Taoti Creative

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Operations for a nonprofit organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti Creative?

We needed help redoing our organizational website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Taoti Creative provided web development and design services. We had a website before, and the team took over for our previous vendor and rebuilt and redesigned it. We had a lot of sessions on rebranding and marketing the organization, simplifying the way we presented our work. We also held many sessions about our organization and how to best present it on the website.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–5 people regularly from their team.

How did you come to work with Taoti Creative?

We had an open process and collected quotes from several companies before selecting Taoti Creative. We liked their creativity and customer-oriented approach to everything.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2021–February 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our old design was too convoluted, so Taoti Creative simplified it and made it modern. Overall, everything went well, and there weren’t any disruptions.

How did Taoti Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was great. It was clear what was in the budget and what were additional services. They also had clear timelines. We used Trello for project management and Microsoft Teams and Zoom for meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness to whatever demand we had was impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We switched to another company for price reasons. Our previous vendor was a local DC-based company, and we switched to Taoti Creative. Their team was based in the Midwest, so pricing was an issue. However, that wasn’t a major concern. I understand that you pay for quality, and we got what we paid for from them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear internally about your goals. Whenever we went off the timeline, it was because we weren’t clear on what we were looking for. To get the best out of the engagement and manage the budget, make sure to have a clear decision tree within your company to align your internal timeline and the vendor’s timeline.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the associate director of the International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners (IBHRE). Our parent organization is Heart Rhythm Society. IBHRE is a global leader in heart rhythm management, and I manage our certification program.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti Creative?

We needed everything to be updated. Heart Rhythm Society had just gone through a site migration and update, so we needed to make corresponding updates to keep up with our parent organization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I worked very closely with Brittany (Project Manager & Producer) in doing an audit of the current site. They did a deep dive into what functionalities we had and what we would need to modernize. After identifying the many areas that could be streamlined or eliminated, they launched into the web redesign. Their work involved a change in our content management system.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked primarily with Brittany, who’s been my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Taoti Creative?

They were recommended to us by the Heart Rhythm Society. My contact there was confident that we would be successful since they’d had a great relationship together themselves.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere around $30,000. We also have a maintenance contract with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement in December 2019 and wrapped up in August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything is working. In the month that we’ve gone live, we haven’t received any negative feedback. That’s a great sign, because a lot of times, no news is good news. We’ve only received positive feedback and compliments about the site’s new look and feel.

I’ve also appreciated how kind and patient they’ve been in teaching me how to use the new platform.

How did Taoti Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very accommodating in leading me through all the steps. We communicated primarily through email, which I’m most comfortable with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very prompt and collaborative in their troubleshooting approach. We can just set up a call to address any issue we might run into.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re not comfortable with something or are unfamiliar with a process, don’t be afraid to ask questions. The end product is something you’re responsible for, so make sure to clarify any areas that you’re unclear about.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the digital marketing manager at Focal Point Data Risk. We provide cybersecurity services to companies of all sizes across the US. Our core services are data privacy advisory, identity and access management advisory, and implementation and cybersecurity training.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti Creative?

Last year I was tasked with revamping the website, which we hadn’t done in about three years, so I decided to bring on a partner agency to help us with that process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are a relatively small marketing team and didn’t have the skills in-house to do all of the tasks associated with a large redesign. We were switching from Drupal to WordPress and there were a lot of different heavy-lift ideas that we wanted to implement on the back- and frontend of the site, so Taoti Creative helped us to implement those changes.

From there, they completely redesigned the site as well. We utilized a custom modular backend with WordPress so that we could mix and match how we presented our different service lines. They built out new services layouts, contact forms, menus, calls to action, and anything else we needed, as well as implementing HubSpot integrations.

What is the team composition?

Christine (Project Manager) was our main point of contact, and we worked with a few other individuals including Katie (design lead) and James (technical lead).

How did you come to work with Taoti Creative?

We had originally reached out to a couple of vendors that specialized in Drupal and realized that it would be incredibly expensive to get as detailed as we wanted to on the backend of a Drupal site. Taoti had capabilities in both Drupal and WordPress, so they were able to help us weigh the pros and cons given our budget and decide what the best way forward would be.

How much have you invested with them?

