About Hamilton Thorne
A leader in its industry, Hamilton Thorne, Inc. (HTI), manufactures and markets a full range of solutions for IVF in the clinical (human), developmental biology research, toxicology and animal breeding markets. HTI’s products optimize laboratory workflow and support improved outcomes and scientific breakthroughs. Founded over 30 years ago as a small business serving the animal breeding industry, HTI has expanded to the human fertility market and supports IVF professionals worldwide.
Situation: An Outdated Website Was Difficult to Manage and Generated Few Leads
The previous Hamilton Thorne website had a high bounce rate of about 65% and a lengthy load time of about 15 seconds. Content had to be updated in multiple locations on the website as well as in internal systems, making it unwieldy to manage. As a result, clinical market content was underrepresented, even though business had long ago expanded beyond the equine breeding expertise of the company’s early days.
Seeking a fresh start and new brand identity after internal leadership changes, HTI turned to Windmill Strategy to redesign the website to increase traffic, improve search results, generate more leads and help HTI’s marketing stay competitive and relevant in the digital age.
Solution: A Properly Structured Website Designed To Get Content to Users Quickly and Reach Ideal Customers in All Markets
An informed set of website architecture recommendations underpinned the strategy for the new Hamilton Thorne website, which was built on the WordPress platform to allow the client team to easily edit content. A new content hierarchy was developed to improve search results and prioritize the user experience according to market—human, animal or research—rather than leading with highly technical categories and content. This UX strategy allows users to find relevant content quickly.
Windmill focused on content types and relationships to achieve the client’s goals. These types included Products, Case Studies, Applications, Resources, FAQs, Events and News. In addition to tagging content, HTI wanted the option to select and feed in specific pieces of content. Windmill had to build in a default and make sure that there would be enough relevant case studies tagged to a specific product, while allowing an easy pivot in the authoring process to change and select specific case studies (or FAQs or Resources) to feed in.
In addition to writing new content, HTI had many existing high-quality content resources that needed to be migrated. These resources, including articles, brochures, certifications, instructions, manuals, spec sheets and videos, were bulk-migrated from Sharepoint. Windmill created custom post types for all resources, which allowed us to assign custom taxonomies to each of these categories.
The advanced network of custom taxonomies and tagging that Windmill developed also allowed for more advanced archive filtering. In the Resources archive, for example, the user can filter all the way down to display only Resources tagged with a specific product, as well as another layer that distinguishes between animal applications and human (clinical).
Because the new website includes a distributor portal, we developed custom client-specific user roles and permissions for Customers, Employees, and Distributors, so that each user role has different levels of access to resources and/or the distributor portal (which also includes announcements, events and more). Another complex aspect of the resource access is that there are multiple levels for gated resources: we had to develop the functionality for a resource to be either gated or public, but also to be available if one of the custom user roles was logged into the website via the portal or just browsing. For example, on a product page, we built a custom block to either relationally feed in or hand-pick select resources to display on that product page; however, if one of those resources is gated, then only the logged-in user with that specific user role is able to access and download the resource. We also developed functionality for a popup to display that allows anyone to download the simple gated resources after submitting a form.
The content migration process proved to be somewhat challenging, as content was being written at the same time that the new website was being designed and developed. HTI and Windmill worked flexibly back and forth to ensure that design and development specs aligned with content that was still pending.
Using programming best practices, the website was developed to perform optimally and load quickly. With an updated brand identity, the website’s visual design reflects HTI’s current capabilities and status as a widely known and respected supplier of IVF equipment. WordPress allows the client’s internal team to easily update content. All of these efforts support the ultimate goal of doubling the number of leads generated by the website.
Needs and priorities shifted throughout the project, but solution-focused problem solving and open and honest communication between the teams helped get the new website across the finish line in time for an important trade show.
Results: A Fast-Loading, Easy-to-Update Website That Reflects the Client’s Position as an Industry Leader
The new HTI website reflects the client’s industry leadership and its range of capabilities across all its markets. Windmill worked closely with the client and their Salesforce agency, Kiwi Group, to make sure the website would meet the launch deadline.
Optimized for performance, the new website is easy to update, loads quickly and integrates leads directly into Salesforce. It is an up-to-date complement to HTI’s strong live event presence at trade shows, conferences and educational symposia.
Post-launch, HTI signed on with Windmill for a professional-level security and maintenance package.
Are you looking for a digital marketing partner that understands the complexities of your industry? Let’s talk today
Windmill Strategy is a web design company & digital marketing agency helping life science & B2B medical companies achieve increased visibility, higher quality leads, and greater marketing ROI through smarter web design. Our website design and B2B digital marketing approach goes beyond “more traffic,” seeking out better traffic, by gaining the attention of the specific niche groups of buyers and influencers that represent your best customers. We help our clients communicate and sell their complex products and services to multiple audiences – be it through web design or digital marketing and SEO. Working collaboratively with your in-house marketing and sales team, we design websites that drive leads and sales that result in overall business growth. Schedule a call to learn more.