Your website is often your first impression. We build websites that tell stories, improve reputation, change minds, and activate users.
STATS
46% of users reported ‘lack of message’ as the main reason they leave websites.
Website visits from mobiles made up for 61% of all visits to US websites in 2020.
48% of people said that web design was the number 1 way they determine the credibility of a business. It only takes 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion of your website.
On average internet users in the US visit over 130 web pages per day.
Your website is critical to your organization. Companies, industry associations, charities, unions, NGOs, and coalitions trust spark* to design, build and maintain their websites everyday. It might be the hub for your members, the platform for your message, the place where your audience can engage. We build websites that deliver, and delight, affordably.
Beautiful + Functional
Our websites are designed to attract the right attention. They are also designed to provide what you need today and grow with you. We focus on bringing together the best visual elements and best in class technology so that your website looks the part and delivers the message, yet is easy to edit.
Your website is a critical tool for communications, advocacy and engagement, we know that and have the experience to help you elevate it.
Websites that grow with you
A good website is one that delivers value today, and is scalable enough to meet your needs tomorrow. We work closely with you to build a website that is forward looking, not just a reskin of your current content. Our goal is always to build your site into something that you can do more, better things with today and into the future.
Ease of Use
Our websites are easy to use inside and out. We build using industry best practices and leverage modern Content Management Systems (CMS) to deliver a web experience that is both effective and visually striking — as well as easy to edit and evolve over time, without the need for code or special developer skills.
From simple interfaces that automate tasks like photo cropping and text formatting, to giving you the flexibility to layout pages the way you want without having to pick every colour or font. We build sites that are easy to use, give you creative freedom, and help lift some of the burden of keeping your website up to date.
Wordpress, Drupal, CraftCMS, we are not fussy about platforms.
For us, the best tool is the one that best gets the job done. We have extensive experience with legacy platforms like WordPress and Drupal, and a tonne of experience with modern solutions like CraftCMS. We have used turnkey solutions like SquareSpace and Webflow, and we have built from scratch some really effective solutions.
What we use versus what we recommend always stems from our experience and understanding of your needs. You’ll always get our best recommendations.
Our Process
Building a new site or refreshing an old one can be daunting. Often there is old content that has to be wrangled. Multiple stakeholders each with their own vision for the homepage, and a target audience or members who are unhappy with what's there now.
Our process will help you unpack all of that and focus on the "why" and "for whom" so that the final result is something that everyone around the table supports and feels empowered by.
Maintenance & Hosting
Welcome to flexible, hassle-free, hands-off hosting! For us, hosting needs to be simple, effective and reliable. As a result, our hosting offering is much more bespoke and flexible than most companies whose sole business is hosting. Chances are we’ll meet your needs, and budget.
In addition, websites are technical. They need updating, patching, security checks, and regular maintenance to keep things running smoothly. When you build your site and host with us, we take care of all of that for you. Just part of the service.
Every website we build comes with 1 free year of hosting, and with our hosting comes all the technical support your website needs to keep humming along safely and securely.
Have your own hosting provider or IT infrastructure? No problem. We will never hold your website hostage — we'll help facilitate the transfer of your site to a 3rd party host if you require, or give you the files and database (if applicable) so that you can host that site somewhere else.
Websites we've built:
Native Women's Association of Canada
The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) was looking to take an old Wordpress website and completely rethink and revamp it. spark* worked closely with project leaders and internal stakeholders to understand the needs of the organization and the goals they had as an organization. The resulting site was designed and built from the ground up to be highly and easily editable with minimal to no coding expertise.We worked closely with the NWAC comms team to develop a novel way to display the depth of material on their site in a clever and engaging way. The site is hosted with spark* and handles hundreds of visitors per week, and at peak times handles hundreds of visitors per day, without issue.
Canadian Chamber of Marine Commerce
https://www.marinedelivers.com...
The Canadian Chamber of Marine Commerce (CMC) needed a new website that not only simplified and focussed their advocacy message but also had a member-only section where CMC members could access customized dashboards with internal content and messaging. Today the website which is hosted with spark*, handles hundreds of visitors per week and helps CMC build the relationship with their member organizations.
Ottawa Board of Trade: "Build Up Ottawa"
buildupottawa.ca
The Ottawa Board of Trade (OBOT) was looking to develop a campaign the help raise important issues for Ottawa businesses during the municipal election. spark* helped create an advertising campaign around “Build Up Ottawa” — part of this campaign was to quickly built a website that could house the campaign materials, but also be responsive to candidate announcements and the needs of the business community during the course of the election. The site was designed, built and deployed very rapidly and was robust in handling strong traffic during the election and is hosted with spark*
Mark Sutcliffe Campaign Website
marksutcliffe.ca
spark* was the solve provider of web services to the successful campaign to elect Mark Sutcliffe as Ottawa’s newest mayor in 16 years. With speed and flexibility, spark* designed and built a website that was easy to navigate, edit and update, and displayed information in a logical and engaging way. The site evolved as the campaign progressed, and saw immense traffic over the course of the election. Hosted with spark*, the site at peak was easily handling several thousand visitors per day (several hundred per hour) to deliver critical information to the electorate, while providing critical services like supporter engagement and online campaign donation management.
We build websites better. Contact us to see how we can help you and your organization.