A commodities trading company needed a modern website to represent their brand, empower their clients, and attract top talent.
Lansing Trade Group (LTG), a 100-year-old company headquartered in Overland Park, was focused on moving commodities and trading grains, feed ingredients, and energy products throughout North America and the world. They built and maintained key relationships and believed customers and employees were critical to their success. LTG prided themselves on a culture of rapid response, risk management, and logistical expertise to increase customer and stakeholder value.
LTG had three primary audiences: employees, merchandisers, and producers. These audiences had different needs and interests, so the website had to have clear paths for each so they could find what they needed.
Attracting employees was an important initiative for LTG, so finding a way to draw top talent to the website was critical. They put a strong focus on company culture and provided many educational opportunities, including a Merchandiser in Training (MIT) program for recruits. This program provided training and development to help recent college grads progress their career through education and mentorship. This style of recruitment and job training was innovative and cutting edge for the industry and unique to LTG, so it needed to be a priority on the website.
While they had a successful business plan, they needed a better website. LTG needed a branded site that addressed the different goals and interests of their three primary audiences and reinforced their focus on company culture and educational opportunities so they could attract new talent. They also needed a site that could promote their 30 subsidiaries and affiliates and be an online hub for crop activity. They needed a user-friendly site where producers could check prices and find out when and where to sell their crops. The need for a relevant, integrated, and user-friendly website was paramount.
Website sophistication and organization enhanced customer experience and drove growth
LTG chose to work with TANK New Media (TANK) on their website project. After listening to their needs and goals, TANK created a strategy to restructure and rebuild LTG’s site from the ground up on a more flexible content management system called Craft CMS. TANK also simplified several technical integrations to streamline their processes and provide opportunities for additional growth and expansion in the years to come.
Due to the expansive and growing nature of Lansing Trade Group, it was essential to create a locations section on the new website that could be easily managed and maintained as acquisitions and sell-offs were made regularly. These updates and changes to affiliates and subsidiaries needed to be executed and updated quickly. TANK utilized integrations like a map overview that included all locations along with their cash bids. These additions provided LTG with the opportunity to swiftly adapt to changes in the market and gave producers an up-to-date resource.
LTG wanted to communicate their focus on flexibility, opportunity, and financial security to attract new talent. They wanted potential employees to quickly see their unique company culture and its benefits. The website update included a new and improved company section to communicate this message. Various media forms, including compelling videos, were used to help educate potential talent and highlight opportunities like the MIT program.
Later the LTG team decided to add more video to their marketing plan as they saw its effectiveness and ROI. As they created new videos, they established themselves as thought leaders, grew a subscriber base, and increased leads. In particular, their Market Minute video series increased subscribers by 266% over the first four months. Read the full LTG Market Minute case study.
"LTG started working with TANK in 2015 when we engaged the company to refresh our website. The sophistication they brought to our company from a marketing, branding, and digital perspective was incredibly valuable and ultimately developed into various campaigns that drove growth, greatly enhanced our customer experience, and facilitated a particular look and feel to our company for internal and external applications. On our video campaign, TANK developed a daily video of exclusive grain market updates delivered to inboxes. To do this, TANK created a database of users, increased touchpoints with customers, built a list and capitalized on impressions, and repurposed content on different mediums to gain audiences. We saw a 1,436% increase in 2 years. They also facilitated adoption of a company app utilizing existing user base, automating sign up process, and syncing info with HubSpot. They created "sticky" content and clear conversion for multiple groups. List growth was 543% in 2 years." - Lindsey Lindemoen, Assistant Treasurer
When TANK redesigned the LTG website, they created a visually appealing site that was helpful to visitors and easy to navigate. In fact, LTG saw a 12% improvement in bounce rate after the launch of the redesigned website. Subsequent projects included video services, paid digital advertising, and marketing-focused collateral, including mailer inserts, one-sheets, signage, and brochures.
The website redesign created a branded online hub that all audiences could utilize
"TANK is helping us reach our customers and have visibility. The work they've done already has laid a foundation for us. I believe that it creates ideas for us as well, where we can go in the future. Whether it's the material we have up at conferences, or the mailers that we've put together, TANK's done virtually everything for us over the last six months and will continue to do so. I strongly recommend TANK New Media to other companies. I think their ability to work side by side, to deliver results, these are the things that matter. The ability to work side by side and deliver results quickly are the things that matter." - Jason Sears, Director of IT
Through a branded website redesign, simplified navigation and site structure, and streamlined marketing and location updates, TANK created a digital presence for LTG that provided helpful and compelling content for a wide range of audiences. The changes made to the website lead to a 23% increase in overall site traffic in the first six months of launching the new site and a 102% increase in mobile traffic.
Lansing Trade Group sold to The Andersons Inc. in January 2019.
