Content Website Redesign Case Study: Dr. Sofa

One of our clients is Dr. Sofa, a New York City-based company specializing in furniture disassembly and reassembly, repair and reupholstery. Their primary focus is on the disassembly and reassembly of large pieces of furniture in preparation for challenging moves to or from city apartments with narrow doorways and hallways, tight staircases and living rooms no wider than walk-in closets. They are also experts in the redesign and reupholstery of old furniture pieces, such as antiques and family heirlooms that have sentimental value to their owners.

Design & Architecture: What Wasn’t Working

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Before we redesigned DrSofa.com, the design and content did not do this miraculous service justice. Here are some of the important structural and functional issues we identified:

  • The homepage lacked visual direction. There were too many components on the page that didn’t flow from one to the next, detracting from telling the story behind the unique and valuable services Dr. Sofa provides to customers. This disorganized layout made it very difficult for the reader to understand exactly what the company has to offer and how to take advantage of it.
  • The site did not communicate the brand’s message strongly. Most people are not aware that a service exists for furniture disassembly and reassembly. So for a site like this, communicating that message to readers clearly is critical to the success of the business. Rather than cluing the reader in to the services provided, the old design greeted readers with one tiny piece of text in the header that read “NY, NYC, NJ, MA, CT, DC Couch and Sofa Doctor; experts in Furniture Repair, Disassembly and Reassembly,” leaving them to fill in the blanks about what the company was all about without scrolling further down the page. This was the only content above the fold that provided any information about Dr. Sofa’s many services.
  • There was no content management system; layout was outdated. The greatest challenge with Dr. Sofa’s old website was that it was static, meaning that updating content and adding pages was very costly in both time and resources. Any desired small changes necessitated contacting a developer. This made it difficult to make constant updates to the site or global design changes to improve conversion and keep it fresh.

Reassembling DrSofa.com

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When members of the Dr. Sofa team partnered with Consorte Marketing, we implemented a number of changes designed to improve conversion and the brand image as a whole:

  • We organized the layout of every page, making them cleaner and more modern, and focusing the reader on a simple thought rather than bombarding visitors with a lot of unrelated information. We designed a number of page templates to organize varying types of content, and used a top-down approach to keep the most important message and actions above the fold, with more detailed information below it.
  • The greatest changes were made to the homepage. We started by adding a headline to define the primary service of this company and show value: Dr. Sofa is the solution to one of life’s most perplexing problems: Fitting furniture into our homes. Calling out this very important message at the top of the page and then pairing it with a video that describes the service solved the problem of users misunderstanding what was being offered. These visual elements tell a great story, and tying them to a form right next to the video improved conversion significantly. For those users who need more information before deciding to submit their information, we incorporated a number of visual elements further down the page, organized logically to produce the best results. In scrolling down the page, users see three important boxes containing links to customer testimonials, press videos, and a gallery of work—all of which support the message that Dr. Sofa is the leader in this industry. We then added snippets about the various services with opportunities to Learn More and invite the user to request a free quote.
  • We redesigned the website with content management in mind. And when we did, we used WordPress, which simplifies the processes of uploading and editing content like new pages, blog posts and customer testimonials. This means Dr. Sofa’s internal team is able to implement small changes without spending money on developer hours, which greatly simplifies the management of the website and frees up resources for marketing. Additionally, we developed advanced functionality, such as an image gallery, advanced contact forms, and unique posts customized for each page’s style.

Content is one of the most important components of any business’s website, not just in substance, but in how it is presented to a potential customer. For it to be successful, it should be well organized, logically presented to the reader, and easy to update on a regular basis. The Consorte Marketing team gave the Dr. Sofa website a complete makeover in order to strengthen the delivery of the brand’s message.