Sleepless Media

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of e-commerce at Lenny & Larry's, a protein cookie manufacturer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sleepless Media?

Our old website was built on a proprietary platform by one individual, so we had to go to that individual for any updates or changes to the site; we didn’t own it. So, we contracted Sleepless Media to port us over to the Shopify platform and to build our website into a more modern, customer-friendly experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sleepless Media didn’t entirely start from scratch; they used our old website as a template in terms of functionality, look and feel, and ease of use. We were going for a conversion-focused website. All of the assets and the look of the site are new; we just kept a lot of the pathways for the site. 

The team replicated the core functionality of our previous website. We didn’t request too much to be added to it. They did the design work as well, and they also helped with our net speed integrators from time to time, which wasn’t in their scope of work.

What is the team composition?

Adon (Project Manager) and Jon (CEO & Creative Director) were my main points of contact. 

How did you come to work with Sleepless Media?

We got a list of Shopify developers from industry contacts and colleagues, and Sleepless Media was on the list. We contacted each recommendation and evaluated them with our own metrics. Sleepless Media came out on top of a group of about 12 development companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $40,000–$45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in mid-September 2020. Our initial scope of work was completed in October 2020, but we’re looking to establish an ongoing relationship with them because we were happy with their work. 

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

The project was successful based on the fact that the site was complete and functional. They asked a lot of questions before beginning, and they took our feedback and gave us a site that they felt would meet our needs and our approach in the initial presentation. It was pretty darn close. 

How did Sleepless Media perform from a project management standpoint?

We were always up to date on the project timelines. Sleepless Media gave us a spreadsheet of the development timelines; we didn’t have a specific tool. They kept it very tight. We had weekly meetings on video call, and we knew exactly what was going on. The team was also very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They listened to what we wanted, understood it, and provided exactly that. They understood the look and feel of our brand. Far too often, you hire agencies who don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve, but Sleepless Media did that very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend them to anyone looking to build a Shopify website. Sleepless Media was reasonably priced and delivered high-quality work within the timeline they said they would.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of EverSmile, Inc. We’re an oral care company whose main product is a cleaner for Invisalign and other clear liners. We’ve expanded to include denture cleaner, bridge cleaner, and other dental-related products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sleepless Media?

We were aiming to move into a more B2C environment so we wanted to turn our low-quality website into a beautiful, fun, millennial-facing website. It really had to pop and include a way to communicate with our doctors. Their job was to create the design of the site and put it all together.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created an all-new Shopify site for us using a custom theme. We started out with an official consultation with Jon (CEO), and he told us what they do and got the ball rolling. Then, we met with Leslee (Art Director) and her team to get a feel for what we’re looking for. Finally, we settled on a design and moved onto Alexa (Digital Project Manager) and Dolly (Developer).

What is the team composition?

We had different points of contact throughout the project, but we were in touch with Alexa throughout the project.

How did you come to work with Sleepless Media?

We looked through quite a number of companies, getting recommendations from PR companies we’d worked for and through Google. A number of companies submitted portfolios and proposals but a lot of the work we received was very corporate-looking. It wasn’t very fun or engaging to millennials. It was like what you would imagine a steel mill’s website would look like: boring and plain. I came across an article about Sleepless Media and thought their website looked fun and engaging. They had all kinds of interesting animations and seemed like a fun team of people. At the time, I was in the same location as they were so it worked out.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2019 until May 2020. Currently, we’re working on some revisions and add-ons but everything from the original statement work is done.

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

We launched the full site about a month and a half ago; that was the first version without any of our edits. Pretty much every person who’s looked at the site since then has told us how amazing it looked. We’ve gotten a tremendous amount of positive feedback on the website and are proud to show it to people

How did Sleepless Media perform from a project management standpoint?

