Materiell

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of P E Systems, a professional services provider to the US government. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?

We had a lackluster website that failed to get people’s attention, and we were afraid that it could even turn people off. Our old site didn’t speak to who we were as a company. We needed help developing a lively and engaging website. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Materiell reached out to various parties — such as past and present employees — and talked to them about their preferences and expectations for the website. Materiell then identified our old site’s strengths and weaknesses. 

After that, Materiell used insights from those activities to plan and map out the new website. They wireframed the new website and helped us create its content. They proceeded with the development and implemented tweaks based on our feedback. 

Materiell used WordPress and other technologies to build the platform. We know it would be a work in progress, but they developed the site to the point that we could deploy. 

We needed the site to be engaging, especially as our old one was very drab. They found graphics in the free domain to use on our site. In addition, they extracted job posting data from ADP, a platform where we post jobs. They also created a blog page, which would allow us to tout our people’s professional and personal successes.

What is the team composition?

We worked primarily with Laura (Account Manager) and Deven (Creative Director), but more teammates assisted behind the scenes. They also hired an external UX consultant to help with the project. 

How did you come to work with Materiell?

Materiell was hosting our old website. When I looked for agencies to develop our new site, they came on top. We chose to work with them due to their familiarity with us and competitive pricing.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from March–December 2021.  

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

We had just recently launched, so we couldn’t provide any metrics for the project. Despite that, we received good engagement after sharing the site on LinkedIn and other platforms. Folks commented that the site was better and more exciting. 

Overall, Materiell had met my expectations. They also successfully transformed my idea of turning our site into a scrapbook featuring our employee’s professional and personal stories. 

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?

Materiell had been a fabulous partner. Despite delays on our side, they rolled with the punches and had been adaptive. We had standing meetings weekly, and Laura checked in with us regularly. The whole process was collaborative, and they were very helpful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Unlike other developers who gave an open price, Materiell took the risk and gave a final price for the project. We didn’t experience scope or price creep with them.

They focused on what we wanted the website to do, which was to excite and engage people. The fact that they insisted on hiring a UX specialist was impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. I’m satisfied with the project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Consider UX instead of just focusing on the content. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project and website coordinator for a grant-funded research program.

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiel?

We wanted to redevelop a more professional and accessible website that connected our educators with projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They redeveloped our WordPress website. They integrated our downloadable materials to make them more accessible. They also included functionality to display our YouTube videos, which we loved.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a project manager, a creative director, and a developer.

How did you come to work with Materiel?

I was looking for developers that had experience creating educational platforms. I also wanted a team that had accessibility as one of their areas of expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $28,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 20201, and we wrapped up in June 2021.

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

We were super happy with how the website turned out; it’s user-friendly and streamlined. The site is also easy to maintain and build upon. The guidance that was provided to us was very good.

How did Materiel perform from a project management standpoint?

There were some challenges with communication; sometimes it felt like things were a bit rushed. We had access to InVision, but we never really used it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciated the follow-through on some of our bigger priorities. When we did have particular design elements we wanted, they made sure to integrate them. The final product is beautiful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We felt like there could’ve been better coordination from start to finish. I did almost 100% of the QA, which was a bit frustrating.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear idea of your project would be good. They do great work, but you still need to have a lot of internal organization.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Modern Hiker, an outdoor website.

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?

I had an unsupported website for several years, so I was looking for someone that could help me with hands-on management to solve technical issues. I also wanted to potentially move the website to a different host to improve its speed and stability.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Materiell initially offered me a certain number of hours of technical support each month, and if I agreed to sign on a 2–3 years contract, they would do a redesign of the front page. Thus, they started working on the stabilization and some redesign.

Once they started digging into the website, they told me that it would be in everyone’s best interest to start from scratch and rebuild the whole site. They estimated 25 hours of development time to do the revamp, and they offered to do that at no additional fee.

Materiell has been building my WordPress website, and we’re still working out some bugs. It is taking a lot longer than expected, but I believe the issues were more complex than either of us imagined. However, they’ve been wonderful during that process.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Jeremy (Project Manager & Developer), who is my main point of contact for technical support. Occasionally, a tech lead that shows up for additional technical support.

I’ve also communicated with Susan (Founder & President). She was the person I talked to when I decided to go with them, and she has been very good with communicating when things were taking longer than expected.

How did you come to work with Materiell?

