There are a few steps that need to be taken to order a website from Marketing Services. By following this guide, you will ensure that your client’s website is delivered as quickly as possible. You can check out our walkthrough video for a quick overview and read ahead for the full details!
Ordering a website for your client requires two steps:
If both of these steps have not been completed, it will create delays in the completion of the website.
The Website Creation & Content Form provides our teams with all of the necessary information to build the website. This form is outside of the platform and is unbranded so you can complete it alongside your client. This form should be completed first and can be done in steps as you work with your client to decide on the best website for them.
Product activation must be completed in the platform before any work is started. This step requires you to pay the wholesale cost of the website and kicks off the project for our team. Upon activation, you will be asked to confirm the contact details of anyone who will be communicating with our team about the website. After activation, you can upload a PDF of your completed Website Creation & Content Form.
Complete and Download the Website Creation & Content Form
You can access the form here.
This unbranded page will dynamically request all of the information that our team needs to complete your client’s website. That means that sections will expand to collect more information if required, based on previous answers. Some fields are required to begin, while others provide us with additional details that will help with the website’s construction, but could be provided later.
The following sections break down important information and details about each section in the Website Creation & Content Form. You can refer back to this as you go through the form for the first time.
Business Info
This section will gather important details about the business, including the business name and social media pages. It also requires selecting the correct website product. Note that this reveals all the client website products that we offer (including monthly and one-time billing options) so keep this in mind before sharing it with a client. The Website Creation & Content Form will populate with more options when a multi-page site is selected versus when a landing page is chosen.
Contact Info
This section will request the contact information for any stakeholders that will be communicating with our team about their website creation. Note that some of the wording here is set to be vague in order to be unlabeled. For example, we use the term “Account Representative” to refer to the salesperson on your team that is assigned to the account.
The emails that you supply in the Account Representative Email and the Primary Contact Email fields will receive copies of the form after submission.
Domain
In this section, you will be able to provide the login credentials for the customer’s domain registrar (eg. GoDaddy, NameCheap, etc). If your client does not have a domain, you can choose to have our team purchase the domain on your behalf. Note that if our team is purchasing the domain, it remains in our account and cannot be accessed by you or the customer unless the domain is transferred.
Navigation
This section refers to the different pages that you want (eg. About, Services, Blog) and how you want them arranged (for example, subpages for additional services that will nest underneath the Services header). You can provide additional notes and assets (any images/icons/etc) that you want to be used.
Design
In this section, you will be able to choose your framework, fonts, color palette, and images.
The framework is the most important choice for your website. You can use this site to select your framework; this page is also unbranded, so you can showcase it to your clients to help them choose the right framework.
Our team uses 123rf.com for stock images and Flaticon.com for icons. You can provide Image IDs from these sources as well as links to a Google Drive or Dropbox folder with assets you want to be included on your website. If you have not selected or provided assets, our team will choose them on your behalf.
Web Copy
Depending on the size of the site purchased, our team will be able to write copy (text) to be included on the website. We can also take copies that you or the client have created (it can be uploaded into the form) or use copies from the client’s existing website.
E-Commerce
If your client is planning on selling their products or services through their website, we will need information about those products and the client’s payment processors. We can connect an existing Square, Stripe, or PayPal account as part of the website build. To add products or services, we will need a CSV file that contains the product information (this can be provided after the website has been activated). For help on the e-commerce CSV file, you can use this resource.
Additional Functionality
In this section, you can include/upload things like terms & conditions and policy documentation, embed codes (eg. a third-party calendar booking code), and additional information about the site. We recommend reviewing any specific notes about the website during your onboarding call with our team.
Saving, Submitting, and Downloading Your Form
At the bottom of the Website Creation & Content Form, you have the ability to Save and Continue. Choosing to do so will provide you with a link that will remain active for 30 days. Visiting that link will take you back to the Website Content & Creation Form with all of the content you have already added to it and allow you to complete it. Please note that you will have to save any changes and come to a new link if you are pausing again between updates before submitting the form.
When you submit your form, you will be taken to a confirmation page that includes a download link for the PDF copy of your form.
The PDF and a text copy of the form are sent to the email addresses that were included in the Account Representative Email and the Primary Contact Email fields.
Activate the Product
This article showcases the process for activating products in general, or if you are using a workflow where one of your salespeople submits an order to your administrator for approval, you can review this article for details on managing orders.
Part of the activation process will ensure that you are activating dependent products like Website and Task Manager. You will also need to fill in a few fields, like the contact information for onboarding. After activation, you will see a fulfillment form that requests information that you may have already filled out in the Creation & Content form. You do not need to fill this information out, and instead, you will be given the option to upload the PDF of the completed form. Because the completion of the previous Website Creation & Content Form does not tie directly to the product activation, uploading the PDF in the fulfillment form will ensure a faster launch of your website project.
Once the product is activated, it will kick off a project that can be tracked in your client’s Business App. Our team will process the order and book an onboarding call with the contacts provided during the activation to go over the expectations and discuss required assets. To learn more about the activation and onboarding process across Marketing Services, check out this article about our success experience.
And there you have it! By following through these two steps (completing the Website Content & Creation Form, and then activating the product) your client will be set up for success for their new website!