Website Development Proposal

Prepared for Create Marine

Overview

Create Marine is a service oriented aftermarket boat retrofitter located in New England providing a variety of services to boat owners. BoldWater will create a wholly new website to align with the goals of the business and the target audience.

The new website will be fully functional with a consistent and easy to use navigational system, including search engine friendly best practices, content management system, performance & security enhancements. The website will have an unique visual appeal and help you differentiate yourself from the competition.

Business Needs

Specifically, the new website strives to fulfill the following business needs:

  1. Demonstrate Capabilities
  2. Generate New Leads for Provided Services
  3. Answer Pre-Sale Questions
  4. Sell products direct to consumer
  5. Establish Credibility with Reviews & Partnerships
  6. Build Social Media Following & Brand Awareness

Also required is a content management system that will allow Client to easily manage content on the site and reduce administrative costs.

Target Audience Needs

The target audience for the website consists of affluent New England boat owners. The new website needs to assist the target audience do the following:

  1. Learn of available services
  2. Confirm work quality with example photos
  3. Inquire for quotes and availability
  4. Checks terms of service
  5. Connect with the brand
  6. Purchase items online

Ultimately, the website should be a useful resource for returning and potential new customers.

The Solution

Create Marine needs a website that functions as a powerful marketing and communications tool to attract new clients, position itself as a leader in the industry and provide credibility to new business.

We will design and deploy a new website, built from the ground up, with a custom design to convey the value that Create Marine provides it’s clients.

The new website will have the following general structure and features:

  • Home Page
    • Large slideshow or video hero
    • Introductory text
    • Bullet point list of why to choose Create Marine
    • Selection of testimonials / reviews
    • Images of latest projects from Facebook or Instagram
    • Links to site sub-sections / services
  • Boat Flooring
    • Single page with sections for each flooring type including :
      • Logo, product highlights / description, slideshow of example projects
    • Inquiry Form
  • Marine Electronics
    • Single page with sections for each electronics type including :
      • Product or service highlights / description, brand logos, slideshow of example projects
    • Inquiry Form
  • Hull Works
    • Single page with sections for each hull works service including :
      • Service highlights / description, slideshow of example projects
    • Inquiry Form
  • Custom Fabrication
    • Single page with sections for each fabrication type including :
      • Service highlights / description, slideshow of example projects
    • Inquiry Form
  • Boat Services

    • Single page with sections for each service type including :
      • Service highlights / description, slideshow of example projects
    • Inquiry Form
  • Shop

    • Photos, prices, descriptions, and shopping cart to purchase multiple items with variations (size / color)
  • About Us
    • History
    • Mission
    • Certifications / logos
  • Contact
    • Phone, email, social media links
    • Address
    • Inquiry form that stores entries and sends email notices to site owner
  • Support Pages
    • Service Terms
    • Privacy Policy
    • Online Store Policies (Shipping / returns / exchanges)
    • Shopping Cart
    • Checkout
    • Customer Account
    • Customer Orders
    • Customer Login
    • Customer Password Reset

Site-wide features:

  • Consistent and easy to use navigation
  • Prominent call to action (Phone or email)
  • Smartphone and tablet friendly responsive design
  • Easy to use content editor

Additionally, the following “behind the scenes” features will be built-in to the website:

  • regular pings to Google, Yahoo and Bing
  • Google analytics performance reporting
  • high speed page loading
  • anti-spam features on contact forms
  • SSL security certificate purchase recommended (included with BoldWater hosting packages)

Web hosting services are provided on a monthly or annual basis on our dedicated server (See Plan Details Below Estimate) , or by a hosting company of your choice. Hosting must offer PHP 7.0 or higher and SSL is strongly recommended.

Timeline

We estimate that upon approval of proposal, that the website can be completed in approximately 2 months. This estimate may vary depending on the timely manner that information is given to BoldWater to apply towards the website. This includes text, graphics, pictures and supply of information / feedback during review phases.

  • 1

    Deposit & Content Received

    50% Deposit and final approved content (text, images, links, logos) delivered in usable digital format

  • 2

    Development Environment Setup

    CMS installed on private development server. Theme & Plugins installed. Content skeleton populated.

