Digital and Social Media Emphasis
For my senior project, I built up a brand new life coaching business for my mother through website development and printed materials. For years, my mother has wanted to start a life coaching business so I helped her start out on a new digital website called Becky Schettler Coaching. This project entails building a brand style guide and a functional website that could handle the intake of clients and online payments. Additionally, I created printed materials to promote the brand offline whenever the opportunity presents itself.
The goal was to create a digital platform in which people who are seeking support through life coaching will be able to receive detailed information and connect with Becky through an online system. A full website with personal background, personalized blogs, and the ability to book and pay for services online will help people searching for an enriching life coach experience.
Throughout college, I’ve acquired experiences that helped me gather confidence in my digital skills. In this project, I want to push myself in what I can create for this new business. There were no rules or rubrics I had to follow. I kept my client in mind with each material I made and how it could be used for her benefit. I want her to end up with a digital system that she feels works for her and not against her goals.
The objective was to provide Becky Schettler Coaching with a product that can run on its own, both as a brand and as a business. The brand style guidebook provides Becky with a map of how to design her brand materials while the website attracts clients for the business, schedules clients, and collects payments before sessions.
How did I spend my time on this project?
Brand Style Guide
With frequent checkups with Becky, I created a brand style guide for her personal use. The book was printed out for her to use at her discretion. With the book at her side, it can help make design choices easier and maintain brand consistency. The book includes guidelines on logo usage, color palettes, typography, and details on other relevant visual elements. If she were to choose in the future, Becky could expand into more channels and use the book to help.
Printed Materials
I designed brochures that showcase the services that are offered in the Becky Schettler Coaching program. The brochures can be handed out at workshops or speaking events when she’s invited to participate. Finally, I created business cards that feature the brand’s logo and contact information, making it easy for potential clients to get in touch. Just like how business cards are traditionally used they can be handed out at events and shared between clients, a simple way to spread the word about the business.
Website
I designed and developed a fully functional website. After purchasing the appropriate domain name and a hosting plan through Bluehost, I began designing the site on WordPress. The brand style was completed before I had begun the website, so each design decision was made with the premade brand guidelines. The website is optimized for search engine rankings and searchability, with a blog section that features subjects that are relevant to the brand and engaging for the target audience. The blog topics include messages on resilience, mindfulness, and gratitude. A few images are royalty-free or permission was given to me to use them with proper credit given to the photographer on the site. A main feature of the website includes the ability to choose an option of services, schedule an appointment, and make an online payment in one place. Utilizing this feature included having to adjust the base code in order to transfer it to the site and fit with our brand guidelines.
Blogs
The blog is a place for attracting new clients through the search engine. Topics covered in the blog will be a range of health-related topics and materials that Becky focuses on in her lessons. To start out the blog, I ghost-wrote a few long-form blogs for Becky using a few stories that are based on her life. With the addition of search engine optimization, these blogs should be able to attract a new following of clients and customers.
Final Takeaways
At the start of this project, I wanted to see how I could challenge myself in what I could create. I wanted to push myself in creating materials and tangible products for a client, I foresaw that as being the most beneficial way to prepare myself for a future job. One of the hardest classes I took in my college career was a website programming class, while it was challenging I loved to see my progress into the final product. While making the website for Becky, I actually had to draw upon what it was that I learned in that class to make the site look presentable and execute her vision of the business. It was an incredible feeling that I was able to utilize a hard skill like coding to make the finished product. As I worked on the brand style guide, I recalled the knowledge I had learned about branding a business and the value of marketing a brand. In my discussions with Becky while developing the guidebook I was able to convey that information to her and we were able to identify the elements of her business that make her unique to others, along with identifying visual elements that enhance the message of her business.