CURTIS Digital, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Operations for a Tax Credit and Consulting firm that operates nationally. We pair eligible companies with various Tax Credits and Incentives and have helped businesses receive millions of dollars in credits.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CURTIS Digital, Inc., and what were your goals?

As with most government programs, the eligibility qualifications are confusing and the paperwork can be cumbersome. We needed to simplify the pre-screening process, fill out the appropriate government forms and automate submission to the states that the company was located in. We also needed a portal/database- one to be client facing with easy operability as well as an internal database to keep track of the multiple clients and have admin options.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found them via Clutch. We were paired with several vendors and John Curtis was not only the first to reach out he also sent a personalized message explaining how they would be a good fit with this project. In it, he explained their familiarity with government programs as well as other projects they had completed that were similar in scope.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They built our user and internal portal from the ground up. We knew the order of operations from a program standpoint, but Curtis Digital completely built out the software ranging from how it should look but most importantly to how it should function. We work nationally and every state has different specifications to build to. We came to the table with ideas and Curtis Digital made those ideas a tangible program. I believe Curtis Digital may be as well versed as we are in these tax credit programs now.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked directly with John, CEO, in the beginning as well as Hanna , Sr. Project Manager, in the beginning to make sure everything was aligned and to discuss possibilities. Hanna has since been our main point of contact with John always available. I am unsure of how large the development team is, but it has been great on our end to have one point of contact for everything.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have successfully launched nationwide using varying levels of automation, based on the technological capabilities of the states we are working in. Curtis has helped develop procedures for all levels of technology ranging from FTP to "manual" submissions.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The project management is detailed, timely, and always accessible. Hanna was able to make herself available for any "pop-up" items that needed to be addressed. They were available via email, used Jira to track projects, and typically met via zoom or phone if appropriate for the situation.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

At no time was there a request too big, they understood what we were trying to accomplish and always had multiple solutions ready. We've worked with them for a year and a half and will continue to engage them for upkeep and future updates.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

We've been happy throughout.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of digital marketing for a technology company. I oversee our web presence. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CURTIS Digital, Inc.?

CURTIS Digital supports our website offerings

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CURTIS Digital is a consulting agency where we get resources to augment our team when we have plenty of work. We have many PDF or JPEG assets that need to go to our digital asset manager. The team helps us find various avenues to help us achieve faster upload times. 

Beyond that, we use them as a source of talent when we have a large pile of work. We can call them to help us upload things on the Adobe platform. On top of that, they can help us author web pages if we need to launch new pages on our website. 

When we look for resources from them, we require them to be trained on our unique system. They need to retain knowledge and transfer it among other resources. CURTIS Digital uses plenty of queries to build reports faster. They streamline processes by using AI and coding. 

What is the team composition?

We have three main points of contact. John (CEO & Founder) is our go-to contact when we kick off projects. Our team also collaborates with Hannah (Senior Project Manager) and Shannon (Project Operations Manager). These people manage the team of copywriters and developers behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with CURTIS Digital, Inc.?

CURTIS Digital already had a long-standing relationship with other organizations and people I worked with, so we vetted them through an RFP. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested at least $500,000 or more. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with CURTIS Digital in May 2021, and the collaboration is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve run extensive QA on all pages CURTIS Digital has completed, and we measure their ability to deliver within our deadlines — they’ve passed these tests. As general feedback, the team has been accessible and easy to contact if we need anything. That’s an important quality for us. 

Moreover, they’re truly personable. Their members understand our business challenges and strive to meet them every time we work together. They provide ongoing reports, so we know where we stand within our financial arrangements. 

How did CURTIS Digital, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

CURTIS Digital’s project management has been excellent. They have a project manager and an account manager who are both in constant contact with us. They let us know how many hours are used or if they hit any roadblocks. To communicate, we use emails and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their agility distinguishes them from other providers. If the project takes a turn, they can pivot with us quickly instead of waiting long to regroup. By contrast, such a pivot takes a lot of time in other agencies. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. They meet all of our needs and expectations. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Leverage CURTIS Digital’s technology consulting services — this will help you reach your end point quicker. Their members are truly tech-savvy, so allowing them to create solutions to help you achieve your goals will lead to faster results. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of H2O Partners Inc., a privately held corporation in the state of Texas. We’re a consultancy to local, state, and federal levels of government. We have contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, the state of Texas and other states, and local municipalities and counties. Our work is primarily centered around disaster mitigation, preparedness, and recovery. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CURTIS Digital, Inc.?

