Deliverable: Video Production

Our Work

GBG Website Redesign: The Essentials

“Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’”

This quote from Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor from the second century CE, sums up the attitude we were all feeling as a company in 2022. We had challenged ourselves to make more impact with our clients faster, spending less time doing foundational branding work and more time driving results. We had also fully integrated EOS around this time, which helped us realize that we needed to simplify. 

After doing a lot of hard work on our processes and approach (and seeing our clients respond positively), we realized that our website no longer reflected the experience and expertise that we delivered to our clients. We also saw an opportunity to strip out the fluff and focus solely on the main things prospective clients care about: how we can ease their pain points and help them succeed and the proof that we’ll be successful. 

Building for Today, Laying Groundwork for the Future

Our goals for the website included the following:

  • Drive marketing and sales-qualified leads for GBG
  • Be a valuable resource for sales and marketing professionals in manufacturing to help them do their jobs better and more easily, whether they work with us or not
  • Accurately reflect the current experience of the GBG sales process and what it’s like to be a client
  • Showcase up-to-date work so that prospects can get a taste of our quality

When building anything—an aircraft engine, a house, a website—it’s important to start with the essentials. Our team couldn’t help but come up with a million ideas of things we should include on the site, but ultimately, we made our sitemap as simple as possible to increase our speed to launch and still achieve our goals.

Instead of organizing our services into à la carte-style pages, we created a Solutions page for prospects that speaks to the common goals and challenges we most often hear from industrial sales and marketing professionals. We built the architecture of this page to allow expansion deeper into individual tactics we deploy in campaigns and programs later.

The Our Work section of the site features filtering functionality, allowing users to view projects by type, services rendered, and the deliverables included.

Essential Knowledge + More Energy

Simplifying our processes and adopting EOS breathed new life into our team, and we punched up our visuals to reflect this renewed energy. We incorporated a simple shapes motif to represent how we break complex problems down to the essentials, solving for root causes and building marketing systems that work. We also brightened our color palette to reflect the positivity, drive, and growth mindset all our go!mates share.

What’s Next: Website 2.0

Now that we’ve built a solid foundation with a website that reflects what prospects can expect when working with us, we are working in the background on the next evolution of our site to bring even more value to our audiences. 

Recently launched, our 5-minute marketing assessment helps users get a sense of the current state of their marketing systems with a customized, actionable, research-backed report. We are also working on producing additional insights articles that answer the questions we are asked most frequently by industrial sales and marketing professionals.

Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the latest tools and resources that can help you do more effective marketing and sales. 

Our Work

Igniting Momentum: ÅirIQ Product Launch

About Cosasco

INDUSTRY: Atmospheric Corrosion Monitoring

Cosasco has been exclusively dedicated to corrosion management for over 70 years. They have a strong history of proven product and service solutions as well as a commitment to continue advancing the corrosion industry through innovation and expertise.

Results

Messaging, design, and strategic product launch of the ÅirIQ product

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Units Sold

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Units Quoted

What is ÅirIQ?

One type of corrosion that affects pulp and paper mill and data center environments specifically is atmospheric corrosion. Cosasco created ÅirIQ to help customers in these industries make better decisions about their corrosion management activities. What sets ÅirIQ apart is the hypersensitive electrical resistance technology (which indicates a corrosive environment before damage to assets can occur) coupled with the system’s ability to display real-time data.

This real-time monitoring helps ÅirIQ users stay ahead of corrosion, instead of spending time and resources fixing a problem after it has already occurred. This type of technology and information is game-changing for directors and engineers responsible for controlled environments.

Positioning and Launching ÅirIQ

Every project at goBRANDgo! starts with learning. We met with subject matter experts at Cosasco to learn the features and benefits of the product and gain a better understanding of the target audiences we were trying to reach. We were especially eager to learn about the audience for ÅirIQ because it represented an opportunity for Cosasco to penetrate new markets. Prior to launching ÅirIQ and a few other recent products, they had worked primarily in the oil and gas industry. We needed to ask a lot of questions to gain insight into the audiences of pulp and paper mills and data centers.

