Lightburn

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: I'm a co-owner and executive producer at Ski Team. We’re a video agency that produces content for brands and agencies, including broadcast, TV commercials, social media content, documentaries, and more.

Respondent 2: I’m a co-owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

R1: We needed to develop our company’s website. We had a Squarespace site and needed to update it in order to meet our company’s growth. We were looking for a more professional site optimized for SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

R1: Lightburn designed our company’s branding and offered us a brand package. They created our logo, color scheme, and brand guidelines. We had a discovery session where we exchanged notes and shared our project’s goals. Lightburn helped us explore the different branding options that could show our personalities as business owners and as a brand.

After Lightburn created our branding, they designed and developed our site according to the brand guidelines. We had a similar process where we discussed our goals and asked Lightburn to integrate the site with Vimeo to showcase our work and to be easy to use. 

Lightburn used Figma for web design and customized a WordPress template to develop the site, integrating different plug-ins that were important to us. 

Additionally, Lightburn designed collateral marketing materials.

What is the team composition?

R1: The team size would vary from 3–5 teammates depending on the phase of the project.

R2: We worked with Betsy (UX/UI Designer), Kate (Project Coordinator), and Jenna (Digital Project Manager). 

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

R2: We had a personal relationship with Lightburn.

R1: We’ve been friends for a long time. 

How much have you invested with them?

R2: We spent $25,000 with Lightburn.

What is the status of this engagement?

R2: We worked with Lightburn from September–December 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

R1: We received positive feedback for the site’s design, although it’s soon to have quantitative metrics. Lightburn shared their experience of 25 years as a company, and I really appreciated this as a new business owner. 

Lightburn helped us explore our brand identity and gave us feedback throughout the process.

R2: Lightburn met our expectations, and our site has more traffic now. 

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint

R2: Lightburn delivered everything on time and stayed on budget. 

R1: Lightburn was good at keeping us on task, and the workflow was fluid. We learned a lot about project management by watching Lightburn’s team work. They were really responsive.

R2: We used Airtable and Google Workspace to share documents and collaborate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

R1: I was most impressed with Lightburn’s generosity. They made sure we felt heard and seen. After we launched the site, Lightburn still answered our questions even if they couldn’t address the issue. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

R1: Lightburn educated us about web development, but they could’ve been more upfront about the process and decisions. Sometimes, we felt frustrated because we didn’t understand certain milestones and decisions they made. There were a handful of times when we were surprised we couldn’t change something from the site. 

R2: The biggest disconnect for me was that Lightburn showed us the designs on Figma, and they looked good. However, when Lightburn transferred those designs to the functioning website, some things didn’t look right, and we couldn’t change them anymore because we had already approved them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

R1: Lightburn has a broader service offer than I had expected. Even as someone that has known them for a long time, I didn’t know Lightburn offers branding design, and they did a great job. They’re known for their website development work, but I recommend customers explore the other services Lightburn offers. 

R2: I recommend you stay engaged with Lightburn’s team and ask a lot of questions — make sure you understand every part of the process. I definitely recommend working with Lightburn; your team will be in good hands.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and owner of namebadges.com, an online site where businesses and individuals can order customized name badges. namebadges.com is a subsidiary of The Cawley Company, which produces name badges for chain customers worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We saw the opportunity to reach customers through a website many years ago. At the time, we started working with a different company. However, our business is complex because every single name badge is custom, and that company struggled with the challenge. Thus, we decided to hire Lightburn to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lightburn has helped us design and develop a custom website and online store for our business from scratch, only using an existing template from a site-building platform. Throughout the process, they made recommendations and guided us on where to host our website. Now, they help us with maintenance and updates whenever we want to add products, change products, or change our special offers.

On our site, users can easily customize and design their name badge template, import graphics, and add their names. They can either add names individually or import a large group of names at once into the website.

In addition to website development and maintenance, Lightburn helps us with our SEO and marketing strategy. This includes performing keyword research, sharing their findings, and giving us suggestions. Additionally, they collaborate with us to develop our seasonal promotions and schedule them.

