design your website with your mission in mind

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Design Your Website for Your Mission

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Agenda

• Introduction to Guide Creative

• Why upgrade to Wordpress with Guide Creative

• DIY Forms with eTapestry

• Our Strategic Design Process

• Top Ten Best Practices

• Wordpress Theme Galleries

• Ongoing services

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Who Is GUIDE Creative? • Creative on Purpose

A strategic, creative spin to nonprofit’s missions to extend reach

and create a bigger impact.

• Team of Design and Nonprofit Experts

Backgrounds in branding, web strategy, marketing, graphic

design, content strategy, and ex-nonprofit professionals.

• Exclusive for Nonprofits

We only work with nonprofit organizations. We know how to

create designs that broaden reach, inspire action and mobilize

audiences.

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Our People

Our team is committed to your mission. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, we

understand nonprofits better than anyone and we’re able to leverage this expertise to help

you meet your organization’s goals through our uniquely tailored creative services.

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Our Promise • Design for your mission

• Design for your audiences

• Design for impact & user experience

• Solve challenges through design

• Create lasting impressions

• Inspire action through design

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Our Services

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WordPress is an open-source content management

system that powers millions of websites from all over

the world.

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Why upgrade to WordPress with

Guide Creative ?

Guide Creative believes that the WordPress platform is the

best open source solution to meet the needs of our nonprofit

customers

Ease of use for our customers

Stability

Active community of users

Freely available resources

Open source

• Extended functionality through plugins

• Customizable

• Flexible

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A prescribed, flexible and scalable way to

showcase your mission, interact with your

audience and inspire action online, that fits

within your budget and can be up and

running quickly.

WordPress® For Nonprofits

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“55% of the 1 million most visited sites that are run

on a content management system are run on

WordPress” – W3Techs, 2012

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Guide Creative and eTapestry Together – The

Integrated Solution for Your Website

DIY Forms – Embed Template

•Donations

•Event Registration

•Contact Form

•Volunteer Registration

•Membership Sign-up

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Guide Creative and eTapestry…

… The Integrated Solution for Your Online Forms

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Our Strategic Design Process

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Top Ten Best Practices

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“Your website does not exist as a boutique just

to show off information about your

organization. Instead, it’s actually a tool that

you have employed to mobilize your

audience...”

- Raheel Gauba

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Keep the audience in Mind Focus on your audience needs

• Who are your audience groups and who is most important?

• What do they care about – need, goals and aspirations?

• How do they interact with you on and off your website?

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Meet users where they are

• In less than one year mobile will be the #1 way your audience will access

your website … Are you ready?

Keep the audience in Mind

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“The Web is a world of first impressions, and

quick ones at that. Users form an opinion of a

website within the first few seconds of loading

it.”

- Jason Gross

“The Role of Design in The Kingdome of Content, www.smashingmagazine.com

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Have a Focused Homepage Prioritize Content

• Wireframes are key for visual hierarchy

• Remember YOUR goals

• Remember your AUDIENCE’S goals

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Pass the 3-second test

• Is your homepage scannable, understandable, intuitive

in 3 seconds?

Have a Focused Homepage

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“Design your website around your organization’s

actions and purpose. Make the mission

statement clear as day.”

- Blake McCreary

“Non-Profit Web Design.”

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Share Your Mission Tell your story clearly & make it actionable

• 60% of all donors check out an organization’s website before donating -

tell them why they should give…quickly before they change their mind

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Share Your Mission Show your story … visually

• Infographics, typography, links, video, imagery,

photography

• The style should fit your voice and brand

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“Regardless of what your content actually says,

the design around it controls what the users

see first and how their eyes move across the

sections of the page.”

- Jason Gross

“The Role of Design in The Kingdome of Content, www.smashingmagazine.com

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Use Compelling Imagery • Engage with eye contact … Make a personal connection

• Show real stories of impact to gain credibility

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“User-centric design has become a standard

approach for successful and web design. After

all, if users can’t use a feature, it might as well

not exist.”

- Vitaly Friedman

“10 Principles of Effective Web Design”, www.smashingmagazine.com

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Ensure ease in Navigation Navigation Systems should be intuitive and precise

- Provide multiple interaction paths

- Ensure context for users who come in through search or links

- Does it take two-click or less for key tasks?

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“Assuming that you’ve written a brilliantly

persuasive page, it’s still next to worthless

without a strong call to action…”

- Brad Shorr

“Five Copywriting Errors That Can Ruin a Company’s Website,”

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Include clear, bold calls to action Remove all obstacles to action from anywhere

“Apply Now” should take them directly to application.

Calls to action should be clear and compelling

Never say “click here”

Say for example “visit us“

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“Stewardship comes down to being able to show

donors how their dollars were used and what

impact their contributions had.”

- Cynthia Gomez

“What Is Stewardship for a Non-Profit?” www.eHow.com

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Showcase Your Stewardship 60% of donors visit a nonprofit’s website before making a gift.

- Show the impact (eg. stats, infographics)

- Be transparent (eg. share your annual report)

- Say “Thank you”

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“…You need to remember that the Internet is a

dynamic place, and make sure your site is

constantly changing as well.”

- Randall Mains

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Keep Your Content Fresh Always have something new to offer to your users

- Utilize automatic feeds

- Add dates to content posted to the homepage

- Gather user-generated content

Timely

Upcoming

Events

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“Integrating the social experience into your

organization’s web site will help promote the

channel, engage supporters, and provide a

constant source of dynamic content …”

- Melanie Mathos & Chad Norman

“101 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits: A Field Guide.” John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Be Social Social media and viral sharing are highly

valuable tools in contributing to web site

traffic and brand exposure

- Make it easy to connect, interact and

contribute

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“Many of today’s most successful websites are

interactive, meaning they allow people to

participate in the content in some way.

- Randall Mains

Strategic Web Communication Principle #4: Interactivity” blog.pathmakermarketing.com July 12, 2009

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Provide a Personal Touch

Through Interactive Media Allow users to consume information in multiple ways

- Your audiences’ preferences for consuming content varies, just as their

browsing and navigation styles do. Users want to consume information in

various media channels and formats.

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WordPress Theme Gallery

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Theme #1

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Theme #2

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Theme #3

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Theme #4

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Theme #5

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Theme #6

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Ongoing Services Go Live and Beyond

• Urgent Care Assurance that we will keep your site working the way we built it

• Resources DIY knowledgebase, archived webinars, tutorials and premium content directed

specifically to non-profits

• Ongoing Education Premium quarterly webinars for valuable insight and practical application

• One On One We find ways to make your site even better than the day it went live

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy Statistics

• “Three out of four donors born from 1979 to 1994—a

generation often referred to as “millennials”—said they

were turned off when a nonprofit’s Web site had not been

updated recently”

• “Six in 10 said they wanted nonprofits to share stories

about successful projects and programs and appreciated

information about an organization’s cause and the people

it serves.”

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Resources and Next Steps

• Get In Touch! Rachel.Rzepkowski@guidecreative.com

• Assess Your Site!

www.guidecreative.com/topten

• Check us out on Facebook and Twitter!

• Guide Creative Design Portfolio:

http://www.guidecreative.com/work

• Guide Creative Services:

http://www.guidecreative.com/skills/#core