Our cap for the project was $40,000, and they were able to help us finish the site for a little bit less than that.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work on the site lasted from April–September 2019, but we are continuing to work with them on basic maintenance and updates on an ongoing basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There were three particular results that we were looking for out of the project. The first was that we had made changes to our branding over the three years since we had last rolled out a new site, so being able to implement those and be better aligned in that regard was really rewarding. We are also now able to make changes far more easily than ever before, so it’s much easier to use on our end and we’re excited about our increased ability to keep all of our content really fresh.

The process of working on the design of the site was amazing, and everyone on our side loves the final product that we ended up at. We get a lot of positive feedback from customers about how easy it is to navigate, and we are now working with their team to roll out some of those design elements to our other marketing collateral, which we are very excited about.

Beyond the design, the integrations and features provided by the new site have helped our business significantly. We’ve seen increased traffic to our HubSpot assets thanks to those implementations, and in general, we’ve seen an increase in site traffic and met all of our goals. Nothing went over budget or was added to the scope after we agreed on everything, which we really appreciated.

How did Taoti Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

I was really impressed with their project management throughout the whole thing. Our deadline was extremely tight, and they stayed on task the entire time. We had weekly staff meetings, and toward the end met even more frequently, and their team was constantly available for calls in between those. They used internal tools to track progress and leave comments as well.

Christine was constantly on top of following up with me and seeing if I needed anything from her or making sure that she got the information that her team needed from me. It was always clear that we were on the same page, which gave us incredible confidence throughout the process in the eventual success that we would have.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Project management was a huge strength for them, but on top of that, their flexibility really became a huge asset to our work together. Since we’re both smaller firms, it was great to see them take our problem and come up with an innovative solution that was clearly tailored to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There wasn’t anything significant that I think they could have done better. A couple of small elements of the project ended up getting left by the wayside rather than included in the initial budget for the scope which would have been nice to know about in advance, but none of them were in any way critical to the product so that was a very small issue on the whole.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Lay out your 3–5 main goals for the project very clearly to their team at the beginning of the project and then build out your plan off of those things. Taoti Creative is very goal-oriented, so structuring your solution around those is a really effective way of making sure you get what you want in the end.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of outreach of a research subsidiary of a major media company. We survey policymakers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti Creative?

We have three audiences for our website: policymakers, potential clients, and potential job candidates. Our website previously only addressed one of those audiences — our clients. Other audiences would have a hard time navigating our website, learning about us, and getting interested in what we do. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Taoti Creative created a website that was tailored for each audience we serve. They started with creating the wireframe and then built out the actual website. We wrote the copy ourselves, but Taoti Creative provided some low-level suggestions.

They used WordPress with a custom template. Our scope was limited because we didn’t have a huge budget, so we didn’t ask for a lot of functionality. We wanted it to be clean, compelling, and useful for all three audiences. Taoti Creative was able to take our budget and work within it. The way they thought through the pathing and UX was really sophisticated for the budget we had available.

What is the team composition?

Charlotte (Project Manager) has been our point of contact throughout the relationship.

How did you come to work with Taoti Creative?

We did a lot of research into potential partners. A couple of members of my staff and I looked at websites we found compelling and a few were designed by Taoti Creative. That’s what really drew us to their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $55,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in October 2019. The website launched in mid-February 2020 with little to no issues to meet our deadline. It was a tight turnaround, but Taoti Creative was amenable to that. We’re now going back and forth on final edits and finishing up the QA process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s still very early, and we didn’t do a good job of tracking our engagement metrics. However, it’s been a huge help to direct people to our website when they have questions. We know our website is a user-friendly and comprehensive resource with consistent messaging. It’s a powerful tool for sales and engagement with our audiences, especially policymakers. 

How did Taoti Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. I have no constructive feedback. Our deliverables arrive on time and are of high quality. Taoti Creative is always specific about what they need from us, such as feedback on a deliverable within 48 hours. Because of their quality of work, that short turnaround was never a problem.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s a relatively small firm, so we had access to stakeholders throughout the team and felt well taken care of even though we’re a small-dollar client. We have a talented team and can make all sorts of asks and get thoughtful responses and inputs from a lot of people. Plus, the deliverables felt like they came from a larger firm. However, if we worked with a larger firm, I feel we wouldn’t have been able to get such a top-notch team at the same price.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, the experience has been very positive for us.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be direct about your needs and limitations. Taoti Creative is very amenable within a lot of different constraints, but the more they know ahead of time, the better they plan for your project. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the interim CEO for Transition Leadership International, LLC. We help nonprofits facing major changes, including turnaround, restructuring, startups, mergers, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Taoti Creative?