We went in at a busy time, so there was a large number of other customers they were working with and we noticed a delay at a few points. Overall, though, they did really well. They were very organized in the way they spoke to us through email and gathered information. They were very good at jumping on calls and constantly messaging back and forth. Eventually, once we launched the site and moved into editing and bug-fixing, they had an entire Scrum board. I got access to that which allowed me to see all the stages and tasks and what was being worked on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s hard to pinpoint one specific thing. As a whole, they did a good job from start to finish. The design side of everything they did was beautiful; it included our vision without us having to nitpick too much. When it came to development, they moved through the bug backlog quickly. They flew through it and were very driven.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some pauses between work and I was unclear about what was going on. I didn’t see work happening on the site exactly and wasn’t sure if we were in a queue or something. It felt a bit like they had too many accounts on their hands and we weren’t getting all their attention because of that. As someone who works at a business that’s crazy all the time, I know how it feels to be jumping between tasks, but other people may have wanted them to speed things up. It wasn’t too much of an inconvenience overall, however.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very organized on your end. You can either give them every single detail and hope they accomplish it or give them nothing but the requirement of a beautiful website. We empowered them to come up with a vision but I was pretty involved in the process from start to finish to ensure things that were going wrong were fixed regarding functionality and responsive design. Things move in waves because they have other customers, so when they come to you it helps to have everything you need ready to go.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re Breeo LLC. We manufacture and sell outdoor wood-burning fire pits and grills and ship them throughout the states. We also have an e-commerce network. I’m a co-founder.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sleepless Media?

We needed a website designed and optimized for e-commerce and a good customer journey. We had an existing Shopify website that was converting okay in 2019 and we knew we needed something new and fresh going into 2020.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought them on specifically to help with the design side of the new site. They took all of our brand assets — we just launched a new brand — including our style guide, logos, sponsors, creative, and photography. Then, we went deep with us about who we were trying to communicate with and what type of site we wanted. They also had us look at other successful sites and what they’d done.

They came to us with a few different design concepts for the home page and other pages. Once we approved a direction they were able to design all the pages and build a sitemap. This made it really easy for our development team to follow exactly how they wanted things to scroll.

What is the team composition?

Our in-house project manager communicated with John (CEO) and Adon (Project Manager).

How did you come to work with Sleepless Media?

We found them on Google looking for highly reviewed e-commerce design agencies. They also serve a lot of clients in the outdoor space selling similar products and targeting similar demographics to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $15,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2020. The e-commerce project has been complete since May 1 but we’re still in communication with them.

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

We’ve seen a significant increase in conversions since the site launched on May 1st. We sell expensive products; our old site was converting at 0.5% and the new one is converting at .65%. Overall e-commerce is way up since last year, and that’s due to a lot of things beyond the website, but we definitely saw conversions jump.

Internally, it’s much easier for our customer service team to work with customers. The site is much easier to navigate for both sides.

How did Sleepless Media perform from a project management standpoint?

It was our first time working with a truly professional design agency on the website, and the difference between them and a freelancer was pretty extreme when it came to project management.

They did a really good job. They took initiative in mapping out the different phases. We told them what we needed from the timeline and they told us exactly when we’d see first looks. As soon as we gave them feedback, they jumped into the next phase.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are two things. First, they understand how design connects with conversions. Their work isn’t just pretty; they have the buttons in the right place to increase conversions. Second, from a tactical standpoint, the way they submit the final design shows exactly how things should move. It’s basically an already-done mockup. The development team can see exactly how it integrates into a real-life site.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really, no. They hit their deadlines. The budget was more than we’d ever spent before but it was in-line with what they were delivering. If we did it again, we may have kept them on for the development work as well instead of opting to keep it with our current team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them as much information as possible. We recorded a video with our in-house project manager as we onboarded them that went through in great detail what we needed from a new site conceptually.

Also, give them as many touchpoints as possible so they can really capture the vision of the project. They can’t execute if they don’t receive the vision.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Eye Q is a boutique optometry practice. We have five optometrists that offer medical services and optometric services. I’m the practice manager and partial owner.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sleepless Media?

Initially, we wanted the website to know how long we’d been here and what services we offered. As it grew, it became more brand management and advertising.

