About Our Client

GDS Companies is a team of professionals which handles design, project management and development industry. GDS oversees development projects to ensure the integrity of the project, while maintaining construction schedules and costs, minimizing potential risk for the owner or equity stakeholders. They've built residential projects from 20 to 600 units, sophisticated hotel designs in challenging markets, and master planning for multi-use projects all across the country.

Presented Challenges

  • Despite their years of experience - the GDS Companies CEO, Greg DeStefano, had overseen more than $3,000,000,000 in construction projects - their old website presented them as young up-and-comers, barely speaking about their achievements or the dozens of projects they had worked on. As they looked to grow and add more projects to their portfolio, they needed a brand that more accurately reflected their credibility and reliability to large capital partners. This would then enable them to start sales conversations on the right foot, and ensure that multiple stakeholders on the client side felt comfortable trusting GDS Companies with their project.
  • GDS Companies had a site which had a similar look and feel to all of the competitors in their space and it was difficult for users to understand how they were different. However, in reality the fact that the team had a depth of financial acumen and Greg, the CEO, had background as a licensed architect so had experiences on "both sides of the table"

Our Approach

  • The two most essential areas of the website were the “About” page and the Portfolio. The about page had the vital job of properly positioning GDS as a small but reliable team with decades of relevant experience in multiple industries. We adamantly did not want to present them as a large company, instead opting for a design pattern and content structure which highlighted the intimate client service they’d be able to provide their clients. To humanize the business to potential stakeholders, we created a section for team bios, complete with headshots and detailed resumes.
  • To cement the feeling of financial responsibility and “value-add”, we borrowed design patterns from financial institutions like banks and insurance companies. To highlight Greg’s unique credentials, we needed to create a project portfolio befitting of an architect, with plenty of high resolution images and quickly-scannable project facts.

We have A LOT of success stories...

What's our secret? Every one starting the same way!
Domain

We hosted their domain name internally, which allows for a seamless transition and no interruption of services.

Hosting

We made sure every effort was made to keep our client's website safe and secure. By doing so, we put their website on our Cloud Servers which allowed for maximum security and the advantages of a dedicated server (as opposed to shared servers), along with multiple layers of privacy protection with unlimited data storage and bandwidth.

Strategy

We learned who our client is and where they were trying to go. Then, we figure out how their website can help get them there. In the process, we learned everything we could about their brand, organization, products, targets, and competition that surround it.

Design

We used the website strategy we created just for our client to create a design that achieved their goals while delighting their visitors/users. Their website was designed to be beautiful, authentic, and strategically organized for a seamless user experience.

Code

We brought our client's website to life. Every website we develop uses the latest and greatest technology and coding practices to ensure a long and fruitful life online. We built an easy-to-update, mobile responsive website that looks and functions perfectly regardless of the browser or device their visitors used.

Maintain

Ongoing Maintenance is the best defense against different software used to build websites and search engine algorithms constantly changing and adapting. We had a trained Software Engineer on hand to monitor the website which was necessary to make updates to continue optimal performance and proactively seek opportunities to improve the site.

SEO

SEO is central to our client's website’s visibility. It is an important way of communicating with Google and other search engines to prove the relevance of their site for users and their search queries. We conducted an Audit to get a better understanding on what needs improved.

Collaborating with Creatotech was an seamless and efficient process, as they quickly got up to speed and understood our goals. Our digital presence now reflects the level of professionalism and quality our business partners have come to expect from GDS Companies. We couldn’t be happier with the end product or the hands-on process Creatotech used to get us there.

Mindy M.

Director of Marketing