Crystal_Journals_Marketing_Proposal

Crystal Journals 

MARKETING PROPOSAL 

PREPARED FOR: 

G. Rosemary Ludlow & Roland O. Loughhead - September 20, 2016

Table of Contents 

PAGE 1 

PAGE 2 

PAGE 3 

PAGE 6 

PAGE 9 

PAGE 10 

PAGE 17 

Message From Our Founder 

About 460 Communications 

Your 460 Team 

Pricing & Features 

Squarespace Fees 

Website Portfolio 

Social Media Portfolio 

460 COMMUNICATIONS INC.

Message From Our Founder 

Dear Ms. G. Rosemary Ludlow, 

Thank you for considering 460 Communications in your request for proposal. We are a full-service creative firm that takes a strategic 

approach to helping our clients achieve their varying organizational goals through a cohesive blend of marketing, communication 

and design. 

At 460 Communications, our team is equally passionate about working in the field of marketing and design, as we are about the clients 

we work with. We work closely with each and every one of our clients to ensure that their vision and voice are reflected throughout the 

materials we create. We also provide them with strategic advice as to how best to reach and engage with their target audience. 

We take our client relationships very seriously, and feel it is important for us to keep you informed and updated every step of the 

way. We find this to be the best way to ensure that we accomplish all of your goals and objectives, working together with you, instead 

of just for you. Our team is truly invested and passionate about helping our clients achieve success, and we are big fans of the 

organizations we work with. We would be grateful for the opportunity to add Crystal Journals to the 460 family. 

As our tagline states, our team is here to help you find your voice and share your story. We truly believe that each and every one of 

our clients has a unique story to tell, and we would be thrilled to have the chance to design your website and help tell your story. 

Should you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask. We look forward to speaking with you soon. 

Sincerely, 

Erin MacDonald 

Director, Communications & Strategy 

460 Communications 

460 COMMUNICATIONS INC. 460COMMUNICATIONS.COM PAGE 1

About 460 Communications 

460 Communications is a full-service creative firm that takes a strategic approach to helping our clients achieve their varying 

organizational goals through a cohesive blend of marketing, communication and design. 

Our team offers a wide range of expertise and capabilities, including graphic design, web design, social media, copywriting, video 

editing, photography and strategic planning. We have developed branding, marketing and digital campaigns for clients across a 

wide range of industries, including professional services, tourism, non-profit, small business, real estate, finance, government 

and First Nations. 

Although we only opened our doors in 2015, we have already begun to be recognized for our work. While winning awards is never 

our goal – client success is – we were very proud to be nominated in the category of Best New Business by the Greater Nanaimo 

Chamber of Commerce in 2015. Our founder and Director of Communications & Strategy, Erin MacDonald, was also nominated for a 

Top 20 Under 40 award, for her business and community achievements on Vancouver Island. 

We are honoured by the success we have achieved, and will continue to grow ourselves so that we can stay on the forefront of 

industry trends to deliver our clients the best experience possible. 


Your 460 Team 

ERIN MacDONALD 

Director, Communications & Strategy 

Recognizing the need for a full-service communications firm on Vancouver Island, 

Erin MacDonald founded 460 Communications in 2015. Prior to opening 460, Erin 

worked as a communications and social media freelancer, and also held positions 

with a number of companies, including work with: higher education, government, 

First Nations, non-profit, membership organizations, real estate, hospitality and 

trades. 

PRIMARY CONTACT 

Erin holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Vancouver Island University 

(VIU) with concentrations in Marketing and Management. She also has a Graduate 

Degree in Corporate Communications and PR from Seneca College, graduating from 

both programs with top honors. 

In addition to leading the team at 460 Communications, Erin continues to devote 

much of her time to assisting organizations that work to inspire positive change 

in the community. Currently, she sits on the board of directors for the Vancouver 

Island University Alumni Association and the Vancouver Island chapter of the 

Canadian Public Relations Society. She is also a past board member with the Young 

Professionals of Nanaimo. 


Your 460 Team 

DEREK BUCKINGHAM 

Graphic Designer 

Derek discovered his passion for graphic design during high school, and instantly 

knew he wanted to make it a career. After an incredible amount of hard work and 

perseverance, he was accepted to the Grant McEwan design program, where 

he excelled through their three-year program, obtaining a certificate in Design 

Foundations and a degree in Design & Digital Media in 2003. 

Over the years, Derek has developed a unique skill-set by working in a variety of 

industries, including newspaper, a boutique real estate marketing firm and has even 

provided laser-etched designs for a company that worked with granite, wood, slate 

and leather. 

