400 EAST SECOND STREET BLOOMSBURG, PA 17815

(570) 389-4000

TO: Nick McGaw and Emily Weisgarber

FROM: Arielle Brown, Gillian Blackiston, Deondra Taylor, Nick Tate
DATE: October 5th, 2015
SUBJECT: Creating a Web Suite for Endless Records
Dear Mr. McGaw and Ms. Weisgarber,
We invite you to read the following proposal for creating a website and various social media that
you can use for your business, Endless Records.
Through our research on your store, we see that you mostly promote it through Facebook. We
believe, however, that your announcements, events, and updates could be showcased on other
web-based media. We would like to bring more attention to your store through the following
outlets: Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and especially a main website.
Our goal is to create a fully functioning website that incorporates your social media with your
business information. We will provide you with instructions on how to use the website and social
media outlets. We have included in our proposal the following sections: the current situation, our
plan, our qualifications, the costs and benefits, and a timeline to make sure that we complete our
tasks in a timely manner.
We look forward to working with you by putting our expertise to use. Thank you for working
with us on this project.
Sincerely,
Arielle Brown
Gillian Blackiston
Deondra Taylor
Nicholas Tate

Arielle Brown
Gillian Blackiston
Nicholas Tate
Deondra Taylor
Endless Records Proposal
Respectfully Submitted October 5, 2015

Table of Contents
Page
Executive Summary

Current Situation

Proposed Project Plan

2
Cost

Benefits

Timeline

Qualifications

Conclusions

Appendix A-Time Line

Executive Summary

Over the past few years, vinyl has been gaining popularity, thanks to a resurgence in interest
from Gen X and Y. People are also looking for better, deeper ways to enjoy music - something
that the computerized screen of the iPod cannot offer. They are constantly looking for something
interesting and entertaining to take up their free time. Luckily, record stores are the perfect place
for these people to find new music, talk about music, and just hang out. Still, in small towns like
Bloomsburg, many people arent aware of record stores in their area, or they simply arent
interested - yet. Our goal is to give your record store more publicity inside and outside of
Bloomsburg, so you can expand your customer outreach.

The Current Situation

Endless Records is a brick-and-mortar record store that operates on Bloomsburgs main street.
The store primarily sells new and used vinyl records (both 33 and 45 RPM), but also has a small
inventory of new and used CDs, cassettes, and books.
Endless makes use of only one site to promote their business: Facebook. They do not have an
official website. They have an account on Discogs, a vinyl selling and trading website, but that is
more for a niche audience than people who use popular social media. Although they manage
their Facebook account well, Endless Twitter and Tumblr accounts - which were once alive with
content - are currently inactive. By staying away from these sites, Endless Records is missing out
on connecting with potential customers.
Using Facebook as a primary website also poses a few obstacles that will need to be addressed.
For instance, customers who dont use Facebook are alienated from the stores status updates.
Facebook also does not have the full capabilities that an actual website can offer. Therefore,
having a full website will not only be an organizational choice, it will be a functional one, as
well.
Proposed Project Plan
We propose to create a web suite for Endless Records by building a fully operational website and
updating all of your current social media accounts. We will also add your business to social
media that you currently do not use, such as Instagram. We will make sure the website and all
accounts are easy to navigate and customize. Here are the various media we plan to use:
Instagram: The primary place to post pictures and videos. This will help keep people updated
visually.
Tumblr: A secondary place to post pictures and videos. The ability to write longform posts will
make this a good place to post news, stories, and other important words.
Twitter: This will help your customers be informed with events, specials, and inventory
announcements - quickly!
Snapchat ( if desired): This app has the ability to share pictures and video to hundreds of people,
even if they do not follow you on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr.
We would also like to create a website that will be easy access. The website will be updated
regularly. Having a website will be a great tool to post everything about Endless Records all on
one site. To create the website, we will use Dreamweaver; a website builder and HTML editor,
or Weebly, a simple drag and drop website creator - we are leaving that choice up to you.
The purpose of creating the website is so that all your social media can be accessed from a single
source. When that is complete, we will test each tool we have created to make sure it can be used
and accessed by everyone.

Cost:

In the case of this particular project, the cost is our time. As a group, we will be spending
countless hours both in class and outside of class working on creating the best web suite possible
for you. This will occasionally mean meeting with you or our professor outside of class time.
We will more than willingly take on that cost, so long as you agree to take it on with us.
Benefits
Students and townspeople around Bloomsburg will be aware of an amazing business that
provides a way to enjoy music and other entertainment, as well as a place to hang out and attend
events. The website and social media platforms will provide students and people outside of the
university with information on your business and upcoming events. This will bring more
attention to Endless Records promote your dedication to the community.
Timeline
We have prepared a timeline to help us complete the project. It will include all tentative dates of
every group meeting and what will be conducted at each one. The timeline can be viewed in the
attached appendix A.
Qualifications
We believe we are qualified to meet your communication needs and gain a public following.
Since we were born in the technology era, our group is not only comfortable but fluent in the
technology world. We are currently participating in a technical writing class, which is preparing
us to address a clients social media needs in a professional manner.
Arielle Brown is studying to receive an English: Creative Writing degree with a Professional
Writing minor. She is the groups project manager, which means she will be the go between and
the face of the group for both you and our professor as well as keeping everyone to strict
deadlines. Her qualifications include good organization skills, communication skills, and writing
skills and her leadership skills.
Gillian is a senior studying to receive an English Literature degree with a Professional Writing
minor. She is the groups usability manager, which means that she is in charge of making sure
that the website and all the social media pages are user-friendly. Her qualifications include
previous work experience with personas and usability testing from another class.
Deondra is a junior studying to receive an English Literature Degree with a Professional Writing
minor. She is the groups productive manager, which means she is in charge of creating the web
suit, and to make sure that the final document meets the clients requirements and expectations.
Her qualifications include, good communication, knowledge of different social media websites,
and a good work ethic.
Nick is a senior studying Mass Communications with a Professional Writing Minor. He is the
groups content manager and editor. This means he is in charge of reviewing and editing all
content that we design for the web suite. He will make sure that all aspects of the suite work

4
properly and look the way you want them. His qualifications include two part-time jobs as an
editor, experience with web-editing software, and a careful eye for detail and organization.
Conclusions
By implementing our strategies as outlined in this proposal, we aim to create a fully functioning
website for Endless Records and increase your participation in social media. We will further
establish Endless Records credibility by opening your doors to a new audience. We believe that
this will be both effective and efficient for your future endeavors in years to come. Our main
goal is to not only make a usable website for you to utilize, but to gather the attention of the
general public as well.

4
Appendix A-Timeline
Date

Description

10/3

Group meeting to finish Proposal to turn in (GoogleDocs)

10/5

Proposal due in Bolt dropbox at class time

10/11

Group Meeting (Find people for the testing: Gillian)

10/19

Progress Report Due in Bolt at class time

10/25

Group Meeting Sunday Evening

10/31

Completion of Personas Due

11/01

Group Meeting Sunday Evening

11/02

End of Software testing (should be starting on final product)

11/05

Project Beta copy of hard documents due in Bolt dropbox

11/12

Beta copy of Website and associated papers due in Bolt dropbox by class time

11/16

Finding and testing of people are done

11/22

Group Meeting Sunday Evening (If needed)

11/27

Usability Testing Documentation Packet due in Bolt Dropbox by class time

11/29

Group Meeting Sunday Evening

11/30

Final Presentation due at class time