IVEMSA
B2B Web Design & Content Marketing Strategy for Shelter Services Provider
+17%
Increase in leads
25
Leads per month average
+46%
Website sessions
+30%
Organic search visits
10-12
Gated content downloads per month
Top 3
For 19 keywords
The challenge
IVEMSA provides shelter services to U.S. manufacturers looking to expand or set up manufacturing operations in Mexico under the IMMEX program. The initial scope more than eight years ago was for Bop Design to build out a polished website that resonated with manufacturing and procurement leaders in aerospace, automotive, medical devices, and technology manufacturing. Once the website launched, IVEMSA hired Bop Design to craft an ongoing content marketing strategy to generate leads and drive traffic to the website.
Solution
Bop Design designed and built a B2B website that clearly explained the services IVEMSA offers, the value of these services, and the companies they work with. The Bop team developed an SEO strategy to attract the right buyers to the site and give IVEMSA an edge over competitors. The website content is optimized for user experience and to convert buyers looking for shelter services or Mexico manufacturing partners. The ongoing content marketing strategy not only attracts new visitors to the website, but it also positions IVEMSA as a leader in shelter services and manufacturing resources.
Results
Several years after the initial website launch, Bop Design has also provided conversion rate optimization (CRO), a website refresh, and ongoing content marketing services. The new website not only increased search traffic, but the client regularly receives an average of 20+ website leads each month, has been featured in well-known industry publications, and continues to attract ideal buyers to the website in a competitive market.
Website transformation & B2B lead generation platform
Below we get into the detailed strategy and tactics Bop Design implemented to build a website and digital marketing resource to attract ideal buyers and generate quality leads for IVEMSA.
Implement B2B website design best practices
The client initially came to us with a website that had many static elements that didn’t drive a lot of user interest or explain who benefits from IVEMSA’s shelter services offerings. In a highly competitive industry, IVEMSA is the leader, so they tend to have competitors who follow their presence and actions closely. The new website design has interactive elements combined with professional photography to appeal to U.S. manufacturers, situate IVEMSA as the ideal partner for shelter services, and show their leadership in their space.
First, the design grabs the visitor’s attention with a video in the hero section that showcases the main manufacturing industries that IVEMSA serves, so U.S. manufacturers know that these services are for the automotive, electronics, and aerospace sectors. The hero section also has an interactive element that draws the visitor’s eye to a floating circle graphic with messaging that highlights the main value that shelter services provide to manufacturers. This messaging speaks frankly to what IVEMSA offers and resonates with CEOs and leaders in the target industries.
Along with the interactive hero section, we designed easy-to-navigate sections of the website that explain the shelter services model, as well as all the business areas where IVEMSA provides consulting and support to manufacturers expanding into Mexico. In the navigation, hover effects appear when hovering over the menu items to clearly show what page a visitor is clicking on. Additionally, in the main menu, there is a slight hover effect over the top of the buttons to entice users to click on the button and complete a contact form.
As a visitor continues scrolling down the page, an interactive arrow effect is incorporated in the “What Do You Want to Do?” section to ensure visitors pause and read the questions relevant to them. Another important element of establishing IVEMSA as the ideal partner are the statistics regarding the firm’s experience, total number of clients, and average time of client partnerships. The stats count up as the visitor moves to this section, drawing their eye and highlighting why clients partner with IVEMSA.
The combination of interactive elements with straightforward messaging quickly explain to visitors the services IVEMSA provides, their client industries, and what makes IVEMSA the ideal partner while guiding the visitor to the most impactful information to tell them they are in the right spot.
How these design updates impacted website traffic for IVEMSA:
- 46% increase in sessions (month over month)
- 23% increase in conversions (month over month)
- 30% increase in organic search visits (year over year)
- 46% increase in overall visits (year over year)
Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
Several years after the website launch and with ongoing content marketing, we noticed during our monthly strategy discussions that website leads weren’t as robust as in recent months despite the website getting excellent traffic and maintaining strong SEO rankings. We approached IVEMSA with the strategy of performing a conversion rate optimization (CRO) audit of the website.
During our CRO audit, we made recommendations on introducing a darker blue brand color into the navigation to provide more visual contrast and reorganized the navigation menu to show fewer options while maintaining all the critical elements visitors need. The calls to action were updated to have bolder brand colors and draw visitors to the conversion point. Additionally, several of IVEMSA’s thought leadership guides are excellent top-of-funnel conversion pieces for prospects, so we created a larger navigation section under Resources that featured these premium content pieces. In an effort to improve completion rates on the forms, we introduced a darker gradient to create visual interest while ensuring the content is easy to read and digest.
A critical element of the CRO audit was building out additional content on several of the primary pages. Long-form pages with detailed explanations rank better with search engines and provide more context for AI tools. They have the additional benefit of pre-emptively answering a prospect’s questions, educating them about what shelter services for manufacturers offer, and showcasing IVEMSA as knowledgeable experts in their industry – which they are.
