The C2 Group partnered with The Andersons Grain Group to create personalized mobile and desktop experiences for their diverse audiences.
The Andersons, Inc. is a Fortune 500 agribusiness that has interests in commodities trading, grain, ethanol, fertilizer, crop insurance, and financing. With wide-ranging services and offerings, The Andersons' grain division partnered with The C2 Group on a marketing-sponsored redesign to improve customer service, gain better intelligence on site visitor behavior, and provide highly personalized experiences that drive new memberships.
The existing andersonsgrain.com lacked a consistent organizational structure for its depth and variety of content. Lacking clear direction on how to connect for pricing or product details, users were often left to call Andersons representatives just to be passed around the organization. Not optimized for mobile, the site hindered farmers by not adequately displaying real-time market information and location details for nearby grain elevators. Without single sign-on ability, users of andersonsgrain.com and GRAINweb – an Andersons member portal for viewing and managing contract statuses, open orders, pricing, and delivery tickets – were forced to log in multiple times to work between sites. Internally, the CMS did not afford the Andersons team the ability to easily manage and reuse its diverse content or harness robust, out-of-the-box digital marketing features.
Today’s farmer is mobile-minded. Whether it’s at home, in the barn, or in the field, andersonsgrain.com users need quick and easy access to the information most valuable in managing their day-to-day business. Use of visual analytics tools, user research, and a better understanding of site usage and trends informed heavily on the design and architecture of the new site experience. A fully responsive, brand-aligned design and more user-friendly data visualization better accommodates today’s on-the-go farmer. This includes The Andersons Grain Group’s "Freedom" pages, which provide a grain pricing strategy calculator for users. Integrations with iNET JavaScript data feeds and Google Maps APIs pull content for "Weather" and "Market" pages instantly, while new "Locations" pages now include mapping with filtering options. Another custom integration included Active Directory Federated Services, allowing member users to sign in once to work seamlessly between andersonsgrain.com and GRAINweb. To help drive membership, a custom, browser-based process was developed by C2 to allow users a predetermined number of articles and videos before being prompted to sign in or register for an account.
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One of The C2 Group’s most customized Optimizely (Episerver) implementations, andersonsgrain.com is easily managed and maintained with an intuitive, feature-rich editor interface. Using Optimizely’s out-of-the-box visitor group functionality, content can now be tailored to users based on weather in a specific area code or other criteria, including behavior.
Post-launch user testing confirmed users had an easier time navigating the site and completing routine tasks, including finding grain elevator locations and visiting specialized pages. A granular approach to user experience and a personal touch: all part of planting the seeds for continued business growth.
