Welcoming our newest DA Partner – Rocketspark
Nau mai, haere mai to our newest DA Partner, Rocketspark, a multi award winning company founded by four kiwis in the Waikato. Through their code-free website builder and Design Partner Program, they help thousands of businesses and designers everyday worldwide.
The journey to success:
Like all great tech startup stories, the humble beginnings of Rocketspark started when three flatmates working in the web design world found themselves stuck in the triangle between designer, developer and customer with nowhere near enough time to complete things to the standard they wanted. The process was slow and expensive for the client.
The flatmates teamed up with a brother who lived in Spain and explored website building platforms. They identified that the existing solutions were difficult to use, created ugly websites and didn’t provide great support. They believed they could do it better and created a platform that allowed websites to be built easily by the customer and the founders focused intently on ease of use.
From the beginning, the purpose of Rocketspark’s platform has been “to streamline the website creation process and make it more accessible to everyone (not just the tech savvy). So that business owners can be put in control of their own online presence.”
Fast forward to 2022 and Rocketspark have created more than just a beautifully simple website design tool but a Design Partner Community which supports designers at every stage of their journey through training, community groups, design conferences where they cover topics ranging from pricing jobs, design best practice, and all sorts of upskilling for creatives to gain business confidence.
Rocketspark have received hundreds of 5-star reviews across multiple review sites and won multiple awards for their outstanding customer service and innovation including the Add-on Innovation Award at the UK Xero Awards, 2018 Best Customer Service Award from Waipa Networks Business Awards, and most recently receiving the 2021 Supreme Award also from Waipa Networks Business Awards.
When they’ve seen both clients and designers struggle with the basics of SEO over the years, they designed the first AI SEO tool (Flint) which helps design websites in a way that Google likes, doing the heavy lifting to optimise for search engine ranking through suggesting keywords and even writing the key-word rich content.
Supporting Aotearoa’s design community:
Like any business, freelance graphic designers have to juggle multiple balls in the air from lead generation, cashflow, client support, and deliverables. It can be challenging enough just managing all the creative mahi, let alone trying to find and land clients or handle technical support queries when they pop up.
But these two areas—lead generation and customer support—are critical components to any design business, whether you’re a part of a large design studio or freelancing. Cue the Rocketspark Design Partner Programme, which is a free program that supports designers using their platform to address those issues.
As graphic designers and other service businesses add web design to their offering using Rocketspark’s website builder, the Design Partner Community has become a strong source of growth for Rocketspark. Since then, Rocketspark is more devoted to developing their Design Partner Programme where they support designers and their clients to grow and succeed every step of the way. Not only by connecting designers with warm leads, handling all technical support issues they or their clients come across, but also by offering a tier-based commission to every website that designers create on the platform. This empowers graphic designers to spend more time doing what they do best—creating beautiful visuals for their clients and honing their craft—and less time troubleshooting.
The current Rocketspark Design Partner Programme sits at around 1,000 graphic designers and it aims to promote and grow the design community by making it easier for designers to grow their own businesses.
Alongside the programme, they’ve launched a new initiative to be able to offer all the support and advice that their Partners get, to those that aren’t in the business of web design. Drawing on years of experience in working with clients and the pitfalls that can occur, the Creative Launchpad is a great place for like minded brand and graphic designers to learn and grow.
Growing your design business:
So how exactly does Rocketspark deliver on this? For starters, it’s free to become one of their design partners and use their code-free Design Studio.
The Rocketspark Design Studio makes it easy for graphic designers to manage all their client’s websites in one place and maintain ongoing design support as needed while also earning tier-based commission on each website. Designers build credibility within the Rocketspark platform with badges and awards received as they reach key milestones.
Rocketspark’s Design Partners are a key source of inspiration for new design & website functionality, with its code-free web design platform. And the team strive for constant improvement on the platform to make web design fast, flexible and beautiful.
Rocktespark’s Design Partners have access to the devoted partner support from one of their Partner team. As sales and marketing whizzes, the Partner team provide advice and coaching to help designers grow their business and web design skills. As a Rocketpark Partner, you also get to network and learn from like-minded designers across the world, through attending one of their community events or connecting with others in their online communities.
One of the great features about Rocketspark’s Design Partner Program is Rocketspark’s matchmade referral service, which pairs designers up with clients that are the best fit for them.
By making it easier for graphic designers to deliver a “beautifully simple, code-free design service”, empowering them with the needed knowledge, removing the hassle of client trouble-shooting, and easing the pressure of finding leads, Rocketspark have taken considerable steps to help nurture and grow Aotearoa’s design community.
Community, culture, and vision at heart:
Despite their huge growth, Rocketspark remains tied to their humble Waikato roots and dedicated to making it easier and more cost-effective for businesses to have beautiful, effective websites – “creating a better life for small business owners, our design partners, the Rocketspark team and the world around us through simple software, excellent customer service, and passion for innovation.”
The team put their hearts into the company and pride themselves on being able to give back to the Waikato and Aotearoa community. Whether that’s through a discounted or free website to cash strapped not-for-profits and organisations, leading their customers towards best practices, nurturing upcoming student talent, or continually evolving to provide a product that is beautifully simple – the Rocketspark team make it a priority to do good in the world.
At Design Assembly, we exist to bring together, educate, and inspire the Aotearoa design community. The Rocketspark platform has proven to be a valuable tool for designers and business owners worldwide which is why we are so excited to have them join as a DA Partner.
