American Air Filter International Aims for Global Growth and Brand Consolidation with Progress Sitefinity
Industries:
ManufacturingProducts:
SitefinityChallenge
For years, AAF relied on a CMS solution that had multiple drawbacks - a complex backend, inability to support a modern UI/UX design approach and an inherent complexity to integrate third-party solutions, ultimately compromising overall agility and scalability, at a high cost.
Solution
Implement Progress Sitefinity with its marketer-friendly backend, allowing non-technical users to easily update content; take advantage of Sitefinity’s ability to integrate seamlessly with third-party solutions; continue to leverage the expertise of Sitefinity implementation partner Flywheel Strategic to create a modern digital experience.
Result
Increase in lead quality, resulting in 96% of leads coming through fully qualified over a three-month period; seamless integration with third-party solutions such as Cloudinary, HubSpot, Swiftype; brand consistency, messaging and security maintained – on a global scale – with a single code base that is easier to manage, scale and extend.
Full Story
Challenge
For many years, AAF relied on a CMS solution which, despite being familiar, had multiple drawbacks - a complex backend that required technical expertise to make simple content updates, inability to support a modern UI/UX design approach and an inherent complexity to integrate third-party solutions, ultimately compromising overall agility and scalability, at a high cost. To overcome these challenges and take the first step towards enhancing their global brand and digital presence, AAF chose Sitefinity for their primary website.
“We needed the flexibility to make content changes on the go, and from an administration standpoint, our previous site was not user friendly; we also required a dashboard that provided visibility into the way changes were made,” said Rick Hickey, Creative Director. “Additionally, the user experience was not optimal, and the effort required to upgrade the user experience on the old CMS was simply too much.”
Another challenge AAF faced was the ability to integrate with third-party solutions, based on complexity issues and other obstacles.
“The ability to bring in a digital asset management solution and integrate with other third-party software was also important to us,” Hickey said. “However, it was difficult to accomplish those objectives, given the related programming resources and expenses required.”
When you look at the specifics that drew us to Sitefinity, key differentiators included the cleanliness of the backend, front-end UI and the workability from our standpoint to easily administer the site. I cannot tell you how much more refreshing it's been that I can go in and make my own text changes; I can update the material that gets uploaded and downloaded to the site...and everyone trusts the content, putting us in an even greater position as we continue to scale.
Rick Hickey
Creative Director, American Air Filter
Solution
After a period of due diligence, AAF determined that Sitefinity checked all the boxes:
- A marketer-friendly backend that gave non-technical users the ability to easily update content
- The ability to support a modern UI/UX design approach that would properly reflect AAF’s leadership position on a global scale
- Seamless integration with third-party solutions such as Salesforce, Cloudinary, HubSpot, Swiftype search, and a product information system (PIM)
- The level of security that a global company like AAF required
- The ability to ensure uniform updates and trust in content accuracy through its digital asset management structure
“When you look at the specifics that drew us to Sitefinity, key differentiators included the cleanliness of the backend, front-end UI and the workability from our standpoint to easily administer the site,” said Hickey. “I cannot tell you how much more refreshing it's been that I can go in and make my own text changes; I can update the material that gets uploaded and downloaded to the site...and everyone trusts the content, putting us in an even greater position as we continue to scale.”
Result
Joining forces with Sitefinity implementation partner Flywheel Strategic, AAF achieved one of its key goals with their new site launch—a front-end design and a customer journey befitting of an industry leader.
The new design and layout of the site has had a significant impact on attracting new customers, and the new navigation flow makes it much easier for them to get the information they need,” said Hickey. “Additionally, visitors are staying on the site longer, rather than saying ‘I don’t know where I am’ and just leave.”
Along with the new, modern UI/UX came an increase in quality leads. “We're getting a much higher volume of quality leads by collecting the right kind of information in our lead generation forms,” said Victoria Preston, Marketing Director. “They've gone from very cold, unqualified leads, to filtered and very targeted leads, resulting in a stronger pipeline of quality prospects. The sales team has noticed the difference.”
In fact, out of 400 leads generated over a three-month period, 96% came through fully qualified, ready for sales follow-up.
AAF also highlights the integration of Sitefinity with third-party solutions which has been fundamental for them. “The [out of the box] integration with Cloudinary was significant for us, since we were able to easily add the Digital Asset Management (DAM) system to the platform,” said Hickey.
In addition, AAF also took advantage of Sitefinity’s ability to integrate with a search solution of choice. Following Flywheel’s recommendation, Swiftype search was implemented. As a result, AAF’s new site now has an advanced search functionality, which is considered critical for their product catalogs.
Further, the integration of Salesforce is also very high on the list of AAF’s digital transformation priorities. “The goal is to integrate with Salesforce directly from a lead generation standpoint,” Hickey said. “That wasn't even available to us before and that lead tracking is going to be monumental.”
Another planned integration will involve direct connection to the AAF third-party product information system (PIM). That system holds data such as SKU numbers and product descriptions and integrating it with Sitefinity would bring in greater content accuracy, consistency and overall efficiency.
“It would be for each product that we have so there's one single source of truth for all the product information,” Hickey said. “We’ll have consistent information as well as visuals to represent all our products.”
Thinking long term, AAF has big plans when it comes to Sitefinity: continue to leverage Sitefinity’s modern digital experience platform, enabling AAF to maintain brand consistency, messaging and security – on a global scale – with a single code base that is easier to manage, scale and extend.
“With Sitefinity, we have a solution that will continuously evolve, improve and grow with the business,” said Preston.
With Sitefinity, we have a solution that will continuously evolve, improve and grow with the business.
Victoria Preston
Marketing Director, American Air Filter