To get inside our prospects’ heads, we led a live rapid persona exercise with Cosasco where we delved into the problems, motivations, and desired outcomes for the different audiences they served. 

Once we had a good grasp on the differentiators of the product and the challenges of the audience, we brainstormed how copy and design could work together to create a compelling message. We presented three creative approaches and painted the picture for Cosasco about how each of them could come to life in the launch campaign and future messaging for ÅirIQ. We created sample ads with differing visuals and copy to illustrate what each idea could look like out in the wild.

Once we decided on the messaging and creative direction for the launch, our creative, strategy, and client success teams worked together to create a series of a deliverables and a plan for deployment. We decided that a mixture of traditional sales enablement tools and digital marketing tactics would give Cosasco the multi-channel support they needed to make the launch a success.

Deliverables we executed included:

  • Website Landing Page
  • Website Pop-Up
  • Sales Sheet
  • Digital Ads

The creative approach we landed on used both dark and light backgrounds to bring contrast with Cosasco’s existing visuals for other corrosion monitoring products, which featured mostly dark backgrounds. Since the launch had to appeal to markets outside of Cosasco’s core oil and gas audience, the visual differentiation helped solidify the uniqueness of the ÅirIQ product.

The visuals also incorporated an angular, all-caps sans serif typeface that lent a technological feel, along with other design elements reminiscent of data, which reflect both the capabilities of the ÅirIQ system and the data center environment that it is well suited for (among others). 

We began creating copy inspired by the idea of “invisible monsters,” threats lurking in the atmosphere just waiting to take down critical assets. We wove this concept into the content of the entire campaign, speaking to the way that ÅirIQ’s real-time data replaces uncertainty with confidence in controlled environments—making the unse

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Leads

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Customer Trials

Results

Cosasco secured the first purchase order for ÅirIQ on the date of the product launch. In the three weeks that followed, they had sold 15 units, quoted over 40 units and had secured leads for 120 units. Three customers signed up for trials, and they were invited to speak at a few industry conferences about the product and its capabilities.

Protecting critical infrastructure from the harmful effects of corrosion keeps modern life as we know it up and running. After the momentum gained by this product launch, we’re continuing to work with Cosasco to refine their brand identity and reclaim their position as the go-to provider for corrosion monitoring solutions worldwide.

“Bringing a Cutting-Edge Corrosion Monitoring System to New Markets”

Cosasco

Our Work

Equipping Success: Banner Fire Web Updates Case Study

About Banner Fire Equipment

INDUSTRY: Fire Equipment Distribution

Banner Fire has been equipping firefighters and emergency responders across the midwest with best-in-class fire and rescue apparatus, gear, and tools for nearly four decades. Their modern 39,000 square foot facility ensures they have what emergency responders need to protect their communities.

Results

Updated website and e-commerce experience that helps emergency responders get what they need quickly.

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Manual Hours Saved

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Cost Savings

Banner Fire: Equipped for Success

Banner Fire has been equipping first responders and firefighters with the tools they need to protect their communities for nearly four decades. Their 39,000 square foot facility houses everything an emergency responder needs to get the job done safely, from parts and service to testing and inspections.

Banner Fire wanted to update their website to provide a more satisfying customer experience and reduce manual labor for the team. With their large inventory and newly expanded product offerings, they needed an e-commerce solution that would provide a better all-around user experience.

The Project

A Better Process was Needed

Banner Fire houses approximately 8,000 products in their warehouse on any given day. Their e-commerce functionality didn’t work well with their Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) and required their team to do a lot of manual work to keep the stock updated. Team members worked daily with the ERP to pull any information that had changed (prices, descriptions, titles, SKU numbers, manufacturer updates, etc.), and manually enter changes into the e-commerce system. This took a lot of valuable man-hours that could be better served elsewhere and left room for human error.