We’d never used a professional web developer, and we were looking for web development help at first. Then, we ended up retaining Sleepless for web development, brand management, graphic design. It spiraled, in a good way, into a multi-faceted thing.

It started as a mom-and-pop business, and the concepts weren’t too cohesive, whether that was social media, web presence, or print presence. We wanted a more refined brand theme and feel.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They completely redesigned our website. We had three owners with all different concepts, and they did a great job offering us options to consider. We have to be HIPPA compliant with the little patient data we do capture, including demographic information, so they helped us set up an integration with our electronic health records which allows us to download patient information and exchange it properly.

Outside of the web development, they’ve helped with several print items. They took a look at our existing stuff and took them up a notch. We have business cards and letterhead already designed, but we wanted stationary and recyclable paper bags. They took our overall vibe for color schemes and being environmentally friendly and created a fairly comprehensive print package. We’ve relied heavily on stationary, pieces of paper we send to patients, and different bags for particular products.

All our inventory is handmade, ethically sourced, and very unique, so they helped us to brand communication with our patients over shows that we do. We invite patients quarterly to certain events to promote products, and they do invitations and post-cards. The graphic layout and wording are all them as well.

They’ve also rolled out to advertising in print and digital formats. They’ve helped create ads with the same sort of look and feel like our business for local universities, lifestyle magazines, and newspapers. A lot of print companies will make crappy ads that don’t have your vibe. But Sleepless looked at our vibe and who our target audience is for each publication, and then tailor the ad.

What is the team composition?

When we started, the biggest project was the website. We sat down with their senior team: the Jon (CEO, Sleepless Media), the project admin, and then two other designers. They worked through the basic ideas and talked about their services. After we established a general concept, we worked primarily through the project admin. They did have one turnover in that role but it was pretty seamless for us.

How did you come to work with Sleepless Media?

Our original website was done by one of our original owner’s family members. We then had it redone for a cheap price. We then decided to bite the bullet and get a professional website.

After researching online, we decided it was important to have someone who would deliver non-sterile, non-corporate work. We wanted someone to be consultative with what we were looking for. After Google searching, I talked to someone do graphic design for us (he’s retiring) and he recommended Sleepless. I checked out the different websites they’d designed and saw a lot of their clients were local. I was familiar with their clientele and thought they hit those sites pretty well. They took the concept of those companies and created public spaces for them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $55,000–$80,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since October 2014. The heaviest workload was in that first year, but we’ve definitely had an ongoing relationship the whole time.

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

We track how new patients learn about us, and, before the website was rebuilt, the form was a standalone component. Now, the form is used at a much higher rate. Sleepless was giving us Google Analytics and statistics from our previous site and our current site so we could see our immediate impact, and it was substantial. We don’t do as much of that anymore.

They did a lot of SEO for us, in particular, tagging a lot of our very unique products. We were getting people coming from a lot farther away. People would be willing to travel for us and our unique products.

They’ve also given us a great platform for attracting more students. Students want things that are fairly current and modern, and Sleepless was able to figure out how to engage them much more. We’ve seen a huge uptick in business from our student base. Our web traffic has also seen a huge increase.

How did Sleepless Media perform from a project management standpoint?

I only had one glitch with them, and it was probably more our fault than theirs. I was trying to pass off the reigns of management on our site internally and there was a miscommunication. I’ve handled 99.9% of the communication with them over our five-year period and had no issue with them.

They’re super-fast in responding, which is something I look forward to. If they couldn’t get something done in two weeks, they were great at letting me know. My previous web person would tell me after two weeks that they couldn’t get something done. Sleepless always communicates the timeline and helps sets expectations. We work over the phone, text, and email, as well as in-person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A big thing for me was that they were consultative. All of the others I interviewed wanted me to tell them everything to do and let them go off and do it. Sleepless, on the other hand, gave us a lot of different options and mockups. They listened to our story and used that, which is great because none of us were web designers. They translated us properly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. The only thing we might have fallen a bit short on was, initially, we thought about looking into social media management. It’s not really their cup of tea, I don’t think, and we ended up hiring someone else. It would have been nice to have one company handle all of our stuff, but it wasn’t high on their list when I brought it up five years ago.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director at Mountain Feed & Farm Supply. We provide products ranging from animal feed to food preservation housewares to farm supply goods.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sleepless Media?

