Got a question? Let’s answer it.
How long does Brand Discovery take?
The entire process takes two weeks and our four meetings will be scheduled up front. The first three meetings are a few days apart and then we take a week to put together your deliverables before our fourth meeting.
That being said, we are often booked out a few weeks—and sometimes months—ahead for this service. Many of our clients schedule their Brand Discovery and then work on outstanding issues while they wait, like photographing new projects. Want to chat about this service? Book a chat here.
Can I hire you for Brand Discovery as a standalone service? Or do I need to move on to the Design & Build of a new website?
About 20% of our Brand Discovery consultations are delivered as a standalone service. This works well if you are the owner of a newer business and you are not ready for a custom website yet but you ARE ready to move toward turning your business into a brand.
You will need the ability to implement on our recommendations—either through your own web designer/developer or through your own DIY skills. If you will be implementing our recommendations yourself, we will customize our deliverables to reflect that and help you!
How long does a Design & Build take?
How long is a piece of string? No, actually we can give you a solid timeline on this. The schedule for custom website builds will depend on the scope, but a typical custom project takes about 16 weeks—with a copywriting/planning phase, a design phase, and then a development phase. The good news? This is not a made-up number. When we give you a timeline, we tend to deliver on it.
What’s included in a typical Design & Build?
This is a custom website build, so it can include lots of useful elements. Things that are pretty much always included: copywriting, custom design and development of the site (how custom can vary), Google Analytics setup with conversion goals (we’ll explain that but you’ll be so happy), on-page search engine optimization (we’ll list out what we do…it’s all very transparent and non-mysterious), integration with an email marketing platform (we want you to collect people’s contact information to stay in front of them), tutorial videos and more.
Beyond that, there are a million options: We can build something interactive to build your email list (like a design quiz! or some kind of calculator!), design some other type of lead magnet, set up nurture sequences (emails that automatically go out every few days after someone signs up for your email list), set up automation related to marketing, sales, onboarding, or whatever we dream up with you.
This is what Brand Discovery is for. To get to know your needs, understand your brand, and come up with the perfect plan for you.
Do you host and maintain websites?
We sure do. We certainly don’t require it (not making you do things and not trapping you in long-term commitments is part of our foundation), but 95% of our Design & Build clients do want us to take care of their websites. We call it the “you don’t have to worry about it” fee. We will make sure you never have to stress about backups, updates, or hackers. You’ll never have to call a hosting company or deal with any of the annoying technical aspects of a website because we’ll take care of it.
What is website maintenance? My old Squarespace (Wix, Weebly, Whatever) site didn’t require any maintenance.
Because we build sites on WordPress and WordPress sites are open source, your website will require upkeep. WordPress websites have plugins that need to be updated and core updates that need to be done. It’s not a massive amount of work to update a single plugin, but you’ll have more than one, it does take time, and we update plugins once per week. This is above the industry standard. More importantly, if something goes wrong when a plugin is updated (it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen)…we handle it.
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Why WordPress?
This is not our first rodeo with website platforms ("content management systems"...a.k.a. systems that allow you to log in and makes changes to a website without dealing with servers and code). Over the last almost-a-decade, we've decided...-->What kind of music do you guys listen to in the office?
Ok, you definitely didn’t ask this, but let’s talk about it. Back when we were at the office together (before the pandemic), we would often put on a massive playlist—that has been created slowly over time—on shuffle. Sometimes we listen to 60’s French pop, because that is the best. Or surf rock, because that is also the best. One time we listened to Mozart, but honestly, that was an isolated incident.
What does your office look like?
Again, thank you for not asking. The office was just rearranged in a flurry of rebrand tasks and actually has less stuff on the walls (gasp!). Let’s also note that, due to the excellent clients we’ve worked with over the years who specialize in feng shui, we ALWAYS consider the whole ‘power position’ thing when choosing desk placement.
Where are you located?
We are located in Warwick, NY—an ‘upstate’ (this is not physically accurate and I take issue with the term now that I live in NY) town. It’s the kind of place you travel to for apple picking or to visit a winery, but the office is in the village.