As part of this marketing strategy, Lightburn is in charge of our email marketing. They use MailChimp to develop and automate email campaigns for contacting customers periodically to let them know about our special offers. Although we provide them with some graphics, their team is also in charge of designing the templates for said campaigns.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around six people from Lightburn, including Andrew (Partner), Clay (Director of Digital Marketing), Nick (Senior Digital Marketing Analyst), and Stacy (Lead Digital Project Manager).

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

We researched online and found several different companies that could help us build our website. We received proposals from all those companies, but Lightburn’s proposal and understanding of our business were the best, so we engaged with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $100,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019 and launched the site in July 2020. Still, our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Lightburn, we’ve gone from 10 orders per month to close to 300 orders per week. Moreover, our site’s key feature allows our clients to configure their name badges very easily, and it’s so well-organized that it helps them decide the kind of name badges they want.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

Lightburn’s project management is excellent. We meet with them every other week via Zoom, and we use Airtable to manage projects and tasks in order of priority to ensure we’re always tackling high-priority projects first. Their team is very organized, helping us keep our priorities aligned with what we need to do. They give us such good guidance that they feel as if they’re part of our company, which is truly amazing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lightburn has completely understood our business, practically as well as we understand it. It is impressive how well they’ve taken who we are and presented it to the public.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any constructive feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate effectively with Lightburn so that they can gain as much understanding of your business as possible. If you do so, they’ll able to take that information and communicate it to the public online.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the advertising manager for Douglas Dynamics; we’re a machine manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We were working with a company and saw some performance lags, and things were happening slower than they should have been. We hired Lightburn for SEO, UX/UI, and web design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially thought they would only do minor updates to the three websites we brought with us and focus on new functionality. The first thing they did was go in and understand what we were bringing in from an asset standpoint. They did audits and looked at performance and ADA. 

After Lightburn looked through everything, they recommended that we start from scratch and build brand-new websites for our three main brands. We moved forward with Lightburn and the redesign; the website now provides a much better backend experience for our internal team managing the content. The process is the same regardless of the brand they’re working in, and the structure on the backend is all the same, which makes it simpler.

From the UI/UX perspective, Lightburn brought elements that differentiated each site from the others and stayed within our branding guidelines. We just launched the third website and are now working on adding new functionality and projects. Lightburn built SEO into the website, but we’re looking forward to refining it and ramping it up in the future. 

The UI/UX team from Lightburn helped us with content using our navigation and creating guided selling opportunities. They helped us create mock-ups and visualize ways to present information in a way that aligned with how a dealer would walk somebody through the sales process. 

The website is a WordPress Multisite, and internally, we’ve invested in a digital asset management system. 

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Amy (Senior Project Digital Manager); we also work with a UI/UX person, and we’re about to start working with their SEO team. 

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

We sent out an RFP to a couple of companies, and Lightburn stood out the most. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2021, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a significant jump from where we started regarding website speed and load speed. They’ve delivered everything that they promised, and they’ve been exceeding our expectations. We’re looking forward to a long-term relationship with Lightburn. 

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a deadline that we were looking to hit, and we hit a few roadblocks, but we were able to deliver everything within a month of when we initially mapped everything out. We went out of budget on the first project, but Amy was watching the process very closely and was able to make some changes to our processes and procedures. We were able to re-rack priorities for the year and get back within the budget that we wanted to be in. 

