Key Performance Indicators
25% Increase
in Email Open Rates
15 Multilingual
Websites Integrated
About Zodiac
Zodiac is a leading global manufacturer of differentiated pool and spa products headquartered in Southern California. It develops some of the world’s leading products in this sector and supports an international dealer network with millions of customers worldwide. Its portfolio of leading brands includes Polaris® and Zodiac® (pool cleaning equipment), Jandy® (pumps, filters, heaters, lights), Cover-Pools® (pool and spa covers), and Nature2® (mineral sanitizers).
Challenge
Zodiac had a mission: to evolve from broadcast-based, impersonal email communications to trigger-based, personalized, and more relevant engagement to support a very large customer and dealer network. Additionally, the marketing team wanted to implement more efficient processes and usability to support greater marketing activities.
Zodiac’s legacy email system was outdated, and the company’s 15 multilingual websites were supported by several different systems. Staff members faced numerous challenges with their email system, starting with a user interface that lacked intuitive navigation, and content that was hard to locate and use. Creating campaigns was largely a manual process, and contact databases were largely out of date and incorrect. This all resulted in
campaigns with low conversion rates.
With these challenges in mind, Zodiac decided that it was time for a new solution, and the company set clear goals it wanted to achieve. It saw the logic of bringing email together with other digital channels using one unified platform. With one shared content set, Zodiac’s marketers would have easy access to content, which they could customize using templates for their website or email.
The new digital platform would need to integrate with Zodiac’s Salesforce CRM system, to pull in dealer data, and also integrate with their dealer loyalty scheme, so the platform could both use and contribute to the company’s 360° degree view of their customer and dealer network.
For Zodiac to become more relevant to its customers, its new platform would also need to personalize content on its website and emails, and support a growing base of customers using mobile.
Solution
Zodiac chose the Sitecore® Experience Platform™ as its solution, and worked with Sitecore partner Grey Ghost Studio to implement the platform initially as its new content management system (CMS), keeping the solution as out-of-the-box as possible to ensure a simple upgrade path.
It completed the project in phases and initially automated its email lists, pulling email addresses from Salesforce through an API, and then segmented the lists to target trade audiences. It also tied the Sitecore Email Experience Manager to its loyalty program and used its template functionality to build responsive and mobile-ready emails, increasing open rates to industry-standard benchmarks.
Results
25% increase in email open rate, matching manufacturing industry benchmarks
15 multilingual websites integrated
Gain 360 degree view of consumer and dealer network
We now can support all our campaigns easily and efficiently to provide a
personalized and more engaged experience to stakeholders. We can generate and track the success of our activities and use metrics to support changes where appropriate.”
– Eric Hill, Senior Online Marketing Manager, Zodiac Pool Systems, Inc.
Source:
Case study created by Sitecore, Zodiac, and Eric Hill. Visit sitecore.net and zodiac.com to learn more.