    2

  • 3

    Custom Design & Layout

    Colors, fonts, textures, graphics, icons, and advanced user interactions designed and implemented.

  • 4

    Submit for Review

    Site submitted to you for review and commenting.

    4

  • 5

    Revisions and Testing

    Perform required revisions. Test display and interactions. Submit for final approval.

  • 6

    Final Payment and Launch

    Receive final payment. Perform installation of website at live location. Secure site, submit to search engines, final testing.

    6

  • 7

    Training

    Over the phone walk-through of major website administration functions.

Your Investment : Starting at $4800

Recurring Charges : Domain Name at $20 / year • Website Hosting at $359.40 / year (Standard Plan with SSL & Email, and including Premium Suite of Tools for Website Performance Optimization, CDN, Security and more) • As needed annual licenses for ecommerce plugins depending on chosen factors for example Quickbooks Payments plugin is $79 / year

What’s Included

  • Administration
    $100
    Finalize site plan, gather content and research systems.

    Allotted Time : 1 hour

  • Development (Making it all work)
    $1500
    Create development site, install and configure systems.

    Allotted Time : 15 hours

  • Design (Making it look great)
    $2000
    Customize colors, fonts, textures, user interactions, and page layouts for all content in scope.

    Allotted Time : 20 hours

  • E-Commerce : Option Two
    $600
    Full featured Woocommerce shopping cart installed within your own website.

    We will customize the basic shop options, populate your product data for 5 products (images, text, prices, options), integrate shipping and payment options.

    Premium plugins with yearly software licenses are required to use some shippers or payment platforms, thus annual costs can range from $0 when using Paypal & Flat Rate Shipping to several hundred when selecting your own payment platform and getting real-time shipping quotes from multiple shippers. Other features may require premium plugins with annual license fees for updates.

  • Site Launch (Making it live)
    $300
    Final testing, deployment to live server, performance optimization, analytics and sitemap

    Allotted Time : 3 hours

  • Training
    $300
    Walk-though of major site administration functions. Post Launch Support

    Allotted Time : 3 hours

Optional Items

  • Website Hosting
    Starting at $9.95 / month
    SSL included with all plans.
  • .COM Domain Name
    $20 / year
  • Copy Writing
    $100 / page
    Research and write 300-500 words of compelling and search engine friendly text.
  • Social Media Profiles
    $150 / profile
    Create social media profile, populate with basic info, and integrate with website
E-CommerceCopywritingWebsite HostingSearch Engines

Option One : Basic PayPal Cart

Basic PayPal powered shopping cart. Items for sale are displayed on a single page in your your site with drop-downs allowing selection of sizes and colors. Products, prices, inventory, customer info, shipping, and orders are all managed via PayPal website.

You will need to have a PayPal Business Account and provide us your PayPal login info.

Our Set Up charge is $300.

PayPal merchant rates are 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.

Option Two : Self Hosted

Full featured Woocommerce shopping cart installed within your own website. Benefits are that customers remain on your website so you own the customer data and control the shopping experience. We will customize the basic shop options, populate your product data for 5 products (images, text, prices, options), integrate shipping and payment options.

Our Set Up Charge is $600

Premium plugins with yearly software licenses are required to use some shippers or payment platforms, thus annual costs can range from $0 when using Paypal & Flat Rate Shipping to several hundred when selecting your own payment platform and getting real-time shipping quotes from multiple shippers. Other features may require premium plugins with annual license fees for updates.

Option Three : 3rd Party

Shopping cart hosted by Shopify.com 3rd party. Full featured and easy to use. Integrated payment platform and discounted shipping purchase and label printing.

You will need to signup for the trial at Shopify.com and provide your login details or assign us as a user. We will pick a free site theme, customize it’s available options, and populate your product data for 5 products (images, text, prices, options). We will also set up the shipping and tax options.

Our Set Up charge is $600.

Starting at $29 / month paid to Shopify

Shopify merchant rates are 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.

The job is to improve the conversion rate of your website

Words are the tools to do it.

