For years, Joke Van Hamme has worked as a project manager at The Reference, one of Belgium’s most successful digital agencies, with offices in Ghent, Antwerp and New York and many major national and international B2B and B2C clients.
SEO like a pro
Van Hamme: “When a client knocks on our door because their website is performing poorly on Google, we start by sitting down together to discuss their SEO results (‘SEO’ being short for ‘search engine optimisation’). We come up with action points, which we then adjust on a monthly basis.”
“Sometimes, just tweaking or adding a few keywords already vastly improves a client’s Google ranking. We can pretty much cover SEO keywords in Dutch, English and French ourselves. But the market has changed, and now we find ourselves working on increasingly large international projects. So for SEO copy in other languages, we turn to Blue Lines. The more international we become, the more we have to be able to rely on a single translation and copywriting partner.”
Not just a supplier
The first project The Reference and Blue Lines worked on together was SEO for Certex, an international company. The goal was keyword research in Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian. Mission successful, we’d say, because The Reference now comes to Blue Lines for SEO translations into Spanish and Italian as well.
“I really like how open and transparent Blue Lines is. I’m a project manager myself, and it’s extremely important to me to establish a personal connection with my clients. So I really appreciate the fact that you don’t feel like just another supplier. You consciously establish a more personal relationship, without compromising on your professionalism.”
Transparency and efficiency
“The first time I worked with Blue Lines, I had sent the same request to a different agency, as a kind of back-up. This was because The Reference used to work with two translation partners, and I never really knew which one to choose. Since I’ve started working with you, there’s no doubt in my mind.”
“You offer a degree of transparency and efficiency I’ve never seen another translation agency match. For me, it’s important to get both a quotation and a clear timeline straight away. Other agencies tend to provide the quotation, but won’t say anything about the timeframe. But it’s so helpful for clients to know exactly when they’ll be seeing results! With Blue Lines, I don’t have to keep asking about the planning, and I can simply rely on you to meet the deadline we agreed on. Even though I sometimes ask you to work to a ridiculously tight schedule!”
Note: Joke Van Hamme transferred to AGConsult in early 2020, where she is now working as a team lead. Our copywriter Robin actually took a course in Usability & UX at Van Hamme’s new employer, following a tip from her. Which just goes to show that one thing tends to lead to another, and the network always wins!