Progressive Accounting LLC
Role: Web design, Copywriting
View Live: progressiveaccountingllc.com
Platform: Squarespace
This tale is of a freelance web designer who pushed himself to his limits — and it paid off!
Mark Drinkwater of Progressive Accounting LLC in Salem Massachusetts came to me during tax season and said he needed to get his site up within the next week. I had never designed a site in such a short amount of time, but I’m not one to shirk away from a challenge.
Step 1: Creating a color palette
The first thing I did was create a color palette that would look good with his logo.
The color palette is simple but it works!
Step 2: Tagline writing
Next, he needed a tagline. I read his bio to find out what was unique about him. He presents himself as an emotionally intelligent guy who is there to make your life easier. I started writing a tagline about less stress during tax season. As I looked over my ideas, I realized that there is something even more important to people than less stress: Saving money. Saving money is the prime motivator for anyone going to a tax professional, and less stress is secondary.
After a few minutes of brainstorming, I had my tagline: “Maximize your tax savings.”
I copied the font of the logo and slapped the tagline onto the landing page.
Step 3: Landing page design
It was now time to build the rest of the landing page. I knew I wanted to give the feeling of relaxation. What’s more relaxing than lying on the beach? It’s a bit corny, but it works. I licensed a photo of a person lying on the beach and uploaded it to the background. The subject of the photo is right in the center, so that was my cue to center other elements of the website. I centered the tagline on the middle of the page. I then added a call-to-action button right below the tagline. Boom. The first section of my landing page was done.
Step 4: Navigation design
Now that I had my landing page, I could design the navigation. As the page was centered, I wanted to center the navigation as well. I put his logo in the middle, the page titles to the left, and the call-to-action to the right. I made the background transparent so the sky extends to the top of the page.
I then used custom code to add a second level of navigation with quick links for customers to call and email him.
The results weren’t half bad!
Step 5: Completing the landing page
Now to figure out what to put on the rest of the landing page. I added his photo and bio, a testimonial, a list of his services (I normally design the icons myself but I didn’t have time), links to his recent blog posts, another testimonial, and a final call to work together. His blog didn’t have a title, so I named it “Ask a Tax Expert.”
Step 6: Complete the other pages.
The other pages were fairly straightforward to design. He had a great photo of his office, which I used on the about page.
I even had time to create some responsive tables for the pricing page using custom code.
Step 7: Show the client
In just 24 hours, I had a complete website. Now I had to show the client and see what he thought. He was thrilled with it. His response:
“You are super talented. I can't believe how fast you put this together.”
He had a few additions, and after another day of work, the site was launched! He wrote me a wonderful testimonial.
“Sonny did a phenomenal job building a website for my tax business. I was in a real bind, having hired another company before engaging Sonny. I was a month into tax season and my site was still not launched, so I brought Sonny onto the project. Within 24 hours, Sonny had completely overhauled the look and feel of the site, designing something that totally surpassed my expectations. Even my marketing consultant was amazed by their work. Sonny was very responsive throughout the process and showed great attention to detail, with all of the little tweaks I requested. I highly recommend them for any web design project!”
I was thrilled that I was so spot on with what he wanted, as I don’t always get it right on the first try.
I kept in touch with Mark to make sure the website was working as intended. After 9 months, I received the best email I could possibly imagine.
“The site has been great! Lately there’s been a lot of traffic from Salem residents finding me on Google, to the point that I am planning to hire a virtual assistant next tax season to help me field all the inquiries.”
Amazing!
You can view the full site here.