We’ve been incredibly impressed with Amy; she can move through conversations with different people on our team seamlessly and convey technical information, which we’ve not always had in the past. We use Asana for project management and Slack, Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, text messages, and phone calls to communicate. We have a weekly meeting to look at the status of everything, and then we have a semi-annual strategy check-in. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lightburn always ensures that we get our information from the right people and that nothing gets lost in translation. We get to speak with people across their teams so that everything is aligned and we’re all on the same page. They’re also transparent and honest with us, and they’re not scared to tell us what we need to hear to point us in the right direction. They’re very collaborative, and they want to work with us. We were looking for an agency that put digital first, and Lightburn continuously brings the best practices within the digital industry to lay a solid foundation for our company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard for us to critique them because they’re so transparent with us and we deal with any issues that come up immediately. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come into the relationship with an open mind. Explain where you’re coming from and lay that all down so they can use their knowledge and help you flesh out your specific digital strategy.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for a mid-sized architecture firm. We serve the public sector with education and civic buildings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

They provided us with web development. Our existing solution wasn’t very dynamic, and we had ambitious goals to update our website to make it more user-friendly and focused on our audience's problems. It was a major overhaul of our website. A large part of the project was turning something static into a dynamic property.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lightburn is working on WordPress to rebuild our site from scratch. We wanted to keep the portfolio aspect of our previous website to tell the story of our clients, projects, and services. We also wanted to offer lots of connection points to keep our users on the website for longer. The goal was to encourage users to dive into the site and navigate around to find out more about us.

Simultaneous to the web development, we were going through a brand refresh, so we had a new logo and color scheme, and other tools that we were trying to implement. Lightburn did a great job of taking our new identity and putting it into practice.

We also wanted to feature a lot of our photography projects, which are strong and bold and really tell our story.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 10 people to date, including a main account manager. This person has led the charge as our key point person.

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

I’d worked with them with a previous employer and was impressed with their work. Lightburn came in with the right mix of being a true partner who developed what we needed and pushing us outside what we already had.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $30,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn’t measure metrics on the old site, so it’s hard to draw a strong contrast, but we did see an initial uptick when the new site launched. The feedback we’ve received has been very positive, both internally and externally.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re accessible and responsive, as well as responsive in giving weekly updates on deadlines and the budget. They’re very strong with their project management through AirTable.

Communication happened through Microsoft Teams, as well as emails and phone calls. Anytime we’ve needed an ad-hoc check-in, they’ve been very open to meeting with us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve had a true partnership. After coming in with a pretty strong vision of what we wanted, Lightburn didn’t just tick the boxes and go through the motions of what we wanted. They found creative solutions to make our website work well, for us, our budget, and our users. When we had an idea, they brought their own to the table as well, extending our ideas and showcasing their expertise and understanding of who we are as a firm.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not off the top of my head.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should both know what you’re looking for (and make decisions that drive it) but also be open to Lightburn’s suggestions and best practices. It’s good to come in with a little bit of both. Remain open to their solutions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing manager for Wimmer Communities, which is a multifamily company that owns and operates over 30 communities across the Milwaukee area. We have about 8,000 residents. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We’ve partnered with Lightburn for a few strategic initiatives. Competing in the Milwaukee market, we know that people have a lot of options in terms of renting apartments. We want to beat the competition with Lightburn’s help in implementing SEO strategies, creating informative websites, and managing PPC campaigns optimized for our budgets. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lightburn has built and hosted our primary website, which showcases all of our properties while giving end users the ability to lease them. The team implements different technologies within our company. They help us with CRM system integrations, along with technologies that help us manage our properties. 

Moreover, the team manages our Google and Microsoft ad campaigns. Their resources provide analytics and tools necessary to know how we’re being successful. To do that, Lightburn has developed a custom dashboard for our ad campaigns within Google Data Studio. They’re also running our social media ad targeting on Facebook and Instagram. They’re constantly looking for opportunities for us to improve. 

Overall, Lightburn serves as our strategic marketing partner. We lean on them for strategy. Once a year, they show us opportunities for improvement in terms of SEO, content creation, website development, and email automation. They give us solutions that we can either implement by ourselves internally or with their help. 

What is the team composition?

I work with 6–7 people from Lightburn, including their SEO strategists and account managers. I also deal with their marketing team and head of development. Graphic designers work on certain projects. 

