As the 2023 beekeeping season drew to a close, I became aware that my website was beginning to look a little tired and old. Having designed the website on WIX 3 years ago, with no prior knowledge of website design (or any design for that matter) it had started to fall apart at the seams and wasn’t coping very well with traffic that was being generated.
I wanted a brand new shiny website but I didn’t want to change platform as I was really happy with WIX in terms of the back office environment and to be perfectly honest, I just couldn’t cope with the process of learning a brand new system.
I had 2 choices:
1. Try to polish and revamp my existing website on my own
2. Get a specialist in to help me develop a brand new website
I began to search online for WIX specialist web designers and found the marketplace was flooded with agencies from outside the UK and specialists on FIVER. I hadn’t realised that the search and shortlist process for website designers would be this challenging.
When I narrowed my search down to WIX specialist UK, the first name on the list was VIS Marketing (vismarketing.co.uk). This was obviously a good sign as they had ranked number one for a competitive keyword search within their niche. Their own website was very nice, clean and logically structured. Exactly what I was looking for. I thought I would approach them and see if they wanted to quote.
I submitted a form via their website and within a couple of hours I had received a response suggesting we scheduled a call to discuss our website requirements. The very next day, I was in a Google Meet call with the owner Matt who described the process of our website transformation. It started with me detailing the brief and website structure. Once this was complete, it allowed Matt to accurately quote for the project. This filled me with hope that my requirements were being accurately assessed and the quote given would be a true reflection of what I would actually pay.
After the meeting and with the assistance of Matt, I set about detailing our website brief and site map. Once complete, I sent this across to Matt and within 24 hrs, I had received back a reasonable quote. It certainly wasn’t the cheapest quote I received, but I didn’t want a bargain basement website. I was happy to pay good money for a premium product. I put my faith (and money) in Matt and Vis Marketing and we agreed on a contract for a brand new website to be designed on the very newly released WIX studio platform. This was really exciting to think we would be one of the first companies to have a new website on the brand new platform which added so munch functionality over their previous offering.
Matt asked for a down payment of 50% of the total value of the project as a deposit. It seemed a little bit steep but having spoken to Matt and seeing what he was capable of, I decided it was worth the risk and I tentatively transferred over the substantial deposit.
After a week or so, Matt requested we set up a meeting to discuss my brief. I wanted a clean website with a similar look and feel to the Google store. During the meeting, Matt (and his Brand Manager – Matt) put it in the nicest terms, that my current logo and branding guidelines just didn’t align with my website brief. My logo was cute and as they put it, looked like it had been made in Clip Art. In order to do the website justice, they recommended they designed a BRAND NEW LOGO to accompany the new website. I wasn’t quite prepared for this revelation and my immediate gut instinct was this was just a standard upsell to extract some more money (I’m a natural cynic)!
At that point, I didn’t make an immediate decision as a fully company rebrand isn’t a small job and had implications that reached far outside the scope of a website design. However, after discussing this with my wife, we decided to take a leap of faith and put our trust in the two Matt’s and proceed with their suggestion. It was the best decision we could have ever made.
Another week later, Matt presented us with our new logo and we instantly fell in love with it. It was simple, clever, clean and perfectly aligned to what we wanted from our WIX website. Now that the branding guidelines has been agreed, it was straight into full website design.
The first step was for Matt to use the guidelines to design our homepage. Once this was agreed, it would be cascaded across all other pages on the website. After a couple of weeks, Matt was ready to present his homepage design and barring a couple of minor tweaks, he nailed it on the first attempt. It was clean, crisp and the new branding guidelines immediately lifted the new website way above our existing site.
Having approved the homepage design, Matt set to work creating the full website. During this process the communication from Matt was truly exceptional. I am aware, I am not an easy client. I wanted LOTS from this new website and wanted to extract every single ounce of value from the WIX Studio editing suite. Matt kept in constant contact throughout the process and allowed me access to the see how the website was being built.
Every single time I asked for a change or upgraded functionality, the response I received from Matt was outstanding. He never said no and ALWAYS over-delivered on his promises. By this point, I knew I had selected the right design agency for the job and I had no reservations over the safety of my deposit.
Fast forward to the end of the website design and there were a few elements that it seemed weren’t possible within the WIX Studio environment; however, Matt was already on with these to develop bespoke solutions to make them work. He spoke to his offsite development team and incredibly managed to fix EVERYTHING. Even better, there was no additional upsell of costs or variation clauses, the final balance due was the remaining 50% of the balance as agreed at the outset of the project.
The website is now complete and I honestly couldn’t be any happier with it. It does everything it needs to do. It does everything I wanted it to do and it just looks beautiful. When I look back on my old website, the difference is so clear.
One looks like a 37 year old beekeeper designed it on clip art. The other looks like a multimillion design agency designed it from the bottom up! It’s so smooth, crisp, clean and feature rich – take a look here for yourself - blackmountainhoney.co.uk
In terms of VIS Marketing, they have more than lived up to my very high expectations. Communication is everything in the world of website design projects and there no-one better at communication than Matt. He is happy, courteous, imaginative, straight-to-the-point, delivers on his promises in terms of quality, time and budget.
It has been such a pleasure working with VIS Marketing that I am a little bit sad the project is coming to an end. I am delighted with the website outcome, but Matt made the journey to completion thoroughly enjoyable. His passion for website design shone through at every single meeting. For him, it was never about reaching the finish line, it was about making me happy. He has achieved that and so much more.
I have absolutely no hesitation in wholeheartedly recommending Matt for any website design works within the WIX environment. I am so impressed with him that I have already commissioned Vis Marketing for a full SEO programme of development over the next 12 months and will now use them for all future works on my website.
Matt – thank you for your time, dedication and imagination in getting this project over the line on time, on budget and WAY over expectations!
If you are interested in a website from a WIX Studio expert, Matt is your man. Arrange a call HERE
