Third Time’s a Charm: Rost’s New Website.

April 25, 2013

When Rost, Inc. began creating stunning landscapes in 1985, the Internet was far from their minds as a marketing tool. Three website designs from MayeCreate later, the web is becoming one of their primary marketing tools. As a landscaping service, Rost, Inc. knows the importance of maintenance. Here’s how their relationship with their website has evolved over the years.

In the Beginning

MayeCreate first began working with Rost Inc.’s online presence in 2008. We designed two websites, one for Rost Inc.’s  landscaping services and another for their Superior Garden Center. At the time, the sites had a fresh design with progressive features, including a custom content management system that visitors could use to register for events or purchase gift cards and Rost, Inc. could use to update everything. In the world of web, though, change happens quickly. By 2010, it was time for an update.

And then There Was One

Rost, Inc. combined their two websites into one, creating a more cohesive company identity. The active events section went away in the redesign, because events were no longer a large part of Rost Inc.’s integral marketing campaign. MayeCreate hosted it’s most popular website contest in July2010, and the Rost, Inc. redesign won third place.

New Improvements to Rost’s Marketing Mix

It wasn’t until their third website design, that Rost, Inc. began to realize what an effective sales tool their website could be. Founder and owner Toby Rost said, “We are now more confident with our more sophisticated or modern site, which has allowed us to really push the website.”

The new design is more graphic, allowing Rost, Inc. to display the true quality of their work and products through photos. MayeCreate polished the website to make it look more modern with a wider layout and an updated color scheme.

New functionality on the website has allowed Rost, Inc. to greatly increase the strength of its online marketing mix. Efforts Rost, Inc. is taking to increase sales through their website include:

• Creating pages for customers to purchase online products, including pottery, plants, mulch, rock, soil, compost, gift cards and more.
• Starting a weekly blog post entitled “Lucy’s Pick of the Week” to drive interest in unique plants and keep customers visiting the site on a weekly basis.
• Updating their photo galleries to show more, new examples of their quality landscape design.
• Connecting their website to social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Houzz and Instagram to better promote their business.

Rost, Inc. hopes that their improved online presence will help customers find the information they need and see the business’s high standards and quality of work. It seems to be working.

One impressed customer emailed Rost, Inc. saying, “Your website looks stunning and much more elaborate than we had in mind.”

Because MayeCreate has worked with Rost, Inc. before, the updates to their website were easy to implement. By using WordPress, we could avoid starting from scratch and performing a lot of manual changes. We simply changed the styles and could avoid moving media such as photos. In the initial design, we used proper web standards allowing up to apply the same rules to all pages in the new website. The changes to the Rost, Inc. website were primarily functional and gave the business a new sense of confidence.

“We are now confident in our online presence, which sets the stage for any marketing,” said Rost.

If your website is in need of an update, contact MayeCreate today. The web is constantly improving, and by using it so can your business.