We have a long association with John (CEO) and CURTIS Digital. For one of our projects with them, we were training agents in a federally funded call center in Kansas City. The call center was comprised of insurance underwriters who dealt with the National Flood Insurance Program. We needed a portal that performed functions necessary to their job duties as underwriters writing federal flood policies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first version of the portal was very simple and straightforward. However, through our association with John, we realized we could do more than just knowledge-based development. We wanted to look at some of the unique properties of the code and intellectual property (IP) that derived from that, with the end goal of taking this solution for one client and turning it into a platform that may have commercial viability in the open market.

We have continued our engagement with CURTIS Digital to help build out the functionality of the system. CURTIS created an internal search feature that ranks results depending on the source and reliability of the underlying documents. A call center agent or anyone searching the platform can see where the results come from in a segregated fashion, which allows them to quickly determine where to go to find the answer to their search. CURTIS also built out a proprietary annotation system that permits multiple users to make asynchronous annotations to a document that is shared amongst teams.

What is the team composition?

I personally work with John and Shannon (Project Operations Manager). My innovation team manager works with a bigger group of people, including coders and developers.

How did you come to work with CURTIS Digital, Inc.?

We have a federal contract with FEMA to provide training, and one of our contract training developers knew John and referred us to him around 2012–2014. We began working with John and his team when they were operating under another company name.

We initially did very small projects, as we don’t have an in-house development team. They helped develop things for our FEMA contract. Over time, they became our go-to source for development projects.

How much have you invested with them?

On this project, we’re close to $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This particular project began as a one-off solution for one client around June or July 2017. We did a client visit and needs assessment over the summer. The work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our first measure of success is our client’s acceptance of the tool. This was a unique situation because we weren’t required by the client to build the tool; rather, we built it because we knew it would help us in the delivery of services to the client. When we delivered the product that John built for us, we relied on the client’s immediate acceptance to assess the success of the platform. The client recognized that the platform would save them time and improve efficiency.

Internally, the platform has significantly streamlined our jobs and delivery of services. It has also made our services more reliable, in that this knowledge base that John built has a backend business intelligence gatherer that’s very important to us. We can see our clients’ activity through the backend, so we know they’ve come to rely on this tool daily. That cements our position with our client because we know how much they rely on the tool that we’re providing.

How did CURTIS Digital, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They were good initially and have gotten better. When we road-mapped the development, we weren’t entirely sure what the final product would be. Because of our relative lack of sophistication in development, there were a lot of early conversations about what we could do. John was very patient with us and walked us through the implications of different development paths, both in terms of outcome and delivery as well as cost and time. 

John really helped shape and frame our expectations in the beginning. Then, almost two years into the product, we re-engaged CURTIS for a version 2.0 rollout. We were a bit more informed and had a better grasp on the process and what we wanted. John did a great job of coming in on time and on budget. For version one, we learned together what the product was going to be, so it was a bit slower, and we weren’t an efficient development client. By version 2.0, John had basically taught us how to be a development client.

They communicate via Slack, and they use the Atlassian suite of project management tools to keep the project on track. We can submit tickets for fixes through those tools. When we began working together, we met in-person because we’re both in Austin. We also spoke over Slack and phone conversations. We took John to Washington, DC to meet with FEMA, so he’s been very willing to meet with us wherever and whenever. Over the past year, we’ve drifted toward Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creativity is impressive. John doesn’t approach his work as a punch list to give us what we asked for; rather, he thinks creatively about the bigger picture and what we want, even though we may not be able to communicate that very succinctly. 

They lead us to solutions that are more creative than we could’ve imagined. A lot of the value of the final product that he built for us is derived from that creativity. He worked with us to understand what our use case was and what the value proposition of the tool was to our clients. He was able to build a product, especially by version 2.0, that was better than what we actually chartered him to build. He helped us to think creatively about some of the items on the roadmap, so his services are certainly worth our investment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were novices in outsourcing development, and at the beginning, John was probably too patient with us. The whole product and process may have benefited from him sitting us down and letting us know what tools to use and how agile development works. Rather than doing development and project management in the background, he could’ve invited us into the project management workflow more efficiently in the beginning. Our ignorance was the problem, though — John was just a bit too accommodating. However, he got there, and it all worked out.

Any advice for potential customers?

Give him space within your development goals and roadmap to be creative. John is really creative.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an early-stage fintech and cybersecurity company. We do business in the transaction protection space. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CURTIS Digital, Inc.?

They helped us build our solution and turn our concept into a product for the market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with slide decks and ideas about how the product should function. They studied those and turned our concepts into software and infrastructure. The final solution allows people to visually locate past transactions to confirm what the customer intended to do. There are a lot of cryptographic elements to it.

