PAR is the UK’s leading manufacturer, processor and supplier of rubber, plastic and insulation products for industry. The company is made up of four divisions and services a wide range of sectors including food processing, pharmaceutical, water treatment, brewing, mining and aerospace.
Making online work for a multi product business
When PAR Group approached Zen Web Solutions (ZWS) it was looking for a new website that would allow it to create an online version of its 1000 page brochure as well as reflect its new company branding. The company was also looking to develop both UK and international sales as its product range is shippable and relevant to a huge number of businesses around the world.
The decentralised nature of PAR’s customer base and diverse product range meant that the communications had to be cost effective – and the web proved an ideal medium for achieving this. PAR had also been concerned with the lack of online traffic to its website and increasing the number of hits was therefore a priority.
The solution
Zen Web Solutions stripped out the complexity of the previous website to provide PAR customers with an easy search facility that allows them to find the items they need in seconds.
The website incorporates the ZWS award-winning Content Management System that enables PAR to update their web site without help from a web design agency or external company. Along with continually refreshing the site via the Content Management System, increased traffic is directed to the new website through the ZWS search engine friendly URLs that are incorporated into the website.
Results
PAR has achieved huge success with search engine marketing, with many Google number one results and hundreds of first page rankings. The benefits of this are seen in the fact that since PAR began working with ZWS it has begun exporting to over 54 countries as well as increasing sales in the UK market.
The fact that ZWS was able to ensure the new website performed consistently well on Google has accounted for many of the international and domestic enquiries, which has created a valuable new revenue generation channel for the company.
An effective Content Management System is vitally important on any new website as keeping a site content fresh is one of the single biggest factors in attracting and maintaining site visitors.
The Content Management System from Zen Web Solutions enables clients to update their web site without help from a web design agency or external company. This ensures more efficient updates and has reduced costs for PAR in this area by over 60 per cent.
Many new and existing suppliers have also benefited from the website too, as Zen’s Content Management System allows PAR to quickly upload new product information, which becomes instantly available to potential new customers searching the web. This is proving to be very effective for certain manufacturers who may not have the resources to take products to market themselves, but prefer to use PAR’s distribution and marketing strengths. PAR therefore actually encourages enquiries from manufacturers who are interested in commercialising their products.
Client feedback
“Since launching our new website, we have been inundated with enquiries from our domestic market as well as a huge number of overseas enquiries”, says Tony Glen, Sales Director of PAR Group. “We have been extremely pleased with the service from Zen and the results speak for themselves! The ongoing support has also been excellent and everything has been done on time and people communicate really well.”
Future
Since partnering with ZWS, PAR has progressed from an initial small static web site to a content management system. Performing consistently well on Google, the company has been able to reduce its marketing costs whilst achieving impressive sales growth.
PAR now uses its website to drive all its sales and marketing at both a national and international levels. The challenge going forward is to ensure the site remains fresh and engaging and the content management system ensures this.