A year and a half ago, I cast a wide net to see who could potentially take on this project, and I reached out to several companies. I looked for many hosting options, and I hit Materiell’s submission form. I had a couple of conversations with Susan, and she was instrumental in moving the project forward and answering my questions.

How much have you invested with them?

I pay them around $1,350 per quarter.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we started working around January 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. We’re close to getting the redesign completed, so I estimate that we’re around 80%–85% of completion.

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

I’m very happy with my new website, as well as with Materiell’s communication and the quality of their work. I know that it has taken longer than expected, but I understand why, and they’ve been really good about communicating that, too.

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m very pleased with their work in terms of maintenance and fixing problems. They’re generally very fast with getting issues taken care of, and they’re very clear about what’s going on. They use Zendesk as a ticketing system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Materiell’s most impressive characteristics are their communication and the quality of their work. Both characteristics have been better than I expected them to be.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing that Materiell could improve upon is that they use the Zendesk ticketing system for support and, every once in a while, when I’m sending them a couple of different things to work on, some of it goes into email chains and might get lost. That’s the only aspect that can be improved, but they’ve been very good in general.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I encourage you to work with them. I wanted someone who could handle technical support so I could focus on managing the site and creating posts and content for it. Materiell has helped to make that a reality for my team and me.

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the manager of communications at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. We’re a transportation safety organization specifically focused on large trucks and buses. 
 

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?
We had a website in place and wanted to switch the company that handled it. Our team wasn’t entirely happy with the relationship we had with our prior website company. We were hoping to work with a company that was quicker to respond to requests, easier to work with, and more professional.
 

What was the scope of their involvement?
Initially, Materiell took over the existing website that the other company had built. Their team took over the site’s backend, navigation, and everything that was formerly set up. Then after working with us for a while, they made recommendations on ways to make the backend easier and cleaner. Their team also suggested a way to clean up and make our files more concise so we didn’t have so many on our website. 

In later stages, Materiell redesigned the backend of the website as well as did a partial redesign of the frontend. They cleaned up the way the website looks for the frontend user while keeping the general design in place. For the backend, their team did a lot of rearranging and redesigning of the way it operated. Our staff members are at various comfort levels with technology so the objective was to make the site as easy and intuitive as possible.

One of the features of our website is a database. Materiell redesigned it for us so the frontend features an online form and the backend is a database that has various options for actions we can take depending on what’s submitted. There are a lot of different functions on the backend for us to address all of the submissions that are sent in on the frontend. 

What is the team composition?
Jeremy (Project Manager & Developer) is my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Materiell?
I did an online search for website development agencies and spent a lot of time going through ones that were local. We had wanted to choose someone local but it didn’t end up making a difference because we never visit them in person and most of their staff is offshore.

We spoke with a few companies, and Materiell was the best fit. They knew what they were doing and had an expert staff. We liked that their services were a wide range of options. Not only could they redesign our site, but there were other options in case we wanted to expand. When our team met and spoke with them, and we thought they’d be perfect.

How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested over $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
Our ongoing engagement started around January 2018.
 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 
Materiell takes care of everything relatively quickly, and we don’t have any problems with them.

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?
They have a ticket system that allows us to submit our issues online. If I need to explain something to them, I can call them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?
They figure out our issues very quickly. Whenever I put a ticket in, someone always responds within the same day. Even if it’s not our main point of contact, someone will always respond. If a task is going to take a few days, they let us know throughout the process so we know they haven’t forgotten. They’re communicative about their progress, even if it’s something they can’t address right away. There hasn’t been any problem — minor or complicated — that they haven’t been able to figure out and make the site better.

Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I can’t think of anything. I have no complaints, and everything is straightforward.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
You can expect quick responses and for every issue to be addressed by Materiell. 
 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a daily news website focused on higher education. I’m the editor-in-chief.

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?

My WordPress website was broken, and I needed help fixing it. It wasn’t loading at all.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Materiell was able to fix my WordPress site quickly. They diagnosed the problem and got it up and running. From there, I hired them to maintain the website. They also offer trends in online publishing and cybersecurity. They also made a pop-up for me. Currently, they update, protect, and backup my site.

What is the team composition?

I work with their tech team.

How did you come to work with Materiell?

The vendor that I was working with at the time couldn’t fix my site. I was in dire straits I realized I needed a more established, well-rounded company. I googled “WordPress experts” and found Materiell. I sent a message, and their owner got back to me quickly.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017, and our work is ongoing.

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

They’re great. I’m super happy with them; that’s why I’ve kept them all this time.

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?

