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How can a website help me if I get all of my business by word of mouth?

As a service or trade business that does a great job, you might be struggling to keep up with demand from word of mouth referrals. It can be tempting to take the foot off the gas on marketing when you’re flat out on the tools — but before you make any hasty decisions, it's important to understand the value that your website is delivering to your business....

How we prioritise building new features at Rocketspark — a little behind the scenes

Have you ever requested a new feature from a software company and wondered if your idea fell into a black hole? We get it, the process can feel a bit like throwing a coin into a wishing well and hoping for the best....

Women / wāhine in creative industries and what it means to celebrate International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is a day for celebration - of our achievements and the impact we make on the world around us - it is also a day to contemplate and take action on the change we want to see. And to mark this year’s IWD, we spoke to three accomplished wāhine to hear their stories of careers, collaboration and community, as well as how they have overcome challenges faced on their journey....

10 creative ways to use Accordions on your website to improve user experience

Accordions are a versatile and useful tool in modern web design, with a variety of applications across different industries. From showcasing frequently asked questions and services to presenting policies and project phases, Accordions can help improve user experience and engagement. With Accordions, content is organised into collapsible sections, which not only makes it more accessible for visitors but also keeps your website clutter-free and visually appealing. In this article, we'll explore so...

Introducing Accordions: A simple solution for comprehensive website content

Get ready to take your website’s user experience up a notch with our latest web design feature—Accordions! These sleek and modern design elements provide a simple solution for comprehensive website content. By simply clicking, visitors can expand or collapse sections of your website's content, making it a breeze to find the information they need. Whether you’re a small business owner, e-commerce enthusiast or blogger, Accordions are a game-changer for improving your website’s functionali...

Upcoming web design trends 2023

We caught up with Tyron (Designer) and Jeremy (Head of Product) at Rocketspark to see what they think the upcoming website design trends are for this year. We discussed eight upcoming web design trends for you to keep an eye out for heading into the year. ...

Invite your team to collaborate on your website—and choose what they can do

Have you ever wanted to invite your team to collaborate on your Rocketspark website but didn’t want to share your own personal top secret password? Now you can! You can also set what permissions your teammates have, so you can rest assured knowing Jared from accounts won’t be changing your fonts to lime Comic Sans ever again!...

Should I have a one page website?

There’s lots of reasons to love a one page website. They’re simple, straightforward and require minimal maintenance. But we do recommend using them cautiously, as there are also quite a few areas they can let a business down, in quite a big way (particularly when it comes to SEO).  So if you’ve been wondering whether a one page website is suitable for your business, let us quickly take you through the downsides of one page websites and the exceptions. Then you can make an informed dec...

Rocketspark X Picky: Market Dips & Image Marketplaces

As we move towards the final push of the year, client budgets are getting tighter yet demand for exceptional and effective creative is higher than ever. The team at Aotearoa’s stock image marketplace, Picky, chatted to us on how adding crafted, local and authentic stock images to your design mix, will not only work within your budget, but help you build beautiful and high performing websites for your Clients. ...

Announcing new design controls for beautiful websites fast

At Rocketspark we are focussed on helping you design beautiful websites fast. As a step towards that vision, we are thrilled to announce a batch of new design and layout features....

Edit text in context and design faster, with Rocketspark’s new text editor

At Rocketspark we are focussed on helping you design beautiful websites fast. As a step towards that vision, we’ve introduced a new text editor which will revolutionise the way you edit text on Rocketspark. This feature is a move away from the pop-up text block and a move towards editing your text in-context and in real time. This will make your design process faster, by seeing your beautiful typography adjust in real-time and see your website design come to life. With that, we are pleased to ...

Introducing Saved Brand Colours to design beautiful websites faster

We have created a feature which will allow you to improve your workflow and design beautiful websites faster. We are excited to introduce — Saved Brand Colours. This feature lets you save all your client's brand colours as swatches. You can then automatically update and reuse them in other places on the website. This way, you can manage all your brand colours in one place. Plus, you can control which colours your clients can use after you finish the project....

Assign images to product options—online shopping decision-making made easy

Do you have an ecommerce store that sells products in different sizes, colours or patterns (to name a few)? Do you want your customers to see the image that correlates to each product option you have on offer? Well, we are pleased to say, now you can. Introducing Rocketspark’s new ecommerce feature—assign images to product options. ...

