White Stone Marketing

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner, innkeeper, and president of The Inn at Twin Linden, a bed and breakfast in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We have eight guestrooms and offer gourmet breakfast. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with White Stone Marketing?

We bought the inn in March 2022, and the website came with it. The site was outdated, and it was difficult to transact using it, so the transactions mostly happened over the phone. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

White Stone has developed a new website from scratch for us. I’ve leaned on their expertise since they’ve done many websites for bed and breakfast owners. Those websites are pretty — they scroll nicely, have great pictures, and categorize things well. With that in mind, White Stone has helped me categorize everything I want to be there. They’ve also created a blog for the site. The platform we use is WordPress. 

What is the team composition?

We work with four people from White Stone, namely Alan (Web Designer), Taylor (Design Coordinator), Amanda (Design Specialist), and Susan (CMO). 

How did you come to work with White Stone Marketing?

We found White Stone at a conference. Our team was at the Baltimore Association of Lodging Professionals Conference in February 2022. There were vendors at the expo, where we met Alison (Owner) and some of their team members. 

We decided to engage them for a couple of reasons. First, we truly liked their style; we loved how modern everything was. We liked the people showcasing at the conference — it was great to talk to them. They understood our challenges and had great solutions for us. 

The second reason we hired them was that they worked well with our booking engine company. The booking engine company said they’d done a lot of work together. Finally, I talked to another innkeeper who said we’d be successful if we worked with White Stone. He said he was also switching over to them at that point. It was a truly strong recommendation. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $13,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with White Stone in April 2022, and the engagement is ongoing. We’ve recently wrapped up the website, but I intend to continue working with their marketing department.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any quantitative feedback yet because we’ve launched the new website only recently. Anecdotally, many people have reached out to us to tell us how great the site is. Around 25 people on social media have praised the site. 

How did White Stone Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

White Stone’s project management has been great. Taylor does a great job of being a project manager. I’m like a baby when it comes to technology, but she’s held my hand through everything. We use Basecamp to communicate, create to-do lists, and set milestones. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

White Stone has been completely professional, and I appreciate that. My husband and I have spent 25 years in the corporate world. As we start a business that’s the opposite of that, it’s nice to have professionals running the website creation process; their service is organized, structured, and worth the money. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve sent me a bunch of training videos I have to watch for changing things on the website. I wish I’d had the chance to talk with them through those videos first. It would be a nice follow-up if their project manager or someone from their team walked me through the videos for the first time. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to White Stone. They know what they’re doing — they’re professionals in this niche. Drop your expectations and what you think you want, and listen to them for best practices.