Notes from Laura about site in progress
Hi Jeff, Allen and Avraham,
I basically hibernated all weekend away from the depressing news cycles and cranked this out. I think we can endlessly improve upon graphics, especially on the homepage, but for working infrastructure that is solid to launch version 1.0 this week, I think we are almost there and will definitely make your goal of one to two weeks.
Overview:
Here is access to the site in progress. It is 90% done and can launch within the week depending on how fast I get the rest of the items from you. As a reminder, I am building it at a third-party area on a site I am not using so that when the transfer comes it can be done hopefully in one day and you will not have any downtime moving from the old to the new hosting co. Please login here using guest access. When you get inside you will be on the back end of the website. Go to the top left corner and click on “visit site” and then everything will work just as a user would see it.
I need you to please focus on the content on the homepage, about page and donation page as that is stuff I don’t have much content for and there were so many iterations on your Google Docs it was hard to know what was written recently vs obsolete etc. Whenever possible I have included your original notes at the bottom of the page for your convenient reference and we will delete those notes later. I started you off with a ghost written About page version of my own inspired by Amcha Initiative. Just let me know how to change it to your preference.
I’m not crazy about the Home graphic but it can do for now. I prefer the narrower graphics like you see on the legal and media pages so that the user can access the menu more easily without having to page down. It’s a personal preference, so again, whatever you decide.
IMPORTANT: Please keep in mind the marketing side of things. And use keyword trails as much as possible so we can get found on the Internet amongst the other 103 organizations we are competing with for the acronym S.A.F.E. (See PR marketing notes below)
To save meeting time, I’m sharing a productive discussion with ChatGPT that highlights some PR & marketing considerations to keep in mind when writing copy that will be ranked well in search engines.
Some more in-depth notes for you now:
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About page
I am modeling this page after Amcha Initiative. They list only their founders and the backstory of why they created the organization, and do not list any board members or staff. I think that’s the way to go. People need to see at least one face so they know who they are donating to, and this also respects some team members’ wishes to remain behind-the-scenes. Win-win.
Jeff, this is a cute bio but kinda too showbiz. Instead of centering your family, I think you should center your credentials and the backstory of why you created S.A.F.E. Campus. IMHO 🙂 I’m also thinking of your family safety since a website is a pretty powerful presence online.
What is the official mission statement of S.A.F.E. Campus as written in your 501(c) 3 paperwork? It should go here.
Do you have a list of accomplishments I can put here? In the future, annual reports and any supporting materials that prove your analytic data driven worthiness to donors could all go here.
If you have copy for the types of volunteers you are looking for I can create that here, otherwise I can delete this page.
In the future whenever you are hiring you can put a Careers tab here as well.
If it’s easier, all of these pages can be version 2.0 and we can just put up a simple one pager this week.
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Homepage/banner notes:
Look at Home 1, not Home 2.
I’m not crazy about this banner, but I think it’s reasonably adequate for you to launch for now while we hammer out a better visual branding strategy for version 2.0. It is designed with marketing and calls to action in mind more than art, and heavily inspired, again, by the graphic from Amcha Initiative everyone likes.
While it’s tempting to think mostly in terms of feelings and aesthetics, the bottom line is that a website has one job, and that is to convert visitors into action takers, donors, etc. It should be catered to UX (user experience) so it functions seamlessly from their point of view. This means sometimes things may feel counterintuitive. This is why I like to trust analytics when decisions need to be made.
Since there are at least 103 organizations that use acronyms similar to S.A.F.E. Campus and the current website has no apparent presence in Google search results, I did some research to determine some of the best strategies before committing time consuming aesthetics to things that may or may not serve your goals.
Marketing and visibility considerations for search engines
In the interest of time, I had a “discussion” about this with ChatGPT to highlight all the things I would discuss in a meeting with you about this so you can efficiently read through this at your convenience to understand the underlying issues which should shape our decision making on this going forward. I think you will find this helpful and it will set a foundation for future discussions we have on this.
Please take 10 minutes to read this 3 phase PR, Visibility & Marketing strategy I have laid out with ChatGPT.
ChatGPT link
https://chatgpt.com/share/66720ab5-5695-4890-a86f-793bdef18db4
Phase 1 – getting the basic website up to get donations this week
Phase 2 – enhancing that website with additional items you really need and should have within 2 to 3 months
Phase 3 – all the synergistic collaborations we’ve been talking about between S.A.F.E. Campus, BIPACT and Jewish TV Channel.
Summary and next steps
Summary of requested actions from you:
- Read the PR visibility and marketing plan (chatGPT discussion) for tips on how to write your remaining copy so that search engines pick it up
- Prioritize Home page, About page and Donations page
- Re migration / launch date — Think about when would be the best time to take potentially two or three days off-line from the website including email if needed. We should be ready to launch within the next week, on my end at least.
- Please provide the links to your Stripe donation account as well as your MailChimp newsletter sign up
- Clarify what all the calls to action are on the website so buttons and other bullet points are consistent throughout the website. I will be making custom buttons that look nicer than the generic ones that are currently up. A.k.a. We must get clear what the 3-4 primary talking points / calls to action of the website are that should be repeated over and over and over so search engines grab it.
Please confirm the language you want to use across-the-board for the calls to action. Keep in mind the shorter the better since some of this needs to be placed on a button
Regarding the banner — once I am doing the *final final banner* I need to make sure it looks good across all devices, vertical and horizontal views of tablets, etc. At this time there will be discrepancies between horizontal and vertical view, PC and Mac, and desktop versus phone. Please know all of those will get ironed out once I have the final content and art solidified.
If you have graphics you want added to the site please upload them to the dropbox if possible or email to me in a very high resolution. I’ve created a dropbox with all of the images Allen gave me and I’ve collected. Most of the items I used from the site were Allen’s, things from your social media, and some Columbia stuff Victor gave me access to a while back.
Dropbox folder for S.A.F.E. Campus https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/esltnql3gjpfs868l185y/AFIxSMpwDa8WEqO3bKBrAD4?rlkey=5zj4teryx81sa0guoiy42ilx7&dl=0
Allen, if you have specific thoughts or strategies for visuals I’m available for a phone call tomorrow.
Lastly…
Can we get testimonials and pictures from the kids who are in the safe campus chapters? That would be very helpful. Version 2.0 maybe?
Re Contact Form – I’ve only made one contact form for version 1.0 before we migrate because there’s no point hooking it all up twice in the same week with emails that may soon be temporarily disconnected. Since contact forms are directly connected to email we need to determine if your email will stay where it is now or if I have to move it over. Either way, we can add more forms in version 2.0.
OK that should keep you guys busy for a while. 😉
Please pardon any typos. I’ve been working 12 hours days on this all weekend.
Talk soon.
Best,
Laura
🙂
PS if you only have time for one thing tonight, please focus on this page: https://www.mysafecampus.org/about/