The solution is split into two parts: one can be built into mobile banking applications while the second is a backend validation web service in AWS. In addition to AWS, they used Kotlin and Node in the tech stack. The mobile app is available on iOS and Android.   

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with John (CEO), Hannah (COO), and various developers. 

How did you come to work with CURTIS Digital, Inc.?

Our relationship predates my arrival at the company. The founder of our company had an existing relationship with their team and brought them in for the project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $750,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since around December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have internal developers, so they function as our development team. It’s important for us to get features to market according to our timelines and budget. They always perform up to our requirements and expectations.

The development quality is high. We could use more effectiveness on testing, but they’ve been impressive overall.   

How did CURTIS Digital, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

I interact with them on a daily basis. They take advantage of tools such as Jira and Slack to manage the work. On top of Jira and Slack, we have a weekly Zoom meeting to keep track of progress.

They’re always on top of creating and assigning tickets. We’re handling the prioritization of tasks, but they plan a strategy for execution. Their estimations for hours are typically very accurate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a strong architectural understanding of modern web technology. Additionally, they’re handling complex work in a very cost-effective manner. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be helpful if there was more effective testing. Additionally, we could be communicating our requirements for products and functionality more clearly. There have been some miscommunications regarding features included in any of our five releases. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hannah is a fantastic project manager. Secondly, come to their team after you’ve thought out your idea. They can help you avoid mistakes with platforming and architecture. Getting in early with them is helpful for evading the wrong technologies and platforms to use for your products.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of digital experience for a company in the risk and compliance space. We support clients in their disclosure activities primarily with government entities. We provide SaaS solutions to help customers meet their regulatory requirements and additional services to meet their needs regarding regulatory compliance requirements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CURTIS Digital, Inc.?

This particular engagement was on the customer service side of our business. We initially sought to garner insights through data to better understand how our customers engage with us. Our primary communication tool with clients was email, which was obviously rudimentary.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CURTIS Digital initially parsed through our customer service emails then provided machine learning capabilities to understand and infer through natural language processing the client’s project, identify the clients who sent the email, record the volume of those requests, and provide reporting capabilities to give our business greater transparency into our clients. Based on the data, we could structure our teams and automate more processes to serve customers more efficiently.

Their team used Kubernetes clusters running in Azure Cloud. They also used out-of-the-box Azure capabilities, including Azure Queue Storage and a Microsoft SQL database. Their team also used Power BI for the platform’s data visualization elements and Azure’s API gateway.

For the ingestion API, CURTIS Digital developed it in Python. For the machine learning prediction modeling, their team used a combination of Python and Torch. They also developed an application that we’re using for the email adapter.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two key people from CURTIS Digital: John (CEO) and Shannon (Project Operations Manager).

How did you come to work with CURTIS Digital, Inc.?

John and I had a work history. In my previous organization, we worked together for 2–3 years. We chose them because they're a small firm, which has advantages in terms of quickly delivering results. Their team was also flexible in understanding our specific need to turnaround fast. Unlike a traditional consulting firm, CURTIS Digital is a lean organization that could quickly grasp our problem and business and then provide a solution. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little over $100,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project between April–September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They closed the gap between discovery and delivery in a way that I haven’t seen anywhere else in the industry. We went from concept to deliverables within about a three-month timeframe. Another key measure of success was security compliance. There was a lot of rigor around the development cycle, which included penetration testing and security remediation. Those were critical requirements that CURTIS Digital achieved. We remediated all high and medium risk items. We feel confident in the security of the product.

How did CURTIS Digital, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed quite strongly. They identified risks and brought them to our attention early, which was important. We had direct communication channels that enabled us to remediate risks quickly. They were responsive when they needed to give information to our team.

CURTIS Digital was basically given a three-month timeframe, which made the project a challenge. There was a lot that we didn’t see happening behind the scenes to deliver within that timeframe. There were long hours on their part because they committed to the delivery date.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As a result of their boutique nature, they were able to solve various problems on the fly. Their team rolled with the curveballs that our team and the project threw at them. Their agility and resilience around pushing forward and delivering on time were unique characteristics.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their team could continue to keep the status of the project transparent. Their determination and willingness to push the project across the finish line led to a decrease in communication at times. We knew that they were working hard but didn’t always know exactly where aspects of the project stood.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to give them the information that they need and trust them to deliver an exceptional product. Their speed comes from the fact that they don’t necessarily dive into the nitty-gritty details of their development practices. That can be problematic for certain organizations. As long as you understand that and trust their abilities, you will have a successful engagement with CURTIS Digital.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior digital marketing manager at Community Brands. We are a B2B software solutions company that serves nonprofit organizations and member-based associations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CURTIS Digital Inc.?