They track everything in a ticketing system. They usually get back to me right away. Some requests are a bit more complex than others, but with this system, I can see what they’re working on. If I have a quick tech question, I can email them. We know what we need from each other. Everything always gets done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They run a tight ship. My website loads quickly, and that’s what matters.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any problems. I’m happy with the service. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There are a lot of companies out there that do WordPress projects. Make sure they’re a good fit for you and your company’s needs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Arlington Public Schools in Arlington, Virginia as the webmaster for the district. In my role, I oversee the district website and 42 subsidiary websites for our schools and programs.

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?

We initially worked with a vendor that had a plug-and-play school-based website product before we decided to redesign our website. We wanted to switch to a custom-built WordPress site.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Materiell redesigned our website from the ground up, starting with initial design ideas for a custom WordPress site. We pretty much had the structure already — they just worked on understanding the information architecture so that they could come up with a workable design. These designs were colorful, appealing, and appropriate for our industry.

After getting out the wireframes and design comp, they worked on building the site out and getting the appropriate plug-ins for the functionality that we needed. The team then migrated the content, archived the old site, and trained me along with some of our top-level admins on how to manage the new solution.

Since then, Materiell has hosted and maintained our site. We’ve gone through a couple of hosting shifts, during which they’ve given us their full support. 

As part of their contract, they also provide day-to-day technical support as well as fielding development requests. If something isn’t working correctly or we want to add new functionality, we have a set number of development hours to do that. After that, it’s on an hour-by-hour basis.

So far, they’ve developed a secondary template to use for some of our smaller program sites. They’ve also upgraded our Google Translate plug-in last summer to automatically translate content on our website. We’ve done a major overhaul on our site’s accessibility, too. They’ve helped us take the lead in researching and figuring out what we’ve had to do to make our site compliant with accessibility standards and have implemented those changes.

What is the team composition? 

Deven (Creative Director) is currently our account rep. We’ve also worked with Susan (Founder & President) who has been very hands-on. She’s responsive, responsible, and focused on making sure that her clients get what they need.

If I’m emailing for help, I’m usually talking to John (Lead Software Developer), Jeremy (Project manager & Developer), or JP (Software Engineer) who is one of our go-to tech resources. 

How did you come to work with Materiell?

We put out an RFP, and Materiell came back with the best bid and proposal. Their suggested model was comprehensive in that it addressed every single point that we asked for. The proposal really focused on what we wanted to do compared to a lot of the others we’d received, which were more of your standard plug-and-play.

We also liked their general approach and attitude. At the time, they were still a relatively small company, and it was their owner who actually submitted the proposal and did the initial presentation. They gave us a lot of personal attention and really listened to what we wanted so that they could come back with flexible suggestions.

How much have you invested with them?

Their costs came in on par with what we’d expected. They weren’t the least expensive option, but they were exactly where they needed to be. 

The initial contract was about $150,000, and our yearly contract is about $80,000. We’ve also had their maintenance contract in place for about five years, which is another $400,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed the contract in April 2015, and the main development wrapped up in August 2016. Since then, we’ve done some ongoing development over the years to come up with new components that we’ve needed. 

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

Because we’re a public school system, our page views aren’t completely dependent on web design — people have to go to our site for information, whether it’s well-designed or not. Having said that, our viewership jumped by 30% when we launched the new site in 2016, and it’s continued to go up by roughly 10% every year.

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?

Throughout the initial development, we handled everything through email, phone calls, and webinars. However, they’ve since switched to an online support ticket portal within the last few years, which makes items easier to track. They’re on technical call 24/7 and are always extremely responsive. I usually get an answer back within minutes, even though they’re in different time zones. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s really the personal attention and attention to detail that have made a difference. If I ask a question, they actually answer it instead of brushing it off. With other vendors, you might call tech support and find a person reading a script at you rather than paying attention to what you’re saying. That’s not the case with Materiell. You can tell that they’re really there for the customer service and are willing to work through a problem with you.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything in my experience. When we first hired them, they were a much smaller company, so there might’ve been a couple of instances where things could’ve been done a little faster if they’d had more people. They’ve since expanded their team to handle more contracts, so there isn’t any issue at all. The original staff is still there. They’ve got very good retention, which means the team has a long history and good institutional knowledge, and I never have to wait or worry.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any vendor, you need to be clear about your expectations and needs while remaining open-minded about possible solutions. If you ask them for multiple solutions, they’ll give you that. They’re the experts. Trust them to advise you on what the best course of action is.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of knowledge management at APPA, an educational management company. Our members are campus facilities professionals at colleges, universities, schools, libraries, and museums throughout North America.

