In one short year of business, three of our clients were nominated as category finalists in the 2016 Best of the Web Awards through the Rochester Business Journal (leading source of Rochester, NY business news, research, and trends). Our clients include Cam’s Pizzeria, Concept II, and East House.

We considered this to be one of our greatest achievements as we competed against leading marketing communication firms as well as over 200 well-established businesses in the Greater Rochester Area.

CAM’S PIZZERIA – BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION AWARD FINALIST

Cam’s Pizzeria was nominated as Digital Rochester’s Business Transformation Award finalist – the highest overall category – competing against CrazyDog T-shirts and Golisano Children’s Hospital.

Cam’s Pizzeria is a chain of 15 pizza restaurants with locations throughout the Finger Lakes, Central, and Upstate New York regions offering casual dining. We worked with Cam’s to design and develop a website and mobile app, web order design/strategy, and social media management/marketing. The web order structure was developed by Microworks POS Solutions.

The web ordering (on both website and mobile app) interfaces connect directly to the current internal POS system – as soon as a customer orders a pizza from the system, it appears directly on the kitchen monitor.

The website allows the business to streamline internal operational procedures more efficiently by sending information to the appropriate team member from applications, fundraiser submissions, catering submissions to order feedback. This has allowed Cam’s to shorten overall cycle time from sometimes as long as 3-5 business days (playing phone tag) to now just under a minute as all the appropriate information is asked up front.

Facebook has allowed Cam’s to create a cost-effective way for marketing from their famous pumpkin-shaped pizza to heart-shaped pizza. This year alone, pumpkin-pizza sales increased by over 12%. Between the online and offline worlds, Facebook is one of the company’s main sources of marketing as it gives the “biggest bang for its buck”.

According to the district manager Jason Benton, he stated, “Our business has always thrived off of physical word of mouth, but there’s only so much that can do. In this day and age, digital word of mouth has become vital to our business’s growth… An investment into these new technologies was one of our top three best marketing moves we made for the company.”

In the first 6 months of utilizing these new technologies, Cam’s overall web orders increased by 57.4% and average price per ticket increased by over 200%. Additionally, average website traffic increased by 103%, especially after a launch campaign we prepared.

CONCEPT II – REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION FINALIST

Concept II was nominated as a finalist for having the best website under the Real Estate and Construction category. After competing against Hamilton Stern Construction LLC and LeFrois Builders LLC.

CII is one of the country’s premier complete kitchen and bath remodeling and design studios, located in East Rochester. We engage in a collaborative relationship with this company because they understand the essence of curation and its purpose in homes.

The largest way Concept II’s website changed was the overall experience – a more emotional and resonant one – allowing the company to reduce the time between “who are you?” to “where do I sign up?”. In the past, much of this is explained in person, and it sucked time and wasted energy and focus. With a newly improved website, the CII team is freed up to devote attention toward higher-value producing activities and strategize about growth and profits.

According to owner Ross Pino, he stated, “Our biggest return on our web investment is immediate cost savings, allowing us to use our time more efficiently and effectively. For example, the most surprising portion of the website is our showroom tour, which is a 360° view of our bath, kitchen, and tile showrooms. Users are able to view, engage, and interact with our showroom work without physically being on location. It’s like virtually walking around our store in the comfort of your own home. This saves a lot of time for us and for users – a win-win.”

After launching the website, CII earned a return on their investment less than 14 days later. As one could imagine, it was worth every penny.

EAST HOUSE – HUMAN SERVICES FINALIST

East House was nominated as a finalist for having the best website under the Human Services category. After competing against Bivona Child Advocacy Center and NeighborWorks Rochester.

East House is a privately-held, 501(c)3 non-profit organization serving individuals with persistent mental illness and/or substance use disorder with the goal of helping them to live independent and fulfilling lives.

According to Assistant Director of Development and Community Relations, Sarah O’Brien stated, “We really love our website and think it could compete for the RJB Best of the Web. We really think it would make it!”

After we redesigned their web presence, the volunteer base increased by 13%, and patient applications have increased by 5.2% within 3 months of going live.

OUR TAKEAWAY
Category and overall winners were announced at the annual awards breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Rochester, and we were delighted and proud to share this experience with three of our clients! In 2020, we are already facilitating website redesigns for the new decade. Stay tuned 🙂