Ahh the age-old question: Why choose us? The answer in our case is very simple: iMi puts client needs and project solutions above all else, while effectively streamlining project decisions based on multidisciplinary understandings of every website-related field: Web Design, UX/UI (user experience), Content Writing, Coding, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Digital Marketing, Project Management, ADA Compliance).
This equates to one-stop website shopping, without huge expensive teams and clunky project managers. Put simply:
- We Build Quality Websites.
- We Treat People Right.
- We Treat Websites Right.
- We Communicate… Well.
- We Bill Only What We Work.
- We Do All Website Services (Farm-to-Table)
- We Commit to People AND Projects.
This means, we treat clients and client goals right.
You NEVER have to hire 3rd parties or aggressive marketing agencies – iMi handles it all!
Our farm-to-table approach cultivates client relationships over time, just without the chickens! We never seek to temporarily profit on customer turnover like Big Box website agencies. Many SEO/Marketing agencies work against this business model, preferring profitable volume-based solutions over quality-based models of integrity.
Indeed, selling the shiniest website to the highest bidder is certainly lucrative. But at iMi, integrity is our main priority. We NEVER upsell nonsense to confused clients just to make a buck. And we track every billable moment down to 15-minute increments clearly outlined in every invoice (No surprise bills or annoying monthly rates).
Of course, nobody is fluent in everything. And every project and client need is unique. So we still delegate tasks to industry-specific experts when it makes the most solution-sense. It’s important full-stack professionals never isolate themselves completely and always remember the importance and synergy of a good team.
iMi’s no-nonsense approach to websites:
- Cultivate Clients over Customers.
- If it isn’t broken, don’f fix it.
- The simplest solution is the best solution.
- Unused Bells & Whistles just leave more to break.
- Websites are like city streets: Simple. Legible. consistent Architecture.
- Always put Functionality over Design.
- Simple. Clean. Effective. Efficient.
Ever notice Big-Box SEO/Marketing agencies charge by the month? This approach promotes evading project management accountability. It’s also an easy way to over-charge. If a business cannot itemize what a client pays for clearly on paper, the validity of this charge is forever questioned. Are they padding their time? Are they working hard enough? Did we get what we paid for? These are all questions iMi offers seamless solutions for.
Reduce Project Costs & Improve Problems:
Websites are complicated. Big-Box agencies manage projects through carefully delegating niche-tasks to industry-specific workers or consultants in a fragmented 3-5 person team: A designer does only design. A web developer builds the design. An SEO/marketing person handle’s the SEO and even marketing. And hopefully, a good project manager (PM) glues the whole team and client vision together (PM’s routinely can’t even build a website, but are simply trained to manage people and delegate tasks and budgets).
Now, this Top-Down project management approach of greedy big-box website agencies notoriously leads to problems and inflates project costs. Why? Simple: too many cooks in the kitchen; with poor communication linking industries together. 9 our of every 10 clients working with iMi come from these negative big box experiences. Their conclusion is frequently repeated “I’m not sure what we paid for… but it sure was expensive“. iMi can often save a client hundreds of dollars a year in hosting costs alone, as big box agencies oversell server resources as a lucrative (passive) revenue stream.
Industry-specific decisions will always overlap for any project and task; websites are ultimately a spectrum of digital & conceptual efforts spanning marketing, coding, content writing and graphic design. If you get a good team managed perfectly, top-down works. But the second a poor decision is made, lack of communication between disciplines can snowball problems further. Each professional niche sees and solves problems through their industry-specific eyes. Marketer’s see persuasion. Designers see colors and balance and user experience. Developers see code and back-end architecture. Project managers see budgets and work-flow, often interfacing with clients directly.
15 Years of Project Management Experience:
Much of any business is working with people. Website’s are no exception. If a project manager doesn’t properly understand the scope of each discipline niche, their ability to manage projects, make decisions, and interface with clients quickly breaks down. Without this cohesive cross-disciplinary (full-stack) understanding, a project and it’s budget can only be as successful as it’s leader. Or get lucky trying. Almost every time, this inadvertently large network of professionals, is always more expensive.
iMi solves this PM dilemma by being fluent in all disciplines of professional websites: Web Design (Graphic Design, Images/Video, User Experience), Web Development (coding & building & PageSpeed), Content Creation (professional writing), Search Engine Optimization (SEO & Marketing), and of course… Project Management.
Most importantly, iMi knows when to delegate to scale project resources. We work with designers, developers, and SEO/marketing professionals outside our business on an as-needed basis. This allows us to pool resources on short notice without accruing high overhead costs. And because iMi always puts solutions and client budget before profit, we only increase scale (and costs) when it’s absolutely needed.
This multi-disciplinary understanding is our Farm-to-Table approach to websites, allowing us to lower project management costs and limit the “too many cooks in the kitchen” issue so often see with Big Box SEO/Marketing agencies who claim to build great websites (they don’t).
- No upsells
- No Nonsense
- Seamless Project Management (lower cost)
- Farm to Table Services (Design/Content/Coding/SEO/Marketing/PM)
Rapid & Effective (Comprehensive) Problem Solving
Achieve 100% Website Independence; Avoid 3rd Party Dependencies:
It’s your website. It’s your business. iMi make’s sure to keep it that way. Did you know, hosting your website on a server owned by a marketing agency or freelance developer makes ownership of this website (and its content) much harder to decipher. Many times, simply possessing a website on servers you own translates to website ownership. This means, marketing agencies often own the website, or at the least holds complete power over your website and can leverage this ownership for payment or even for petty dispute (it happens!). They have full control over your website servers and can leverage this any time. iMi NEVER puts clients in this position, and always empowers clients to self-manage and own their own website. We accomplish this by making sure you own all server and domain accounts yourself.
Not leveraging passive hosting/server income costs iMi thousands of dollars a year in potential revenue. But we aren’t server experts, nor is your popular marketing agency. Entire industries and companies exist solely to manage and provide server solutions. No freelance or marketing agency can do what is already done, better. Any agency charging for in-house server/hosting is quickly a red flag that this company is not interested in client solutions. They are interested in profits, and profits alone. This fact spills out through messy project management described above.
Avoid “Yes” Agencies:
Any web designer saying “yes” to every website request a client makes is another red flag. The answer to quality and compliant professional websites is not always “Yes”. But marketing agencies are good at selling, and understand the importance of customer satisfaction.
That said, only experienced project managers understand how to work with clients to achieve symbiotic solutions that also reduce legal risk. We don’t say “No”. Instead, we say “How about this, instead?”. A good developer and designer will say “No” in respect to maintaining website and user experience integrity, and even in some cases to avoid lawsuit. Big Box agencies often are overly agreeable specifically based on their volume-based business models (any resistance slows down their conveyor belt “creative” process).