Fortem Digital is a digital marketing agency, specializing in design and development of websites and apps, including website design, e-commerce websites, and branding. Website and email hosting services are also provided, making it one of the top digital marketing agencies in the world.
The business is headed up by two business partners, Andy Strong and Ricky Parker. Both Andy and Ricky were running their own successful businesses, and collaborating on projects when they decided to bring their skills together and form Fortem Digital in 2015. With Andy’s design and print experience, and Ricky expertise in web and app development, joining forces was a logical step to create an agency where these skills could combine and provide the best value to clients.
The company is supported with a small bank of specialist industry professionals who are called upon when required, depending upon the specific nature and requirements of projects being undertaken for clients.
The Agency’s Focus
Fortem Digital specializes in working with smaller and medium sized businesses who need an online presence, ecommerce store, or app, but don’t necessarily have a huge budget. They understand how frustrating ‘off the shelf’ packages can be and the limitations these can have for smaller businesses. This is why all Fortem Digital websites are bespoke to meet the customers’ needs, and are built to enable the specific required functionality.
Their Biggest Achievements
For the people behind Fortem Digital, it’s not easy to identify one big achievement. Ricky says, “It’s tricky to pick one biggest achievement, but we are very proud of our organic growth as a business. The majority of our work now comes from word of mouth recommendations. A recognisable achievement was growing the business during the pandemic, by adopting an agile approach and adapting to clients’ changing needs and circumstances during unprecedented times.”
Fortem Digital prides itself on the relationships that they have built with their clients. It’s one of the main reasons why they have managed to become so successful.
Overcoming Challenges
Fortem Digital hasn’t had a smooth road to success. Ricky says, “one challenge which we have seen increasingly is clients expecting a website build and launch to be turnaround almost overnight! We overcame this by talking them through the processes involved, from initial website designs, and colour palettes, to discussing the functionality required and how this is incorporated into the website or app build. We provide realistic timescales to help them plan.”
In fact, Ricky believes that one of the main reasons for their success is their constant devotion to helping clients. “Fortem Digital rescued a client from a challenging situation where their previous developers had overcharged and seriously under-delivered for a mobile app. The previous code supplied to us from the developers was in an awful state, requiring most of it be scrapped and rewritten.
Due to the development work involved in creating the app, we worked with the client over a period of 6 months. We had various meetings with the client to understand their business and their target market, and precisely what they wanted the app to include, and how it was to function. The app is designed to provide users with a mental health wellbeing app, and provides the ability to record daily feelings, and also offers self-help videos which can be filtered by mood.
The starting point was designing the visual of the app, in a design and style that would appeal to users; those who are looking for an interactive mental health and wellbeing app. Once the overall design was agreed, Fortem Digital went on to develop the app ensuring full functionality.
When the client met funding challenges during lockdown, Fortem helped steer the project to receive grant funding, so they were able to continue. Using our expertise, we responded honestly and positively to help the client build a robust platform.
Here’s what the client said:
“Fortem Digital’s commitment in designing and developing our web platform and native iOS and Android apps, has enabled us to build a thriving business with a really exciting future. Fortem Digital feel very much part of our team, and their support has exceeded expectations.”
The Cloudways Impact
Ricky Parker wanted to move to a hosting provider that’s reliable, and consistent with the services that the brand offered. Ricky says, “Any website is only as good as the hosting platform it sits on. Whilst we design and build websites with certain functionality, we need to know that the website will function as it should with the hosting provider. Cloudways services and reliability work in tandem with our business.” Know why Cloudways is the best, See Dreamhost alternative.
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Tips for Success
Given their meteoric rise, we asked Ricky what he thinks other agencies can do. He says, “Be prepared to work hard, and differentiate your offering. Building up a client base can take time, but provide a great service, and they’ll stay with you.”
Arsalan Sajid
Arsalan, a Digital Marketer by profession, works as a Startups and Digital Agencies Community Manager at Cloudways. He loves all things entrepreneurial and wakes up every day with the desire to enable the dreams of aspiring entrepreneurs through his work!