I hired Taoti Creative to handle my branding and marketing efforts.

What were your goals for this project?

Ultimately, I wanted to improve the effectiveness of my marketing efforts to result in more opportunities and higher conversions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A mutual connection introduced me to Brent (Founder & CEO, Taoti Creative). It was their clear approach that led me to choose them for the project.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Brent assessed my branding and marketing strategies. I conducted a few interviews with clients and discovered that they had different expectations for my online presence than I’d thought. From there, Taoti Creative helped us build our brand, marketing plan, and overall design based on the research we conducted. For example, now, we emphasize protecting beloved organizations, and it’s apparent within our marketing strategy.

What was the team composition?

Brent and I worked together directly, and he communicated with the design team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since working with Taoti Creative, our conversion rate and sales cycle have been remarkably high. We’ve seen a drastic increase in clients. Years later, I still receive compliments and positive feedback from people about our marketing materials.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between our teams was seamless.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their determination to understand our brand before beginning the process was highly valuable to us. We received a great amount of clarity from their team because of the well-structured research efforts.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There was nothing they could have done differently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing and communications manager at the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit organization. We manage and maintain the National Mall for the National Park Service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti Creative?

We engaged Taoti Creative to create marketing collateral for our annual gala benefit, the BALL for THE MALL. Our partnership with a previous vendor fell through, so we needed someone to complete these materials rapidly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Taoti Creative created our save-the-date cards, invitations, evening program book, and a marketing report for the 2018 BALL for THE MALL. Each piece had its own timeline and multiple rounds of edits. The designs also had to abide by our strict brand guidelines. Their team provided graphic design and marketing expertise in creating this full suite of collateral.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of 5–6 people, including Christine (Project Manager and Producer, Taoti Creative), Callie (Production Designer, Taoti Creative), and Mason (Associate Creative Director, Taoti Creative).

How did you come to work with Taoti Creative?

After we cut ties with our previous vendor, a colleague recommended Taoti Creative to us. In our initial conversations, the team came across as experienced and able to deliver within our high-pressure deadlines. We decided to take a chance on them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $10,000 per year. Taoti Creative is now a sponsor of our annual gala, so part of the cost is a donation in kind to our organization.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on last year’s event from February–April 2018. Our partnership, however, is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Taoti Creative completed a ten-month project in two months. Their materials received positive feedback from our board and our attendees. The success of our engagement proved to us that higher-quality materials are worth the additional costs.

We’ve now brought in Taoti Creative to help us plan and create collateral for this year’s benefit. We’re also considering working with their team for a brand redesign—we’ve already completed initial exploratory phases with them. 

How did Taoti Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is highly flexible and adaptive to our workflow. We prefer to use timelines for individual pieces rather than the whole project. We also will keep in touch as often as 3–5 times a week at specific points in the project. 

After using email as a primary form of communication, Taoti Creative adopted a software called Teamwork that we find extremely helpful. We can collaborate and keep track of tasks much more efficiently, which has made our collaboration for this year’s gala benefit even more successful so far.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are highly attentive and willing to accept criticism. When one of their designs departs from our strict brand guidelines, Taoti Creative listens to our feedback and incorporates it into a revised version that fits our vision. Now that we’re no longer pressed for time, the team has an excellent understanding of our brand.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve done outstanding work so far.

Any advice for potential customers?

Trust their expertise and give them the freedom to provide you with a few options for a design or product choice. Taoti Creative’s recommendations have inspired us to take new directions with how we communicate with our donor database.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: Our business is Kids Comprehensive Services LLC. The contract that we worked on is Childcare Connection, which is a childcare resource and referral for the District of Columbia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti?

R1: We needed someone to build our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Respondent 2: The goal was for the website to be user-friendly, easy to read, and easy to navigate. It’s a WordPress website. We had some ideas about what we wanted and didn’t want. As part of this process, we did an exercise where we looked at different websites and colors and had to answer questions of what we like, what was strong about the website, and what we didn’t like. That was a part of their information gathering process. 

After the project began, we met as a team for a brainstorming session. One of the challenges was that the website is a program inside of an agency that we administrate. We were concerned about branding being consistent across our agency and this program. For the second phase, they interviewed our staff and some of our external customers. They provided a summary based on the information gathered from the staff, as well as our external customers. Based upon that, they developed a sitemap and began to work. 