Seeking an Exceptional Experience

User experience matters. A well-designed site with easy access to products and information is paramount when a new potential customer pays a visit. If a visitor can’t find what they’re looking for, they will go elsewhere, and someone else will get that sale. Banner Fire hadn’t updated their site in nearly half a decade, and it showed. They were ready for a design refresh that complimented their brand, and services with strong UX and scalability for future growth.

Understanding the Fire Industry

Before we can build a proper strategy and begin developing, we have to understand the industry. To fully understand our customer’s business, we must first immerse ourselves in their business, and the larger industry they serve.

Through independent research about their industry, their competitors, and their customers’ challenges, along with (numerous) conversations with Banner Fire, we learned how decision-makers in the fire industry shop for equipment. We worked to understand their journey and shopping habits so we could help Banner Fire be their guide.

Other pieces our team completed included bringing light to the parts and services aspect of the brand. This branch was formerly viewed as being an external arm of the company. The team made sure that with the website redesign this was now viewed internally. The team also condensed the content they had. While they wanted to include as much as they could, they wanted to keep the site focused on being user centric.

Automating Processes for Accurate Lead Times

A critical aspect of this project was to provide a solution that removes the manual updates required by their ERP to give the Banner Fire team the time to focus their time and energy on what they do best–helping emergency responders protect their communities.

Working directly with their ERP provider, we set up a system that would check for updates every night, then push those changes to the e-commerce portion of the site. Now, any time a price, product description, SKU, or other product information changes, the site automatically shows the most up-to-date information for more accurate lead times. This is crucial in today’s market where current supply chains make the timely delivery of products a challenge. It’s especially important in the fire industry, where customers have to wait upwards of a year for supplies they need to protect their communities. Accurate lead times on the site help customers make informed decisions and set expectations for when products will arrive.

Untangling Product Variations

When our team was learning about the equipment Banner Fire sells, we noticed that many of the products had slight variations (sizes, colors, etc).

Creating separate products for each variation would muddy up the customer experience, creating an overwhelming number of products, and making it more difficult to find items need quickly. With this in mind, we developed a solution that allows the site to have multiple variations on the same product.

Updating the Look and Feel

Automated processes? Check. An easier, more navigable user experience? Check. From a back-end perspective, Banner Fire’s site saw an elevated presence that not only streamlined processes but presented information in a way that makes sense. But first impressions count, and we wanted to ensure their site’s look and feel complimented the functionality.

We wanted to relate to Banner’s target market, firefighters, so we chose imagery that depicted them as the heroes they are, using bold colors and design elements where they made sense.

Typographically, we chose a font that had some character, deliberately avoiding typefaces that felt too simplistic or corporate. Beyond the web, Banner Fire is undergoing a larger rebranding process, which we have kept in mind as we developed their new site, keeping new elements, and messaging in mind.

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Bounce Rate Decline

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Page Session Increase

Smooth Customer Transition

Customer service is very important to the Banner Fire team, so before making the site live, our teams worked together to figure out how to make the transition to the new site seamless for current customers. An email was sent after the launch asking them to visit the site and reset their password.

We also added a message on the login page. Customer information was transferred to the new site including name, address, billing information, tax-exempt status, and previous order history.

Results

Creating or updating a single product can take as long as 10 minutes–create a product, add a description, add a price. With more than 8,000 products, that’s essentially over 1,300 hours of manual entry from the Banner Fire team. By creating an automated inventory process, Banner Fire’s website has provided approximately $200k in cost savings, with that number growing exponentially as new products are added and updated.

Since the launch of the site, we’ve seen more meaningful user engagement. Pages per Session has increased by 4.08% and the Bounce Rate has declined by 10.53%. That’s a fancy way of saying that users are staying longer and viewing more pages on the site during their visits.

“We want to be the Amazon of fire equipment.”

