The Assignment
A leading mechanical seals provider to the energy and process industries, John Crane has a 100-year legacy of sustainability. The company needed to 1) bring this history of sustainability leadership to the forefront of its brand communications and 2) seize emerging opportunities in hydrogen, CCUS, emissions reduction and energy efficiency.
Strategic Brand Refresh
We spearheaded a strategic refresh that positioned John Crane as the energy transition leader it is. After conducting brand positioning workshops with key stakeholders, we developed updated brand pillars, value propositions and personas that integrated sustainability into the brand’s core identity without losing sight of operational reliability. We introduced internal teams to this messaging and applied it consistently across the client’s website and external comms.
Marcom Strategy
After analyzing John Crane’s competitive positioning in the new energy market through our Clustaar digital analysis, we developed an integrated marcom strategy designed to grow its business in four new energy focus areas. Our strategy leveraged brand awareness including media and trade, lead acquisition using the inbound methodology, and marketing and sales alignment through ABM.
Content Culture
We helped John Crane build a strong content culture, including a repeatable, scalable process for engaging SMEs in the content creation process. Over time, this streamlined the development of 60+ pieces of content ranging from eBooks, white papers and FAQ sheets to case studies and SEO-optimized blogs.
MarTech Integration
We worked hand-in-hand to establish a strong foundation for repeatable, scalable and optimized digital marketing. This included optimizing John Crane’s martech stack by integrating marketing tools from awareness to sales Website CMS for foundational content and SEO. We integrated a marketing platform for premium content, email, lead scoring and nurturing, a CRM for marketing acquired lead (MAL) management, and advanced reporting.
Demand Generation
HexaGroup established, launched and optimized John Crane’s first comprehensive digital ad program. Upon form submission, each lead entered into an automated email nurturing workflow, where they were scored not only on marcom engagement but based on industry, job function and geography. When the lead reached a pre-determined scoring threshold, they transitioned from an MAL to a SQL and were seamlessly transferred to John Crane’s sales team for further action.
Reporting & Optimization
HexaGroup established the company’s first comprehensive digital reporting. Available 24/7 with real-time updates, our live dashboard reported on all relevant KPIs. We also delivered a monthly analysis that drove progress and program optimization. Through the campaign, we continually optimized our demand generation targeting, creative and content to enhance performance and reflect the client’s latest business priorities, including geographic focus.
Results
Over the course of 18 months, our work with John Crane increased awareness and demand for its new energy solutions offering while aligning marketing, sales and other internal teams behind this critical growth effort. To help internal teams easily access and utilize the 60+ pieces of content created as part of our campaigns, we developed a digital toolkit that was distributed companywide.
- $44 average cost per acquisition
- 63% of targeted accounts engaged with campaign
- 1,700+ prospects over a 9-month period
- 11%+ in organic traffic (7% of overall website traffic), with 163 new ranking keywords in Q2 2024 alone
- Largest volume of new energy and sustainability content, with only one competitor garnering more frequent media mentions
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