After many years of living in Alberta, Derek decided that he wanted to move back 

to B.C. to be closer to family and friends. Prior to joining 460, Derek was offered a 

position with Impact Visual Communications, where he became a key member of their 

team. 

At 460, Derek brings a creative flair for industry leading graphics that our clients 

want. He continues to bring top quality design and customer service. With his 

extensive knowledge of design programs and his willingness to learn new things, he 

always brings something new to the table. He is a team player and is outgoing and 

friendly with clients. 


Your 460 Team 

SCOTT BOOTH 

Graphic Designer 

Drawn into the design field by way of a passion for illustration, Scott brings a broad 

skillset and a craftsman’s attention to detail to the 460 Communications team. 

Since graduating from VIU’s graphic design program in 2007, Scott has developed 

a wealth of experience, working in both the newspaper and signage industry before 

joining a creative firm. 

PRIMARY DESIGN CONTACT 

Prior to working at 460, Scott spent over two years working as a graphic designer at 

Impact Visual Communications, where he had the opportunity to work with a number 

of clients on a wide variety of projects, including 7-11, the Vancouver Island Short 

Film Festival, VIU’s Student Union, and the Stz’uminus First Nation. 

Whether working on established brands, or creating new identities from the ground 

up, Scott approaches every project with the goal of empowering his clients through 

positive and creative messaging. 



WEBSITE $2,500 - $4,000 

Upon reviewing your notes, our team has put together an initial 

quote for a new website that incorporates many of the features 

you listed. That said, in order to give you a more accurate picture 

of cost, we would recommend setting up a face-to-face meeting 

or phone call, so that we can better prioritize your needs and 

make recommendations as to which features you require on your 

site right away, and those that might be great as add-ons down 

the road. It would also be helpful for us to clarify how you will be 

utilizing each feature, as we feel that there are a few areas that 

could be streamlined to help simplify things and make your site 

more cost-effective. 

SQUARESPACE 

At 460 Communications, our team utilizes the Squarespace 

platform to build sleek and efficient mobile-friendly websites that 

pack a visual punch. We feel that Squarespace is a great fit for 

you, as the platform is extremely user-friendly and offers many of 

the custom features you need to connect, engage and share with 

your audience. 

Although Squarespace may not be as well known as its 

counterpart WordPress, there are a number of advantages to 

using this web-publishing platform. 

delays if you need to rely on a programmer to make changes. 

The beauty of Squarespace is that you do not need to have any 

coding knowledge to make site updates. You have everything 

at your fingertips you need to design, customize, publish and 

maintain a website in one place, with all the heavy lifting done by 

the system. 

We will provide you with a one-on-one tutorial to make sure you 

are comfortable navigating the site to make changes, and we also 

have a number of resources, including our 460 Communications 

YouTube channel, where we provide web tutorials that our clients 

can use for additional help. 

Squarespace offers a range of beautiful templates and cover 

pages to choose from. Every design automatically includes a 

mobile version that matches the overall style of the theme, 

providing the end-user a seamless look regardless of the device 

the site is being viewed on. The only browser that we cannot 

guarantee at this point is Pale Moon, as we have never tested a 

site on that platform. This is not a commonly used browser, so 

depending on whether or not there is a specific reason the site 

needs to be supported on it, it may be nothing to worry about. We 

can continue to research this option, but for now, we do know that 

Squarespace does support: 

The key advantage of using Squarespace to build your site over 

WordPress is ease of use. Website updates and maintenance 

can be a complex and onerous task, and can lead to lengthy time 

Chrome supported for PC, Mac & Linux 

Firefox supported for PC, Mac & Linux 

Safari supported for Mac 

Microsoft Edge Supported for PC 

Internet Explorer Supported for PC 



Your social media channels can be easily integrated into the 

site design, along with a blog, podcast and subscription to your 

monthly newsletter. Given the visual nature of Squarespace, a 

video gallery would also be an easy fit. 

In addition to the features outlined above, we have determined 

that Amazon can be integrated directly into your site. We are still 

researching the additional sales sites you mentioned to determine 

whether or not Squarespace has a compatible plug-in, but if not, 

we can always provide a direct link to the sales site from your 

page if that is a suitable alternative. 

We will also need to do a bit more research into the crystal star 

highlighting feature, along with the integration of a QR code. For 

both of these features, we require some clarification as to how 

they are being utilized in order to determine the right solution for 

your site. 

Aside from the features listed above, your site architecture would 

include a welcome page, bio page, news page, contact page, a 

page that highlights speaking engagements with a link to an 

online calendar, a product page to showcase your available and 

upcoming books, an activities page, educators page, giveaway 

section and an area for testimonials. We feel that some of this 

content can be combined and streamlined into the same section 

to help simplify your site, but that can be further clarified once we 

have discussed this in more detail. 

