Website Re-Design & Development Request for Proposals

June 12, 2016

Website Re-Design & Development Request for Proposals

This RFP is for design and development services for a new website for pawilds.com

RFP Sent: June 8, 2016

Intent to Respond Due: June 22, 2016 (COB)
Responses Due: July 5, 2016 (COB)

Send any questions on the RFP to: Abbi Peters, Program Director, [email protected]

Send proposals to: Abbi Peters, [email protected]

Budget for new website: $20,000

Goal for new website launch: January 2017 (work to occur between August 1 and December 31, 2016)

 

About Our Organization

The PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc. (PA Wilds Center) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to work with partners to grow the nature and heritage tourism industry in the Pennsylvania Wilds region in a way that creates jobs, diversifies local economies, inspires stewardship and improves quality of life.

The Pennsylvania Wilds, one of the state’s 11 official tourism regions, is a large rural area that covers about a quarter of the Commonwealth and is home to about 4 % of the state’s population. The 12 1/2 –county landscape is known for its two million acres of public land — more than Yellowstone National Park. It also boasts two National Wild & Scenic Rivers, the largest wild elk herd in the Northeast and some of the darkest skies in the country. It has a rich oil and lumber heritage.

Many local partners are involved in the regional movement to marry conservation and economic development through nature and heritage tourism development. The PA Wilds Center is the coordinating entity among these partners. A handful of these stakeholders will be involved in various stages of this web development project.

The PA Wilds Center’s work is sustained through program fees, foundation and government grants, private-sector donations and entrepreneurial activities related to the Pennsylvania Wilds brand.

Our work uses many communication outlets to reach our diverse target audiences. PAwilds.com is our primary outlet for communicating with the traveling public, in which we look to share the stories and experiences found in the Pennsylvania Wilds region to promote place-based tourism.

Our Audience

Our primary audience are tourists outside the region, particularly those that live within a day’s drive of the Pennsylvania Wilds (Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia), as well as some international markets such as Canada and Asian markets interested in specific cultural activities such as star gazing. These include travelers with interests in traditional activities the region is known for (hunting, fishing), as well as emerging recreation trends the region is working to establish (paddling, cycling, visiting nature centers, sightseeing, etc).

Our secondary audience are residents from the 12 ½ counties of the Pennsylvania Wilds who travel close to home.

Our third audience are people or businesses who potentially want to move to our region.

Information on day-trip and overnight travelers to the Pennsylvania Wilds and traditional and emerging recreation trends in the region can be found at:

New Website Objectives

Our website’s number one objective is to tell the story of the Pennsylvania Wilds through curated and shared experiences.

The second objective is to get tourists to visit the region.

A third objective is to inform, educate and engage those living in the Pennsylvania Wilds, or those considering moving here, about our brand and landscape and to emerge as the leader for content about the region.

Current Website

Our current website, PAWilds.com is 7 years old and has not been updated to keep up with current functionality demands or branding/design updates. We are not looking to revamp this site – we are looking for a brand new site with an innovative approach that will present the PA Wilds experience in a user-enjoyable manner. 

New Website Functionality Requirements

Our new website will need:

  • An easy-to-use, database driven open source CMS
  • Intuitive navigation
  • Responsively designed
  • Clean and focused design, adhering to the PA Wilds Declaration of Principles found here: https://www.pawildscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/PA-Wilds-Declaration-of-Principles-2015_2.pdf
  • All applicable content migrated from current site (client to determine content to be migrated)
  • Optimized with SEO best practices
  • A blog
  • Opportunities for advertising
  • Social media integration (share buttons, follow buttons, etc.)
  • Email update sign-up form
  • Contact Form
  • Integration through strong reciprocal links of our industry-side companion site, pawildscenter.org
  • Integration of a Shopify website, the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, which will be live in the next 1-2 months and will connect the PA Wilds Center’s online platform to brick-and-mortar gift shops it operates selling PA Wilds branded products and locally-made products. 

Optional New Website Functionalities/Wish List

We would love to have the following in our new website, depending on how these elements would impact timeline and/or budget. Please provide cost for these elements separately, and note if any additional design or development time would be required.

  • Dynamic blog feeds throughout website
  • Advanced SEO work
  • A community calendar that allows for users to submit their event (example http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wpsu/events.eventsmain)
  • Populate content from a database
  • The ability to feed/auto populate relevant content from hashtags (#pawilds, #pawildsmade) our tourism partner sites (DMOs, Visitor Bureaus and Chambers of Commerce) and commonly used sites by our tourism partners – such as TripAdvisor.

Budget Details

As listed in the summary, our budget for this project is $20,000. While we of course prefer the most cost-effective solution, all proposals that fall reasonably within this range will be considered and weighed based on their merits. Proposals that offer flexibility in billing for non-required elements added to the website after initial launch will also be considered, as we may be able to budget for additional funding for these additional website elements or ongoing marketing efforts after this fiscal ends on June 30, 2017. All invoices for this project must be billed before March 2017.

Proposal Requirements

Please submit your RFP in pdf format to [email protected] by COB July 5, 2016 (files over 2MB should be sent using a Dropbox or similar file share method). Include the following in your proposal response:

  • Overview of your company
  • Overview of how you will meet our objectives
  • Explanation of your proposed platform/CMS
  • Outline of your website design & development strategy
  • Proposed website timeline from kickoff to launch
  • Details about your team
  • Recent design & development examples
  • References
  • Any key differentiators about you?
  • Pricing with optional elements line-itemed
  • Terms & conditions

RFP & Project Timeline Details

RFP Sent: June 8, 2016
Interested firms should send an email to Abbi Peters, [email protected] on or before June 22 indicating their intention to respond to the RFP by the deadline below.
RFP Questions deadline: June 24, 2016. Interested firms may send their questions to Abbi Peters, [email protected] on or before June 24 (questions will be responded to within 48 hours).

Responses Due: July 5, 2016
Winner Selected & Contacted: July 15, 2016
Project Kick-off: August 1, 2016
New Website Launch Target Date: January 1, 2017

Thank you for your interest in responding to this RFP with a proposal for our new website. We look forward to your response.

If you have any questions, please contact Abbi Peters at [email protected].

Posted in News and tagged , , , ,

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.