Introduction

The design of your website has clearly been attended to by professionals and is way above industry standard. The copy needs to match that high standard. Only then will we be able to bring that conversion rate from the 1% range up to 3%+.

GETTING STARTED

Writing copy for your own business is frustrating.

Technically, you should be the best-placed person to do it; you speak to your customers every day, you’ve been in the industry for years.

So why is it that writing about your own business is so hard?

Turns out, your customers don’t need all the information you have in your head. They just need the right information.

It’s our job to:

  • Learn what your customers want
  • Extract the right information from you
  • Present it in a way that your customers want to read it

That process is far easier said than done which is where using a professional comes in.
There’s a method to this that has been crafted over the course of years in copywriting, persuasion and buying psychology.

Overview

This is a 4 week process which will leave you with not only world-class copy on your website and a conversion rate shooting through the roof, but you’ll gain an understanding of your customers that you’ve never had access to before. I’ve listed out the ‘battle plan’ below.

Customer Survey or Competitive Research

It’s absolutely vital we understand who we’re talking to before we begin. To do this, we will write a survey and get as many responses as possible. This will give us the answers we need. Typically we will create the survey and write an email for you to send to your list however you usually do.

This is the vital first step. If this isn’t done, it doesn’t matter how good of a copywriter you are, it’s simply impossible to write copy that anyone will respond to.

Website Copy

In our discussions, you highlighted that the pages you’d like re-written are:

  • Home
  • Your 4 landing pages

The objectives of these pages are pretty straight forward. Use the findings in the survey to establish the problems and desires and present them in a way that compels your visitor to take action and contact you.

The content of these pages should be as short as possible but as long as necessary to get the visitor to take action.

Customer Understanding

You can never truly have every piece of copy written by a professional. Assuming budget wasn’t an issue, you’d still have the issue of needing things done quickly. Having a clear understanding of your customers’ desires and some stock ways of explaining crucial elements of your service will be invaluable.

Copy is everywhere. In your emails, your social media posts, your private LinkedIn messages, your social profiles. None of which are you going to bother using a professional for but you’ll be able to confidently handle these yourself.

Timescales

It’s vitally important for your business and ours that we both stick to agreed timescales. Assuming that happens, it will take 3 weeks to complete.

The Process, step-by-step

The process of writing your copy is a delicate one. Following this process ensures that we have all the information we need to write the best copy possible.

Here’s the typical process, start-to-finish.

Step 1:

Figure out the phrases people use with a survey or competitive research

STEP 2:

Understand the tone you want to go with

STEP 3:

Create messaging hierarchy and tone template

STEP 4:

We email you suggestions and our findings

STEP 5:

First draft

STEP 6:

Send to you to review and go through it on a call.

STEP 7:

72hr reflection period to make suggestions

STEP 8:

Final edits and submission

Package Price / Month Disk Space Quota Monthly Bandwidth
Starter $9.95 1 GB 5 GB
Standard $19.95 5 GB 50 GB
Standard Plus $29.95 10 GB 100 GB
Professional $49.95 50 GB 500 GB

We provide a high performance managed Linux server environment fully dedicated to BoldWater clients. It has all the bells and whistles including email management, webmail, backups, one click application vault, database management, anti-spam, parked domains and more.

Add ons Price
Dedicated IP Address (per month) $2.00
Cpanel SSL Security Certificate (per year) INCLUDED
Additional Storage (per month) $3.00 / Gigabyte
Additional Bandwidth (per month) $5.00 / 10 Gigabytes

Web Hosting Terms of Use

Prices updated May, 2017

Your website will be built from ground up with Search Engine Best Practices around the content that is provided or developed for you.

We are not currently providing ongoing search engine marketing, link building, pay per click ad management, social media editorial.

Thank you for choosing Boldwater Innovations LLC to handle your projects. The following agreement specifies the terms and conditions of this project. Please review, sign and mail us this contract with your first payment. Please keep a copy of this agreement for your records. If you need a copy of the contract containing our signature, we will be glad to send one to you at your request. Please be advised that Boldwater Innovations LLC shall retain the original signed contract. Boldwater Innovations LLC shall send the client a copy of the original signed contract upon the client’s request.  If you have any questions about any item in this contract, please contact us, and we will try to help you better understand any provisions in this agreement.

