How an Inbound agency was able to ramp up their business offer by taking care of tech-focused aspects

April 3, 2017 9 min read

When your top clients are big companies and established firms, quality is your currency. They value their requests pretty seriously and more often than not they’re looking for complete solutions and professionals able to provide them with what they need. That’s why having a pool of highly skilled WordPress developers, who can take on technical aspects for big projects in a timely manner without sacrificing quality, resulted in a whole new valuable business asset within Travis Simpson’s agency.

The scenario

If you think “Content” is just “creating stuff and putting it on your company website”, you’re failing to see how it benefits your business in many ways. Content helps you position your company and your business on the market, it sets you apart from your competitors, it educates your clurrent clients and attracts prospects.

That’s why many well-known companies see the key role of content in business. Buffer, Mailchimp, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn. They all produce tons of content for their audience. Too tech-oriented? Well, Oreo has plenty of recipes and tips for using their product. Denny’s has a funny Tumblr with different content pieces, such as “How do I overcome my fear of pancakes?” that reflects how cozy, familiar, and chilled is that brand.

Content is this world’s “right” type of marketing. And Travis Simpson truly believes in this, as he’s the founder of Symbolscape Media, a San Francisco-based Inbound Marketing Agency.

In his day to day working life, Travis is continuously challenged with specific requests coming from his clients, who are mainly big companies and well-established firms. He’s able to address and take care of anything that falls under the “Content” cap, such as developing a content strategy, creating the buying Persona, set up workshops, video production, and much more.

Given the happy relationship he’s built throughout the years with his clients, some of them started to ask Travis if he could take care of more technically-oriented projects.

And that’s where his research for reliable WordPress developers started.

The problem

With a couple of previous “unlucky” experiences and new projects with tech requests coming in, Travis had to find a way to prevent the former from happening again. Quality control, clear expectations and profound experience with PHP and WordPress matters were (and still are) non-negotiable features to look for in a developer. As Travis says:

I came to Codeable seeking a developer to help implement a specific solution. I’m not a developer, so I needed someone with deep PHP and WordPress understanding to pull off the project. On top of that, I needed the work to be done quickly. The promise on the website was that I would receive estimates within hours, if not minutes. That was compelling.

Knowing how much a project is going to cost you, along with when it’ll be deployed, is a huge advantage for anyone in Travis’ position, i.e. running their own business. And if you add professional customer support that understands your project requests and pairs you with the most suitable developer quickly, you feel you’re about to mark “Finding a reliable WordPress partner” off your list pretty soon:

I didn’t have the best experience with one of the Codeable devs, but Per handled that situation like a customer success champion – the only value that matters in business, frankly – and won my business and loyalty.

One bump in the road doesn’t affect your whole journey, not if you have professionals helping you out. And Travis had just discovered that.

The leap

With WordPress expanding its market share within the online world, finding a WordPress developer is increasingly easier. But running a successful agency isn’t merely about finding professionals, it’s about scouting the whole world to find exclusively the right ones for your business. In Travis’ words:

Sometimes it seems that WordPress specialists can be found in virtually every corner of the digital freelance workforce. But when you’re working with Codeable developers, you’re dealing with a qualitatively different kind of expert. The folks at Codeable are carefully vetted, highly skilled professional WordPress developers. They staff talent with a wide array of specialization within the WordPress ecosystem, so no matter what sort of problem you’re trying to tackle, you can be confident that you will find a developer who has already solved a similar challenge.

When more complex projects started to fly in, Travis had to step up his game to address requests coming from huge B2B clients, one of which being a well-known US national brand. Therefore, he was sure he had to find somebody who embodied in-depth knowledge of the matter, incredible communication skills, and a great understanding of the project:

I’ve worked with a Codeable dev named [Linda Vermeulen](https://www.codeable.io/developers/linda-vermeulen/) who has been a superhero in the process. She has not only executed the project to our exact specs, but she has helped guide me throughout the process to point out areas where the project could be improved.

The end result

The Gig Economy has changed businesses’ day-to-day life, widening their potential reach for specific professionals through freelancing and letting them overcome geographical “boundaries”. Going beyond these limits is just the first requirement to grow and scale:

How do we get other talented people around the world to come along for the ride? Codeable has helped me find and work with some of the most capable people on the planet, making it possible to do what I do without squandering a small fortune.

If overpassing geographical limits is the very first step to growing a business, the second is sure about finding reliable partners that could easily be merged into your business strategy to enrich your offer:

As a content marketing consultant serving B2B clients with big dollars on the line, knowing I’ve got reliable partners to help me do the heavy lifting keeps the wind at my back, and gives me peace of mind.

Thanks to professional and experienced WordPress developers blowing the wind at his back, Travis has now successfully grown a wider business path within his company, where he’s now fully capable of addressing client requests from A to Z. Especially:

Whether you’re a startup founder, consultant or freelancer, we all know the challenge of scale and growth can often get in the way of producing the stuff that serves as the foundation of the business. Codeable is a new solution to this classic chicken and egg problem — and while I don’t know which came first, I do know that Codeable gives me the options I need to keep putting bacon on the table.

Codeable

Editorial Team

About the author

The Codeable Editorial Team consists of WordPress experts and professionals with years of experience building, managing, and growing WordPress-powered websites.