They gave us the wireframes. Then we did the whole page design and mockups. They did the visuals, the branding, and the graphics. We did the writing and picked our own pictures. We worked together; their job was to make everything look really pretty and functional, which they did. They did it very quickly. We had a staging in the last part of September and we went live at the beginning of October. It was a very short, efficient turnaround. 

What is the team composition? 

R1: We have around 12 consultants on staff.

R2: We had a project manager. We had somebody who works in the fiscal office, but we work very closely with the project manager, Susan [Director of Production, Taoti Creative]. It was a match made in heaven. She worked at the Childcare Bureau and so she understood our content. She also understands federal and state regulations because of a prior job, which is very helpful. 

We also had a graphics person, Amy [Art Director, Taoti Creative]. We’re clearly on the same page. She understands what we want visually. There is a web person that does backend work based in Seattle. We have an IT person on our side and their person was brought on to build the functionality part after we had the design. The team size stayed consistent.

How did you come to work with Taoti?

R2: I asked a staff member who had experience with building a website. I asked them to look at companies and bring me 3. They all wrote proposals. When we looked at Taoti’s work, we chose them because of the visual graphics of their site. A lot of the other sites had the same functions, but the appeal and visual response wasn’t there. 

How much have you invested with them?

R2: $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

R2: We started working together in July 2017 until October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

R2: The website is very visually appealing. Everybody that goes on the website is very pleased. It’s easy to navigate, which is one of the main things that was important to me. 

We’re in the DMV [District Maryland Virginia] area. When you look at other websites, our is more visually appealing. We do analytics and notice that we have gotten a lot of visits. The website has everything we requested.

How did Taoti perform from a project management standpoint?

R2: We communicated once every two weeks. They’re very responsive. Our requests were met in a timely fashion. They were efficient and got the job done, but were relational too, which is important to me. Common knowledge of childcare and our goals made it a strong team from the beginning to the end of the process. It was almost like they knew exactly what our goals were and understood them. It was a good match. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

R2: Their knowledge base was impressive. They had knowledge in content about early childhood, but also on graphics. It was helpful they understood the program people and the backend people. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

R2: Absolutely not. They’re on the right path. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

R1: Check who has knowledge about your content areas, even though it’s important you have your own experts. That naturally seemed to make the process go smoothly. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a water utility company. We have a customer base of over 200,000. Basically, we provide water and wastewater services to these customers. I’m the director of communications. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti Creative?

We had an outdated, clunky, ugly website that was running on a CMS [content management system] that was also pretty archaic. It wasn’t working for us. It wasn’t flexible, and it wasn’t portraying us in the best light for our customers. We knew that we needed a change. Our customer base is pretty tech-savvy in our county, so we wanted to make sure that we redesigned a site that would meet their expectations and promote us, our brand, and our position in the community.

We also wanted to make the site a little bit more interactive and easier for people to find information, and we also wanted to integrate our customer portal on the website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It wasn’t part of the scope of the project, but there was an integration point with another company so that customers can go online, view their balances, and pay their bills. We do have a significant number of web forms where customers can ask questions, report problems, and start service and stop service. Taoti Creative helped us create those web forms. We used Drupal for project management.

Aside from the overall look and feel of the website, they also helped us create a robust search feature. They integrated some social widgets for us as well.

How did you come to work with Taoti Creative?

As a public agency, we have to go through a formal procurement process. We issued the RFP [request for proposals] in February of 2015. We wanted to stay local, so we researched some companies in our area and sent proposals to those companies. Aside from their great interviewing skills, patience, and ability answer all of our sometimes-annoying questions, Taoti Creative knows how to build a website from the start. By that I mean they were going to dedicate a significant amount of time to audience development, which is a huge priority for us, just to learn about some of our stakeholders and their needs. Their team, both technical and non-technical, had a great understanding of Drupal. They really took their time to learn about our company and what we wanted, and I think they gave us all the information that we asked for. They were very committed to the whole interview process. There was not a question that we asked that they couldn’t provide an answer to or even some support or guidance.

How much have you invested with Taoti Creative?

Unfortunately, I can’t share any of that information. What I can say is that they exceeded our budget expectation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We issued the RFP in February of 2015 and did the actual selection in June of 2015. The procurement process took about five months because we had a pretty significant response and had to go through two interview processes with some of the companies. We chose Taoti Creative in May, kicked off in June of 2015, and launched in February of 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

Our bounce rate went down significantly after the launch. I think our bounce rate from our old site was about 75%; it was ridiculous. The bounce rate went down right at the start. We had customers calling just to say the site looks so much better and is much more user-friendly. We have emails from the Contact Us forms on the website from customers who just really appreciated the new site design.

