Last year, when we decided to add functionality to the back-end of our website we were lucky enough to find Wild Apple Design Group. We considered many options and were initially drawn to Wild Apple because they were a local company (in Wilbraham, MA, around 20 miles from our location in Westfield, MA) and because we loved the work we’d seen of theirs. When Wild Apple says they believe in a transformational vs. transactional relationship with their clients, they mean it. When they say they make it their business to help clients understand and wield technology to ensure they are leveraging their best opportunities to communicate to their audiences, they do exactly that. We enjoy working with them so much, we wanted to put the spotlight on our fellow local business. Amy Scott, Director or Project Management & Business Development, graciously agreed to be interviewed for our blog. If you are looking for marketing help and want to interact with friendly and receptive people who provide outstanding results, we highly recommend that you get in touch with Wild Apple Design Group!

Dion: We know you do outstanding web design and development; could you talk about the other services you provide?

Amy: Yes! Thank you for the kind words. We also design and build brands and print marketing. Developing brands is one of our favorite tasks at Wild Apple. We have been lucky to share a vision with many brilliant entrepreneurs and there is real magic in developing how their brand (new or newly revived) will look, feel and communicate their point-of-view and core values. When we design print pieces, it is typically done to tie together the client’s entire brand promise to insure their brand elements, their website and their print collateral all communicate the same ideals . . .which always leads to great business results!

Dion: Much of your portfolio is made up with projects you’ve done with local companies. Is this intentional? What do you like best about working with local businesses?

Amy: True. Although we do have some clients from afar, we have a passion and a genuine knowledge of life and work in the Pioneer Valley and most of our work is here. Our entire team lives in Western, MA. There is value added in understanding the marketplace that a client’s organization inhabits. It impacts our design choices, website user behavior and certainly assets such as photography, videography and more. We are often tasked with creating such assets and we need to be familiar with location options and how to best get the work done with local vendors. The concept of “shop local” has impacted our industry for sure. Our clients tell us that they prefer meeting in person and keeping their marketing dollars local.

Dion: You do a lot of work with non-profits. What draws you to work with those agencies and what makes you specially qualified to do so?

Amy: Our work with non-profits was introduced to us through Paul Robbins Associates (PRA) in Wilbraham, MA. Paul is veteran of our industry and we have a strategic partnership with his firm. PRA and Wild Apple both share a love for cause-based marketing. It’s so satisfying to market an idea that rallies and inspires a community of people. It’s completely different than marketing a commodity or a retail concept. We have developed a specialty around non-profit marketing using a few key elements. We make it a point to understand and drive the call-to-action prompts they require (join, volunteer, give to name a few). We also have a technical understanding of the website services they need. They often have limited budgets so the website content management must be collaborative and they need to smoothly collect online donations and quickly turn out news and PR items and promote. We also understand the challenge of working with a Board, which all non-profits must do. We have streamlined all of this over the years.

Dion: We at Dion place a premium on excellent customer service, and you guys have exceeded our expectations in that department. How do you maintain such positive relationships with your customers?

Amy: Thank you so much. This is exactly what we strive for and Dion has been most excellent to work with. We literally never stop working to improve on this exact notion – which is partially how we achieve it. We are a small, specialized team and we carefully select our client relationships to insure a good match and to keep our schedule in check. When we build a website for someone, it’s a long-term relationship and it must be a meaningful one. If we meet someone who’d like to work with us but we don’t feel we share a vision or can’t accommodate a schedule with them, we will offer other resources and referrals. Sometimes we are introduced to a project we’d LOVE to have but we just don’t get it. We aren’t the right choice for everybody and vice versa, but when all the elements do align, we do our best work and everyone is attended to and happy.

Dion: If you had to pick one value that you as a company strive to attain, what would it be?

Amy: Great design. We are total design nerds. We love following trends or honoring the past with fonts, colors, art styles and layouts. We love to build on that idea and bring a brand to life in a thoughtfully crafted way. Watching a client see their new brand or website concept revealed to them for the first time, more beautiful and professional than they imagined possible, is pure gold for us.

Dion: In recent years, do you have a favorite design project you’ve worked on? Why?

Amy: Oh boy, so many! Last year we completed a website project for Greathorse and The Starting Gate in Hampden, MA. A premier golf club and banquet facility. We had such a great time. The client was super collaborative, we toured the entire place, we tasted the food, we walked the course and met the entire the leadership team. The project included outstanding copywriting, photography and videography which was such a pleasure for us to build with. It was a fantastic project that ticked all the boxes for us and we continue to enjoy that relationship with their internal marketing team. They also recently won a prestigious and internationally judged Summit Creative Award for the Greathorse website. Cherry on top!