Cutlass Crew Fishing Charters or Daniel Prochak in this legal contract is referred to as the “client”.

  1. Authorization.
    The above-named client is employing Boldwater Innovations LLC, a Limited Liability Corporation located at 3732 N US Hwy 1, Suite 3, Cocoa, FL 32956, for the specific project of Web Site Development. By signing this document, Client and Boldwater Innovations LLC, agree as to the legitimacy of this contract.
  2. Project Elements.
    Please review the approved Proposal and Estimate for the Project Scope and Fees.
  3. Payment of Fees.
    In order for Boldwater Innovations LLC to keep its rates low, payments must be made promptly. Bills will be deemed delinquent and assessed a $25 charge if payment is not received within 15 days after the due date. If an amount remains delinquent 30 days after its due date, an additional 2.5% penalty will be added for each month of delinquency. Boldwater Innovations LLC reserves the right to remove web pages from viewing on the internet until final payment is made. If case collection proves necessary, the client agrees to pay all fees incurred by that process.
  4. Initial Payment.
    Payment of the base fee will be made as follows: The total cost of the project will be made from the client in 2 payments in the amount of $for each payment. All payments should be made to Boldwater Innovations LLC 3732 N US Hwy 1, Suite 3, Cocoa, FL 32956
  5. Maintenance and Hourly Rate.
    This agreement includes minor webpage maintenance for the first 15 days after the website is completed, including updating links and making minor changes to a sentence or paragraph. It does not include drastic maintenance such as removing nearly all the text from a page and replacing it with new text.
    Changes requested by the client beyond those limits will be billed at the hourly rate of $125, with a one half hour minimum per update. If you believe that your website will need to be updated frequently, please contact us for pricing of maintenance packages.
    This rate shall also govern additional work authorized beyond the maximums specified above for services such as general internet orientation education, marketing consulting, webpage design, editing, modifying product pages and databases in an online store, photo editing, graphics services, and helping clients learn how to use their own webpage editor. Programming / Scripting charges are billed at the hourly rate of $125, with a one half hour minimum per update.
  6. Changes to Submitted Text.
    Please send us your finalized text. Time required to make substantive changes to client-submitted text after the web page has been constructed will be considered additional time and invoiced at the hourly rate of $125.
  7. Web Hosting.
    The Client is responsible for choosing, paying for, and maintaining any required Hosting solutions and associated services. If 3rd party hosting is used, BoldWater Innovations is NOT responsible for down time, poor performance, or loss of data caused by the Hosting Provider. Additionally, Boldwater Innovations is not responsible for any bug caused by changes on the Host after the Acceptance of this Contract, including but not limited to updates to operating system, compile systems, code libraries and languages, or any changes resulting from security violations.
    By selecting Boldwater Innovations LLC’s website hosting services, you agree to the terms listed here.
  8. Completion Date.
    Boldwater Innovations LLC and the client must work together to complete the project specified above in a timely manner. We agree to work expeditiously to complete the project.
    The client is responsible for supplying Boldwater Innovations LLC with complete text and the necessary items and graphics that are not developed by Boldwater Innovations LLC for the web pages in a timely matter. In the event that any aspect of this Contract is dependent on a separate third party or the Client’s in house team, the quality and punctuality of the Finished Product(s) may be subject to said party’s ability to meet the required timelines and/or level of quality. Boldwater Innovations LLC is not responsible for any delay or defect caused by separate third party or the Client’s in house teams.
    The client has 90 days within the date of this contract to supply all information necessary to complete the website. If after 90 days Boldwater Innovations LLC has still not received the information necessary to complete the project, then the client is in breach of contract and shall lose 40% of the full deposited amount.
  9. Assignment of Project.
    Boldwater Innovations LLC reserves the right to assign subcontractors to this project to ensure on-time completion.
  10. Limitation of Liability.
    The Client alone shall be responsible for: (a) the accuracy and adequacy of information and data furnished for processing; (b) any use made by the Client of the output of the Software or any reliance thereon; and (c) obtaining the required licenses and respect copyright for any and all third part assets including but not limited to fonts, media, and software. The Client shall also be responsible for the continued operation and maintenance of the computer equipment and third party software used with the Finished Product(s), and shall comply with all operational, environmental and maintenance recommendations and requirements of the applicable licensors, vendors and manufacturers.
    The Client agrees that any liability of Boldwater Innovations LLC relating to this agreement and the services performed shall be limited to the amount of fees actually received by Boldwater Innovations LLC, from the Client under this agreement regarding the services in question. In no event shall Boldwater Innovations LLC be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, cover, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages; any damages based on injury to person or property; or any lost sales, profits or data, even if the Client is told that any such damages may occur.
