How We Helped John Henry Foster Power their Process, People, and Tech for Success

Or read it now

20+

More Marketing Campaigns (YoY)

5+

Roles Filled Through Staff Augmentation

1150%

Increase in Conversions

About JH Foster

John Henry Foster (JHFOSTER) is a distributor and service provider for automation and compressed air systems. Their mission is to provide manufacturing companies with leading automation solutions that increase efficiency and reliability.

The acquisition of JHFOSTER by a small equity firm gave Christie Koester, their Marketing and Communications Manager, an opportunity to start building their client lead pipeline and warming up their existing customers.

They had so much potential to nurture and cross-sell and had Marketo Engage, but were not
using it. Koester’s teams needed some help with their marketing operations.

The Challenge:

Fill in missing experience and knowledge gaps and execute a customized strategy

JHFoster needed to quickly fill in their existing staffing gaps. Their main concern was ensuring that their marketing team had the support they needed to quickly and efficiently scale their
marketing operations without having multiple existing roles in place.

Without time and resources on their side, they knew they needed to work with someone who had extensive knowledge of the software and tools and the ability to execute a complex and
customized strategy for their business in a short amount of time.

Our Marketing Operations were very cumbersome and messy… there were a lot of inherited processes that we had to audit and then flip to ensure we could find all of the errors across data inconsistencies and to increase our target audience.
Christie Koester
Marketing & Communications Manager

The Solution:

Improve Marketo program architecture, improve design standards, and revitalize marketing campaigns

As a full-service agency, GNW Consulting had the resources to quickly augment JHFOSTER’s staff and make the most of their existing marketing efforts, while providing strategy and guidance along the way. We essentially became a branch of their marketing team, who could help them navigate any challenge. We started out by training their team on Marketo Engage best practices, then we dove in deep into our process to determine where to start.

Through our marketing sensitivity analysis, we were able to identify areas of improvement across:
  • Program Implementation
  • Design Standards
  • Form Best Practices
  • Email Nurturing
  • Copy and Blog Writing
  • Data Connectivity

Within a few weeks, we filled in the missing experience and knowledge gaps they were currently working hard to overcome. Where they lacked a developer, general system admin or SEO copywriter, we brought in the right resources for the job.

For me I know it’s nice that I don’t have to think ‘is this campaign being taken care of from start to finish?’ GNW Consulting doesn’t just publish it, they teach us along the way and walk us through it so that we’re learning as we go.
Christie Koester
Marketing & Communications Manager

Our Process:

One of the areas of improvement that JHFOSTER quickly wanted to bring up to speed was improving their Marketo program architecture. Their existing instance had untapped potential that was causing inefficiencies for their team.

1

Our system admin developed a scalable methodology that would help their marketing specialist reduce time spent creating campaigns.

2

We improved the process workflow and optimized their Marketo instance for success.

3

Through the creation of tokens, we streamlined the campaign process and identified a clear path toward marketing growth goals.

Improving Design Standards & Form Best Practices

Streamlining their process quickly raised a lot of questions about how they could improve their emails and landing pages. Since they didn’t have a developer on staff, we were able to quickly fill that gap by revamping their landing page CSS, improving form styles across their website to adhere to best practices and refreshing their email templates for a better look and feel.

JHFOSTER’s previous process required a minimum of 5 hours to create simple newsletters and emails. It was clunky and required coding. Our developer quickly coded new templates that followed best-practice standards and a streamlined design approach. Our new solution allowed them to create impressive landing pages, emails and newsletters in just under 30 minutes.

Email Nurturing & Blog Content Creation

In addition to ad-hoc email send and support, we revamped their nurture track to keep their audiences engaged with tried and true strategies. By sharpening their email copy and optimizing their workflow, we achieved positive results nurturing their existing audiences.

Reviewing their copy allowed us to find some opportunities to step in to support copywriting efforts, so we established:

  • New Baseline Metrics
  • Began Producing New Keyword Rich Blogs
  • Revamped their Email Nurture Track
Now we can determine what the customer is interested in in a shorter amount of time versus a 12-month sales cycle. That’s HUGE in our industry.
Christie Koester
Marketing & Communications Manager

The Results:

Connecting the Dots

Our goal was to ensure KPIs tied back to their existing conversion data to create true visibility of their marketing achievements within their Marketo dashboard. By helping them connect the dots, we enabled lead qualification, so they could assign statuses for each opportunity in their pipeline. With this new data, JHFOSTER was able to set new goals to track against their KPIs and go after revenue more efficiently.

Our team successfully set up their webinar program and provided best practices based on our pre-existing knowledge of their industry, so that they could quickly achieve the results they were looking for in a fraction of the time.

1150%

Increase in Conversions
Q1-Q3

5+

Rolls Filled Through Staff Augmentation

20+

More Marketing Campaigns (YoY)

Find out the difference GNW Consulting can make.

Download the full JH FOSTER Case Study
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