Get to know Velir and how they contribute to the hustle of the Hub.
Agency Spotter is all about helping marketers and agencies get to know each other. Discover the talent that makes Boston’s digital strategy agency Velir a place influential and inspiring brands go to successfully shape their digital presence.
Location: Somerville’s Davis Square
Core Service: Digital Strategy
Additional Services: Social media, Web, Mobile
How would you describe Velir in three words?
Genuine. Focused. Impactful.
Since 2000, we’ve lived on the front lines of where tech meets business and found success through strong teams, close collaboration, and clear communication.
Our core competencies in digital strategy, user experience design, content management, marketing platform integrations and data visualization have helped shape the digital presence for some of the world’s most influential and inspiring brands.
How did Velir get its start in the Boston area?
In 2000, we were a team of three with one client working out of a one-bedroom apartment in Somerville, MA. We set out to create an agency to provide first-class creative and technical services to mission-driven organizations that effect change on a global scale. We envisioned a firm that viewed its clients’ challenges as our own and a culture that valued long-term relationships. 14 years later and with over 120 full-time staff, these values still guide our decision-making.
How have Velir’s data visualization services helped a client achieve their business goals?
Our clients have powerful stories to tell, and many of these stories are locked up in gigabytes of data presented as tables or dense PDFs. When this data is analyzed, and stories are mined, and then presented in interactive and creative ways through digital channels, the story becomes accessible to a very wide audience and extremely impactful.
Whether it’s a targeted visual to help tell a story or millions
of data points that need organizing, we help bring our client’s data to life. Our data visualization team can transform any data set into immersive visualizations including interactive tables, charts, graphs, maps, and infographics.
One way we do this is through our proprietary data visualization platform (known as “Datacenter“). It provides the backbone for a powerful set of tools that perform data transformations, and allow our developers and designers to craft and visualization virtually any presentation of the data that most effectively tells our clients story. It also helps clients achieve a key business goal of being able to manage and update this data on their own, without external development involvement.
What is the biggest challenge to seamlessly connecting a client’s online marketing channels?
Audiences are increasingly diverse and so are their preferred methods for consuming content and media. A primary challenge is to ensure that the messages and experiences across all channels are relevant and consistent. This starts with strong content management and a capable CMS platform. Structured content needs to be accessible and portable – it provides the foundation for distributing content and allows organizations to achieve the COPE (create once, publish everywhere) model.
Most organizations focus their marketing efforts on optimizing a specific channel, while ignoring or downplaying others. To succeed in today’s digital environment, the entire marketing ecosystem needs to be integrated. Once the content management hurdles are overcome, the next step is to integrate the many disparate systems – internal (CMS, CRM, E-commerce) as well as external systems (website, social media, mobile apps, 3rd party content providers).
Tackling the digital evolution using a clear roadmap and step-by-step process goes a long way in enabling organizations to seamlessly connect their digital marketing channels.
What’s the secret to building long-term client relationships?
If you want clients for life, you might need to sacrifice short term gains for the long-term health of the account or company. The earliest tenets that served as building blocks for Velir were ensuring our clients felt that we were a true, long-term partner in their business and creating a culture that valued exceptional custom service.
In practical terms this means being highly responsive, providing white-glove service and always asking ourselves, “What more can we bring to this relationship and how can we provide more value?”
Two other core values have served as pillars of our business success. First, staying focused – being selective about the services we offer and working to be the best in our space. Second, staying humble – being worthy of the trust our clients place in us and acknowledging the deep responsibility we have to support and further their mission.
How does the Velir team like to unwind after a long week?
Friday Socials – An abundance of snacks and free-flowing drinks bring out our staff in droves to hang out, chat and battle it out over the ping pong table!
Thanks for chatting with us, Velir!
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