress website design and development. They worked with us on brainstorming the site structure and content development. They then did UX work and SEO. They're hosting our website and training our team on how to manage the website on the backend.

We’ll continue working with them for ongoing support as well. We told them what our goals were and they helped us think through what would be the best to bring our vision to life.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, and we also have direct access to a designer and a creative director. We met more of their team members early on.

How did you come to work with Idea Marketing Group?

We knew we wanted to work with a local partner and had done our own online research to seek out potential partners. We did Zoom class with three potential partners, and Idea Marketing Group seemed like a good fit.

It was clear that they weren’t just out to make a sale. They listened to our ideas first, but they were also willing to push back on educating us on ideas that would work better. We knew that it was going to be a collaborative partnership. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off in August 2020. The site went live in January 2021, but we’re going to continuing working with them for ongoing support moving forward.

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

We had a really specific deadline we were working with and trying to get our website live in time for a specific event, and we achieved that. In terms of managing and meeting expectations, Idea Marketing Group hit all of the metrics that we laid out from the beginning.

How did Idea Marketing Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a really organized and detailed timeline when we signed on with them that outlined how the project would go phase by phase in terms of timing. We were either on time or ahead every step of the way. 

Idea Marketing Group used InVision, which allowed them to share the design phases of the website and  made everything really clear. They also used Content Snare, which is where we input a lot of the content for the website in different categories. It made it easy for us to visualize what we needed.

Those two tools were both new to us but they made the process so much more seamless than we could’ve imagine. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They came into the project as a true strategic partner who wanted to hear about our business, goals, and backstory. They weren’t just interested in providing the newest, flashiest website; they really wanted to understand what was going to be best for our business and to deliver according to what was important to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. It was a great experience. We’re recommending them to others and we’re continuing to partner with them moving forward.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat Idea Marketing Group as a partner and not a vendor. They have so much expertise and insight that they’re willing to give, so go to them as early as possible in your process, because they gave us a lot of advice that shaped what we ended up bringing to life.

Had we gone to them farther down the road with a vision of exactly what we wanted, we would’ve missed out on those insights upfront and having the team guide us down the path that would ultimately provide the best website.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founding director of a leadership development community for rostered leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Marketing Group, and what were your goals?

We were starting from scratch with a new ministry outreach. We had a vision for the sort of website platform we wanted created but there were a lot of complicated aspects of the website design. We needed professional assistance to sort through the various options.

How did you select Idea Marketing Group and what were the deciding factors?

Idea Marketing was the perfect fit for our organization. They walked us through every aspect of the website design and brought our website vision to reality.

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

We talked through the process in detail which was very helpful for our team. They helped us keep our project on track and yet, did so in a way that allowed our whole team to participate.

Our website features a member login portal, member payment portal, member database, event registration, even tracking, feedback, and donation portal.

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

A project manager was our main point of contact and a creative team of 3 others (designer, marketing, database specialist) worked with us to make our website vision a reality.

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

The website is a critical element of our communication and membership relations.

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

We met regularly with the project manager and met with the creative team on a number of occasions for full team meetings as we shaped the website vision together.

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

We have a professional website with a number of elements that are of high value to our members and help our organization function smoothly. We love the ongoing support we have received and the user-friendly features for maintaining the website content.

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

We missed our website launch date goal by a couple of months which was not entirely their fault.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing. I oversee all of the marketing programs and services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Marketing Group?

We wanted to launch a new website to really highlight our new branding.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came to the table with the new branding that we wanted to launch a website with, and Idea Marketing Group really helped us refine and elevate that branding as we were relaunching. They developed the backend, and we worked collaboratively on the frontend. They really led with the overall layout and functionality. They also launched the site with SEO in mind. We’ve since done two other website projects with them. 

What is the team composition?

I had an account manager as my day-to-day contact. Behind the scenes, her whole team was very responsive. That included a programmer and the owner of the company.

How did you come to work with Idea Marketing Group?

When we were doing research, we came across them initially through Google. We read online reviews and narrowed our selection down to the three companies. We did an interview and contract process, and we chose Idea Marketing Group.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we’ve spent $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work on the first project was from January–April 2017. They continue to finetune our SEO.

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

We won an industry-wide award for our website, which really helped elevate our brand awareness. We’re very satisfied with their work. They’ve definitely helped us meet our SEO goals.

They had ahead-of-the-curve, trendy ideas. When our website launched, it looked like the next thing. They came to the table with a lot of innovative technology ideas.

How did Idea Marketing Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very receptive. Whether we ask for something done urgently or last minute, they’re always very responsive and timely. On our end, we primarily communicate via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The ease of working with them is impressive. They have really good pricing with high quality. All of their people are wonderful to work with. They always give us great service and a great product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate to work with them. They’re very open, and they’ll collaborate with you to give you what you want and mire.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Weldstar is a leading distributor of welding equipment, industrial & specialty gases, accessories and supplies servicing Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. I'm the IT and Marketing Manager.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Marketing Group, and what were your goals?

We've worked with Idea Marketing a number of times over the years for various projects, including a full redesign of Weldstar.com as well as Depke.com (our sister company). Idea has also been hosting our website, and has produced some content for our site as well.

How did you select Idea Marketing Group and what were the deciding factors?

We wanted to work with a local company, and found Darren and his team were honest, dedicated, and interested in learning about our industry so we could produce a high quality website that would help our customers find us more easily.

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

Idea created a custom Wordpress website for us, and helped us meet a number of industry-specific challenges all while making the site easy for us to update and maintain. Idea took the time to learn our industry and determine a plan to make the website a reality and we were updated every step of the way.

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

Darren worked with us himself, along with a project manager and the web development team. Everything went smoothly.

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

We've had extremely positive feedback on our new website, and our sales team uses it regularly to help customers quickly gain access to literature, product offerings and much more.

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

We had a clear proposal, and all of our clearly stated deadlines were met in each project we've used Idea to complete.

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

We appreciated the easy access we had to the owner as well as their knowledgeable and professional team. We didn't feel we needed to know industry jargon, and they took the time to understand our specific needs in a website and why that mattered in our industry.

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

No — The entire experience has been excellent.