Case study · Annie Keeney
One line clear enough to carry a consulting practice on almost no budget
- Role
- What they do
- Program evaluation & accreditation consulting
What I walked into
Annie Keeney was starting a consulting practice with nowhere to send anyone. No site, no domain name, nothing. She’s an associate professor at San Diego State University, doing program evaluation and accreditation work inside the university. She had startup funds to turn that expertise into a side practice, evaluating social work programs and the county-level and grant-funded initiatives that need to prove they work. She was upfront that none of this, websites, marketing, was her expertise. I wrote the messaging, then designed and built the site around it, working alone.
What I built
The messaging came first. The value proposition landed on “build social work programs that work, and prove it,” written for program administrators caught between running good programs and proving they’re good, to funders, boards, and accreditors who all want something different. Everything else on the site follows from that one line.
The site itself is deliberately spare: a one-page, white-paper aesthetic, restrained typography suited to an academic practice. She adds a new research paper or white paper herself, fills out a short form, and it’s live, some with the full text on the page, some as a short summary linking out to the DOI. She runs it herself now.
The white-paper direction was one of the numbered concepts I sent, and it’s the one she picked.
My favorite is concept 1… the white paper one… THANK YOU!!!!!”
Annie Keeney
Associate Professor, San Diego State University
I kept the scope tight on purpose. She had limited startup funds she could only spend as research promotion, so the build stayed simple enough to leave room for the outreach that brings the consulting in: LinkedIn, networking, staying visible.
For context
The goal, as she described it to me: get hired for consulting work while getting her research in front of people outside academic journals, without spending more than she had to.
Every page, whole
Five pages: the homepage making the case, her research, what she offers, and how to reach her.
Closer in
Full width, one at a time.
Straight answers. You’ll hear what the fix would cost, and if it isn’t worth the money, I’ll say so.
Or write to me: [email protected]
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