[Fully Managed] Brent Feldman from Matchbox Design Group Ep. 110

Introduction

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SD: Alrighty. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Fully Managed Podcast, the podcast where we discuss marketing and business tips to help assist you on your business journey. I’m your host, Shannon, Penji’s partnership coordinator, and I’m joined here today with a very special guest, Brent Feldman from Matchbox Design Group. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Brent Feldman (BF): Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on.

Guest Introduction

SD: I appreciate that. Could you please start by telling us a little bit about yourself, anything that you think would be relevant for the audience to know, and anything also in your business career leading up to this point that you think would be nice for anyone to know? You think it’s important?

BF: Awesome. Yeah. I am the CEO of Matchbox Design Group. I started this company basically in 2006 with a business partner, and we just dreamed of having a better agency, a cool one with a great environment and doing cool stuff. We set out to make that our goal. And yeah, over the course of 18 years, which is actually really wild to think about that it’s been that long.

SD: It’s wild. Yeah. Congratulations.

BF: Thank you. A lot of people look forward to getting to that extent. So that means, you know, longevity is super important.

SD: Oh, definitely. Yeah. It’s been fun and always interesting. We’ve been growing little by little over the years, and we had a 20% increase year over year, which was wonderful for last year.

BF: The organization is really built around doing website design and development and search engine optimization. We started doing website design and development as soon as we started the business. That was a core service that my business partner and I had shared talents in, and that’s why we started with that service. Then in 2012, we added SEO as a service and have been growing it ever since. But yeah, that’s been a lot of fun. I feel like my background and what led into this is that I went to school for advertising, marketing, business management. I minored in web design and development. So I really did everything in school that kind of led me here, and I feel like that’s gotta be a case study.

SD: That’s incredible. It’s so unusual because no one ever does that. Every time I talk to a marketer, they’re like, yeah, I didn’t go to school at all, or I used to be in wrestling.

BF: Yeah, our lead digital strategist, he has a psychology degree.

SD: That’s very smart actually. That’s a good degree to have for that.

BF: It’s clutch, actually. It’s a good degree to have because thinking about human behavior and how people respond to things is incredibly helpful for marketing. So, yeah, that’s where I’m like, I feel like I gotta be one of the few that actually ended up in a field that resonates.

SD: That’s incredible, actually. I actually love the marketing profession because I do feel like everyone has a different perspective on how to do it because of all the varying backgrounds that they have. It’s very interesting to hear where people come from when going into it because, you know, I don’t know if I should say everyone could do this role because that takes away from all these people who are very successful. But it’s very cool to see the different perspectives.

Evolution of Digital Marketing

SD: Since you’ve been around for so long, you get to give more insight into specific things. What do you think has really evolved in the digital marketing landscape that you’ve seen?

BF: Ooh. I will say that from 2006 till now, I think people use the web for a lot more of their lives than they did in 2006. The internet just plays a larger role in people’s lives now than it did back when we started. But it’s great for our business. I think we knew we were on to a market that was going to grow, but never could have imagined that it was going to be as expansive as it is now.

SD: Oh yeah, I think that’s definitely a key point. The digital landscape has really shifted. Especially during the pandemic, a lot of things transitioned online.

BF: Absolutely. I was talking to somebody about this just yesterday. We grew 5% in 2020. It’s not much, but I’m thankful. We didn’t lose revenue, which was a blessing. But yeah, it was a wonderful time for us to transition into remote work, and it gave us the opportunity to hire people in other states and around the world.

SD: I think that’s one of the cool things about agency work. It’s one of the few professions that, depending on your interest group or your clientele, didn’t really suffer because it was all online or could be online from the start.

BF: Yeah, it was wonderful. I never really thought about it like that, but you’re absolutely right.

Communication Between Teams

SD: So, you oversee the design team and the SEO team. How do you balance creativity with implementing data-driven strategies? Both teams are doing very different things. How do you keep everything in sync?

BF: Having the two sides is really helpful. Digital marketing or SEO really helps inform the way we approach website design. We think about what are appropriate places for calls to action, what’s the best user experience, and what is a good structure so that we can make sure the pages communicate well. That’s where SEO really informs design and development. The other way around, our SEO service is stronger because we have implementation capabilities. If someone needed a new landing page or fixes in the URL structure, we can actually do that, not just consult. We can implement the solution.

SD: Do you push your teams to interact as much as possible so that they’re collaborating on all aspects?

BF: Absolutely. Facilitating contact between our SEO account manager and the support manager is crucial. They meet regularly to discuss not only what needs to get done but strategy and opportunities. Everybody has a goal, but communication and facilitating those discussions are what really helps us stay ahead, especially with new tools like AI. It’s incredible how it’s evolving and helping us.

SD: It’s really amazing how quickly AI has become an essential part of marketing.

BF: Absolutely. It’s been incredible to see how quickly our team has adapted and learned to leverage it.

Adapting to New Technologies

SD: How do you stay ahead of technologies, like AI, in your company?

BF: We have a channel on Slack devoted to sharing new tools. There’s also a service called App Sumo, which introduces a lot of new apps. I also get a bunch of newsletters about new technology. We just share what we find with the team. It’s a very collaborative environment, so everyone is always bringing something new to the table.

SD: That’s a great strategy. It sounds like you’re continuously staying updated on new developments.

BF: Yeah, absolutely. It’s key for us to stay ahead. The tools are always evolving, and sharing knowledge within the team really helps us stay on top of things.

Accessibility in Web Design

SD: I noticed that you emphasize accessibility in web design. How do you incorporate this into your projects?

BF: It’s a little bit of both. We partnered with accessibility tools like Level Access, and we also work with other partners that specialize in accessibility. The goal is to make websites accessible to everyone. Not only do we have tools to help us with this, but we also have a team that understands the importance of it. We’ve done remediation for federal government websites, which is really interesting.

SD: It makes so much sense to prioritize accessibility. It’s something that should be non-negotiable, and it’s also SEO-friendly.

BF: Exactly. Making your website accessible is just good practice. It makes the site easier to navigate for everyone, including bots and crawlers.

Challenges in Web Development

SD: What’s been one of the biggest challenges in web development over the years?

BF: The hardest thing is estimating exactly what it will take to redo something. Sometimes with older sites, it’s hard to predict what it will take to completely overhaul a site while keeping things within scope. Estimating time and costs for a redesign can be difficult, but we’ve gotten better at it over the years.

SD: That makes sense. It’s difficult to predict all of the variables, especially with large projects.

BF: Yeah, even when we try to plan everything in advance, you can’t account for every little thing that might come up during development.

Project Timelines and Communication

SD: How do you handle situations where a project is delayed past the expected timeline?

BF: We work off fixed bids, so if there’s a concern about not hitting the deadline, we try to get ahead of it. Transparency is key. We always inform the client as soon as we see that we might need more time, and we work with them to adjust the timeline accordingly. Everyone understands that sometimes things take longer than expected, and we’ve always had good feedback when we communicate early.

SD: That’s such a good approach. It’s all about honesty and keeping the client informed.

BF: Exactly. It’s better to be upfront and work through any delays together. That builds trust and ensures that we don’t run into bigger problems later.

Conclusion

SD: Thank you so much for joining me today. This has been such a great conversation, and I’ve learned so much from you.

BF: Thanks for having me! I really enjoyed it.

SD: Thank you, everyone, for listening. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and that you’re leaving with some valuable insights. Be sure to check out the show notes for more information on today’s guest and Penji. Have a great day!

BF: Thank you!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentfeldman

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