Caroff Communications has released their updated website. The redesign accomplished two primary goals: to streamline the organization of the site so that it would be easier for viewers to find what they wanted, and to fully commit to their branding message of “Websites and SEO that ROCK!”
“What finally prompted this,” says Pres. Michael Caroff, “was when a fellow business owner I met recently said ‘Wow, your site must be really good.’ “No,’ I said, ‘actually, it’s not!’ That was the moment I realized it was high time we redesign our own website.”
Employing all the techniques they have developed over the past five years for creating effective responsive websites, the company produced a much simpler and more powerful site overall.
“We faced what many of our clients do,” continues Caroff, “we had a good amount of strong content, but it was disorganized and spread out in a way that made it difficult for people to navigate. As we do with all our clients, we started by focusing on the material and the structure, not the design.”
The second impetus for the redesign — fully committing to their branding message — was the end of a long process.
“I have lead Savor — the nation’s premier Santana Tribute band — for 15 years,” Caroff explains. “Before that, I played in working bands for decades. But until recently, in the business world, I actually hid the fact that I was a musician. Knowing how flaky musicians can be, I didn’t want to give the impression that I fit that stereotype!”
That all changed four years ago when Caroff met a fellow marketer in his adopted hometown of San Diego. That colleague strongly recommended that Caroff not only use his musical status as a marketing hook, but actually make it the focus of his brand. Skeptical at first, Caroff soon found that rather than a hindrance, his skill as a guitar player made other business owners more eager to work with him.
“I’m still not entirely sure why,” he laughs. “Part of it is the fact that it makes me stick out from everyone else in this business. And part may be that people naturally attach a certain mystique to players in bands.”
Whatever the reason, he decided to highlight his “secret identity” as the focal point of his new website.
“All the photos on the site are actually from our concerts,” he goes on. “With digital photography being so ubiquitous, we have tens of thousands of pictures from the last 15 years. The difficult part was choosing between them!”
