Insights
Design advice, web trends, and inspiration
Black-Owned Marketing Agencies
At Ruby Slipper, we are committed to supporting and promoting Black-owned businesses and organizations. Here we showcase Black-owned marketing agencies from across the United States that are helping clients boost their community presence. KSW Social Media...
Marketing 101 for Nonprofits
"Marketing" can conjure images of glitzy ads, sales-driven companies, and big billboards. But marketing isn’t only essential for commercial success — its role in the nonprofit sector is essential, too. How else will people find out about the great work you’re doing?...
Team Tree Planting Day with OUR Community Forestry
There’s nothing like digging in and getting our hands dirty with a new project — literally! When Ruby Slipper donated to OUR Community Forestry last fall, we wanted to support a local, grassroots organization doing great things to support ecological and human health...
6 Social Media Marketing Stats to Track
There’s an art and a science to social media marketing. Creating content is the artistic part, and gauging results takes numbers. Instead of posting willy-nilly to your social media channels, we recommend taking time each month to look at each of these key metrics....
Our Team Is Helping the Planet – One Small Deed At A Time
Ruby Slipper is committed to combating climate change and reducing our greenhouse gases. We think of the beautiful land, the boundless sea, the intricate ecosystems, all the creatures — great and small — and we pledge to do what we can to keep our planet habitable....
How to Clear Cache in All Major Browsers: A Magical Guide to Sparkling Web Browsing!
In the vast land of the internet, you may encounter sluggish loading times and mysterious website hiccups. Fear not, for the solution lies within the enchanted realm of browser cache! Allow us to be your guiding light on the journey to cache-clearing in all major...
How Often Should You Redesign Your Website?
As of 2023, the recommendation is to redesign your website every 2 – 3 years. Whoa! That is pretty darn frequent! At Ruby Slipper, we strive for our websites to last at least 7 years. At the 7-year point, countless technological advancements and industry changes have...
Ruby Slipper Wins 14 Design Awards in 2023
We are over the rainbow about winning 14 design awards in 2023! These awards are deeply meaningful to us because they recognize the time, creativity, intention, and innovation that goes into every design project. We immerse ourselves in these organizations. And we...
Ruby Slipper Wins 11 Website Design Awards in 2022
We are clicking our heels with joy about winning 11 design awards in 2022! The Mick Dodge website and logo won seven awards in 2022! Platinum in the 2022 dotComm Award (Health & Wellness Website)Gold in the 2022 Hermes Creative Awards (Website Overall)Silver in...
Migrating Universal Google Analytics to the New GA4
If you have a Google Analytics account attached to your website — as all our Ruby Slipper website clients do — then no doubt you’ve been getting notification emails from Google that look something like this: All standard Universal Analytics properties will stop...
Celebrating 20 Years!
Happy 20th Anniversary to Us! What were you up to in 2002? Our founder Erin was just dipping her ruby slippers into the world of web design with dreams of starting her own business. The idea took hold on a road trip from Seattle, Washington to Ashland, Oregon. Erin...
Designing for Emotion – 2nd Edition
Here at Ruby Slipper, we are big fans of Aarron Walter. We own both the 2011 and 2020 editions of this book, Designing for Emotion. There is SO much more packed into these 100-pages. We highly recommend it for web designers, nonprofit organizations, and marketing...
17 Non-Profits We Absolutely Love
Here at Ruby Slipper we love to use our powers to deliver exceptional web design and marketing services for non-profits who are making a positive change in the world! There’s no better feeling than helping an organization further its goals by inspiring audiences to...
Tips for Improving Your Mailchimp Delivery to Gmail
Mailchimp is an amazing tool for creating marketing emails that promote your organization and engage with fans and supporters. But so often, those beautifully-designed emails land in the spam folder in Gmail. Why? Gmail does a great job of filtering emails to its...
