Niki Wanner Grant Solutions

Niki Wanner Grant Solutions

OVERVIEW

Niki Wanner Grant Solutions is a trusted grant advisor and writer who works closely with high-impact nonprofits to increase proposal win rates and diversify grant funding.

DESIGN STARTS WITH STRATEGY

Niki’s brand and website project started off with our Power Plan, a 90-minute Zoom call deep-dive interview into your business where we discuss everything — where you’ve been, where you are, and where you want to go and why.

We researched her industry, keywords, competitors, and target audience of nonprofits and strategized service offerings.

The main difference between her writing and consultancy services is the two types of grants: foundation (private) and government (public) grants, which have unique needs. This needed to be highlighted on the website and although similar, the services have different prices and timelines due to the more intensive nature of government grants.

GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE

After Niki decided on her business name and purchased her URLs (we suggested she also buy her name nikiwanner.com, which forwards to her company name and primary domain wannergrantsolutions.com), we connected the custom domain to her new Google Workspace account.

We then set up and verified her Google Business Profile listing, added the most relevant consultant category, and advised her on how to fill out the profile and get reviews.

CONTENT WRITING

Since we have years of experience working with nonprofit clients, writing consultancies, and writing for websites, we wrote most of the page content while working on the design in tandem.

And since Niki is a writer, she assisted with additional content for her bio, services, processes, and details. Good, relevant content is essential to help businesses build authority and establish a core audience.

As a design element, we highlighted “You” throughout the site to capture the attention and connect with nonprofits. Creating an emotional connection with the target audience, presenting a meaty subject clearly without drowning readers in jargon, and getting readers to take action (book a call, for example) are primary goals of website copywriting.

In addition to on-page copy, we wrote keyword-specific page titles and meta descriptions to help her new business rank higher in search engines.

CUSTOM BRAND PHOTOGRAPHY

Since Niki is a solopreneur and will be working with clients 1:1, personal brand photography was necessary to garner trust online.

She worked with a local photographer to schedule, plan and shoot photos at her home office. We provided a brand photography and power pose guide with fashion colors, shot lists, and posing tips.

The guide helped Niki choose clothing that would tie into the site design we had in mind, let the photographer know what we were looking for, and helped plan the shoot day with location and outfit swaps.

For websites, it’s helpful to get photos taken in landscape and portrait aspect ratios, with the subject in the middle and off to the side. We assisted with choosing our top selects, and the photographer provided light editing and retouching.

We love having as many photo options as possible! And now, potential clients can see who Niki is, what she’s about, and how friendly she is to work with through the photos.

BRAND IDENTITY DESIGN

We started with varied concepts for her logo, using her initials N and W to create different shapes and icons. We also played around with the shapes behind the monogram, using circles and watercolor blotches to show depth and texture.

Ultimately, Niki decided on a simple monogram, which utilizes the same bold and colorful palette we have on her website! Check out our logo case study to learn more about our design process and see the concepts that didn’t make the cut!

LEAD MAGNET

We designed a “lead magnet” for Niki on her website: “The Shortest Guide Ever to Winning a Foundation Grant.” A lead magnet is a free piece of authoritative content in exchange for their contact details. It helps build an email list of invested and interested people in your business.

It takes the 25 years of lessons that Niki has learned and breaks them down into nine quick tips. Inside the guide, it links to her appointment scheduler and additional grant resources to provide more info and be helpful.

You can download the guide on Niki’s website after entering your email address to join her mailing list.

WEB DESIGN, BUILD, AND APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING

The website design and build focused on best practices, elevating Niki’s online presence and establishing a solid foundation for business growth by incorporating business strategy, custom writing and photography paired with recolored stock illustrations.

We highlighted her extensive background in grant writing, her story, the clients she’s worked for, and the impressive revenue results she’s gotten over the last 25 years.

We added FAQs, which she can add to as her business matures, and a blog page (with a custom sidebar on the posts pages) to share her knowledge and boost her organic SEO and online reach.

In the design, we incorporated custom icons, background paper textures, and colorful gradient buttons to match her logo icon. The site is filled with call to action to learn more about her professional grant writing and consultancy services and to book a time to talk.

We set up and trained Niki on Squarespace’s add-on appointment scheduler, Acuity, to help her get paid for her time consulting clients. We created specific appointment types, set scheduling page limits, customized scheduling page links, synced third-party calendars, customized the scheduler appearance, created custom intake forms per appointment type, connected payment processors, and customized the email templates with her logo.

Clients can book a time to chat with her directly on her site and see the time and cost investment for her discovery call services.

We’re confident Niki’s new website will get great results to build trust and increase revenue.