We didn’t have a web presence at all, so our first challenge was to get a website up and running. In that process, we built out an e-commerce website typically for our housewares. From there, we saw a large following for our blog and newsletter. We wanted to integrate that with e-commerce to increase online sales. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sleepless Media redesigned our e-commerce website and blog and then moved it to Shopify. 

The first part of the process was the design. Sleepless Media did a custom design with us, and we were really involved in that. We had lots of face-to-face time to talk about little aspects of the design. We were looking for a minimalist look and feel so it was important to showcase our photography.

After that, Sleepless Media integrated e-commerce with our blog. The blog is made up of how-to articles and recipes that feature things we sell. The big challenge was to create a UI that integrates products and posts seamlessly and is easy to manage on our end. We’re not the most technologically savvy, so it was difficult to make it easy for us. However, Sleepless Media accomplished it. At the time, there were no plugins available for what we wanted to do, so their team did a lot of custom work. We haven’t upgraded since.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the main designer and the owner on the design. After that, we had a project manager to write specs for the functionality and for the rest of the process.

How did you come to work with Sleepless Media?

One important factor for choosing them was the fact that they were local to us. That allows us to have lots of face-to-face meetings as needed. Second, Sleepless Media is well-known for e-commerce. We didn’t want someone winging it on our first website ever, especially since an e-commerce site is a big undertaking. That’s why we went with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in May 2015 and is ongoing.

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

Since we didn’t have a website before, we don’t have a gauge on what improvements we saw there. However, the visual change and switch to e-commerce were pretty significant. Our sales increased by 100% because of our refreshed site. We did a lot of AB testing to ensure that we were making shopping easy as possible for our customers, who tend to be less tech-savvy. The checkout process is a lot less cumbersome. Plus, even though our audience tends to do less mobile browsing than average, getting a mobile responsive site was a big deal for us. 

How did Sleepless Media perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been fairly painless. Their team has a good system setup. We send in requests, and they responded with time estimates and quotes. Most of our requests are small projects, so we’ve seen no significant delays or timeline issues. As far as communication goes, we have the occasional in-person meeting because it’s easy, but we mostly keep in touch via email

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sleepless Media has been doing e-commerce for a long time, so they have a lot of experience to speak from. They can explain why our ideas might not work based on their experience, giving legitimate reasons rather dismissing us outright. In turn, they’ve also made a lot of suggestions. I don’t think another web dev firm can do that without a similar level of experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, the process hasn’t really easy. There’s been no spot where we got stuck or that should’ve gone differently.

Any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend being organized upfront and having a good idea of what you want. For the first project, we didn’t have as clear an idea, and it was a much longer process. The second time, we had a more vivid concept and were way more organized. Sleepless Media offers scoping and planning services, but in both cases, that wasn’t in our budget. So, planning ahead of time will save you both money and time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing for a water filtration company called Clearly Filtered. We make residential tap water filters, including pitchers, under the sink, and showerhead varieties.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sleepless Media?

Over the course of a few years, we had created a sort of Frankenstein of a website by ourselves using various outside resources. We hired their team to combine all of those components into a single, cohesive, easy to navigate website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The original website was all under one URL, but the pages weren’t built off the same theme, so everything looked fairly piecemealed together. They handled full-stack design and development of the site, which is built on Shopify Plus and utilizes a third-party app called Recharge which facilitates recurring business through our replacement filters.

We came to Sleepless Media and explained our business model and goals with the new website. From there, they took a strategic approach to the design and layout, including how everything was featured on the site through colors and iconography, and their team created a custom theme out of that.

What is the team composition?

I worked hand-in-hand with John (Owner, Sleepless Media) and a project manager, as well as communicating directly with a few designers and a few developers. About 5­–6 people were continuously involved in the conversations about the projects that we were working on.