We initially engaged CURTIS Digital Inc. because we had a gap in our development resources. We sought a vendor that could help us fix bugs and build out a website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were building a website and wanted to grow it so that it could serve multiple markets and offer several solutions and products. We worked closely with CURTIS Digital Inc. to determine the site’s architecture, and we relied on their team to ensure that the site worked properly, was SEO-friendly, and loaded quickly.

They encouraged us to move forward with a WordPress platform, and they customized several modules to fit our needs—including one that shows users specific products that serve the solution they are sorting for. Additionally, CURTIS Digital Inc. created other templates that allowed us to introduce several new webpages.

What is the team composition?

Our team consists of John (CEO, CURTIS Digital Inc.), Shannon (Project Operations Manager, CURTIS Digital Inc.), and Alexandra (Project Coordinator, CURTIS Digital Inc.).

How did you come to work with CURTIS Digital Inc.?

Community Brands recently acquired several companies, and CURTIS Digital Inc. came highly recommended from the staff of one of those acquisitions. We worked with John on a small project to start, and we liked his work ethic and personality. He was on time and communicative, so we decided to keep giving him work.

What is the status of this engagement?

The bulk of our work occurred between January–December 2018, though we continue to work with them in different capacities.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to their efforts, we can execute our goals faster and drive new leads for the business. They always push for perfection in their work. If we were ever not satisfied with something before it launched, they took the extra time to make sure it was flawless without adding additional fees. They wanted to make sure we were happy before they moved on to their next task.

How did CURTIS Digital Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

John and Shannon have been excellent communicators. They return emails within an hour or so, and we have as many scheduled calls per week as necessary depending on the urgency of the project. We operate well within Jira, where I could see the team’s progress on different tasks. They provide detailed invoices of billable hours, and they are always flexible with our schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work speaks for itself, but they are also very personable. They have an honest and transparent payment structure, and they’ve been wonderful people to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing in particular needs improvement. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that everybody is on the same page so that there are no assumptions or gray areas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the former marketing manager at an education company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Curtis Digital?

We engaged Curtis Digital for some content migration and lead form integration work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Curtis Digital worked on a couple different projects for us. Initially, they converted content from our old website into a format that worked on our new site. Then, they implemented a new lead form system into our Prospect database, allowing users to easily view high-priority clients to follow up with. 

What is the team composition? 

We worked with a few people on their team, including John (CEO, Curtis Digital) and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Curtis Digital?

A colleague of mine had worked with them before and recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $40,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2013–June 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Curtis Digital met our expectations, delivering on time and within budget without any issues. Helping us migrate our content onto the new platform significantly improved SEO. 

How did Curtis Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very responsive, organized, and good at staying in contact with our stakeholders as needed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're a fairly small shop so I think they're able to provide better customer service as a result. They were also the most affordable vendor we could find capable of completing the project in our timeline. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think so. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, but I definitely recommend working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the CIO of NewCinema.com LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CURTIS Digital? 

We hired CURTIS Digital to help us develop an online video compression platform called COGO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

CURTIS Digital helped create a cloud-based platform that allowed users to compress videos using our proprietary technology without losing a lot of quality. Their team supported us across the full development cycle, from planning to implementation. After building the wireframes, they implemented the designs and helped with front- and backend development.

We leveraged several core technologies and infrastructure, including AWS, Iron.io for back-and-forth messaging between servers, Node.js, Angular, MongoDB, Stripe.js for payments, and custom APIs for future integrations.

What is the team composition?  

I worked directly with John (Founder & CEO, CURTIS Digital) and a project coordinator. There was also a team of programmers working in the background, but I didn’t have much contact with them. 

How did you come to work with CURTIS Digital?

Our CEO shared a mutual connection with John, so we knew them by word of mouth.

How much have you invested with them? 

We spent between $45,000–$50,000 for this project. The initial budget was $40,000, but we requested some changes, which increased the costs.

What is the status of this engagement? 

The platform development lasted from November 2014–January 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although the final product worked beautifully, we weren’t as successful on our side due to our business model. AWS had changed its Spot Instance pricing, which negatively affected our revenue. In the end, we decided not to move forward with the project.

How did CURTIS Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily stayed in touch through email and had regular meetings every week or so. They were great at being responsive. I could call John at any time, and he’d be sure to call back.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

What set them apart was their in-depth knowledge of available technologies. I came to the project with my own ideas on how to go about development, but, through their guidance, I realized that there were better approaches. They offered useful insights into nuanced best practices.

