Re-energizing STERN’s Marketing Strategy

How NuRev Group helped bring this historic business into the digital world

The Client – Stern, Inc. of Freeman, South Dakota, was founded in 1976. The company offers commercial, industrial, and farm energy and lubricant solutions to customers and dealers. Stern has a strong focus on providing excellent customer service, quality products, and the ongoing support of customers’ profitability, sustainability, and viability.

The Challenge – In March of 2019, Stern reached out to NuRev Group for marketing guidance. The energy company had been struggling to keep a consistent brand message throughout their growing company, along with a lack of marketing direction. Stern was looking to update its brand across different digital channels, including its website. The existing Stern website did not reflect a company of its size. It was lacking an SEO strategy and had no way to track sales leads. On top of updating their marketing strategy, the client was having trouble attracting new employees and was looking to use an online campaign to help fill positions.

The Solution – The first thing NuRev was tasked with was updating the company name, logo, and other brand collateral. To do this, the NuRev team worked closely with those at Stern to conduct internal interviews with company leadership. These interviews helped us learn where and what they wanted the future of Stern to look like. Once NuRev understood the new direction, we could move forward with designing and developing the new brand.

In addition to the new brand getting defined, NuRev started to work on increasing Stern’s digital media presence. NuRev determined it had to start with a centralized, updated website. The update would include product data sheets, online ordering, and updated branding throughout. Stern’s social media channels were also updated during this process. Online ordering is now available for all Stern customers. NuRev is actively working with the company to encourage online order submissions. The new website allows employees to easily manage new orders and ensures that a standardized process is in place for the best customer experience. NuRev also added tracking for different goals through Google Analytics. In addition to online ordering, we were able to implement a digital job application. This has helped Stern streamline the process when seeking new talent. NuRev has also leveraged online marketing campaigns to fill key positions within the company.

The Results – Over the course of six months, NuRev created and ran four campaigns directed at increasing the number of job applicants via the online application process. Those campaigns resulted in 148 applicants and positions were able to be filled in a timely manner with qualified employees. The new website is much more user and mobile-friendly. After a successful and ongoing SEO campaign, more users are visiting the Stern website. In the eight months since the update, users have more than doubled on the website compared to the previous eight months. On average, users are staying on Stern.co 30% longer.