Working on your site from-the-ground-up is so much more than web design for us. It’s nailing down the best way to reach your goals. It’s deciding what the brand is going to look and feel like. It’s coming up with an effective content strategy. It’s figuring out how to present your products and services, and even brainstorming which products and services to offer. It’s about creating a meaningful online experience for your visitors — one that compels them to get on board with you for the long-haul.
Like I said, so much more than web design.
We approach design in a very practical, strategic way. We love stuff that looks amazing, works seamlessly, and generates the right credibility and emotion, but we also need it to perform a particular function. So one of the first things we’ll be asking you is what do you want right now? And what do you want six months from now? And what do you want two years from now? Everything we do stems out of the answers to those questions.
We don’t believe that there’s one step-by-step web strategy that works for everyone. Your web strategy has to be fresh, and it has to be your own — not a copy of what everyone else is doing. And that’s what we do. We’ve spent years studying what it takes to be effective on the web, and we apply that knowledge when we’re developing brand new solutions that will get rid of your online invisibility cloak for good. (Because in this case, an invisibility cloak is not an asset.)
The result is a revolution. Clients who really get you. Customers who not only buy your stuff, but who become raving fans who tell everyone they need to know you. A community who participates without you having to prod them every step of the way. Advertisers who are in perfect sync with what you stand for. It’s crazy what a revolution can accomplish.
A few of our most recent projects
How it works
If you’re interested in seeing if we’re a good match for a from-the-ground-up project, the first thing to do is get in touch with us. We’ll schedule a time to talk on the phone about your goals, and we’ll figure out if we’re the right people to take you there.
If we’re a good match and you want to move forward, John will get you set up in the project-management system (it’s Basecamp, for the curious). That’s where he will upload your paperwork, checklists, worksheets, and all the other stuff we’ll need to get started. He’ll also send you your first invoice, which will be for one-third of the project total.
Once you take care of that, I’ll set the milestones for the entire project. That way, you’ll have a good expectation for a launch date, and you’ll know what it will take to launch on time. The milestones are flexible, but I like to get them down so we both know what to expect.
The first thing we’ll schedule is a branding and content-strategizing session. We’ll schedule this shortly after we get you in the project-management system, despite our official start date (which could be a month or two down the road, depending on our availability). You’ll fill out a worksheet ahead of time, and then we will get on the phone and map out a plan. If you’re hiring a copywriter, this would be the session that we collaborate. If you’re writing the copy yourself, this is going to be your catalyst for content creation. You’ll come away from it with a very clear plan for what you need to write and how it needs to come across.
Next, we’ll schedule your design session, which will be a week or so before your project’s official start date. You’ll have a worksheet to fill out and some homework to complete prior to this session. This is when we talk about our ideas and come up with a clear design direction. If you’re hiring an illustrator, this is the session that you’ll need to invite them to.
After that, we’ll start conceptualizing the home page behind-the-scenes. After throwing ideas and sketches back and forth, we’ll choose the best idea and flesh it out until we come up with your initial concept. We’ll submit it to you, ask you questions to draw out your feedback, and either continue revising from that concept or go back to the drawing board. Up to four concepts/revisions are included (which are usually plenty), but you can purchase additional ones easily. At this point, you’ll receive your invoice for the second one-third of the total.
Once we finalize the home page, we’ll either move straight to coding (if all of your pages use the same overall design) or go through the design process with your additional page-types. When all of the design work is complete, you’ll need to submit your finalized content and all of your passwords — for example, for your domain name, hosting, newsletter service, and whatever else you have.
When we have all of this, the next step is for us to create the test site. Leah is the one who will be coding your site into WordPress so that you can update it yourself easily. (Though we can use other content-management systems, WordPress is by far the easiest for our clients to update, which is why it’s the one we usually go with.) Then, we upload and format all of your content and present it to you along with your login information so you can start getting familiar with the back-end.
When everything’s tweaked and ready to go, you’ll receive your third and final invoice. Once you’ve got that taken care of, we launch. At the very least, this involves moving the site from the test site to its final location. You might have old content that we need to migrate over from another site and old links that need to be updated. We take care of all that, making sure that everything’s working properly, and then we hand the site over to you.
After you’ve had a chance to work with WordPress for a while and have made a list of any questions that you have, you can then request a final hand-holding session. We’ll assist you with anything that’s got you stumped so you can confidently manage your website on your own.
The details
The cost for a from-the-ground-up site with one page-type to design and up to 15 content pages is $6,000. You pay one-third up front, one-third upon design approval, and one-third prior to launch. The cost includes everything above; all of our strategizing sessions, the design of one page-type, up to four concepts/revisions, coding everything into WordPress, and implementing and formatting up to 15 content pages. To get a price for a larger project (we do those, too), include the specs in the form or send them to the email address below.
For a site of the above-mentioned scope (wow, I’m using big words today), the strategizing, design, and development process usually takes between 8 and 10 weeks from your official start date. We are currently available to start the design process on September 13th, but we would get you set up in the system right away so that you can get on our calendar, get started on your checklist, and schedule your branding and content-strategizing session.
So what’s the next step?
Get in touch with us. We like to get a feel for the project and give our input so you can decide if it’s the right next step for you. Fill out the form below, and it’ll get to us lickety-split. Or email hello@sarahjbray.com. We’ll clarify anything we have questions about, and then we’ll schedule a time to chat over the phone.