Background
Sentinel specialises in protecting domestic and commercial heating and hot water systems against limescale, corrosion and other problems that can cause inefficiency or failure. Its products and solutions have an international reputation, and are regarded as best practice in the industry.
The Question
As part of a digital transformation, how do you redesign and build an entirely new website proposition that not only incorporates Sentinel’s new brand positioning, but also reflects their market-leading position in the Heating and Plumbing sector?
The Answer
The website was one of the first projects in a three-year marketing overhaul for Sentinel carried out by Access.
It was completely re-built on Drupal CMS, bringing together the client’s new brand design and positioning, pulling in content from the existing website and adding new content, features and functionality.
The new site is designed to improve the user experience, with efficient, clear navigation for both domestic and commercial customers, easily accessible product pages and cleanly presented information.
Since launch Access had also rolled the site out into 12 international language versions, with various personalised member/login sections across these languages. We also continue to work with Sentinel to make sure the site is constantly being optimised.
The site’s key functionality includes:
- Site structure – simplified navigation and helpful mega-menu
- Product pages – re-designed and easy to use product pages
- Language variants – 12 language variants added since launch
- The Sentinel Hub – a members’ area where customers can download tools and assets
- How to guides – a new section taking customers through best practice to manage a project/job
- Video – created to support the ‘How-To’ guides and for product pages
- Product selector tool – allowing customers easily select the right product for their job
- SystemCheck – a key Sentinel business service was brought online to automate data entry and save time for both Sentinel and their customers
Result and Achievements
The new website fully embraces the re-focused business, communicating the core proposition of Clean, Protect, Maintain (CPM) in an impactful and innovative way.
Specific results have been extremely impressive:
- In 2015 traffic levels have been on average 95% higher than the previous year
- 28% increase in traffic to the ‘Where to buy’ pages
- 67% conversion rate of ‘Where to buy’ traffic going on to a merchant site to make a purchase
- The site’s new ‘How-To’ guides attract over 7,000 views a month and account for nearly 15% of total web traffic
- Bounce rate has decreased by over 15% in year one
- 13 languages launched within 3 months
- The Product Selector tool, launched in Nov 2014 to help customers select the right product for the job, has had an 89% ‘success’ rate – i.e. a visitor that then went on to a product page based on their selection choice