Our Work

A Brand Electrified

About Holt Electrical Supplies

INDUSTRY: Full-line electrical distribution

Founded in 1960 in a drugstore basement, HOLT has grown into a regional powerhouse with seven locations and over 200,000 square feet of distribution space.

Results

Refreshed branding and a cohesive go-to-market messaging celebrating the “middle man”

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Increase in Website Users

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Increase in Website Sessions

A Brand Electrified

HOLT has always done things a little bit differently than their competitors in the industry. In a sea of giant competitors with about as much of a personal touch as Amazon.com, HOLT has managed to grow and go the extra mile to help their customers win.

We met Ryan Holtzman (CEO) and Shane McCorkle (VP of Business Development) at a leadership training event, and in getting to know them, it became clear that HOLT’s brand image wasn’t doing justice to the passion and capabilities of the company. And with more and more potential customers in the industry buying products directly from manufacturers, we needed to demonstrate the value of a distributor—a middle man—that cares about its customers.

Not only did we want to take Ryan and Shane out for beers immediately, but we wanted to help their business even more—we knew that our team could help refresh HOLT’s brand and get the message out with a marketing and communications strategy to match.

Shedding Light on HOLT’s Competitive Advantage

Our goal was to capture and communicate the energy that HOLT’s team and customers knew and turn it into a results-generating asset. We began by constructing the strategic building blocks of HOLT’s brand platform—conducting research on their competitors, interviewing customers, and learning their business inside and out. While the fuller picture was coming together, we dove right into tactical deliverables like press releases and promotional communications.

Logo, Visual Identity, & Brand Voice Overhaul

With a firm grip on HOLT’s value proposition, target audience, and brand personality, we created a new logo that conveyed the energy of the company and signaled the launch of a new phase of growth. We then developed an entirely new visual system and brand voice that did what Ryan, Shane, and the whole organization had done so well from the beginning—cut the B.S. and make a real difference.

Website Launch

A keystone of the new brand launch was a completely new website, featuring more robust services and careers sections and the HOLT Toolbox—a collection of resources including a new blog, videos, and more.

Ongoing Content Strategy & Email Marketing

We also launched a regular company email newsletter that keeps subscribers informed of new product promotions, learning content, and industry news, in addition to activating social media channels to broaden HOLT’s reach. Finally, our team consistently supports HOLT’s sales outreach efforts with highly targeted email campaigns to engage various customer segments.

Measures of Success

At every level, team members at HOLT have embraced the new brand by proudly sporting new swag and speaking the language of the middle man who cuts the B.S. The HOLT website has garnered significantly more attention since the refresh, more than doubling organic traffic and total website sessions. HOLT has also seen terrific results in attracting qualified candidates for career opportunities in the company. Prior to the new website launch, the company had faced challenges in garnering applications for open positions. Since launch, Ryan and his team have told us that they now struggle to keep up with the interest!

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Increase in Facebook Impressions

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Increase in Organic Traffic

“They’re adaptable. There’s been a lot of changes…and they’ve kept up with it. goBRANDgo! not only keeps up…they stay out in front of it.”

Our Work

HOLT Electrical Supplies

The passion and energy of this full-line electrical distributor is unmatched anywhere in their area. We infused the brand identity with the same swagger, confidence, and dedication to customers success that has kept HOLT thriving since 1960.

Objective

To create a bold brand that reflected the fierce dedication HOLT shows to their customers and the community they serve

Shedding Light on HOLT’s Competitive Advantage

Our goal was to capture and communicate the energy that HOLT’s team and customers knew and turn it into a results-generating asset. we began by constructing the strategic building blicks of HOLT’s brand platform-conducting research on their competitors, interviewing customers, and learning their business inside and out. While the fuller picture was coming together , we dover right into tactical deliverables like press releases and promotional communications.

Our goal was to capture and communicate the energy that HOLT’s team and customers knew and turn it into a results-generating asset.