Reach News

Beth C. Wright Center: New Director, New Look

The REACH Maine team has worked with the Beth C. Wright Cancer Center for quite some time. When organizations go through leadership changes, it is only natural that with that come fresh ideas and a new, dynamic approach to the way they conduct business. When the new director asked for an updated look and an easier way for their clients to find out what their organization could do for them, the REACH team was happy to help them out.

Our designer, Erin Hardison, listened to the client’s preferences including color and design choices to give them their new look. She took the ideas that the staff at Beth C. Wright gave us and made them a new home page that accentuated their workshops, events, and classes geared toward helping their clients cope with a cancer diagnosis as well as easily sign up for services.

REACH Maine Marketing works hard to give all our clients exactly what they need and want for their websites.  Whether it’s the first one we’ve built for them or the 10th, helping a business or organization reach the people that they serve.

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Maine Translators Updates

It is an extremely important task in any part of the United States to make sure that with as many cultures and languages that live together that we make sure that everyone is understood in any given situation’ especially when it comes to their healthcare or in legal matters.  Maine Translators is here to help here in Maine.  They are a distinguished group of translators from all walks of life that are hired to help make sure that everyone’s needs can be met, and we were thrilled to help them design their new website.

Maine Translators originally had an old HTML site that was clunky and hard to use. Worse, by today’s standards, it was not user- friendly for the group or for potential clients who need their services. In the way that users access the internet world today, being mobile friendly is paramount to any organization.

Our designer, Than, was able to give them a site that looks simple for anyone visiting the site, but behind the scenes he had to build-in a complex database that made finding the right interpreter easily and quickly for their clients.

The two sites are like night and day, and we were happy to be able to present to our client a professional site that had everything they needed to help others across the state of Maine.  Check out the new mainetranslators.org site.

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Unique Gallery Options for a Unique Business

The owner of Northern Woodscaping came to us with his unique business looking to have a website that could adequately explain just how he can use one machine to create usable space out of otherwise overgrown wooded area.  Who knew that was even possible with one machine in hours instead of weeks?  Our team was excited to be working with local business that did something so new to us.

At the beginning of this project, we had grown by one and it was decided that this project was the perfect way to get Than, our newest member, started on his first site as part of the REACH team. The challenge was going to be to tell Northern Woodscaping’s story in an inviting way to engage users enough to show them what they do and how their business can help them.

The client requested colors and the feel of the Maine woods and wanted to tell their story in an impactful way without a lot of words. Than went to work and gave them a site full of sliding before and after photos that highlight exactly what Northern Woodscaping does for area property owners.

The client was thrilled with the effect and the unique feel that their website had in the end.  Distinctly Maine and an effective tool for his business.

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Big News for Tiny Tikes

When the folks at Tiny Tikes Daycare contacted us about working with them for a new site the team couldn’t wait to get started!  Before even getting the go ahead from the boss, our designer had already come up with a concept and a first draft of the cutest little website we had ever seen.  I should note here that the design team at REACH is currently all moms.  Kids are just what we do.

We had a lot of fun working with Betsey and the staff at Tiny Tikes making sure that the sight was playful and colorful just like the facility they work in.

 We then added the elements on education and nutrition; something that the staff takes very seriously.  A visitor to the Tiny Tikes website will be able to easily see what this local day care has to offer as well as their goals for continuing education and dedication to helping kids become the people they were meant to be.

Whenever we get the chance to work with a local business, whether large or small, our team is always thrilled to work closely with area business owners to make their website a window into who they are and what they do. It is our pleasure to serve the business community in Maine.

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A New Look for the Town of Lamoine

Local government, including our small towns, are the keepers of an enormous amount of information that they store in case citizens need to access it. It is there to have a record of anything related to their town whether it’s historic, town business, or just registrations for the family car, you can likely find anything you are looking for on their website.

The Town of Lamoine is no exception.  You need to know what happened at the last Selectmen’s meeting? The information is there. Want to know what is coming up for meetings and how you can see them?  Check the website. Need a tax map or to know what you need to do to get a burn permit?  They’ve got that too.

In fact, the town had everything they needed on their site. So, why a new one?  The town office and the tech committee had always housed the towns website right there on their own server.  Not a bad thing but could be problematic in the future as more and more information was saved and put up on the site. And, swiftly changing security was bound to eventually leave the site vulnerable. 

The original site was also really the original site. Well maintained, but it would not have been long until the software was not only just out of date, but obsolete.  It was time to build something new.

