San Diego Blog: Jeremy, when did you begin Bop Design and why?
Jeremy Durant: My wife Kara Jensen and I started Bop Design in late 2008. I had worked at a media agency and interfaced with many full-service ad agencies. Ad agencies’ focus seemed to be on consumer brands. I felt that business-to-business firms like accounting firms, engineering firms, architecture firms, etc. were under-served in the marketplace. We started Bop Design to solely focus on B2B firms. I also felt that most agencies only focus was on creativity but not on business development. Bop Design helps implement a marketing strategy to generate and nurture ideal leads for our clients.
San Diego Blog: What are the core services your b2b agency provides?
Jeremy: Branding, Website Design, Content Marketing, SEO, Social Media and Print Design. Almost all Bop Design clients start with us when they are going through a website redesign or re-branding. After this project is complete, we help them with an ongoing content marketing strategy that addresses lead generation and lead nurturing.
San Diego Blog: Has your original business plan stayed the same course, or has it evolved into something different?
Jeremy: At the beginning our focus was on small B2B companies but now we work with B2B firms of all sizes—typically with revenues of $5M to $100M. We also used to take on small one-off projects like a logo design or print collateral design. We now only work with a client initially if they are going through a full brand overhaul or a complete website re-design.
San Diego Blog: Is WordPress the only software Bop Design uses with website development and design? If yes, how come?
Jeremy: Yes we are a WordPress only shop. We believe that WordPress is the most user-friendly of the open source CMS options. With every website project, we supply the client with a custom website manual to help them manage the website going forward on their own. We don’t want them tied to a web developer every time they want to make a change. With WordPress being the most popular of the CMS options this means it has the largest developer community with most tools and plugins available. Lastly, there is tremendous market demand for WordPress among B2B firms so we cater to market needs.
San Diego Blog: Bop Design used to be in Point Loma. Where did your agency recently relocate to and why?
Jeremy: We actually only moved about 2 miles away to Little Italy so it’s not too dramatic. Bop Design has been growing and we needed more room so the new office provides us with more space for us to grow into.
San Diego Blog: Bop Design focuses on providing marketing services to the following industries: Financial, Technology, Engineering, Consulting, Health & Fitness, and Medical Biotech. Are there any other industries you are interested in adding to your list?
Jeremy: Yes we are currently adding 2 industries to the list: Software and Industrial. Even though both could be considered a sub-category of another listed industry, we have so many clients in those industries to justify new sections on the website. The industrial industry may seem redundant but it’s essentially manufacturing, automation, etc. that is it’s own industry niche.
San Diego Blog: What makes Bop Design different from their competition?
Jeremy: B2B focus. Most agencies work with whatever opportunity comes there way—from a restaurant chain to apparel to business consulting. We believe the B2B sales process is much different than B2C. B2B is a longer term sales cycle, multiple decision makers, longer term partnership, etc. The website and marketing process is much different and it’s important to hire an agency that fully understands and appreciates B2B.
San Diego Blog: Bop Design has a very active blog. Can you tell us what the Bop Design Blog is about, who contributes, and why it’s part of your website?
Jeremy: Each staff member contributes their expertise to the blog. If it’s a topic related to web development, our web developers will write it. If it’s related to website design, our design team will lead it and so forth. It’s part of our website for two reasons: transforming our website into a living, breathing resource resource center for prospective and current clients and for SEO. 1st reason: website visitors will only convert when you showcase your firm as a thought leader and provide useful information. The longer a visitor stays on your website and consumes content, the more likely they are to reach out. 2nd reason: continuously adding keyword rich content to your blog will help your company rise the rankings for keyword phrases on Google. If you blog about what you know 4 times a month, that’s 48 pages of keyword-rich content that Google crawls and indexes for in a year.
San Diego Blog: Does Bop Design partner with any non-profits or have any social-causes which they help in San Diego?
Jeremy: Kara helped with re-branding of the San Diego Hunger Coalition over the past few years. She created a new identity and website for the non-profit. We have just started volunteering for Software San Diego which will be re-branded as Tech San Diego. We will help with the new identity, website and collateral. It is a trade organization that represents all technology firms in the San Diego region.
San Diego Blog: Did you go to college with starting a B2B marketing agency in mind, or did Bop Design evolve later on in life?
Jeremy: I was a political science major in undergrad! The summer between my junior and senior of college, I had a temporary position selling golf putters to pro shops all over the country by phone. I really liked it! Then after college, I worked for UC San Diego selling corporate training—a B2B sales position. I knew I wanted to start my own business but had no formal business education. I went back to college to attain my MBA. Then I met Kara (a graphic artist) and got married. I could handle much of the business development and operations while Kara could address the service delivery. Our complementary skill sets allowed us to start Bop Design.
And thank you San Diego Blog for the chance to share about Bop Design with your readers!
