OMRON Corporation is a world leader in technology designed to solve social issues and improve lives. With global revenue of over $8 billion and 36,000 employees worldwide, OMRON supports a range of industries with advanced technologies and innovative solutions, ranging from automation and electronic components to social infrastructure systems, healthcare, and environmental solutions.
OMRON Automation Americas identified a need to modernize its approach to digital marketing, with a new website being central to its future plans. DEPT® teamed up with OMRON to design and build a brand-new, fully responsive site using an enterprise-grade customer experience platform.
Design & UX discovery
To kick off the project, DEPT® ran a series of discovery workshops at OMRON’s U.S. headquarters in Chicago. The purpose was to get a better understanding of the current user experience and to identify any particular pain points.
The workshops explored OMRON’s business model to help us understand the overall objectives and the ideal ways to measure success. We also discussed the current lead generation processes, pinpointed areas where marketing automation could add efficiency, and decided which of the current components and templates we would prioritise for the new site.
During the discovery phase, we unearthed some common issues that were negatively impacting the customer experience. Hotjar analysis also indicated that the information architecture of the site was impeding users from finding the information they were looking for.
The brand was already strong, so there was no need to reinvent it, but we identified the need to increase brand recognition. DEPT®’s aim was to make the brand more visible and strengthen its identity with the introduction of animations, rich media and ambient videos.
Enhancing search to improve conversion
Improving the customer experience
One of the main issues we discovered during our initial analysis of the site was the management of discontinued products on the site. If a user searched for a discontinued product, the results would come up empty. The results page would then direct the searcher to an area that was only visible to logged-in users. In order to acquire a login, the user would need to request an account, but this would only be approved if the user was listed as an official distributor of the product. This was not an ideal customer experience, and it was preventing potential revenue-generating opportunities.
During the design phase, it was decided to keep discontinued products live. This would mean that these products would still show up on the results page when searched for, and there would be no requirement for the searcher to log in. The discontinued product page informs the user that the product is no longer available and suggests suitable alternative products.
Strategy for success
Improved usability
Improved usability
From a UX perspective, a more visible and well-defined search bar has been designed to make it quick and easy for anyone to find products and information. This results in fewer clicks and less time spent on the homepage. DEPT® built a faceted search to enhance the general search, enabling users to narrow down their search to a category, price, product options, and custom fields. All of this has improved the customer experience and helped customers find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.
Improving search engine optimisation (SEO) was a key objective for this project. Previously, some of the product pages did not have enough content to improve search rankings and quality scores, meaning that OMRON’s search engine rank was impacted. Combined with poor conversion rates on the site, this meant that OMRON was missing out on potential revenue.
The new site offers users the information they are looking for in fewer clicks while providing value-added content for those who visit the site just to browse. Each product page now has the ability to showcase images and videos, provide access to datasheets, and display a strong call to action to request a quote.
Personalisation
Personalisation
DEPT® developed a digital measurement framework for OMRON to provide vital analysis that looked beyond page-level views and helped steer the development of personalised, custom dashboards. By analysing data – such as the number of users accessing certain information types, social shares, search queries, and acquisition channels – DEPT® was able to successfully identify and segment the user journey
The online portal is a key section of the OMRON site. The portal’s structure is personalised, and the sign-up process and collected data enables users to be segmented. Once a user has been verified, the portal can be changed to provide a more tailored version. Users can self-identify as a distributor, a system integrator, an employee, an end-user or a member of the press, with relevant content served to them based on their user type.
With the new portal, OMRON also has the ability to tailor the navigation, page-level, and component-level content based on the different user groups identified above. The information collected during the registration process can be used to help support and optimise marketing automation activities and processes.
Future proof strategy
Future proof strategy
The site has successfully been rolled out to four markets (USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), in four languages. Within two months of launch, the site has seen exceptional results:
Over 800 leads received
Over 600 Account Registrations
Avg. number of page views per session almost doubled
Bounce rate improved over 20%
Avg. session duration improved by over 20 seconds
Average position in search is over 10 position higher
Organic Search traffic to new site up over 15%
Almost 20% increase in traffic from Google
Increase from 14% to 23% in mobile visitors
New site load time is over four seconds faster
The robust technical architecture, combined with the design and UX improvements, has created a high quality site that is prepared for OMRON’s future digital roadmap.