After meeting with the town administrator and getting town approval, our team took all of that information and reorganized it into something that was ADA compliant, and user friendly.  The new site shows off a friendly little town to curious visitors while giving residents the tools they need to take care of business.

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Updates to the Town of Franklin

The Town of Franklin, already a client of REACH Maine Marketing, let us know that their site needed a bit of an update.  Their theme was aging and no real changes except for town business had been made in quite some time.  The old theme was not mobile friendly and had run out of updates so the REACH team immediately set out to give Franklin a brand new space with the same small-town feel that the town if famous for.

Now, residents of Franklin can easily find everything they need to take care of the business side of living in a small town.  From registering their vehicle to getting their dogs’ license renewed, they can find out about it and in most cases, do it right from the comfort of their home.  They can also easily check out the town news and read some of the history that makes Franklin such a wonderful place to call home.

Franklin is just one of the municipalities that REACH Maine works with. We think it’s our attention to detail that makes us such a good fit for local agencies.  If you would like to learn more about how REACH Maine can help you or your organization have a unique presence online, give us a call at 667-2576.

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New Business Venture

The RS Design website was a fun site to work on for our team! Not only is it a pleasure to work with small businesses, it is a real joy to be able to watch a new product come to life on the page.  Russ Stoll, the owner and creator of RS Design spend his 2020 quarantine time coming up with ways to bring his passion for all things snow, to life. Thus, the Periodic Table of Snow was born. 

Russ contacted REACH Maine Marketing while staying at his house on one of the local Islands. He had a good handle on what it was going to take to market his new poster but he needed a commerce site that people from all over the world could order one for the avid skier in their lives. 

Right now, the site is all about the poster of Periodic Table of Snow, but shortly he will be addling t-shirts and a few other fun options for Periodic Tables.  Make sure you check out his site.  The Periodic Table of Snow would make a great gift for any time of the year.

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Meals on Wheels goes mobile

 

Meals on Wheels goes mobile

 

 

Making Community Happen is a wonderful organization out of York County right here in Maine that provides folks on fixed incomes with affordable housing, support, and Meals on Wheels.  All designed to help keep people as independent as they choose to be for as long as possible. 

It was our pleasure here at REACH Maine Marketing to help bring this organization’s vision to life as they designed a site that suited their mission and their needs. 

As a non-profit, Making Community Happen relies heavily on public support.  For that reason, they needed to make sure that their Donate pages were clear and easy to find and that it would come with the ability to let their contributors choose to do a onetime donation, or even recurring gifts monthly or annually.

Making Community Happen also wanted to be able to be a user-friendly space for clients to search for services they need or to talk to future volunteers about opportunities to be a part of something so worthwhile.  

We were delighted here at REACH Maine to be able to help them build a dynamic site that told their story the way they wanted it told while giving them the technology they needed to grow their organization and continue to help the community that they live in.

If your small business or non-profit is ready to built a new site with a trusted local company please give us a call at 667-2576

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Safety First

In mid-July REACH Maine Marketing was alerted by one of our software vendors that a critical vulnerability to their ecommerce software had been detected. Not an unheard-of problem that software companies face, but still, a concerning one.

The software company, WooCommerce, instantly went into action creating a patch and exploring ways to do automatic software updates for all their customers. They also alerted their clients, including REACH, about the issue and the team here chose not to wait for vulnerable sites to be automatically updated.  We went through them one by one and installed the patch and updated all of our client’s security without delay.

To date, WooCommerce has not found any compromised data but the investigation into the matter will continue. If any compromises are found, the specific customers affected will be notified.

One of the advantages of working with a local web services company is for exactly this situation. Your protection is our top priority.  Our clients are not just a ticket number waiting for support. We will always drop what we are doing to make sure that each site hosted by us is safe and secure for your business to continue to thrive in an increasingly web-based market. To say that we worry about it so that you don’t have to might be cliché, but it’s what we are committed to doing each day for our customers.

If you do not have your current site hosted with REACH Maine Marketing and you have WooCommerce on your site, please make sure to check the WooCommerce website for more information about this critical vulnerability and ways to protect your website.

E.L. Shea’s Site Goes Mobile!

E. L. Shea had an older site that was a bit more basic, but had some functionality. Eventually, older sites lose a lot of their function and you need o meet today’s consumer needs, your site needs to be informative, be attractive, and most of all be mobile. That requires building a site that loads fast but still has enough information to provide the user with the answers they need.

It was a pleasure to be able to give E. L. Shea a site that fits their brand, celebrates their extensive history as a business in our area, and is almost as beautiful as some of the work they do in our community.

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