How can an agency take a shortcut to tripling their client portfolio? By switching to a friendly neighborhood… well, CMS that allows the development team to work much more efficiently.
Manwaring Web Solutions is a web and marketing agency that joined the ranks of Umbraco Registered Partners in 2019, and it was their decision to take Umbraco to market that catalyzed this impressive growth.
Here’s how building websites with Umbraco CMS allowed Manwaring to extend their services to more clients - and how becoming a Registered Partner is just the first step in their partnership journey with Umbraco!
Who is Manwaring Web Solutions?
Manwaring Web Solutions is an Idaho-based full-service agency working mostly with small- and medium-level businesses. They were using their own software before switching to Umbraco in 2017, and have since built close to 200 websites with Umbraco. Manwaring joined Umbraco as a Registered Partner in April 2019.
How did Manwaring work before joining Umbraco?
Since their founding in 2000, Manwaring was developing their own system - an ASP.NET Web Forms project. But by 2017, the limitations of the software were seriously slowing down the agency’s progress. “Before we started using Umbraco, we probably created on average somewhere between 3-5 websites a month. Because the work we were doing on the projects was more manual, our price point was too high for a lot of our potential customers,” explains founder Jarom Manwaring.
To adapt, Manwaring started researching the possibilities of rebuilding their own software into an MVC application - and it turned out the process would be an uphill battle. But it was while exploring the discussion forums for available options that Jarom first learned of Umbraco.
After several months of testing the back office, he introduced the CMS to his development team as the agency’s new go-to software: “As I demonstrated Umbraco to them, we said that it is everything we wanted our own software to grow up to be.”
Building websites with Umbraco has really helped us be more efficient. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time we do a new project.
Why Umbraco?
Manwaring values Umbraco’s stability and security.
“We found a platform we have a high degree of confidence in. It’s a very safe and secure platform on which to build your website.”
Using the CMS has also increased their speed of project execution - and the agency appreciates the flexibility to customize without needing to start from scratch on every project: “We do a lot of custom functionality when building a website for our clients. The first thing that I looked at was therefore how hard it would be for my programmers to customize.”
As it turned out, it wasn't difficult at all. The agency realized they could create most of their basic customizations within the scaffolding Umbraco provides.
However, what closed the deal for Jarom was the ease of use of the system for non-technical members of his team or for their clients. “The Umbraco interface is friendly and easy to use. Being able to maintain their sites and making changes of their own is important to a lot of our clients.” As the agency works with smaller businesses, the lower price and open-source nature of Umbraco backed Manwaring’s decision to choose Umbraco as their new software.
How did Manwaring grow with Umbraco?
Building projects on Umbraco helped Manwaring move away from time-consuming manual work on the websites. Whenever the developers start a new project now, they are halfway to the finish line as they can deploy a starter kit with Umbraco already built and configured in a certain way.
“The scope of our average project stayed the same; we can just deliver them much more efficiently. Instead of our developers needing 15 hours to build our own scaffolding, we just create a document type and use the built-in editing capability of Umbraco.”
For small businesses or start-ups, price is one of the key decision factors. Because the work we were doing was more manual, our price point was too high for a lot of our potential clients. Umbraco helped us work much more efficiently, and this helped bring our price down. Now, we are landing those clients' projects.
Jarom was searching for a change in their workflow to become more accessible for their potential clients. Creating websites with greater efficiency and speed enabled Manwaring to lower their price by about 50% - a key decision factor for many small businesses and start-ups. “Our price point was too high for a lot of potential clients. Now, we are landing their projects and we have started seeing rapid growth among this client group.”
Thanks to a more efficient set-up, the number of projects the agency creates for their clients has tripled: “With roughly the same team size, we are now turning out between 10-15 websites a month.” Since switching to Umbraco in 2017, Manwaring has built just under 200 websites, and the number has seen a continuous upward climb.
Since Manwaring started using Umbraco…
…50% price reduction was made possible with Umbraco’s efficiency, opening Manwaring up to new clients
...their number of projects tripled to 10-15 websites a month
…their revenue increased by 10-15% for their web development services, and by 50% for their digital marketing services
Manwaring is both a web development and a digital marketing agency - and pairing up with Umbraco helped them grow in both areas of business: “The main driver of our growth is that between 25-33% of the people we build a website for also want digital marketing services from us. The increased number of websites we are producing also gives us more opportunities to sell our marketing services.”
The ability to lower their price of website creation to meet their clients’ needs led, in turn, to a significant increase in the agency’s digital marketing revenue: “While the revenue for our web development projects grew by 10-15%, we as much as doubled our digital marketing revenue.”
The official stamp of approval on our website would help send a positive trust signal to our clients. A signal that this is a platform that we are committed to and very well versed on.
What does Manwaring value about the Umbraco Partnership?
Becoming an Umbraco Registered Partner in 2019 is the first step on Manwaring’s journey to becoming a Certified Partner. This is a path Jarom always intended to pursue with his agency. “The official stamp of approval on our website would help send a positive trust signal to our clients. A signal that this is a platform that we are committed to and very well versed on.”
Having an Umbraco partnership stamp means an official verification of skills and knowledge within the CMS - and can help Manwaring instill trust in new customers.
Looking ahead
The success Manwaring has achieved in the past several years as a result of taking Umbraco to market allowed them to tap into a new, bigger market and open a second office in Florida.
“As we get the new office off the ground, I would like to get to a point of us building 20-25 websites a month.”
Thanks to the increase in clients, projects, and revenue the agency achieved by building with Umbraco, founder Jarom Manwaring hopes to reach this goal by the end of 2021 and is confident their core team in Idaho can support the satellite office.
The CMS provides us with the speed and consistency needed to build high-quality projects much more efficiently - and on a safe and secure platform.
What did taking Umbraco to market mean for Manwaring?
- In Umbraco, Manwaring found a secure platform that allows the developers to create high-quality customized websites with much greater efficiency, speed, and consistency.
- The agency can provide their clients with a CMS that is both budget- and user-friendly.
- Thanks to the increased efficiency and optimized workflow, Manwaring was able to reduce their price by 50%, making their services more accessible to smaller businesses and resulting in a 300% increase in client projects.
- This fueled a 10-15% web development revenue increase and a 50% digital marketing revenue increase for the full-service agency.
- Becoming a Registered Partner was the first step on a clear growth path towards becoming certified. The official partnership stamp can help Manwaring increase recognition on the market and instill trust in potential clients.