How did you come to work with Sleepless Media?

Our first introduction to them was at a Shopify conference about 3–4 years ago where I just happened to sit next to their team. We continued casual conversation over the next few years, and when we decided to take the step of actually rebuilding our website from scratch, we asked them to be part of the conversation. There were other development houses in play, but in the end, they seemed to be the best option for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $70,000 with them on the project in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from July–November 2019.

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

We had no plans to commit to an ongoing relationship after the initial development phase, but the relationship was such that we decided to sign on with them as a retainer client for the future as well. We developed a really strong business relationship with them.

On top of that our sales were astronomically higher than we expected. That jump speaks volumes about how much more intuitive the customer experience of the new site is and how much it allows people to understand the new site.

How did Sleepless Media perform from a project management standpoint?

I actually have a background on the agency side, doing just about the same things that Sleepless Media does, so I had a decent understanding of how I wanted the project to be managed. That said, they brought a very unique approach to the process that really streamlined a lot of things and which I found really effective.

They primarily utilized a single email address for all of the people in their office so that everybody was aware of what was happening across the entire project. The communication between myself and the developers always included everyone who needed to be there so that they could chime in if needed, which avoided an incredible amount of unnecessary communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The ability to have a real conversation with the members of their team is one of the biggest advantages of working with them. They are completely honest, no matter how much you might want to hear a specific answer.

Sleepless Media has the knowledge to make a decision on the spot rather than having to figure out whether they have the capability for something or not, so you never have to deal with the over-promise, under-deliver aspect that you often find with outsourcing agencies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only difficulty we had in the entire project was when our project manager left in the middle of the project and we had to try to keep making progress while we scrambled to put something in place. That was obviously completely unforeseeable, so we don’t blame them in any way for it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The best advice I could give anyone is just to be s real as possible. Understand that the work being done is going to be excellent at the end, but you still have to go through all of the paces to get there. There’s a ton of work to be done on both sides, but they challenged us to work even harder, and that’s what makes it a good partnership.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Zpacks is a manufacturer of ultralight hiking equipment. I am the company's Director of Marketing and Brand Management.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sleepless Media?

We needed a totally revamped ecommerce website that not only looked good but also provided a quality customer experience when checking out with complicated orders.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to have Sleepless build us a quality website that was easy to use and navigate while simplifying the complexities of our orders.

How did you select this vendor?

We scoured the web and took recommendations and interviewed a ton of companies. Sleepless seemed to be the perfect fit in terms of ability, personality and applicable experience.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project involved starting a square one to great a Shopify ecommerece site. From the creation of templates and custom scripts they were able to dial in the perfect buying experience for our customers.

What was the team composition?

The team mainly revolved around the owner of Sleepless and a primary contact. We had three people on our end involved in the review process.

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

Instantly, customers remarked our beautiful and easy to use the site was. We saw an increase in accessory sales due to the way they were presented as well.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed view airtable, emails and phone calls. We were effectively able to express concerns, review work in progress and brainstorm on ideas.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

While it's impressive the Jon created an environment where he can skateboard around the shop. I think the biggest thing that impressed us was the quality of the work and the abilities of the team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I believe Sleepless has everything locked in!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of Om Gallery. We are a retail and wholesale firm specializing in gifts, decor, lighting and crafts.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sleepless Media?

Sleepless Media has built multiple sites for us over the years. We have worked with them for almost 20 years. They built our first website in 2004 and helped us to upgrade and develop a new site in 2018.

What were your goals for this project?

They gave us a professional look and feel with good functionality. We wanted our web site to be representative of our look and feel inside our store.

How did you select this vendor?

Sleepless media has been our web developer, ecommerce company for almost 20 years.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They have custom designed multiple websites with different shopping systems over the years.

What was the team composition?

They have a good team to handle our inquiries.

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

We recieve a lot of feedback that is positive regarding our site. customers are impressed with the look and feel. Our sales have increased since we had our site rebuilt and redesigned by Sleepless.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Good

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Design ability

Are there any areas for improvement?

Some development quirks