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

Our company put out an RFP for marketing and website help, and Lightburn sent us a quote. After meeting with them and comparing their team to several other marketing agencies, we decided that they were the ones that impressed our team the most. As a result, we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000–$100,000 on a yearly basis. Including the ad budget they manage for us, the total per year is around $200,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2013, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen about a 283% increase in signed leases because of our PPC campaign strategies. Anecdotally, Lightburn is an incredible partner. They've gone beyond helping us create a new website. They continue to improve and grow as a company, providing us with more value for our contract. 

In fact, they’ve recently hired an SEO strategist without any additional cost on our end. That person does quarterly check-ins with us on how we’re doing from an SEO and organic search standpoint. On top of that, the team constantly manages and improves our ad strategies while taking into consideration the changes in Google’s algorithm. They’re on top of such changes, and they address them proactively. 

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

Lightburn’s project management is good. We have biweekly check-ins with their development, SEO, and PPC management teams. They have ongoing task boards on Asana, which keeps our efforts easy to track. We have a great structure in terms of what tasks are completed, being worked on, or being considered for the future.  

To communicate, we use Microsoft Teams. Lightburn uses Semrush as their main SEO tool. They’ve also created a custom portal for us where we can see how we’re doing and track our performance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lightburn is committed to making us the best company we can be. They’re on top of everything that’s changing in the digital marketing world. The team helps us stay on the cutting edge of all technologies, and they have our best interest in mind. As a result, their resources always find ways for us to optimize our ad spend so that we’re getting more returns for the money we’re spending. On top of that, they provide us with additional services that other companies wouldn’t offer us. This shows their commitment to adding value to our relationship. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. They’re great partners and listen to our directions while also providing their feedback and opinions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Lightburn is the best digital marketing agency in Milwaukee, and they have the team necessary to achieve any digital marketing goals that companies in any industry has. The combination of their SEO, PPC, and website development teams makes every task achievable. They’re the best partner you could ever have in marketing and web development. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing coordinator of Zorn Compressor and Equipment, an industrial distributor and servicer of air compressors, vacuum pumps, and hydraulic equipment. I mainly do internal marketing for our employees and manage our social media presence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

Our initial was looking for a firm to help us redo our website and make it more user-friendly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started our engagement with Lightburn for their web development services, but we’re also working with them for digital marketing and SEO. 

The website serves as a resource to let our customers know more about our company, services, and products. With that in mind, we required Lightburn to clean the website and boost the content that people need to know about.

In terms of digital marketing, they provide us with link building, content writing, and ad management. We have weekly calls with their team to discuss the progress of each ad and work closely with them to identify keywords we can implement. 

They continue to monitor our site’s performance to make sure it’s running smoothly, while also creating ads and maintaining various marketing campaigns to improve our online presence.

What is the team composition?

We work closely with Clay (Digital Marketing Director), Nick (Digital Marketing Analyst), and Taylor (SEO Analyst).

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

We came across Lightburn while researching marketing agencies in the area. I wasn’t here when the company decided to hire them, but what we liked about Lightburn is their dedication to building a long-term relationship with us.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent a little over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While we can’t give exact figures, we’ve seen a major improvement in our web traffic, phone inquiries, and lead generation thanks to our PPC and Google Ads campaigns.

Apart from that, we’ve also increased our positioning in Google search results.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

If they think that raising our budget would be beneficial for our campaigns, they discuss them with us and follow our decision. They’re also very responsive, and have always adhered to our budget and timelines.

We typically communicate through email, Teams, and have meetings every other week on Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lightburn’s main strength is their communication. We’re very comfortable working with them as they also have a lot of expertise on any topic regarding marketing.

Other than that, they’re quick to adapt to learning about our process and the quality of their work is consistently amazing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any constructive feedback as we’ve had a great experience with them so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise you to keep your communications open with them and take advantage of their vast expertise and knowledge.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Lowlands group is a restaurant group located in Wisconsin, and we have eight restaurants in the greater Milwaukee area in Madison. I’m the marketing specialist, focused mainly on digital marketing and anything that has to do with our website, social media, newsletter, and communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We hired Lightburn to provide web development and design services for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lightburn is developing multiple websites for us. We first provided them with visual inspiration or the websites of other companies within the industry. The designer took those ideas and put together something new while highlighting the different areas that we needed to bring more focus to. 

