Black Bear Digital Limited
Salford, Greater Manchester
Salford, Greater Manchester
Based in the heart of Exchange Key Manchester, Black Bear Digital are a renowned design and marketing agency focusing on innovative website development, powerful SEO and marketing strategies as well as social media management.
With access to our top-tier design and technology talent, Black Bear Digital are THE agency for any company looking to make their mark on the digital scene.
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What makes a great website?
There are a number of key things we focus on when assessing an existing website, improving one or building a new website from scratch:
Visual Appeal - The most immediately obvious question to ask is: does the website look good? More than that, is the visual design of the website consistent with other branding for the business? We've built a websites for a range of clients with very specific and diverse requests when it comes to visual look. If a website is too cluttered or otherwise looks 'amateurish', it's a serious issue. As your website is potentially the first port of call for prospective clients, it has to really show you off in the best light possible.
Functionality - Can the website do what is says it can? For example, if I have a car comparison website and the search function misses out the best deals or the compare feature is very limited, customers will go elsewhere! We build plugins from scratch and, in general, can build in any functionalities into a website .
Speed - If your website hasn't loaded in about 3 seconds, BAM, that person searching will go back to Google and try somewhere else. Page load speed is critical when capturing an audience. Careful, planned website development is the number way to keep your website loading quickly.
Responsiveness - Mobile users make up a huge percent of the online search market. Brands and businesses that fail to recognise this are being left in the dust. Therefore, having a website that loads and looks great across a range of devices is very important! This is known as Mobile Optimisation. We use innovative technology to ensure that all of our websites (and rebuilds) automatically display in the best way possible depending on the search device.
Ranking! - While not a direct sign of a great website, a great website on it's own means nothing if you don't have visitors. All great websites, look great, are fast and responsive, offer a great service, product or content AND are supported by powerful, on-going SEO strategies which helps them rank highly on search engines (ideally above your competitors)
What questions might you ask a client when starting a new project?
As we provide a range of services our questions tend to differ depending on what our clients are after. However, as many of our services support each other there are a few questions which are key:
What is your vision for the business or project? Where do you want this to be in the next 1-2 years?
(This helps us assess your commitment to the project and the level of support we think you might need)
When it comes to web design, which of your competitors do you think are getting it right, and which are getting it wrong?
(Looking at your competitors closely is critical if you want to do better than them!)
Describe your creative process.
1) Our team sits down to discuss who is best suited to this clients project. We have SEO, technical, social media, web design and graphical specialists so the most qualified micro-team will be built around requirements.
2) We create a detailed project plan based on initial conversations with the client - for things like SEO and web design this may include key stages of development with expected completion dates.
3) We get to work! Our team work in individually different ways that gels fantastically as a group. Some use old fashioned pen and paper to draw mock website layouts, other might use Trello or other CRM type systems to jot down idea to build upon. Staying in close contact with our client and sending them our progress keeps our team and our customers happy and on the same page.
What information do you need from a client before you can start work?
This depends on the service. In general we like to get to know our client a bit, the history of their business and what they personally want to see over the next year or so.
For a web development project we would need:
Current domain name or ideas if one has not been sourced
A list of their key competitors (we can help with this!)
Any specific design or function ideas they have had (some clients have lots of idea, some like to let our creativity decide)
That's it!
What do you love most about your job?
The classic 'being my own boss' is a bit cliched but somewhat correct. I like that I can build a company with a culture and work ethic that I am proud off (and there is of course the benefit of not answering directly to anyone, expect our clients of course!). Surrounding myself with capable people that I have found directly is another huge benefit - no office politics or back stabbing; just a bunch of creative guys and gals doing great work, enjoying coffee and making a real difference to our clients businesses.
What inspired you to start your own business?
The freedom to build my own company with shared values i.e. if our clients are happy, we're happy!
Why should our clients choose you?
In a sentence - you'll receive the full agency service without the big boy price tag.
Without bashing our competition, some agencies charge ludicrous fees for quite basic work.
We don't.
We ask for fair pay for high-quality and consistent work whether you trust us with building a brand new digital HQ for your business or looking after your FB ads and Social Media on a monthly basis. If you call us, you won't be put through to a receptionist or other gatekeeper, you'll be speaking to one of our creatives straight away.