We started as a higher education-focused nonprofit association but expanded to include K-12 classes, libraries, and some members in Canada. Our members are responsible for everything from planning and designing the construction of campus facilities, colleges, and universities onto operations and maintenance such as custodial, grounds, fixing HVAC equipment, energy and utilities, and providing a comfortable environment for teaching and learning at the college and school levels.

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?

We needed to update our website. Over the years, we’ve gone through numerous websites—our first going live in 1995.

We knew we needed better navigability, better readability, and needed to accommodate mobile-friendly versions. The other one had a fixed width and length of the page. It wasn’t relational at all. We had a lot of program, content, and delivery changes, so we looked into the need for a total website change.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was an all-around website change. We held many weekly internal meetings with a small staff of about 12 people to look at what we want to change and what we want to improve upon. The scope of work was pretty broad. We included not only the home page and how members see us as we get into the site but where we go from there.

We wanted to make it more visual. We wanted to have more control over it. We opted for a WordPress CMS.

The scope of work included the navigation, the tabs, how much we want on the homepage, and what kind of landing pages we wanted. We have a lot of professional development programs, publications, memberships, and certifications that we wanted to capture. They were helpful to us in looking at the tabs across the top and the links that are there. We’ve got so many different things going on in our association that we didn’t want our members to have to go four or five levels to get to some place and give up by the time they got there.

We were trying to make it as clean as possible, have some key items on the homepage. We wanted to try and show our members where to go for their trusted resources and educational facilities. We provide networking opportunities and ways for them to connect with each other.

What is the team composition?

Susan (Founder & President) was our point of contact. She helped wade through any major issues we might have had. She was on the business development side. Jeremy (Project Manager) was our project manager, and Deven (Creative Director) was our main developer and designer.

John (Software Engineer) also worked behind the scenes. The engineers always helped with technical aspects that we had no idea about.

How did you come to work with Materiell?

I believe that I sent a note to a local association executives’ group and got a referral for three companies. I also searched Google.

I interviewed them all, but I was most impressed with Materiell. They provided us with the best proposal and customer relation aspect. Their prices were also in the middle.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2018–May 2019.

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

The website went live in May 2019, and it’s worked out well for us. We’re now in talks to do some tweaks and updates.

We did the branding a few years ago. We felt the website would help us as its own rebranding to look cleaner, more responsive to our members, and a little less dated. It also gave staff members more control over the content. We used to have to go to a funnel of outside contractors who weren’t the most responsive people for updates. Now, we can do it on the fly, and virtually, everyone is open to making changes to their particular areas, and bigger things go through me in terms of making sure that we’re addressing the needs in their program areas but also to fit the overall concepts that Materiell developed for us.

I’ve been extremely happy with them. We definitely had more traffic through mobile devices. We’ve had a great response from our members. They love it and see it as an improvement. We’ve done a couple of membership surveys, and we always ask about the value of the website, problems, questions, or praises for it. Most of them are quite positive. We just did a member survey about two months ago, and a big portion of that was the workability of the website. We’ve gotten tons of great information, and that’s why we’re going to have them help with updating the homepage and tweaking of some of the navigation pieces to coincide with some content changes. That will all take place in mid-July.

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?

Materiell is very good at listening to what we’re doing and what we wanted. Their team knew all of our quirks, giving us great advice and looking at things deeply. They’re tremendous to work with.

We had numerous calls, and their staff is all over the place physically, but they were very responsive. They met with us regularly and listened to our needs. They developed a contract and agreement with what they were going to do. They’re very good about setting up pages for us to look at and overall concepts and designs. I was the point person, and I went back to the staff to received their input about what we wanted to tweak and improve upon. It’s been a very good working relationship. They really come through on the support standpoint if we have something we just can’t quite work with.

Jeremy is a great project manager for the website and all of our projects. He and Deven are a great team in terms of setting deadlines and giving us a sense of timeframes. As we keep throwing things at them, there might be a little time lag in terms of getting back to us with some things, but they can almost always schedule a Zoom call with us to give us an update on the project. We’re always throwing different things at them to tweak or add or update. We had our own internal weekly staff meeting. We’d look at things together in the conference room. I’d always go back to Jeremy and Deven with what we’re wondering and what needed to be done. They also were good about reminding us about not forgetting to look at the tags on certain pages by next week. I’d then get back to my staff and tell them what Materiell needs. We communicated very well together.

