What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’re accumulating statistics right now, so we’ll have a much better sense in a couple of weeks. But again, we went from a site that had zero visibility and appeal to one that’s visually stunning. Noble Studios didn’t take the pictures, but they certainly guided us.
Now, we’ve elevated our status from a little mom-and-pop organization to a true destination website for venues in northwest Arkansas. They helped create that vision for us. I’m very pleased.
We’ve had some bumps in the road, but I don’t take those as negatives. In fairness, Noble Studios probably didn’t realize how novice we were, and what a lack of understanding we had of what building a new website requires. Noble Studios maintained their composure with us and were cool and calm. The end product is very good, and I’m very, very happy.
How did Noble Studios perform from a project management standpoint?
There was a delay, but it came from our side; they did an outstanding job. We tried to launch before Christmas and had several internal events take place, so we didn’t have the bandwidth to complete what was needed to make the deadline. Noble accepted that and reconfigured their schedules, and we ended up launching on January 30th. The product was much better though, so the delay ended up delivering value. Noble kept us on task and got us over the finish line.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They provided everything, from technical web developers to content and visual imaging. A lot of vendors in Arkansas could only do half of the project, but Noble Studios was able to bring it all together. Being such a novice in the space, we didn’t understand all the add-ons. They were able to do the research and recommend the best solutions for our needs. We gained a lot of trust and respect for them.
I love Noble Studios’ perspective. They really have that West Coast, state-of-the-art approach. I really felt we were getting the newest, latest, and greatest, and we have to pay for that.
Are there any areas they could improve?
In terms of content development, we were probably two-thirds into the process and didn’t understand enough of what they were doing and how they were leveraging Google Analytics and SEO. Had we understood that better on the frontend, the middle of the project wouldn’t have been bumpy. We didn’t know what we didn’t know.
Also, we didn’t get to see the site until we were almost ready to launch. There weren’t a lot of ways to preview it. We have to have all the forms done and see how it works, and I don’t think we understood that. We needed a little more handholding in the process.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
First, it’s not cheap, so be prepared to spend this kind of money. This is a five-year marketing investment, and, if we look at it in those terms, then we can bite off that apple.
The second thing is that it’s going to take more time from your internal staff than you think. We should’ve dedicated more of our time to this, but we didn’t pick up on that.
Since launching the new brand assets and site, traffic to the platform has increased and metrics show that users are better able to navigate its features. Customers have also praised the new brand for its clean, modern logo and colors. The team demonstrated patience and transparency to achieve success.