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, I can’t think of any. They did a really good job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Follow their advice. If they suggest something, they’re probably correct.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a company that helps independent musicians manage their careers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CURTIS Digital?

At the time of the engagement, we were a startup with no technical experience. We hired CURTIS Digital to help us develop our platform on mobile apps and on the web.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on CURTIS Digital for end-to-end design and development of our platforms. They decided on the UI/UX design and coding languages for our cross-platform iOS and Android apps. CURTIS Digital utilized the .NET stack for our website and server arrangement. Our products allow users to arrange their social media networks, examine their finances and inventory, and manage events.

What is the team composition?

John (CEO/Founder, CURTIS Digital) was our primary point of contact, and he had a talented team of project managers and developers.

How did you come to work with CURTIS Digital?

Another CURTIS Digital client introduced us to them. We met with John and quickly learned that he understood our vision and could communicate deeply technical ideas to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $350,000–$400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2011–January 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Shortly after we launched our platform, we secured a partnership with a company that sent hundreds of thousands of people to our site in one day. That boost resulted in 25,000–30,000 downloads in two days. CURTIS Digital’s system that they built for us didn’t flinch—it was built to scale.

How did CURTIS Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

I remember CURTIS Digital being very detailed and thorough. We rarely missed deadlines, and that only happened when we made changes to the scope. CURTIS Digital was patient with us as we made those edits, and they remained organized to make sure we met our goals.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do great work. CURTIS Digital helped us to understand key technology pieces, which was beneficial for us as a startup. They taught me everything I knew at that time about software.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they conducted themselves with integrity.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Looking back, I’m unsure if hiring a development firm was the right move for us as a startup. It might have been a better decision to hire a CTO instead of outsourcing our first build. When you’re a startup and you’re not sure what your business model is yet, you need the ability to change quickly. That becomes more difficult once you bring on a development partner. I’d advise future clients to evaluate the current state of their business to determine if an external partner is the right decision.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company I worked with was a software provider to nonprofits and associations for fundraising and management. I’m the former vice president of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CURTIS Digital, Inc?

We wanted to create more brand awareness, drive demand generation, and get more site visitors to follow the pathways within our site to find the products that worked best for them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were initially on a Drupal-based system that just required a programmer to make simple edits. CURTIS Digital migrated our site and content to a new platform that was easier to use, with better templates and content management opportunities. We provided them with some design ideas and concepts, but they were responsible for wireframes and our user testing.

After we completed our site migration, we worked to make sure the content and calls to action were both clear and subtle across the site. They improved our SEO and other factors that would convert more people and move users in the right direction.

We previously acquired three or four companies, each with its own blog. Together, we incorporated all the content into one blog that was easily searchable. They managed all the tagging for each post to ensure it supported our SEO/SEM strategy and the personas we were targeting. 

Finally, they helped create a resource center that presented us as a thought leader in the industry. It serves as a hub for best practices and ongoing education, as well as a source of engagement with us that increased lead flow significantly.

What is the team composition?

Their chief strategist and an account manager were our two primary points of contact. There were a few other members who participated in the project, but our two main contacts helped keep us all on track.

How did you come to work with CURTIS Digital, Inc?

One of our other consultants worked with them previously and introduced us. I’ve since used them at two other companies and former team members at Abila are now using them at their subsequent companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere between $70,000–$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around October 2015 and finished the bulk of the project at the end of 2016. The company still collaborates with them on the resource center and site improvements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our web traffic and our SEO skyrocketed from where we were previously. Our bounce rate dropped from about 87% to about 35%, well below industry standards. Quarter over quarter, our conversion rates and the number of visitors who took action and engaged with our site exceeded our benchmarks and goals. All our web metrics and KPIs for lead generation and conversions were excellent, and we met all our targets. We also moved from a new entity in the market to top two in brand awareness during the period.

How did CURTIS Digital, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

They were, and are, very responsive. I used them again at my next company where their responsiveness helped us through an issue with our web-hosting environment that could have had a negative impact on our brand.

Their project management skills are very strong. We had weekly meetings and monthly strategy sessions, and they were very in tune with our process. Anytime we needed a website update due to mergers, acquisitions, or other opportunities, or whenever anything broke, they were right there to help.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They went above and beyond their calling as a provider and became a real partner. They had the experience to help us think through better solutions, and they helped us challenge ourselves and come up with stronger strategies. They always understood what we hoped to accomplish, and they helped us succeed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As they acquire more clients, it will benefit them to scale to meet the demand. The biggest challenge we faced with them was keeping up with that scalability.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear with them about your strategy and goals. As they understand more about your business, they will make more appropriate suggestions that help you exceed your expectations.