Vince and Associates Clinical Research

February 18, 2014 / in Portfolio, WordPress / by Mic Johnson

Normally when we create a web portfolio page for a project, we write a little story that talks about how the relationship began, how the project went, and how much fun it was to work with the client (which was definitely the case with our friends at Vince & Associates). 

On this particular project, we worked with two people: Bruce Copeland and Sarah Stapleton. Below is a quote from Sarah, who worked very closely with us on the project and helped out tremendously throughout. 

Blue Gurus seriously blew my mind. Our website needed a huge overhaul and we were getting ready to pay a ridiculous amount of money to do it. That’s when Mic brought up the idea of working with Blue Gurus to build out a WordPress site.

“It’s so simple,” he said. “It takes literally 2-3 days of us coming into your office to build the entire site and it will cost a quarter of what you’ve budgeted for it!” Being a reasonable business person I was skeptical. But after reviewing their portfolio I was impressed and heck, for a quarter of the budget, it was worth the leap of faith.

Now onto the part about my mind being blown.

It was indeed so simple. Yes, we had a few bumps but everything was quickly resolved and set to rights. It did in fact only take us 2 full days to build the ENTIRE site. Also, it did indeed save me tons of cash that I now get to reallocate to another project. I can’t say enough great things about the experience I had with Mic and Jason. Those guys were fantastic and exceeded every single one of my expectations!

Sarah Stapleton, Clinical Specialist

Now that you’ve seen what Sarah had to say, we felt it was equally important to share Bruce’s experience. Bruce was critical in getting the project approved and he gives more details about the nature of the relationship and his experience working with us. 

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Mic for quite some time through a mutual friend. We’ve shared stories, laughs, drinks and even BBQ (Oklahoma Joe’s anyone?) together. But it wasn’t until 2013 that I took a real good look at what he did for a living. I consider myself somewhat of a social beast and have been for quite awhile, so I was intrigued about the notion that someone could make a career out of social media.

The more I checked into Blue Gurus, the more I became excited about the likelihood of working with them. And that became a reality shortly after I attended a social media/marketing conference in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, it was determined that I would carry the “social media torch” for Vince & Associates so I worked on increasing our number of followers on Twitter, made our LinkedIn page more uniform to align with our own website and story…and that’s when it hit me: I needed inspiration.

There’s something about enjoying fine Kansas City BBQ that allows you to dig deep into the well of creativity. Mic and I discussed what I could do to improve our social presence, (call it a little free advice for a friend), but the more I heard, the more daunting it became.

I finally worked up the courage to take a proposal to our Vice President and the CEO to utilize the services of Blue Gurus to get our ducks in a row and make a splash in the world of blogging. We did just that, and with the help of Blue Gurus, we grew our presence and were better able to tell our story. Our blog is beyond all of the marketing fluff and instead provides an ongoing narrative of who we are and what we do. It’s also helped us humanize all the facilities we have and the research professionals we employ. To date, the endeavor has proved fruitful.

Next up: Operation Flip This Website. 

Mic and I have a lot of things in common. One is our affinity for food, and in this case it was sushi. After partaking in our fair share at a local establishment, we came to the conclusion that we needed to work together to bring the Vince and Associates website into the next millennium. Mic pointed out, and I agreed, that our web site didn’t represent the company in the light we wanted it to. It had outlived its usefulness and it was time for a change.

To execute the project, Mic brought Jason in and we also used our talented and relatively new in-house WordPress guru, Sarah Stapleton. What looked like a motley crew actually turned out to be a well-oiled machine.

In all of the branding exercises I’ve participated in over the years, from higher education through non-profit boards, it was the easiest transition process I’ve ever experienced.

The kicker? It was at a third of the cost of what we spent to create our old web site. Bottom line, I cannot imagine the process going any better or smoother. It’s incredibly refreshing to be able to work with two professionals that are truly passionate about their trade and back it up with integrity and efficiency. They’ve won me over with what they did for us and I will forever be grateful – as will our company. 

Bruce Copeland Director, Director, Business Development & Marketing

Click here to visit VinceAndAssociates.com.