When you created your non-profit organization, you had a vision of what you hoped to accomplish, whether through advocacy, advancement or man power. With a fiery passion, you set out to do good and right by your cause.
You probably figured that your core audience would be much like yourself, so without any additional research, you went forth to raise awareness! Continue Reading
Hub & Spoke recently helped Rock Bridge Brewing Company relaunch online, replacing their dated look with something fresh and mobile friendly.
The new design, which includes original photography of their brewery by Hub & Spoke, uses wood grains, subtle patterns and grids, helps to create the look of a modern and welcoming online gathering place.
Finding Inspiration
When Rock Bridge Brewing Company approached Hub & Spoke, they showed us one of their wooden beer taps, asking us to use its unique character for inspiration on the project.
From there, we worked to make a responsive website design that showcased their events and unique brews with an easy-to-use content management system, WordPress.
Along for the Ride
Hub & Spoke has partnered with Rock Bridge Brewing Company since 2013, when we designed their Rye You Lil’ Punk and Saison beer cans, marking their first foray into canned products.
Since then, we’ve had the opportunity to help them take four brews to store shelves, with their first bottle series set to debut across Missouri soon.
When you’re looking for a website design that works on all devices, also look for a long-term partner—someone who can grow with your business to help you tell your story. At Hub & Spoke, we work side by side with companies of all shapes and sizes to create a powerful and engaging online presence, and we won’t ever leave you hanging.
Finding a creative agency that fits perfectly with the needs of a client is one of the greatest challenges in the marketing process. Every agency has its specialties or industries it often works with, along with its unique qualifications and characteristics.
For many organizations, an RFP represents the best way to choose from among multiple vendors for a final interview and decision.
Having received and replied to a lot of RFPs over the years at Hub & Spoke, we thought we’d share a few tips on how to make it a smooth process.
1. Share Your Budget
It is a common notion that withholding your budget information increases competition among agencies and thus assuring you of better value. However, agencies have to consider the scale when looking to take on a project.
Withholding your budget information can lead to wasted time for both you and the agency in figuring out whether the relationship fits. Disclosing the budget information helps narrow down the field and ensures the right people respond.
2. Make your goals clear
When issuing an RFP for a St. Louis website design, you should consider clarifying the challenges you are likely to face and goals you have for the project.
Clearly outline the changes to the website and how you expect it to be organized. While you’re not expected to have a final plan of action, it’s still a good idea to establish a scope of work that the agency can use as a foundation for their estimate and their expected scope of work.
However, don’t be too rigid in your expectations. It’s okay to provide room for new ideas; that’s likely why you’re looking for help with your website design in the first place.
3. Set a realistic timeline
Website redesigns have been a painful process for non-profit organizations for a long time.
Given the importance of branding and website design to an organization, the last thing you would want to do is rush through the design, the strategy, and the implementation. Since it is an investment in time and money, it is important to get it right, without taking any shortcuts.
Setting realistic timelines will help you avoid any future regrets and ensure a well thought-out discovery phase and design period.
4. Narrow the field
Not every web designer will be a good fit for your project, so narrow down the field before issuing your RFP, instead of posting it for all comers.
Spend some time looking at other agencies’ works to see if they resonate with you and select a handful to compete for your project. Try reaching out and discussing with them to determine whether you can work perfectly together, as they’ll always be happy to talk about how they can help.
Also, by narrowing down the list before sending, you’ll avoid a lot of junk responses that are boilerplate and simplistic, which don’t address the actual problems and scope presented by you in the RFP.
5. Decide whether you really need an RFP
Before issuing an RFP, ask yourself whether it is really necessary or not.
Many organizations have moved away from the RFP process because they recognize that it may not be the most effective way to identify the perfect partner.
You might invest your time in developing the needs and requirements only to be put aside. Therefore, be thoroughly sure that you need an RFP before issuing and ensure you can dedicate the proper time to studying each response.
Creating a website design RFP can be a time consuming process with lots of data and information to compile. Have questions? Contact us and we’re happy to give our input, as we’ve read and responded to many of them.
A new year has arrived, which means many experts will proudly brandish their predictions and prognostications about the year ahead.
Of course, we could make lots of predictions about the global political climate, the next World Series Champions, whether Snapchat Spectacles are actually cool or creepy, and so and on, but we’re a design and marketing company, so those predictions aren’t really in our wheel house.
Instead, we’re going to focus on one thing in our look at the year ahead: What will define web design in 2017? Continue Reading
Recently acquired by Zimmer, Inside Columbia Magazine has long been one of Columbia’s go-to media destinations, taking readers inside unique spots for food, drinks and fun.
Last summer, we had the chance to help them rethink their website design, bringing our considerable magazine website design experience to the conversation. We’ve had the opportunity to design many lifestyle and business magazine websites, including websites promoting magazine events and their publishers. Continue Reading
Accepting credits cards online is one the fastest ways to grow your business or to gain more supporters for your cause.
What is the purpose of a payment gateway?
A payment gateway is the online version of a cashier or bank teller. You want it to be user-friendly while maintaining a high level of security during online transactions.
Payment gateways are used by both nonprofit organizations and e-commerce website designs.
Whether it enables your organization to receive a huge donation or acts as a payment processor for online sales, choosing the right payment gateway can make the difference between closing the deal or watching someone “walk away” because of a complicated and convoluted process.
Why is a quick and efficient transaction so important?
After spending time working on the visual appeal of your website, you are undoubtedly attracting new customers. The last thing you want to do is put a roadblock in their way during the payment process. Requiring too many clicks to complete a sale or donation often leads to frustration or outright abandonment on behalf of the user, with 27% of potential customers abandoning a checkout because of complication, according to Baymard Institue.
So, how do you ensure the process is seamless? With a solid payment gateway.
Let’s look at the three main payment gateways web developers trust:
Stripe is the payment gateway designed with website developers in mind, allowing for a wide range of integrations and setups to meet the demands of a modern website design.
If you plan on using the services of an experienced web designer, Stripe is one of the best options on the market today, with major companies like Kickstarter, Lyft, Shopify and OpenTable, all utilizing Stripe.
Both Stripe and Authorize.net (the next gateway on our list) are fully white label, meaning the customer or donor never has to leave your website, which is good for brand continuity and a seamless experience.
Stripe is highly recommended, as it is the most modern and flexible API for development, which in web speak, means it rocks for online payment transactions. The core features include:
Authorize.net has been around since 1996, making them one of the earliest online payment gateways available.
They’ve developed a friendly interface that’s rather granular, giving site owners the ability to vary levels of access. In addition to transaction fees on-par with the other gateways, Authorize.net typically charges a setup fee and monthly fee, but it depends on the usage and level of integration needed, with multiple plans and options.
PayPal can be a stand-alone option, but it is often used in conjunction with a main gateway or point-of-sale (POS) system, such as their credit card swiper.
For many, Paypal can be a time saver as so many users already have established PayPal accounts. However, PayPal is the most visually limited of the three.
PayPal Standard requires you to have their branding and redirects customers to the PayPal site to complete the transaction, meaning Paypal controls the bulk of the process. While this can be a good thing for security and liability, many businesses and nonprofits prefer visitors to stay on-site through checkout.
No matter the payment gateway, we can help you decide which is best for your customers and website. From there, we can fully integrate the payment gateways seamlessly into your website design for a simple, effortless checkout process that ensures repeat business or donations.
Interested in learning more? Contact us today to talk about how we can help you accept payments and non-profit donations online today!