Webbege, Inc

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development for Stave, which is a software development company. We build applications on top of a platform called Service Now.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Webbege Inc.?

We had a really basic website that we did not like. We used a different developer but we weren’t happy with it. We had a lot of content on our website but it wasn’t really driving traffic to our site. We wanted to get more traffic to the site and capture leads.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Webbege helped us on our website. We started out with basic design and development. We had a basic design, and we got together with Webbege and gave them a few examples of other sites that we liked. They came back with a bunch of different wireframes of design options.

We liked the design strategy that they used. Once we picked the CRM, which was HubSpot, it turned out that they happened to be HubSpot implementers and partners, so we used them to implement our HubSpot instance. They integrated HubSpot with our website to do inbound marketing. Now, we’ve grown their role in our company. We’ve downsized our marketing department and we’ve let Webbege take a lot of that responsibility over just because they’re better at managing and making sure campaigns get done. We’ve actually grown a lot with them. They do a lot of different things for us, from website to inbound to full-on marketing campaigns.

We wanted to make it actionable and trackable. The big thing for us is getting inbound leads from the site and actually doing something with them whether that be automated or not. The integration with HubSpot was huge for us; it still is. The other thing is making sure our message is clear. Webbege also helps us out with not necessarily developing our content, but making sure our content is relevant. That was also really important because, before, we had felt like our message was being lost and potential customers were missing the point of what we actually do. They’re still helping out with that. We decided we need to take it one step further and we’re in the process of doing another design phase now that we’ve changed our marketing team around.

Frank is our main contact. He manages the project, but I know he has at least three other folks who are dedicated to our site and our HubSpot account. The nice thing about Webbege is that everything goes through Frank, so there’s no miscommunication. When we expanded, they added someone to help with workflow. They made it clear that the straight line of communication is Frank. They also have a gentleman named Jay who helps a lot with the content and some of the design elements. We knew there was a team and we know who’s responsible, but as we added things, Frank would add someone to help out. When we started, it was a team of two because it was just website stuff, but these other folks are specialists in the different elements of it. We interact with Frank at least twice a week. Because they’ve taken up such a big role in our marketing group, we actually have them present on our weekly leadership calls. Our marketing team probably works with them every day.

How did you come to work with Webbege Inc.?

We found them through a reference. Another company that we have a relationship with used them and was happy. We looked at some other companies along with the company we had used previously. The HubSpot thing was a big factor. We had some conversations with Webbege before and we just felt a little bit more comfortable with them. They seemed to be a lot more flexible, and we liked that.

I don’t think so, definitely not in the selection process. The one thing that was maybe a little bit of a challenge is when we did decide to give Webbege a bigger role in our marketing group, it was a challenge to let our marketing folks know that this is now Webbege’s responsibility and they need to hand over the reins to them. Webbege did a really good job of being gentle with their feelings and gently taking over. I don’t really have any complaints.

How much have you invested with Webbege Inc.?

We have them on a retainer basis. I don’t know the dollar amount.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 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?

They were really good at helping us with SEO. HubSpot is not just getting traffic to the site, but it’s actually making your visitor’s visits actionable. Webbege is really good at putting a lot of call to actions and forms together so that we can capture user information. Depending on the interaction with the website, they’re actually really good at setting up automatic workflows. If the user downloaded content or maybe even viewed content, they get put into an automatic workflow that does the marketing automation on its own.

Two of our larger clients came through the inbound lead that Webbege set up. There’s about a quarter of a million dollars that we can draw back to that inbound marketing piece that they put together. If you were to put an ROI on it, that’s what we would do and that’s why we kept them and kept putting them on retainer, because the results were there. We’ve been really happy and even if we had only gotten one of those customers, it would have been worth it.

How did Webbege Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

I like what they do. On a day to day basis, I don’t work with them so much—my marketing team does. I know that they use a tool where, if we need something from them, we just use the tool and add it as a task and then we can see when it’s been accepted as well as when it gets executed.

When we do have one-off projects like specific marketing campaigns, and I like the way they’re able to step in and run them. That’s why we had them start doing that because we weren’t able to execute on our end. They’re really organized, which is good. The one thing they do that we really like is we work with a number of different partners and they’re able to coordinate between the partners. Their project management skills are actually very good.

What did you find most impressive about Webbege Inc.?

Their flexibility is impressive. We know that we’re not their biggest customer, but it’s never hard to get in touch. We never feel like we’re not their priority and that’s really nice. We didn’t haven’t that feeling with the group we were working with before; it sometimes took days to get a response. But Webbege is very responsive. That’s why we integrated them as part of our business. They really are a part of the team now. We can pick up the phone and call and we’ll get an answer.

Are there any areas Webbege Inc. could improve?

The only thing I would say is we have other folks on our team that get ideas and want Webbege to do something for them. Webbege doesn’t say no. Not that they’re supposed to, but I’d like to have some other level of control over who’s pulling their resources. Maybe that’s not necessarily Webbege’s fault because they’re obviously supposed to say yes; maybe that’s more our fault.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Webbege Inc.?

I would definitely recommend them. They do more than websites and they do more than SEO. I think other companies might not see that if you were to go on their website, because we didn’t. If I were another organization, I would look into the other services they provide because it might be something you need.