Announcing—The Announcement Bar

Have you ever wanted to add a banner above your header to draw attention to key messages to your website visitors? Well, now you can. We are excited to announce the launch of the Announcement Bar. The Announcement Bar will allow you to engage your website visitors by communicating key information shown on every page of your site. This means you can be seen by your audience, drive action with a clear call to action and link, is versatile across an array of industries and is optimised for mobile! ...

Rocketspark Academy—online courses for business and web design best practices.

Loving and excelling in creativity and design is something you’ve either got or something you don’t. And you’ve got it—wahoo! But as many designers well know (and have experienced), making a living from that talent and passion requires a very, very different skill-set. Not only do you have to start the business, get clients, patch together some processes, but eventually you have to create and sustain a profit margin..all while maintaining work-life balance. ...

Customer Success Vision with Carlos

Today we caught up with Carlos, our Head of Customer Success and he talks us through his role, and what his vision is for Rocketspark’s Customer Success team for the new year. ...

The 5 technical elements you need to know to design websites for clients.

Graphic designers, Marketers, VAs, just like you, are designing portfolio worthy websites that get results for their clients, without writing a single line of code, or being ‘tech-y’ people.  The reality is, most businesses don’t have complex website needs that require the skills of a web developer (coding wizard). Restaurants, mechanics, boutiques, bakeries, schools, tourism attractions and so on, actually only need basic tech — the value for them is in well written content and...

How to optimise your SEO

You might be the best at what you do, but if no one can find you online, who is going to care? In this edition of Reel Talk with Jason Tiller, Rocketsparks Head of Partnerships, we cover what Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is, why you should care about it, and how you can use it to help your business....

Taking control of your Header—Introducing: Full-width Header, Header Overlay, Header Button, and Blank Template

Gone are the days when you needed to start building a website from a pre-designed template. Now with the new Blank Template option, you can start afresh on a blank canvas where the header isn’t tied to a pre-designed template. You can have beautiful full-width headers that utilise the full width of the browser and choose different header layouts, getting your creative juices flowing. Design freedom is further granted with the introduction of the Header Overlay with the first Stack below Header...

How to use line height and letter spacing effectively in web design

Line height and letter spacing are equally as important as typeface when it comes to making written content look good. In fact, if text is hard to read and not broken down into manageable chunks it can distract from the content all together, decreasing engagement and confidence in website visitors....

Two new integrations to streamline your shipping—Starshipit & eShip

As an online store owner, the process of printing address labels, packing slips, courier barcodes, booking pickups, and sending orders can take up a lot of time.  Rocketspark has now joined forces with Starshipit, to provide Rocketspark merchants with a direct integration where order details are sent automatically to Starshipit in a time-saving way to streamline the whole shipping process. If you’re a NZ Post customer, you can also connect eShip with your Rocketspark online store through...

Mailchimp wiz explains the importance of email marketing

Debbie Mills Robertson, email marketing, newsletter, online course planning and website creation specialist has owned three businesses and worked in a lot of different industries over the years.  She has used her combined skills to become Task Diva, her current business and passion. Read on to learn how she has shaped her current business and why she believes email marketing is key for online marketing. Debbie ran her first business with her husband, a small construction company, but they e...

Want world class creatives at your fingertips? Of course you do!

Rocketspark’s CEO and co-founder Grant Johnson says that when the opportunity arose to purchase The Freelance Village, he was drawn to how well both businesses aligned. And ultimately, he saw the potential to enhance what each organisation was currently offering as a service.  “We have many customers who not only need a beautifully functioning website, but also content and imagery to go with it, and perhaps ongoing marketing support. “So with The Freelance Village’s curate...

Top money tips for freelancers

Money, as awkward as it can be to talk about, is part of business and an important part, at that! In this edition of Reel Talk with Jason Tiller, Rocketspark Head of Partnerships, we cover how you can be smart when it comes to charging people, how you can keep hold of your retainer clients and whether you are charging enough for your business....

Varntige, normalising doing good

For one day out of every year a local Waikato business closes its normal doors in order to open themselves up to community work. When Chantelle Good started Varntige six years ago, it was with the simplest of missions: to help business owners be happier and less stressed while running their growing businesses. Chantelle said she didn’t get into business just because she wanted to make money.  “Having a business and a team, for me, is about providing a good service and being able to give...