Granlund
Granlund is a multidisciplinary group of real estate experts with roots in HVAC design. The Granlund.fi website was facing a renewal, because it did not serve the company’s potential customers or marketing in an optimal way. While the site looked modern, but there were several problem areas: the technical solution needed to be updated and the site’s content structure and user paths had to be redesigned. The site was also in need of a visual reform, and the Granlund team wanted to get more out of their brand.
We became Granlund’s comprehensive digital marketing partner and created a sustainable, global service designed to meet the changing needs of the organization for years to come.
The starting point
Granlund’s previous site was built in 2018 when the company’s brand was renewed. Its sub-brands were all merged together on one site. The structure of the site was too static, changes were difficult to implement and customer paths could not be optimized. The site did not support strategically important themes that would strengthen Granlund’s expertise and role as a pioneer of the industry. It also did not support lead acquisition or sales and made it difficult to present Granlund’s services. Granlund’s main goal was to create a controlled entity where content production would be effortless.
Granlund wanted to improve the understanding of marketing efforts internally, so that everyone would understand how marketing can support the business. The Granlund team had done content marketing before, but the site’s technical solutions slowed it down. They needed tools to implement a content strategy in the future. All content on the site was reviewed, and four themes were created based on the audit: responsibility, productivity, data & digitalization and energy.
The concept
The goal in the beginning of our collaboration was for the Granlund team to express their wishes and needs in relation to the site renewal and for us to gain a comprehensive understanding of their vision. We identified challenging maintenance, the deviation of the layout from other sites and content marketing as problem areas on the site.
We dived deep into the data collected from the site to get a comprehensive understanding of the overall situation: how has the site worked in the past, what is the most popular content, what are the sources of traffic and have the goals been accomplished? We wanted to thoroughly understand the business and strategic goals of the future site as well as the wishes and needs of different user groups. Together with Granlund, we went through the site’s user groups and evaluated them against the site’s business objectives.
UI and UX design
We designed the user paths and content structure of the website based on goals set together with the Granlund team. An interactive prototype was used to test what the site looks and feels like before the technical implementation began.
We designed the website with a modern, responsive and user-friendly look using the existing brand image.
Technical implementation
We implemented the site with WordPress, which provides good tools for content management. Maintenance views and tools in WordPress are simple and intuitive to use. The site is implemented with WordPress’s Gutenberg block system. With modular blocks, managing the site’s structure and creating new page templates is easy and doesn’t require coding skills.
Our designers, analysts and developers worked closely together during the development phase to ensure the best end result. We also trained the Granlund team to enter and manage site content independently. We entered all the content into a testing environment to iterate the site before publishing.
Data as a marketing tool
Often data is just tracked, but not utilized further. We wanted to turn data into a useful marketing tool and move from tracking to active data-based site optimization. Granlund.fi already followed some of the user’s behaviours, such as sending forms and scroll depth. However, measuring events and conversions were stuck to that – collecting data. We wanted to turn the data collected into the most useful and functional tool possible in order to develop Granlund’s digital marketing.
By combining automation, analytics and SEO expertise under the same roof with design, development and service maintenance, we are able to continuously optimize user paths, improve the effectiveness of search engine marketing, develop organic visibility and track marketing results.
Defining the metrics
We defined precise goals for monitoring the site, so that the information gathered could be used to support marketing and sales. Together with Granlund, we defined the relevant metrics for the website. Those were compiled on one plan that served as the base of the analytics report.
Measurement implementation
The metrics were installed on the site using Google Tag Manager in order to move the data into Google Analytics. At this point, we considered what were the necessary data sources and how to integrate them into the ongoing monitoring. We created an interactive report template with goal metrics that meet the current needs and the visual look of the site.
Tracking
The development of the site is based on our agreed monthly plan. In addition to website visitor data, the tracking includes data on organic traffic, advertising, and individual campaigns.
Search engine optimization at the core of the renewal
Visibility in search engines is crucial for any business. Search engine visibility is affected by both technical implementation and content work. We optimized Granlund’s content plan and customized the content to fit the new site based on a previously defined concept.
Before content production, we verified the keywords according to the content themes to ensure a good starting point for search engine optimization.
At the core of the keyword research were key people and the services and solutions provided by Granlund. We wanted to ensure better visibility for different content themes and produce content in the areas that previously had no visibility. The new content elevates Granlund’s profile and makes its brand more memorable.
The keyword research was based on discussions about target groups and on the content themes developed for the site renewal. We also took into account the underlying need and search intent behind keywords. We mainly focused on unbranded keywords or new customer acquisition. Based on the keyword research, we recommended keywords to Granlund by content theme. These keywords have the potential to rise to the first page of search results and serve as a guide to generate new content.