YOUTUBE GRAPHICS $350 - $400 

Our team can easily develop a graphic for YouTube, or any other 

social media channel required. We have built a number of these 

for past clients, so we are aware of the specifications that each 

platform has. 

ILLUSTRATION $2500 - $5000+ 

We do offer illustration services at 460 Communications, 

ranging from photorealistic photoshop montages, to brush and 

ink traditional illustration. Having looked at the two provided 

examples that were sent, we are concerned that we could not 

achieve the painted style of illustration as cost efficiently as 

someone whose primary focus is painted illustration, or a digital 

simulation of a painted style. Our hourly rate for illustration is 

$100 per hour, and to achieve the painted look of a custom cover 

to the standard set by Jon Forrest with his impressive cover for 

Museum of Thieves, we estimate that the cover would take at least 

48 hours. If we were to do the full illustration, the painted effect 

would be a digital simulation of a painterly effect. We feel that you 

would probably be able to source a more economical option for 

your illustration work. 

If the illustration could be executed in a brush and ink style, 

similar to the style of artwork that we have produced for the 

Vancouver Island Short Film Festival, we could produce covers for 

$2500. 


Q&A 

There are a few more questions that you had with regards to the 

website that we have not yet addressed. We have broken those 

down in a Q&A format below: 

WHO OWNS WHAT? 

You will retain ownership of the website, as you would be paying 

for the hosting services. However, 460 Communications retains 

the copyright to the site design, which means that we can utilize 

it in our portfolio and on our promotional materials. This simply 

protects us from having other designers claim it as their own work. 

CAN CONTENT BE MOVED TO ANOTHER SITE OR HOST? 

The simple answer is, yes and no. You retain ownership of your 

website and domain, and while content can be moved to another 

Squarespace template, it cannot be transferred to Wordpress or 

another site builder. 

WHAT RESOLUTION/SCREEN SIZE WOULD YOU 

RECOMMEND? 

We scale all images to the required resolution, and the site is 

designed to be responsive, so there is no need to worry about 

reformatting based on screen size. 

CAN YOU PROVIDE EXAMPLES OF SEO? 

It is important for websites to be written with Search Engine 

Optimization (SEO) in mind, as your rankings in the search engine 

are heavily dependent on the quality of your web copy. Our team 

takes the time to research the keywords that will communicate 

and convert to sales. 


Squarespace Fees 

RECOMMENDED SQUARESPACE PACKAGE 

EXPANDED SQUARESPACE PACKAGE 

$ 

12 $ 

18 

PERSONAL 

A beautiful, simple website. 

BUSINESS 

More robust features for when 

you are looking to grow your site. 

PER MONTH BILLED ANNUALLY 

OR $16 MONTH TO MONTH. 

(SQUARESPACE PRICES 

ARE IN U.S. DOLLARS) 

20 Pages, Galleries, and Blogs with 

Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage, 

and 2 Contributors 

Mobile-Optimized Website 

PER MONTH BILLED ANNUALLY 

OR $26 MONTH TO MONTH. 

(SQUARESPACE PRICES 

ARE IN U.S. DOLLARS) 

Unlimited Pages, Galleries, and 

Blogs with Unlimited Bandwidth and 

Storage, and Contributors 

Mobile-Optimized Website 

Powerful Website Analytics 

Powerful Website Analytics 

Free Custom Domain 

with annual purchase 

Free Custom Domain 

with annual purchase 

24/7 Customer Support 

24/7 Customer Support 

Fully Integrated E-Commerce 

Fully Integrated E-Commerce 

Sell Unlimited Products & Accept 

Donations 

Sell Unlimited Products & Accept 

Donations 

3% Sales Transaction Fee 

2% Sales Transaction Fee 

Professional Email from Google 

$100 Google AdWords Credit 

Features and pricing are set by Squarespace & are subject to change without 

notice. Click here to see current packages and features available. 


Websites 

DONNAKLOCKARS.CA 


Websites 

LKLIMPORTS.CA 


Websites 

TLA-O-QUI-AHT.ORG 


Websites 

YPNANAIMO.COM 


Websites 

WWW.SUNRISEVET.CA 


Websites 

VITA-CARE.CA 


Websites 

AVENTUREREALTY.CA 


Social Media 


Social Media 


Social Media 


460COMMUNICATIONS.COM 

PHONE 250.591.4601 TOLL FREE 855.278.5924 

202 - 1551 Estevan Road, Nanaimo, BC V9S 3Y3 

info@460communications.com 

Member of the 460 Group of Companies:

Crystal_Journals_Marketing_Proposal

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