We started with the e-commerce shop, which their team built on Shopify. They found a template that worked for us and integrated the whole site with our social media pages, specifically Facebook and Instagram. Their team then trained me and the merchandise manager on how to operate the site’s backend.

Once the e-commerce site was launched, we moved on to developing our company’s main website along with four different restaurant websites. For this, Lightburn is using the WordPress multi-site platform so we can easily toggle between different backends. Their UX designer is also mapping out the wireframes and creating high-fidelity designs through Figma. 

What is the team composition?

Stacy (Lead Digital Project Manager) is my main point of contact. She gathers information from her team and I gather information from mine, and we often have discussions with just the two of us. I’ve also interacted with Caitlin (Lead UX/UI Designer), who does all of the wireframe and high-fidelity designs. Steve (Lead Frontend Developer) is the lead programmer, but I don’t have any communication with him. 

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

When we were rounding up possible agencies to work with, we narrowed down our options to more local providers. We ended up with Lightburn and two other companies that were a bit further away from our area. We really liked the fact that Lightburn was close because it would allow us to meet in person and it meant that they would be familiar with our restaurants.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re at about $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We reached out to Lightburn in August 2021 and kicked things off in November 2021. Our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our websites are very clean and easy to navigate. Lightburn has highlighted a lot of visual content and built these sites so that information is easier to find. They’ve really designed them with accessibility in mind, which is something we previously didn’t have on our website. 

We have actually seen a 60% increase in our e-commerce sales, and we’re now selling more merchandise than gift cards, which is pretty exciting as well. 

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been really wonderful so far. They’ve done very well in terms of sticking to the timelines and budget.

We meet via video call every week, but I’m in contact with the project manager via email almost every day. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication is really great. Whenever I reach out, they always get back to me within the same hour. They also always update me on how things are going on their end or bring up new ideas that we can try. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. Lightburn has been extremely pleasant to work with. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Lay everything — your goals, your problem points — out during the kickoff meeting. Their team does a really good job of soaking up information and making deliverables that align with that. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager of an online retail Christmas store. We’re based in New Berlin, Wisconsin.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

We engaged Lightburn for our website development and design project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

From start to finish, they designed our Shopify website and created all of the data inputs we needed. Their outputs were based on our requests. One of the core features that they created was enabling users to personalize their ornaments. They're in charge of maintaining the website and running the marketing side of the platform.

For the marketing side, they’re focused on SEO and Google Shopping. As part of that, they’re in charge of creating our content and visuals.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with 2–4 people from their marketing team and 1–2 people in charge of maintenance. We have one main point of contact for each team.

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

I researched and found them on Google.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000–$150,000, which includes the cost of our ads.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing collaboration began in February 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our engagement has been positive, considering the work that they do. We’re growing steadily every year, and we hit the numbers that they project every year. Overall, we’re happy with our growth.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a good project management process. We give them a budget and they stick to it. We communicate with their team through email and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication skills and their ability to deliver our requests that match our budget has been impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start working with Lightburn because they're a great team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-owner and co-founder of a direct-to-consumer hair care product business. We sell a specific hair care tool, and we built our offerings around that tool.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

Our company didn’t exist in 2012, and we hired Lightburn to help us launch our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lightburn built our initial website from scratch. The team added content and implemented UI/UX design. On top of that, they ensured that our platform was user-friendly. Since then, Lightburn has also helped us rebrand three times.

They also helped us create our email addresses and establish our Facebook presence. After that, we’ve retained them as a consultant on a monthly basis. Today, our relationship has evolved and the team mostly provides SEO services for our website. They monitor if our website is working correctly, and they ensure that it’s optimized. Additionally, they perform keyword research.

Lightburn serves as an extra set of eyes on our website presence, and they do oddball projects for us. From time to time, they fix issues that come up. Overall, they work as our website assistant. 

What is the team composition?

