Newbird

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the President of Buffalo Hydraulics. We sell and service high-pressure, high-tonnage hydraulic equipment.

What challenge were you trying to address with Newbird?

We hired Newbird to design and develop our website. We also needed them to provide digital marketing support, including SEO services, and ongoing site maintenance.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took information from our pre-existing website and migrated it to a new Wordpress site that they built from scratch. Before they began development, we held initial design conversations to discuss our requirements and expectations. They used that information to generate preliminary versions of the site. They then forwarded us these prototypes, and we would let them know if we liked them and wanted to proceed, or if we wanted to make changes, such as layout modifications or color scheme adjustments.

In addition to maintaining our site, they implement Google Ads campaigns and provide SEO management. They’ve produced content for the website as part of their SEO strategy.

What is the team composition?

We work closely with three people from Newbird, one of whom is our project manager. I’m not sure how many others from their end are working on our account.

How did you come to work with Newbird?

After working with two other companies in the Greater Buffalo area, we decided to find a new web development and digital marketing partner. Newbird is another company that's located close by, and when we met with them, we felt that they had a real understanding of what we were trying to accomplish. We felt comfortable moving forward with their team and began working with them soon after meeting them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2015, and they’re continuing to provide website maintenance and digital marketing services.

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

We monitor traffic to our site using Google Analytics, and we’ve seen a steady increase since we’ve started working with Newbird. We’ve also noticed that our website ranks higher on search engines, which is a direct result of their SEO work. This increased visibility has led to more customers and business opportunities, especially outside of the Greater Buffalo area.

How did Newbird perform from a project management standpoint?

Newbird has been incredibly accurate with timeline projections, and they’ve always kept to their initial scope. Everything is delivered right on time. We communicate primarily via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In addition to designing a site that looks fantastic, they’ve increased our site’s visibility and impact. We’re impressed by their technical capabilities and couldn’t be happier with their performance.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been excellent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take the time to get to know their team. You’ll be glad that you did.

Please describe your company and your position there.

PCI is a managed IT service provider. My position is a sales and marketing associate, and I spent my time partnering with Newbird as a team lead in order to accomplish our website goals.

For what projects/services did your company hire Newbird?

We hired Newbird to help design and implement a new website.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was for the new website to act as a marketing tool to not only help describe our services but also act as a lead generator for the business.

How did you select this vendor?

We chose Newbird because we believed the value they offered exceeded the price we were paying for the project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Although the project took longer than expected, we were able to work on a website map that would help describe our suite of services and offerings. From there, we discussed multiple design options to determine which best suited our needs as a business. 

The design team at Newbird then provided multiple options for each section of the website. They also helped us with content and feedback based on our ideas for the new designs. Lucy Norton (Graphic Designer, Newbird) was critical to getting the website launched with the correct formatting, wording, and design features. 

What was the team composition?

PCI worked with Daniel (Founder & Owner, Newbird), Lindsay (E-Commerce Project Manager & Digital Marketing Specialist, Newbird) and Lucy on a regular basis. We would discuss different ideas and how to best implement them. 

The three of them were dedicated to getting the project done and remained a part of the core team until the very end. PCI was able to work alongside Newbird in order to get the project completed.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Based on the new website, we as a business are able to gather more detailed information from form submissions implemented on the website.

It has helped us create a stronger brand image that we can grow upon as well. The design of the website gives PCI a more national feel rather than just a local one. We believe the new design was essential to helping grow our business in and outside of the Western New York Area.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Lindsay was our point of contact and ensured that our ideas were heard and acted upon. Lindsay was able to delegate as well as helping us to post content to our existing website throughout the process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

What is unique to Newbird is that they’re a smaller team, which really helps when getting everyone on the same page. Each team member is dedicated to the project, and it is evident they really cared about the end result and the process of getting there.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall, both sides would probably agree that the project took longer than expected. But once each team was able to focus in on a deadline, the development was seamless and well-executed.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the digital marketing manager at a construction equipment parts company owned by the Sumitomo Group. We’re located in Buffalo, New York with branches in California and Georgia. Founded in 1984, we expanded our reach across the globe with the sale of new and used construction equipment parts. My work includes the development and maintenance of our website properties.

For what projects/services did your company hire Newbird?

After a disastrous website launch with one of Newbird’s competitors, we needed a partner to help us get the website functionality in order and to help fix the customer experience and SEO. We required a reliable company to help us with this effort.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goals were to improve the functionality of the website, speed up the page-load time, improve site search and SEO, and create a more efficient inventory uploading procedure.

How did you select this vendor?

We were extremely impressed with Newbird the first time we met with their team. They were organized, intelligent, and worked fast, and also had superior knowledge of the Magento platform we were using. We couldn't find a reason not to hire them. They blew the competition away.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Newbird fixed our website categories, improved page-load time, implemented a new inventory uploading system, installed new extensions, improved site search, and worked on SEO. We delivered them a list of items we required to be addressed and they were able to tackle all of them.

What was the team composition?

We mainly work with their senior software engineer but have used the expertise of their senior marketing strategist.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our website has improved immensely. We have a product that works as required and improved customer experience. We were also able to increase our SEO rankings, and most importantly, conversions. Our marketing department's time can now be spent further improving the customer experience instead of fixing foundational issues related to the rough launch.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Newbird team regularly meets deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their response to our needs was amazing. There was never a time where we were worried that an issue would linger or that a deadline would not be met. Our team at Newbird always has the solution to whatever we put in front of them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There’s little we’ve found that Newbird needs to improve. Their team is responsive and will communicate however you request. Newbird also works to tackle all the issues you put in front of them, and this is reflected in their initial proposal. Breaking their pricing down by item could help companies make a decision on which items are really necessary and work to better organize the project into phases.