  11. Copyrights and Trademarks.
    The client represents to Boldwater Innovations LLC and unconditionally guarantees that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork furnished to Boldwater Innovations LLC for inclusion in the project are owned by the client, or that the client has permission from the rightful owner to use each of these elements, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend Boldwater Innovations LLC and its subcontractors from any claim or suit arising from the use of such elements furnished by the client.
  12. Laws Affecting Electronic Commerce.
    From time to time governments enact laws and levy taxes and tariffs affecting Internet electronic commerce. The client agrees that they are solely responsible for complying with such laws, taxes, and tariffs, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend Boldwater Innovations LLC and its subcontractors from any claim, suit, penalty, tax, or tariff arising from the client’s exercise of Internet electronic commerce.
  13. Copyright & Ownership to Webpage’s & Domain.
    Copyright to the finished assembled work of web pages produced by Boldwater Innovations LLC belongs solely and exclusively to the client upon final payment of this contract. Boldwater Innovations LLC is assigned rights to the use and the ownership of the website, design, graphics, and text contained in the finished assembled website and print templates. Rights to photos, graphics, source code, work-up files, and computer programs are specifically not transferred to the client, and remain the property of their respective owners. Any licensed software not developed by Boldwater Innovations LLC (such as CGI, Pearl, PHP scripts) may be owned by another software company that has granted Boldwater Innovations LLC the right to initiate it into the client’s website, and does not grant the client ownership of the script.
    Boldwater Innovations LLC and its subcontractors retain the right to display graphics and other Web design elements as examples of their work in their respective portfolios, unless otherwise specified by the client.
    The client retains ownership of the domain name(s) bought through Boldwater Innovations LLC after the invoice is paid in full. Boldwater Innovations LLC reserves the right to withhold property such as domain names and copyright ownership if the client is in debt to Boldwater Innovations LLC.
  14. Backups
    Boldwater Innovations LLC maintains internal backups of active project code and design files. This backup system is not intended as a solution for The Client, rather as a code archive through the duration of this Contract. While the Boldwater Innovations LLC backup system is fully redundant, it is not guaranteed and does not support any content produced by the Client. The Client is solely responsible for the Backup and Restoration of the Finished Product(s) and any associated data.
  15. Security
    Although Boldwater Innovations LLC makes every effort to provide secure Finished Product(s), due to the nature of rapidly advancing technology, Boldwater Innovations LLC can in no way guaranty that the Finished Product(s) will not be subject to security breaches. Boldwater Innovations LLC recommends the use of strong passwords and the observance of standard security practices. In order to minimize the chances of security violations, systems should be updated often. The Client is solely responsible for tracking software updates. Any updates during the life of or after the expiration of the Contract can be negotiated as an addendum to this Contract or as an additional Contract.
  16. Warranty
    Boldwater Innovations LLC will provide patches and bug fixes for any bugs or issues included in the scope of this contract reported within the grace period of no more than 30 days following the date of project completion as defined by the date the client signs off on the deliverables. All bug fixes outside of the project scope or after the grace period are the responsibility of the client.
    Hourly projects are NOT subject to warranty. Design and the placement, editing and arrangement of editorial content are NOT subject to warranty. Should further support be necessary, a support contract may be negotiated.
  17. Sole Agreement.
    The agreement contained in this “Website Design Contract” constitutes the sole agreement between Boldwater Innovations LLC and the client regarding the project outlined above and in the approved proposal. Any additional work not specified in this contract must be authorized by a written change order.
  18. Refund Policy.
    The client may halt work and request for a refund within 15 days of the date of this contract by mailing a certified letter to the Director of Boldwater Innovations LLC, 3732 N. US Highway 1, Suite 3, Cocoa, FL 32926. If at any time of the request for refund, work has been completed beyond the amount covered by the initial payment, the client shall be liable to pay for all work completed at the hourly rate of $125, which could result in higher fees then the quote prices given.
  19. Miscellaneous.
    This contract shall be governed by the substantive laws of the State of Florida without regard to conflict of law principles. The contract constitutes the entire understanding and agreement between the parties hereto and their affiliates with respect to its subject matter and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representatives, warranties and understandings of such parties (whether oral or written). No promise, inducement, representation or agreement, other than as expressly set forth herein, has been made to or by the parties hereto. This letter may be amended only by written agreement, signed by the parties to be bound by the amendment. Evidence shall be inadmissible to show agreement by and between such parties to any term or condition contrary to or in addition to the terms and conditions contained in this letter. This letter shall be construed according to its fair meaning and not strictly for or against either party.