Two years later, we’re still happy with them and love their partnership, and want to keep it going.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of website development was helpful. We had a meeting where they all came in to train us on WordPress and other site-related things. They came from all over the US, spending a few days with us. It was great to meet them in person, and it helped build the relationship.

They were able to introduce topics that we wouldn’t think about in a great way. They brought up accessibility, design, why a certain color wouldn’t work, and why the font we chose might not be the best. Their team was great at bringing in things regarding results. They bring a lot of knowledge and skill. They’re also easy to talk to.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m satisfied, but there are minor things. Over the last years, they’ve gotten a lot of business from major customers, which means their responsiveness isn’t quite what it used to be. It’s not a dig because they do end up getting back to us with an update.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Call other clients and me. I had called a school that gave me some background in working with them. They gave kudos to them. Make sure you consider all the options for search engine selection.

They’re good at considering SEO, which wasn’t on our wavelength much at all before. Take the time to get to know them a little bit. You can tell, by talking to them, that they’re knowledgeable and easy to work with.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a K9 protection firm. We source and sell carefully selected protection dogs for people who feel they need them.

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?

Our company falls under a luxury market, so we needed a website that reflected that. We wanted a professional quality site with a clean design to represent the quality and efficiency of our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Materiell is developing and designing our website for us. I told them what we wanted and about the type of clients we’re trying to appeal to. Their team came up with a design and we went back and forth over it. 

Once we had settled on a layout, they went on to build our WordPress site. They made sure we were able to adjust and update stuff internally since we regularly have to update what dogs are available. The Materiell team ensured the site was user-friendly. They are still making some changes to the site and sprucing things up a bit.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Susan (Founder & President), Devon (Creative Director), and Jeremy (Project Manager). I reach out to Susan and she filters each task to the appropriate person.

How did you come to work with Materiell?

I found them through word of mouth. I contacted them and it just worked out. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in January 2018 and it’s ongoing.

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

The website serves as a landing site for our clients. We get most of our business through word of mouth, so when someone is referred to us they can easily find out about our services through the site.

Materiell provides valuable suggestions for how to use the website to generate business, such as setting up our blog, but we are comfortable with being an exclusive, word-of-mouth business. Clients can now visit our attractive, professional, and informational landing page, assess who we are, and decide if they want to move forward with us. 

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?

I have no complaints. It’s like this magic happens behind a curtain, and I get great results. Our teams communicate via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Materiell is adaptable and cooperative. They make sure to create results that meet my needs. Other companies try to sell you things you don’t want, but that’s never been the case with Materiell. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything has been great. We had a lot of back and forth, but that’s because I was nitpicky. If I called tomorrow and asked them to change something, they’d do it. I don’t expect results immediately if I request something out of the blue, but I’ve always gotten everything incredibly fast. It’s always been a pleasant experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Anybody who wants to work with Materiell should be precise in their request in order to get the best results. If you give them vague specifications, you’re going to get a vague product.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of an outdoor storage facility.

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?

We needed help updating our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Materiell designed our first website, and we hired them this time to design an entirely new WordPress site. The team incorporated a modern look and heightened security. I was able to create the wireframe designs myself in Canva, and Materiell’s designer was able to recreate them.

It also has custom design graphics on the homepage and a photo gallery. The site provides information for our facility and allows clients to log onto a portal. In the past, we also did some SEO work with them. Materiell continues to host our site, too.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Susan (Founder & President) and Deven (Creative Director).

How did you come to work with Materiell?

I found Materiell through an internet source.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2011, and our work is ongoing.

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

Every time we have an issue with the site, Susan or someone on her team handles it immediately. It’s very easy to get support. Working with them is simple and seamless.

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via phone and email. We’re always able to reach out if we need anything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The service and communication really stand out. We don’t feel like we’re a cog in a wheel. Materiell is always accessible. Reaching out to Susan is always easy and quick.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any negative feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to come prepared with your goals for your site, whether it’s displaying your brand or making conversions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of JST Coaching & Training, a coach training platform. We provide coach training for individuals and institutions of higher education interested in learning how to use coaching skills to help students become more successful. I also provide coaching to individuals who need coaching.

What challenge were you trying to address with Materiell?