We’re a utility, so we’re not selling anything, and that makes it hard to have real stats. There are no purchases made on the site; it’s more for informational purposes. We don’t have any conversion rates or anything.

How did Taoti Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Taoti Creative has a very good project management philosophy in place. Teamwork was the tool that they used. We had a dedicated project manager, Lisa Collins, who was the coordinator for the whole project. She worked with the developers. I don’t know exactly how many developers there were, but there was a significant amount of development that went into the project. I would say there were no fewer than four developers working on it at any given time. Taoti handled everything. They matched their best developers with our needs, and Lisa coordinated the workflow for them through Teamwork. It was a very transparent process. Through Teamwork, we were able to see the tasks that she assigned, deadlines, milestones, and conversations between the developers and Lisa. This helped us make sure that we all had the same set of goals and were all looking at the same sheet of music for the whole project.

They were excellent across the board and hit every single deadline. We built in time on our end where we’d need more time to reevaluate things; they were very flexible in their schedule. We never felt rushed, but they kept us moving along as well.

What did you find most impressive about Taoti Creative?

Company-wide, there’s nobody at Taoti Creative that I don’t feel comfortable calling, from the CEO to the project managers. They’re all really responsive and very helpful. They all have the success of our site at heart. I just think they are very good about responding. If anything happens with the site, they have an urgent email that they respond to within minutes.

Are there any areas Taoti Creative could improve?

We had such a positive experience with them. There’s really nothing I could point out for improvement. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief marketing officer of the Society for Science & the Public, a nonprofit with several different functions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti Creative?

We have a website for each function, but none clearly conveyed the overall picture of what the Society does—our brand and our impact. We worked with Taoti to create a central society site that did that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Taoti first performed key stakeholder interviews internally. They worked with a content strategist that we already had on board who had done some user research. We did card sorting and some other site organization exercises together. They came up with a really good design and wireframe, then used a product called Envision to show us wireframes and mockups. The entire site was built on Drupal. We didn’t have any custom functionalities on the site. We worked with them to ensure we had the correct coding and the ability to do analytics to be able to track various elements of what we were doing. We create our own content.

How did you come to work with Taoti Creative?

We did a request for proposal and looked at the 10 organizations who responded. We had face-to-face or phone interviews with six of them. Taoti sat down with us and walked us through several projects they had done. They had done a wide range of projects, and some of them resonated with what we were doing. Also, I like to work with people who are local so I can sit down with them. People who were remote were going to add another hurdle to the project, so the fact that they were local was really important to me. They had a great vibe and we liked them. We’re a Drupal organization, and they had deep experience in Drupal. They connected well with our developers and acted as an extension of our own team. The project was a joint effort.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September of 2016. They did a site audit, and we spec’d out the specific website they built for us. The site was launched in February of 2017. Right now, our relationship with them is working well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have seen more traffic to the joint page, which is the key page we want people to go to when they consider our organization. More importantly, the traffic that we’re driving to the Society’s home page is now pushing significantly more traffic through to the transactions pages. It’s a straightforward Drupal site, and we’re all used to working with it. The difference is night and day in terms of the way it feels to people experiencing the website.

How did Taoti Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered everything on time and within budget. A project like this always has moments of frustration, and when we had those moments, they were responsive. She was friendly and willing to work with us to get things where we wanted them to be. I communicated with them through Google Docs and phone calls. The rest of the team used Teamwork and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about Taoti Creative?

They were creative and really cared about our project. We didn’t feel like we did with other vendors, where they did the work and moved on. They continue to stay emotionally and intellectually engaged in it as we continue to make changes.

Are there any areas Taoti Creative could improve?

We had a great meeting after the site launched to discuss what worked and what didn’t. The key learning was to never make assumptions about our budget and timeline or that you know which way we’d go on a particular decision.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Taoti Creative?

It’s kind of a mixed blessing for an organization like Taoti to work with an organization like ours, which has a lot of in-house talent. There are more resources to deploy to get a project done, but at the same time, there are more points of view. I would say that they would work really well for an organization that needs soup to nuts, but they’ve also been adept at working with us when it was more of a collaborative effort.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a nonprofit organization working in international education. We believe that education transcends borders, opens minds, and enables people to go beyond. We’re building connections in their university or workspace, and promoting a peaceful vision of the world. I’m a senior program officer for the program. It is basically a platform where we catalog opportunities. It’s an online clearinghouse where we catalog educational opportunities for displaced and refugee students, to offer them an opportunity to reconnect with educational opportunities, specifically in higher education.