Ruby Slipper Wins Five Website Design Awards in 2021
We are clicking our ruby heels with excitement over our recent web design awards for the Health Care Coalition of Southern Oregon (HCCSO) website! This shiny new site, launched in January 2021, and has won five design awards since launch: Bronze in the 2021 Indigo...
Taking the Leap into Entrepreneurship
This is the companion article to the 2021 Women's Leadership Conference of Southern Oregon speech "Taking the Leap into Entrepreneurship." Erin O'Kelley Muck spoke with women who dream of starting their own businesses. Here, she shares advice for budding...
Using Canva & PicMonkey for Quick & Easy Image Editing
A picture (or an infographic, or a logo) is worth 1,000+ words… Stunning visuals can help capture your audience’s attention, support your written content, communicate your value and solidify your brand. Masterfully crafted graphics, icons and overlays are incredibly...
Why Hire a Full-Service Marketing Agency?
If you feel like marketing is overwhelming, you’re not alone! There are TONS of ways to promote your business: your website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, email campaigns, Google and Facebook ads, search engine optimization, brochures,...
Designing for Emotion – 1st Edition
Designing for Emotion - 1st Edition By Aarron Walter As designers, we want our work to rise above the sea of sameness. To be remarkable. Memorable. To make a lasting impression. This only happens when we achieve delight. In this quintessential book, written in 2011...
10 Best Web Design Practices
The secret ingredients! Use this handy checklist of the best web design practices to make sure your site is working hard for your business... 1. Immediately Communicate What You Offer People make up their minds about a site in 5 seconds or less. Make sure that they...
Our Favorite Websites
Design that inspires! We track our favorite websites that beam as shining examples of eye-catching engagement. Here are some current faves... Regeneration www.regeneration.org The world’s largest, most complete listing and network of solutions to the climate...
Southern Oregon Wildfire Relief
A Windstorm & Spark of Fire... On September 8, 2020, a ferocious fire tore through our valley, decimating north Ashland and the towns of Talent and Phoenix. 2500 homes were lost, countless businesses, and thousands of families displaced. 40% of families with...
Zoom Video Tutorial
Want to learn how to use Zoom video conferencing? This video walks you through how to: start a meeting and invite a person mute start / stop the video view in speaker or gallery view (the Brady Bunch view!) share your screen give mouse control to another person chat...
Making A Corporate Video
Buckle up buttercup! In early 2019, we hired Nickolas Alexander to create a video about Ruby Slipper. WOW — massive undertaking! Here are the steps and what we learned about making a corporate video. 1. Initial Discovery After interviewing Nickolas and really liking...
Photo Resources & Advice
As you fly about the web in these fast-paced days, what is one way a site can immediately convey an idea? Photography. Yes, it is worth a thousand words. Your eyeballs understand a photo in a microsecond. As such, it is imperative to find the right photos for your...
Life Changing Business Books
SO much of what we read these days is web-based, but nothing beats a classic business book. Here are a handful of Ruby Slipper's fave business books... Building A Story Brand By Donald Miller Every day, most business leaders make a mistake that costs them money: they...
Leadership in Action
"We do not need magic to change the world, we all carry the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better." - J.K. Rowling On May 10, 2019, The Women's Leadership Conference of Southern Oregon held their 6th annual conference. The theme...
Web Design Resources
These are the places we go to when we need to figure out something in a pinch! Here's our list of top web design resources... Best Buy eWaste Recycling SO grateful to Best Buy for offering this program — the take TONS of stuff! Spent ink cartridges, old hard drives,...
StoryBrand
Does your website pass the grunt test? Can a customer look at your website and in under 5 seconds answer these questions? What do you offer? How will it make my life better? What do I need to do to buy it? Donald Miller of StoryBrand calls this passing the grunt test....
Erin’s Story
I am a self-taught website designer, someone Malcolm Gladwell would peg at the right time in history. For me, that was the fledgling web-tech era… In 1994, I was a college student at CU Denver. A friend pulled me into a computer lab, her eyes shiny. Erin, you have GOT...