Why do you use WordPress?

WordPress is open source content management software and currently powers around 25% of all websites on the Internet. The project is contributed to by tens of thousands of developers all over the world and is growing from strength to strength. WordPress allows us to develop flexible and customizable websites to modern standards and observes web development best practices. Furthermore the community of web developers that use WordPress reaches far and wide and allows us to tap in to this collective intelligence and bring that wealth of experience to your project.

Where is the website hosted?

Your website needs to be hosted by a hosting company that specializes in WordPress hosting. We can provide hosting for you or we can recommend options for high quality hosting from other companies.

Who do I call if something goes wrong with the website or I can’t figure something out?

Provided you subscribe to one of our ongoing website care plans, we will be your first point of call should something go wrong with your website. We will determine whether it is something the hosting company needs to fix something that is covered by your website care plan. We will provide training and links to tutorials to assist you in using your website once it is launched.

What happens after the website is launched?

Once your website is launched, we will provide 30 days of support to make sure any bugs have been ironed out and that you are confident using your new website. After this you will need to subscribe to one of our ongoing website care plans to make sure your website is looked after and maintained. These website care plans include updating your software, regular backups, security checks and making sure your website is online and open for business 24/7/365. More information on our website care plans is available upon request.

How long will it take to appear at the top of Google?

The time it takes for your website to appear on page 1 of Google depends on a number of factors. It depends on the search phrase people are using to find your website and the number of other websites that are also available for those search phrases. Nobody can truly say how long it will take for your website to appear at the top of search engine results pages (including people who actually work for Google), however there are a number of factors that can improve your chances. Building your website on WordPress is a good start as WordPress has some great Search Engine Optimization fundamentals built-in. Creating unique and interesting content on a regular basis for your website is also critical to increase your visibility amongst search engines. Launching your website and then forgetting about it is a surefire way to get lost amongst the noise.

We are happy to talk to more about your search engine strategy if we haven’t already.

How will I know if anyone is visiting my website?

We will install Google analytics software on your new website and show you how to log into your Google analytics account where you can see a wide range of statistics about your website including number of visits, page views than the amount of time people are spending on your website.

Once you subscribe to one of our website care plans you will also receive more detailed analysis about your website performance and recommendations on how to improve.

What happens if I want to add some features to the website while you’re building it?

Whilst we like to be flexible and responsive to your needs, we also like to deliver what we promise within the time frames and budgets we have allowed. If you ask us to add new features to your website while we are building it, will most likely ask why? If we all agree that your new request will help us achieve our objectives then we will be more than happy to oblige. If your new feature is something you would like to add to your website but is not directly tied to your original objectives then we will suggest to schedule it for a second iteration of the website once it has been launched. This will require a new proposal.