River Avenue Digital: Reducing website maintenance time by 60% after switching from WordPress to Duda
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Websites launched in ⅓ of the time
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Revenue margin increased from negative to above 80%
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Ability to sell websites as a standalone product (and upsell clients from there)
River Avenue Digital (RAD) is a full-service marketing agency specializing in Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (FCMO) support. RAD's success is rooted in aiding small and mid-sized businesses to bridge the value gap in their marketing efforts by empowering them to tell their unique stories effectively.
As a burgeoning startup, RAD heavily relied on WordPress to develop client websites. However, a breakthrough ensued with the strategic acquisition of a web design firm, introducing Duda into their workflow. This allowed RAD’s growing organization to:
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Streamline the web development processes, reduce turnaround times, and increase efficiency.
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Enhance design flexibility and responsiveness, allowing for more creative and user-friendly websites.
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Expand service offerings with new features and functionalities, providing clients with a broader range of options to meet their specific needs.
Overcoming objections and concerns
Joe Ashby, President of RAD’s Tampa Operations, introduced Duda to the RAD team, stating, “I had done a lot of research to find a white label-platform for agencies. When I found Duda, I fell in love with it immediately. When I introduced the platform to our team, Duda was well-prepared to engage with and address our concerns. Educational resources like Duda University made it easy for RAD to transition from WordPress to Duda.”
Josh Irons, Founder and CEO at River Avenue Digital, initially flagged a few concerns around Duda. However, Irons’ commitment to leveraging new technology to move the business forward led him to fully test Duda’s capabilities. This evaluation encompassed its user experience (UX) and its functionality in terms of SEO and crucial benchmarks for maintenance and security.
Better SEO, less maintenance
Following the launch of their initial Duda websites, RAD’s team observed improved client metrics, with faster SEO results compared to their previous experiences using similar tactics with WordPress sites.
“There's always a degradation of speed on WordPress as plugins are updated, as situations occur. With Duda, the speed is always high on mobile and desktop. So that's one less thing that we have to worry about,” remarked Irons.
Besides plugin updates, when building on WordPress the team at RAD had to maintain servers, conduct regular backups, make site speed enhancements, among many other back-end items. With Duda, maintenance time on client websites decreased by at least 60%.
River Avenue Digital managed to decrease website maintenance costs and alleviate security concerns by leveraging Duda's standardized operating procedures (SOP).
“We don’t have to worry proactively about security,” says Irons. “It’s all done by Duda. That takes a lot of pressure off of us as a growing agency, and there is a great cost savings there.”
Happier clients
Since switching to Duda, RAD’s clients are also happier – a metric that’s often hard to capture. They find the process of creating a website on Duda a lot easier. They also appreciate the fact that the agency can launch a fully customizable website within 30 days – compared to the two or three months it would take to launch a WordPress site.
RAD's extensive experience with WordPress, along with trials on platforms like Wix and Squarespace, has given them a broad understanding of web development platforms – especially their limitations. The unique advantages of Duda make it easy to meet a wide spectrum of client needs.
This flexibility is particularly valuable to Irons and the RAD team, as they maintain an industry-agnostic approach to client onboarding. Their confidence in Duda's capacity to support their growth remains unwavering, and they are poised to accommodate new and exciting projects while seamlessly transitioning existing clients to the platform.
Better revenue margins
After integrating Duda into their website workflow through whitelabeling, RAD experienced an 80% increase in their revenue margin. Duda's capability to template pricing proved to be immensely impactful. Implementing a streamlined process enabled the team to maintain proactive client engagement and efficiently construct websites without excessive labor requirements.
As a result, the agency can now sell websites as a standalone project and upsell clients from there. This allows them to expand their total addressable market (TAM) and serve more diverse clients. They had never been able to do this before because of the challenges in pricing and negative margins – they would only sell websites as part of broader digital marketing projects.
"Now that we can deploy websites more rapidly and with greater efficiency,” says Irons, “each website release contributes directly to our bottom line, and that excites us.”
RAD subscribes to a Duda Custom Plan, which affords them a dedicated account manager with whom they regularly meet for expert consultation on business strategy and guidance regarding the implementation of advanced features.