We always have two project managers closely working with us. One staff has remained fairly consistent throughout our working relationship. Then, the other point of contact changes every few years. 

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

Lightburn was recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2011, and we continue to collaborate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our relationship with Lightburn has been very positive. 

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

Lightburn is very communicative, and they guide us in everything that we need. We use Microsoft (MS) Teams for the monthly calls, and everything else is via email. 

They’ve evolved with us; they’re quick to adapt, and they’re quick to fill in what services we’re lacking. Furthermore, they’re quick to jump on whatever we need them to complete.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention and desire to see us succeed have been impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

All our communication always goes through their project manager. As a result, there’s a little bit of a disconnect between us and the people working on or project. It will be nice if they bring in their members that are going to work on our project so that we can communicate better what we want from them. If they’re able to do that, I might be able to use them for different projects at different times. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend working with Lightburn. Find exactly what you need from the team, and identify who exactly is going to do the work for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Racine Danish Kringles, and we’re a manufacturer of Danish pastries known as Kringle. We ship our product throughout the US through our website Kringle.com. We also sell via wholesale and fundraising.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lightburn?

At the time we had an out-of-date website which was difficult for our customers to use, from a UX perspective — it was also difficult to manage on the backend. Therefore, we essentially did an entire revamp of our website, and eventually moved into working with Lightburn on SEO and PPC advertising.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re working with them on an ongoing basis to continually revamp our website and improve the customer experience, in addition to the SEO and PPC services they’re providing us. They’re also hosting our website, and they do a lot of management for us. We’re a very seasonal business and Christmas time is very important for us, so we try to pack in a lot of development in about nine months prior to the start of the season.

The process itself has a lot of back and forth, which is great in terms of getting ideas, before finally sitting down to implement them. We also work together to come up with mockups of the wireframes and documentation, and we’ve integrated various review sites into our website. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with many people from Lightburn over our 6-year relationship. Initially, we started with Nora (Partner & Director of Client Engagement), Stacy (Senior Digital Project Manager), and Andrew (Business Analyst). For the SEO and PPC services, we work with Clay (Director of Digital Marketing) and Nick (Digital Marketing Analyst).

How did you come to work with Lightburn?

We went through the process of looking for somebody to design and build our website. We interviewed around 4–5 different companies before settling with Lightburn after coming recommended. We had discussions with them about what they can accomplish for us and they seemed to check all the boxes. I’m still working with them today and the results that we’ve seen from their work showed me that we made the right decisions.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2015, and our partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we went with Lightburn, we’ve had great success with our website and e-commerce in general. The user experience can be attributed to Lightburn, and some of it is just because of e-commerce itself. However, we’ve certainly seen growth which we’re happy with.

How did Lightburn perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re terrific project managers, and that’s actually one of the best parts about working with them. They really follow through on what they say they’re going to do and they stick to the timelines they give us. If we’ve ever fallen off a timeline, it’s probably more because of us than it is Lightburn. They provide you with a person who really has a handle on what they can accomplish, and they don’t make a lot of promises they can’t keep.

We communicate in many different ways, including through phone and email. They’re currently using Airtable to manage the projects that they’re working on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First of all, we like their project management, and the fact that they don’t make promises they can’t keep. They’re also great at idea generation and we always come to solutions by working together on ideas we want to integrate into the website, such as Apple Pay. they’re also very efficient in their costs, especially for the results we’re getting.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are times when we’ve had hiccups, and you’d imagine that’d be the case over a 6-year period of working together. We’d have miscommunications or something similar, but I don’t think there’s something they really need to work on. Obviously, the last year has been a curveball for everybody, so maybe times have slowed down a bit in terms of what they’ve been able to accomplish. However, they’ve been upfront about the challenges of working out of the office so it’s nothing that I didn’t expect.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For anyone who’s looking to work with Lightburn, I would say to shop around and do your homework. They’re capable of a lot of things, so you have to figure out what’s the best fit for you. Ultimately, it’s nice to be working with a smaller firm that is really personable in nature, and I think it's great that they value that type of relationship.