There are lots of high-end agencies that can do brand work but this is the first time I’ve found an agency that can do the day-to-day design work that is essential to success. SketchDeck is the perfect solution to a problem that every company has.
Chris Ries,
Senior Director of Demand Generation at Icertis
Profile
Icertis is the leading provider of contract lifecycle management in the cloud. Managing 3.5 million contracts for 1,000,000 million users in 90 countries and 40 languages, Icertis Contract Management (ICM) is an intelligent, easy-to-use platform that is highly configurable and continually adapts to complex business needs.
An industry power-house, Icertis closed a C round $25M funding round in Q1 of 2017. With funding secured, the call came to “hit the gas” on user acquisition and double-down on marketing efforts. For Icertis, this meant growing their marketing department to keep up with demand and finding the right partners to help execute their proven playbook.
Problem
Design is a crucial part of marketing, with almost every marketing campaign requiring some kind of visual asset. Icertis was faced with the challenge of scaling content for events, nurture programs, sales, enablement, digital marketing, and web in an affordable manner that would help drive 100% year-over-year growth.
Previously, Icertis had always relied on contract designers for collateral design and layout. Chris Ries, Senior Director of Demand Generation at Icertis, explained, “We have really aggressive goals. The opportunity cost of spending internal time on design is terrible.”
However, these outsourced design solutions were not without drawbacks.
“They were unable to give us a sliding scale—new design and production were charged at the same rate.”
3 problems Icertis faced with freelancers were:
- Lack of a tiered rate structure: The freelancers billed at the same rates, whether it was highly conceptual designs or simple day-to-day design work. Project complexity was not taken into account.
- Lack of a large network: There was only so much a single independent contributor could create. The team was looking for creative ways to explore and express their brand–they therefore wanted to call upon an expanded team of designers.
- Lack of visibility: Being largely removed from the design and iteration process, Icertis frequently missed out on important design discussions and edits that ordinarily took place via disconnected emails. Difficult communication paired with a lack of team-wide visibility meant design coherence often suffered.
Solution
After searching for alternate solutions, Icertis found SketchDeck and began a two month pilot. During this trial period, SketchDeck provided the marketing team with all of their design needs—from production to concepts. Their design needs ranged from event signage to online ad campaigns, all the way to a series of branded eBooks.
“Onboarding was incredibly smooth. We expected a two month pilot, but we knew within two weeks in that this was the right solution. We signed two weeks later.”
After only two weeks, Icertis was ready to hand over all of their design needs to SketchDeck. Here’s what had their marketing team convinced long before the pilot was over:
Great design
SketchDeck only works with designers that are best-in-field and vetted for projects and client fit. All designers are managed by a dedicated project manager who facilitates smooth communication and ensures that delivered designs match the client’s branded style and specific requests.
“There’s a notion of ‘Shadow IT’ and the same is true for design. SketchDeck helps us get a high quality design solution to everyone who needs it, removing ‘Shadow Design’ from our organization.”
Easy communication
The SketchDeck platform is built to support seamless, easy-flowing communication between clients and designers. With online chat, previews, and a dedicated project manager and Design Director, it’s easy to talk through projects and understand exactly what success looks like.
“I just want to emphasize the Account Manager and Design Director. We’re getting a lot of value from this and getting a great level of design and customer service that’s very hard to get from a one-person contracting shop.”
Full visibility
SketchDeck makes collaboration easy, as well–there is no limit to the number of team members that can access the platform. Team-wide visibility simplifies review cycles, making the design stages clean and clear.
At any time, team members can log in or talk directly with their SketchDeck project manager for project status, to offer feedback, or to use early-stage designs to kickstart secondary projects.
“The platform really helped socialize the three distinct stages: copy, style sample, merging of content and style. The fact that it’s easy to get online and talk through the project is great.”
Predictability
SketchDeck offers transparent and predictable pricing. Project prices are quoted through the app, so you can check project budgets day or night. SketchDeck’s unique credit system allows for quiet and busy months within a consistent membership.
“SketchDeck pricing provides a predictable, budget-friendly way to manage our GL [General Ledger] code.”
Impact
SketchDeck helped Icertis move faster. With SketchDeck by their side, Icertis’ marketing team could focus on their core competencies without distraction, significantly increasing the number of leads they generated. As a result, Icertis dramatically scaled their collateral and content needs to keep pace with rapid growth.
If you also have a marketing team with big goals, reach out to us and find out how we can help you achieve them!