While we added more content to several primary pages over the course of a few months, one example is the Manufacturing in Mexico page. This is a primary page in the navigation and, as such, has higher value for SEO (as opposed to secondary or tertiary pages in the navigation). As part of our CRO update, we interviewed the client’s subject matter expert and added more relevant, educational content to the page around the topic of moving manufacturing to Mexico. By extending the page content, we increased the value of the page with search engines while enticing visitors to stay on the page longer and get more information about their decision to expand to Mexico for production.
Our CRO strategy improved conversions for IVEMSA:
- 17% increase in event conversions
- 6% increase in contact form submissions
Speaking to critical buyer personas
As a provider of shelter services for manufacturers, IVEMSA only works with manufacturers who want to maintain control over their production and require skilled talent, not companies looking to contract out manufacturing. IVEMSA’s ideal buyer at these manufacturing firms are CEOs or other C-suite individuals in finance, engineering, manufacturing, or operations. The website navigation is designed to direct these buyers to relevant sections of the website – explaining the shelter model, the solutions available to manufacturers in the U.S. or Canada, and the primary industries that benefit from working with a shelter partner.
The website messaging and navigation highlight that IVEMSA removes the hassles of expanding manufacturing to Mexico while helping clients maintain control of the entire production process. For CEOs looking to see if the shelter model is a good fit for their business needs, the homepage has high-level information describing how the shelter model works and the types of services included.
Finance executives are interested in the cost and pricing for manufacturing in Mexico – so the navigation and one of the homepage sections draw them to the Cost Manufacturing Sheet, which outlines the cost of leasing a facility, expectations for skilled labor in various categories, and the average cost savings over the course of a year.
For operations and manufacturing leaders, the navigation directs them to the types of companies and industries that benefit from the shelter model, along with information on the type of skilled labor and facilities available for each industry – be it automotive, aerospace, or medical devices.
On-page SEO keywords targeting buyer intent keywords
Along with the website design, a large component of the website launch and ongoing marketing is search engine optimization (SEO) and focusing on keyword phrases that have buying intent. Many SEO firms focus only on increased traffic, but at Bop Design we focus on keyword phrases that are more sophisticated and indicate an individual is in the buying process. Our goal is to get the right visitors to the site, not just more visitors.
In our interviews with the IVEMSA team, we worked together to determine a key list of target terms. Once we identified target terms, our team performed keyword research, reviewed the competitive landscape, and analyzed the intent behind the keyword searches. In our SEO strategy recommendations to IVEMSA, we included broader terms like “manufacturing in Mexico” that may indicate a potential client is earlier in the investigation phase of seeing if expanding production to Mexico is viable.
We also incorporated lower volume but higher intent keywords like “Mexico labor force” and “Mexico shelter services” to appeal to COOs or VPs of manufacturing who are familiar with the shelter model and looking for specific information to assess the options. Highly specific terms like “IMMEX program” were also incorporated as these types of searches indicate a highly sophisticated buyer, potentially a manufacturing operations leader who has experience with the program and wants to get information relevant to his or her operation.
Our SEO strategy recommendations included clear primary keyword phrases for each relevant page, optimized H1s and Page Titles, and strong meta descriptions to summarize the pages. We implemented the strategy on the site and ensured all content on each page was in alignment with the primary keyword for that page.
With a consistent SEO strategy implementation on the static webpages and ongoing content creation, IVEMSA has secured the top 1-5 search rankings for 22 ideal keywords.
Below we get into the detailed strategy and approach the Bop team designed as a strategic B2B ongoing marketing partner for IVEMSA.
Institute content marketing program
Following the new website launch, IVEMSA partnered with Bop Design to craft an ongoing marketing strategy to drive website traffic and generate new, qualified leads. The first step was crafting a customized editorial calendar based on the foundational SEO strategy, industry research, competitive research, and search intent.
The editorial calendar is not just a list of ideas, but specific, researched topics that target buyer intent keywords. For IVEMSA, terms related to the services they offer – shelter services – are sophisticated terms that a manufacturing executive experienced in nearshoring operations will know. As such, these terms were ideal for topics to bolster up the existing shelter services content on the website.
Similar to the website pages outlined earlier, the calendar is targeted to several buyer personas – CEOs, CFOs, and COOs for manufacturing companies, primarily located in the U.S. The topics vary according to buyer persona – discussing costs related to manufacturing finances, logistics of moving manufacturing to Mexico, and examining the type of skills available in the local population of workers.
Since the inception of the strategy, we have increased regular, monthly blog publishing, shifting from two to five blogs per month to maintain leadership in an increasingly competitive market. As IVEMSA’s competitors began to create content similar to the thought leadership the Bop team created for IVEMSA, we increased the volume of blogging to stay ahead and cover more critical topics for decision makers at manufacturing firms.
Pillar page creation to enhance SEO
A crucial content component of search engine optimization and a better user experience for website visitors is the creation of long-form pillar pages. During strategy reviews with IVEMSA, we determined that repurposing existing blog content into longer, educational pages on the website would not only boost up several SEO terms like “U.S. manufacturing in Mexico,” but would also be a resource the business development team can use during initial discussions and follow-up communications with prospects.
