CastCoverz! Featured in NY Times

CastCoverz! was one of 2 businesses featured in a how-to column about website construction written by NY Times guest columnist, Melinda Emerson, titled, "How Two Owners Got the Web Sites They Wanted," Friday, May 31st, 2013.  Annette d. Giacomazzi, Founder and CEO of CastCoverz!, said, "I was asked the question, 'Why do you love your website?'" My  answer was two-fold, our customers tell us they like the usability, the feel, the ease, and that our website is trustworthy (love that!) But the other part is the vendor partners I hand-picked to support my business model and vision.  This includes my webmaster, Joanne, and WebMarketingTherapy, who have helped us aspire to total web domination.   It's been a huge learning curve, a lot of money, endless time and a few curve balls.  But overall, I love my website because our customers love it."  The article was featured in one of NY Times' favorite column series titled, "You're the Boss.  The Art of Running a Small Business."  The popular column has guest columnists writing from an array of topics, including, but not limited to, building value, social media, it's insights and managing employees. Ms. Emerson, herself a small-business owner (Quintessence Multimedia), writes about small business and social media.  

Giacomazzi, on the eve of launching her third iteration of her website, said, "You could call me a reluctant shifter.  I try not to be a glutten for punishment.  When something is working well, my attention is usually in another direction.  But my webmaster told me I had grown beyond her hybrid cart and ecommerce platform and that I needed to find a more robust solution."   After she settled into that reality, Giacomazzi didn't just make a list from her own set of requirements, she proactively asked her customers what they would like to see in the website.   Giacomazzi continued, "Almost all of the new ideas for the website came from our customers, the balance came from our employees.  Joanne, my webmaster, and I created a comprehensive rubric to look at the features I wanted and potential ecommerce providers.  I settled on Big Commerce.  Joanne is a talented WebMaster.  As a result, she has tweaked many things on Big Commerce’s platform to make it our own. This ensures the CastCoverz! web site will not be an out-of-the-box website, but have our customers' and employees' stamp on it.” 

Web Marketing Therapy, the other leg of the three-legged stool in CastCoverz!'s tool chest of success on the internet, was also profiled.  Giacomazzi explained, "I had a great website, but I needed help in having customers find us at the very moment they needed us.  We utilized or tweaked just about every tool they taught us."  Those tools included SEO, meta-tags, keyword building, re-branding, social media, press releases, blogging, everything but PPC.  Giacomazzi declared, "The results of my 'therapy' were so effective that I still use the tools I learned amd dedicate my team resources so that one person's sole responsiblity is social media, for example and I go back for occasional therapy sessions!"   

This article is just another of major media publications who love the CastCoverz! story.  Huffington Post, in conjunction with Marlo Thomas, featured CastCoverz! foundational roots (daughter has broken 9 bones!) and phenom growth, Yahoo! featured CastCoverz! in an amazing 3 minute video profile (family business out of the home), Entrepreneur featured Annette facing her adversities (the first year she faced not only a growing business, but a business partner dissolution, failed manufactured goods shipment, and a a rare breast cancer diagnosis), best-selling author, Stephen Key, profiled Annette and 6 other entrepreneurs in his book, "One Simple Idea for Start-Ups and Entrepreneurs," along with so many other features, mommy bloggers and business columns.