Fameflower Farm hired Agnes Anne to develop a marketing plan and to design and refresh their website to promote their new book, Get Growing! The initial brief was a page for the book that fit with the website’s current look, and to redesign the blog for cohesion. Based on the marketing plan, the book page would need several sections that could be linked for promotions.
Get Growing! and Gardening Landing Pages
During the initial strategy call, Fameflower Farm requested a landing page for their newly published book. With the pre-order sales already in full swing, it was important to get a page up and running as quickly as possible for promotion. That meant creating a page that blended in with the website’s current design.
Based on the marketing strategy, several sections were decided upon and created. The intent is not only to market the book but also its author and Master Gardener, Sara Chodl. The page includes sections with brief descriptions of the book Get Growing! A Young Homesteader’s Guide to Edible Gardening, links to purchase the book, author bio, events & workshops, and a Pay it Forward option.
We used pre-existing fonts, colors, and photos for the design of both the Get Growing! page and Gardening page.
We soon realized that supporting the Get Growing! page also meant a general Gardening page should also be created for the farm. Sara has a large following on social media where she regularly posts about gardening, and it only made sense to create a gardening space on their website. The Gardening page was created by duplicating the Forest Pork page, writing SEO-friendly copy to mimic the content typically posted, and using photos they already had available.
Left: Gardening Page Right: Get Growing! book promotion page
Blog Post Refresh & Templates
Once we dug into the individual post pages, we realized that each was created with different formats, code, and WordPress builders. We meticulously updated each page to ensure cohesive fonts, spacing, image sizes, and improved design.
The following edits were made to each post:
- Removed the sidebar and set the post to full-width
- Updated the design of the header and moved the affiliate link above the header so as not to break up the header and body
- Added a Similar Articles section at the bottom that links to additional posts within the same category
- Increased the size of the images
- Improved the header structure and indentation on lists
- Improved the meta-descriptions and meta-titles on the backend
- Added a featured image
Each section of the posts was then templated using Divi Builder, which was already installed on the website. The templates will help the site owner easily add additional posts with the same design.
Left: Former Post Layout. Right: New Post Layout
Posts Page Refresh
Updating a posts page can be challenging in WordPress, depending on the theme you already have installed. In this case, the posts page needed significant custom code to create the final look.
For a more cohesive UX design, we made the following changes to the posts page layout:
- Added a header with the same style as the other pages
- Removed the sidebar
- Changed the layout to full-width
- Centered the search bar below the header and updated the design
- Updated each blog post with a featured image
- Reduced the image size and floated the image to the left
- Removed the black box at the bottom of the page
Left: Former Post Page Layout Right: New Post Page Layout
Client Feedback & Conclusion
Fameflower Farm was extremely happy with the final look of all the new and updated pages on their website. Give them a follow on their social media, and you might see additional updates to their website being promoted.
Sara Chodl’s book is out now and ready for purchase. You can get your copy on the Sawdust Publishing website.
If you’re looking to promote your book or refresh your website, reach out to Agnes Anne for a free consultation.