We’re currently focusing on Syrian students, due to the devastating impact of the Syria crisis, also the unprecedented number of Syrian youth who are now not attending higher education but were enrolled before the conflict erupted. We do a lot of scholarship management, management of international leadership programs, and really focus on education emergencies, but also empowering women, all in the sphere of international education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Taoti Creative?

We were looking for a 3rd-party website developer who was able to develop our site and also the database for students to access and learn about opportunities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have one main point of contact, and additional people were added depending on the stage of our website development. All of Taoti’s team were available to provide their expertise, to ensure that they delivered what we had in mind. That said, I think it was great to know that we have one central contact person, who then pulled the people we needed into the project. We spoke to designers and developers as necessary. We had one designer pulled into the project, who we mainly worked with, and the same for developers. They made sure we had direct access to developers and designers, as well as their business team, so that our various questions could be addressed efficiently.

The audience we’re targeting is Syrian students, and many of them live in areas without high-speed internet access. The majority of our target audience is accessing the website through mobile devices. We wanted to build a website that is accessible for low bandwidth and for mobile devices. We recently had a meeting with Taoti during which we looked at Google analytics on loading times, who’s accessing the website, and with what type of device. They were very successful in building a site that is easily accessible for students on cellphones, as well as low bandwidth. They provided us with guidance on how to come up with a site that still has an appealing design, while not compromising on the loading times.

We’re still working on website enhancements, adding new features and pages. We knew the three months was a very short timeline for the end product we had in mind. It’s a constantly developing initiative on our end, so the needs of the website also constantly change. We will continue working with them on maintenance as well as building out new features.

How did you come to work with Taoti Creative?

We had a very competitive RFP process, and several developers submitted proposals. Taoti’s proposal really stuck out. We felt that they obviously had a lot of technical and development experience, and we also saw that they had worked with agencies similar to ours. In their proposal, they already understood the goals of our program. We didn’t expect that, as we’re in two very different fields of work. They really got what we wanted to achieve, and they had great experience and expertise. Taoti is in Washington, D.C., and we’re in New York City.

How much have you invested with Taoti Creative?

We’ve spent about $150,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in December of 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don’t have the stats in front of me. We had a somewhat similar website that generated traffic of 10,000 per year. Within the first two weeks, the new site we built with Taoti had more than 20,000 users. We’re now able to track where our users are coming from, and we’re specifically targeting Syrians. Our top ten countries are mainly in the region, as well as top hosting countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. We see that we are reaching the target audience. We now know that the majority of our users access the site via their cell phones, and we have the numbers to prove that. The new site has a much lower bounce rate for mobile users, which is exactly what we expected to see.

The website has only been online for six or seven weeks, so we’re still in the initial phase. We work with partner organizations that are supporting our initiative, and we do a lot of outreach to promote the website. So far, we’ve had very positive responses regarding the structure and design of the site. On the whole site, we only have three images, which is very unusual but goes back to making it user-friendly for our target audience. At the same time, I think it’s a very nice design. No one ever even seems to notice that it’s a website really built for a low bandwidth audience.

How did Taoti Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

We were on an extremely tight, three-month timeline. They really over-delivered on that compressed timeline. We had weekly check-in calls to follow up on the timeline and technical requirements. They introduced us to the Teamwork platform, which was really easy. We were able to communicate as easily as email, but also upload documents and files. They involved everyone on the team who needed to receive certain information or documents. For the post-launch process, we were able to submit tickets through Teamwork for anything we wanted to be changed. We’re still using it for all the communication with Taoti that’s not over the phone. 

What did you find most impressive about Taoti Creative?

It was my first time working with website developers. I think Taoti was very helpful in walking us through the whole process from A–Z. They really tried to ensure that we understood every single step along the way. I feel they delivered on the design and development part, and they really understood our goals. Along the way, they made sure we were always included. We’ve been extremely pleased with Taoti’s work.

Are there any areas Taoti Creative could improve?

I can’t think of anything. We’ve had an extremely positive experience with everyone at Taoti. A lot of the people on our side didn’t know much about website development, and they were available whenever we wanted to talk, either via phone or online. They made sure to explain their work to us.