While we’ve crafted several pillar pages for IVEMSA over the years, a crucial one is the FAQ page on U.S. manufacturing in Mexico. The content on the page is rewritten from existing blog topics and targets the search term “U.S. manufacturing in Mexico” to speak directly to American manufacturers looking to expand operations to Mexico. This page is over 1,000 words in length to provide a comprehensive resource for both SEO and educating U.S. manufacturing executives and leaders.
Compelling content offers for top-of-funnel leads
Not every visitor to a B2B website is ready to complete a contact form and get on a call. In many cases, a buyer visits a potential partner’s website 5-6 times BEFORE they make contact and are ready to speak to the sales team or take a demo. However, as these visits before completing a contact form are often fact-finding or investigational, prospects are looking for data and resources they can review or share with their internal decision-makers. This is where compelling content offers play an instrumental role.
Visitors interested in the services but not yet ready to commit to a conversation are what we call top-of-funnel leads. These leads, which require nurturing or education before considering a proposal or having a sales discussion, are often introduced to IVEMSA via their popular “Cost Cutting Guide.” This custom content offer consistently generates 10-12 guide download requests each month. Why? Because it includes specific industry information like average costs of skilled workers in the U.S. vs Mexico and pricing for industrial buildings in various regions of Mexico compared to typical U.S. prices.
The executive-level individuals downloading these guides are interested in real numbers and what the actual cost savings are for moving their production to Mexico. These numbers are helpful in creating preliminary cost estimates and sharing internally to decide whether Mexico is a viable option for setting up manufacturing. Due to the popularity of the guide download for generating top-of-funnel leads, we work with IVEMSA each year to update the data in the guide and republish for the current year.
LinkedIn ad campaigns to ideal buyers
For B2B firms, LinkedIn advertising offers the ability to target an ideal customer profile (ICP) with thought leadership content or a market-specific promotion. LinkedIn allows brands to create target audiences and only show content to members who match all the characteristics selected.
For IVEMSA, we created a target audience for LinkedIn ads that includes U.S. and Canadian individuals with specific leadership job titles in aerospace, technology, medical equipment, and automotive manufacturing. We run ads monthly for the latest content or guides we create based on IVEMSA’s thought leadership and the ads are only shown to those individuals in this crafted target audience.
Just last year alone, IVEMSA’s LinkedIn ads had over 1.7M ad impressions and nearly 645K organic impressions. This audience includes individuals who may not know IVEMSA, what shelter services in Mexico entail, or the major benefits of manufacturing there.
We continually monitor the performance of ads and evaluate the target audience to edit any unnecessary titles or expand to include newer titles and roles that fit into IVEMSA’s ideal buyer persona. For each ad campaign, while we use one piece of content – either a thought leadership blog or a guide– we create at least five variations of the ad, changing the intro copy and the calls to action on the ad.
These thought leadership promotions on LinkedIn bring ideal buyers to the site and introduce them to the shelter services model in Mexico while ensuring IVESMA becomes a recognized potential partner for them. Each post on the website is simple by design to showcase thought leadership content and to offer prominent CTAs to request a consultation or join the monthly newsletter list for IVEMSA.
Ongoing on-page SEO monitoring
Search engine optimization (SEO) is not something that a brand can set and forget. It requires ongoing monitoring and adaptation to maintain top-level keyword positions in search engines. On a monthly (or in some cases weekly) basis, we review the search engine rankings with IVEMSA and make recommendations on any fluctuations or opportunities. Over the past eight years, through our ongoing SEO monitoring and review, we’ve recommended:
- Incorporating new keyword terms, like “nearshoring” and “nearshore consulting”
- Refreshing and building out more content for key solutions webpages, like the industries pages for automotive and aerospace
- Creating new pillar pages to address popular searches or keyword phrases
- Increasing blog production each month to add more optimized content to the site and boost up any rankings that have slipped or become more competitive
- Craft more content on topics that do well with getting visitors to the website
- Adding more content to well-visited blog posts and pages
Through these regular and consistent SEO monitoring and updates, we’ve helped IVEMSA secure and maintain the top 1-5 search rankings for 22 of their ideal keywords.
Paid search advertising
After working with Bop Design on an ongoing marketing strategy for almost a decade, the majority of leads for IVEMSA come from organic traffic sources, like Google and Bing. We still recommend and maintain a paid search strategy as a supporting element of our overall SEO strategy for IVEMSA.
Google search ads help to supplement organic leads and address needs-based marketing. For example, while IVEMSA has a strong number one organic ranking for “Mexico shelter services,” running Google Ads on a limited budget and specific time frames ensures that IVEMSA is highly visible on search results pages when an ideal buyer searches for “Mexico shelter services.” For those double-whammy positions of both organic and paid, IVEMSA ends up taking up much of the above-the-fold real estate on the search page, demonstrating they are a market leader in the shelter services space.
Committed to digital marketing and reaping the rewards
IVEMSA is an innovative leader in the Mexico shelter services space. Their continuous partnership with Bop Design and commitment to ongoing marketing and inbound lead generation ensures they not only stay ahead of their competition but continuously drive qualified leads to their business development team.
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