Cooper Valves
An industry leader needed a website that promoted its consultative services and engineering knowhow, while making it easy for customers to research products and buy.
Cooper Valves, a leading manufacturer of alloy and nickel cast and forged valves, had a website that looked like everyone else’s in the industry. Product-focused and highly technical, it functioned like a catalog – here’s a product, download the specs– organized from the company’s point of view.
Cooper came to Pennebaker for its next-generation website after acquiring another valve company with different customers and applications. As development progressed, we identified three main issues:
- how to merge the product lines effectively
- how to use content to keep visitors finding value in the site
- how to distinguish Cooper Valves from its competitors.
The Right Content on the Right Page
Pennebaker set about organizing the Cooper Valve product line based on customers’ needs. Realizing that many customers are looking for parts for urgent repairs, we used broad filtering categories to make it easy to find the correct product quickly.
We also created a handy new “Valve Finder” application to create a short cut to the relevant valve type.
Fleshing Out Content with Value
The high tech alloy and nickel valves manufactured by Cooper command premium prices. Because the company has a full spectrum of testing, cleaning, treating and repair services, we suggested a section to focus on their technical service capabilities.
We also suggested creating a Knowledge Center to post articles, reference materials and downloadable product guides. This body of work distinguishes the company as experienced, technically savvy, and innovative in designing critical components for heavy industry.
We also designed in sections for the company’s messaging along the “Quality Without Compromise” and “Performance Under Pressure” tag lines. These bold statements and graphics serve as mini-advertisements as viewers scroll through the site.
The introduction of a blog to the Cooper Valves website created a new and valuable inbound marketing opportunity. Their formula involves creating email campaigns containing news and timely information, which draws additional visitors to the site.
“Working with Pennebaker was an absolute pleasure. They did an excellent job researching and educating themselves on our industry and our company. Additionally, our sales people are now much more comfortable referencing customers to our website, giving us an extremely useful sales tool.”
— Bryan Riter, Cooper Valves
Capturing Time and Data
The full impact of the new Cooper Valve website is just beginning to be felt. Traffic has already increased dramatically, thanks to the activity generated by the blog and email activity. Viewers are spending more time on the site, one of the key metrics for website analytics, as they read reference information and compare products.
To close the circle, the company is now gathering the names and emails of many prospective customers in return for their onsite reference materials – a fair exchange by any measure.
And, finally, the process of creating the cross-referenced data base provided Cooper Valves with a foundation for SEO search terms as well as ad words campaigns.
With its new website Cooper Valves gained a new tool in the sales cycle process. Quick links and helpful information reduce frustration, enriching the user experience and giving Cooper Valves a unique personality and a new presence in the marketplace.