Here at 8THIRTYFOUR, we work with all kinds of clients. From projects and events to long-term relationships, we’ve got it handled. And that’s what makes today’s case study so special—they’ve seen it all.
RBV Contracting (who we’re gonna call RBV for the rest of this blog because that’s how we always talk about them), is a minority-owned, HUBZone certified contracting company located in Detroit. They’ve done a lot of construction work for big names like various branches of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Monahan Company, and Bedrock Detroit. Oh, and did we mention they helped build the Little Caesars Arena for the Detroit Red Wings? No big deal…
Anyway, with all those interesting projects to come, when RBV Contracting signed on with us in 2017, it was the start of a pretty awesome wild ride. A lot can happen in that time. It’s why we’ve worked with RBV to create press releases, blogs, ads, not one, but two new sites, and a whole lot more.
Come with us on a journey down memory lane for some of our favorite RBV projects.
You’ve Gotta Have a Strategy
If you know anything about 8THIRTYFOUR (and you really should, if you’re reading this blog), you should know we don’t do anything without a strategy. After all, who has time to clean up all the spaghetti that doesn’t stick to the wall, right?
When we first started with RBV, we got to work defining what makes them different, along with a bunch of other info on who they’re target audience is and why. It always goes back to data, most of which we collected through competitor analyses, surveys of the RBV team and their clients, and poking around to learn more about the industry in general.
Now, to be fair, our strategy process has evolved a lot since we first did it for RBV in 2017, but at the time, we developed:
- Brand attributes
- What sets them apart
- SWOT analysis
- Four distinct target audiences (and what makes them tic)
- Tone and voice
That gave us a great starting point to develop the rest of our strategies around social media, PR, and more. One of the big things we found during this research was RBV’s website just wasn’t cutting it when it came to showcasing their badass work. Now that we had the research to back who they were talking to and why, we knew exactly what we needed to do.
Redoing the Website (Pt. 1)
The 2016 version of RBV’s site was, well, outdated, even for seven years ago. Plus, after all that research we did, we realized it wasn’t doing a great job of showcasing the projects RBV was proud of. We decided the new site needed to:
- Increase brand awareness by generating more unique visitors
- Increase lead generation
- Position RBV as a leader in the industry through a portfolio, blogs, case studies, etc.
- Generate qualified job applicants
- Look amazing and function really damn well
To make it a reality, we completed all this stuff:
- Keyword research
- Rounds of website content
- SEO audits
- Wireframes
- Screen designs
- Site development
- A bunch of QA testing
- Analytics integrations
- Third-party integrations (like email, etc.)
- An awesome launch!
By the time we were done, the new site was worlds apart from where we started. It featured individual pages for projects RBV wanted to highlight, a place for visitors to apply for jobs, testimonials from previous clients, a bunch of calls to action, and a brand-spankin-new blog. This new site functioned as a hub for all our other efforts, like PR, digital ads, and even social media links.
So what did we do next? How did we use this great new site to propel RBV to new heights? Well, it turns out we can’t really summarize five years of work in a single blog. You’re gonna have to check back next time for our first-ever part two of a case study.
We’ll leave you in suspense for now.