We needed someone to design and develop a new website. I wanted to get a new message out around reaching diverse communities and wanted to make sure the marketing message for the company was clear.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first phase was looking at a combination of what I wanted for the company. It was figuring out what I wanted the website to look like as well as the functionality. I wanted to balance that with the fact that Materiell works with a number of very large clients and we’re small. In many ways, we were different from a lot of the companies they work with. We had to play around with how much my company could afford and get what we wanted.

Our teams spent a little extra time on the frontend figuring out what pieces I could do with my team and how much I needed them to do in terms of design. We broke it down into who would do what. I wrote all the text and created wireframes, and they could update them or tell me if I’m doing it wrong.

Then, I put the copy together and looked at the wireframes. We had weekly meetings to figure out exactly what needed to be done and when. From understanding how to design the wireframe, what I wanted each page to look like, what was on there that we didn’t want anymore, we just had conversations about it as we went through.

Materiell knew what we liked and didn’t like about our current site. What we provided them, they made sure that they took care of everything on the backend. All the functionalities we had, like a shopping cart, they migrated them over and made sure everything was going to work on the new site.

We provided them with the wireframes and gave them a sense of when we wanted it to launch. Our team considered options for text and photos. We picked all our own photos and provided those. Then, we wrote all the text and anything else that needed to be done design-wise, we worked on together. They gave us mockups and templates. Their team used Envision and we could look at it page-by-page and go in and comment on any adjustments we wanted. It’s so much easier than having to have a conversation around it. They could do their behind-the-scenes work while we were making our edits to the framework.

It’s a WordPress site. Materiell tested out plugins for cookies and a plugin for people to sign up for our newsletter. We had to connect to a new CMS. We gave them all of that so they could connect us to Constant Contact instead of the company we were using before. Their team did a lot of testing. We had a directory where the functionality was horrible. They redid the entire directory with a better search function.

Materiell did extensive research and when I asked them to fill me in on what they’re looking at, they were good at sharing what they’re looking at, how long it’s going to take them to figure it out, and the cost. They really worked with us step-by-step. Now, they continue to do hosting, updates, maintenance, and SEO.

What is the team composition?

There’s one account rep and four team members. Most of the work is being done by two individuals.

How did you come to work with Materiell?

I was already a customer of theirs. They saved me from a webmaster who gave me 24 hours' notice to get off of his server and said that he was no longer going to support me. Within 24 hours, Materiell had my company up and running again. We became fast friends. They were doing the best they could to work within my budget to fix things as they broke with my website but I finally decided I needed to invest in a new website. It made sense to work with them on this.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $50,000–$199,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

They worked very hard to make sure that every single thing was done right. Our organic reach through their SEO expert has brought in business just through people searching. He set it up in such a way that we stayed on top in Google. Their SEO expert really keeps an eye on what’s happening. The amount of organic traffic has increased especially in the last year. People are finding us because we pop up at the top.

The other piece of it is when we get monthly reports, 25% of our traffic is from people looking to find coaches for their kids because we focus on young people. That is a value-added piece for anyone who trains with us. That helps the business because they tell people that they get a free listing and 25% of their hits is for somebody looking for someone like me. From a marketing perspective, we have doubled our traffic in the last 18 months or longer.

With COVID-19, business was incredible which means people found us. We were absolutely swamped. I’d never seen anything like this in 25 years. Part of it was redoing the website and the other part is the way Materiell is able to take care of me as a customer on the backend. People come to us saying our message is clear and they want to work with us. That has doubled from before.

How did Materiell perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is very good. The only piece of it that was a little hard is we were doing more than their average customer. We were partnering up more with I do this and they do that piece. The only thing that was a little slower was the coordination on who owes who what.

It wasn’t a big deal but looking at it from a small business perspective, that was the one thing that made it harder because we’re not used to having our customers as involved in the project every minute. That was a cost savings thing for me, which is why I did it.

I prefer to write my own text anyway. It didn’t detract from the quality of the work at all. There was a Google Sheets schedule we used for a while. We communicated via email, and we’d get together weekly on GoToMeeting so they could share their screen and what they were working on. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their expertise and the care they take with their customers are impressive. Their customers are important to them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The tracking of who is doing what could be improved. We could use a different tool rather than just a Google Sheet maybe. It could be coordinated by one person.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust that their team knows what they’re doing. They’re very skilled. One thing I learned is that it’s more important to go for what is going to bring you business. It’s not about looking pretty. It’s about what it’s going to bring to your business and help your bottom line. Really understand that having an unusual website that’s designed and looks different than anybody else’s isn’t necessarily what you need. It’s more about looking at what’s going to serve your visitors.