ISOCNET

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Company President. QC Forge manufactures metal component parts for OEMs that require forging and forming operations along with additional finishing operations that the customers requests.

For what projects/services did your company hire ISOCNET?

We have worked with several iterations and renewals of our Company website with ISOC over the past decade. They have revised, renewed and updated the site as SEO algorithms have changed to improve both the marketing and sales thrust of the site, to improve placement and create content that keeps us favorably ranked in searches.

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

We sought a local Company that could help bring in the equipment and personnel who would help us develop content relevant to our specific manufacturing capabilities and Company culture in a way that both customers and prospective customers could appreciate. The ability to develop unique and meaningful content at reasonable expense is key to allowing a small business, such as ours, to have a strong presence in the crowded net environment.

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

ISOC personnel offered suggestions on website focus based on SEO research. As changes to the site were made, ongoing testing has allowed us to make changes to both expand content and address the areas of interest discovered as well as retire old content that is shown to be less effective.

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

The main focus was with 2 individuals who lead the ISOC team and oversaw all aspects of the upgrades and changes, however we are aware of at least two additional web designers assuring content was compatible with desktop and mobile devices and a team of media specialists who came on site to acquire video/audio content and subsequently edited short clips for our website.

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

We have evidence of increased traffic and response to our renewed and revised web site, both in terms of data presented by ISOC as well as a noticeable increase in inquiries, requests for information and requests for quotes.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication has switched to virtual meetings during the Pandemic, which has been challenging, but progress has continued. Delays have been due to Company personnel dispersing to work remotely and, more recently, due to a significant rebound of business, but the progress has been satisfactory.

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

I've been favorably impressed with their depth of understanding of how to structure the website and focus to optimize the quality of the contacts and inquiries we receive. Although we are busier, we have far fewer contacts that are inappropriate to our capabilities.

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

I cannot think of anything that could have been done better in the past year as we were all working under extraordinary circumstances due to the Pandemic.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a fun food company, where we manufacture popcorn machines, snow cone machines, and similar equipment that are usually seen in movie theaters and local sports or school concession stands. We provide all the supplies that go with these machines as well.

What challenge were you trying to address with ISOCNET?

We needed to revamp and incorporate an e-commerce component into our website, so we leaned on ISOCNET to help us out.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with my internal marketing team to come up with a design and discussed with ISOCNET how we wanted the functionality to flow. The team created a website completely from scratch, making sure that it was very informational and had an e-commerce component.

We ended up choosing two different platforms and figured out a way to marry them together so that everything flows through one beautiful website.

What is the team composition?

We worked with at least five people including designers, programmers, and our main contact, Kelly (VP & COO).

How did you come to work with ISOCNET?

When we decided to redesign our website, we submitted everything needed for a bid and got a lot of responses from different companies. ISOCNET was local, and being able to have face-to-face meetings is one of the reasons we decided to work with them for this project. 

How much have you invested with them?

For the website, we spent between $100,000–$200,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

ISOCNET has been working with us on a server basis, even back when I joined the company in September 2007. We still work with them today. After the launch of the website, we expanded to PPC and online marketing projects. 

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

Ever since we launched the website, our organic and paid traffic has increased month-over-month. Our sales have also been increasing except in 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, overall, we’ve done better and better each month, so it’s been really good. I don’t want to go into the exact numbers, but we have a very good and pleasing website performance.

They built our website in a way that we, and our full-fledged marketing team, could handle a lot of aspects internally. It gave us the capability to make the changes ourselves, like adding pages. ISOCNET even helped train us on how to manage the website so that we didn’t have to be completely reliant on an outside firm if there were issues.

How did ISOCNET perform from a project management standpoint?

Typically, we reached out to our contacts through email. Their response time is unbelievable; I’ll usually get a reply within the same day. When we ran into any issues, they were right on top of it and had it figured out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing I really enjoyed about working with ISOCNET is that they listened to us. We had a lot of unique requirements based on our company needs; it wasn’t just setting up a regular website and e-commerce site. We didn’t fit into a mold, but their team was very open and made everything work the way we needed it to. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any negative feedback on them. There were a lot of hiccups because the search engine rolled out a new algorithm, so we had to make changes and updates, but they were able to do the backend work for that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a good outline and notes of what you want, especially if you have something specific in mind. Don’t be afraid to admit to ISOCNET that you have a vision, but that you don’t know how to get there. As long as you have a good idea of what you want in the end, they can help you build a path towards it.