Collaboration is one of our values, and having a seat at the table with other businesses is something we consider a privilege; but we want our clients to know, trust, and value us, too. Those are the strongest client partnerships, and we’re so fortunate to have found that in many of our client partners, Bernick’s included.

Bernick’s & Greenline Marketing

Bernick’s came to Greenline after seeing our work in action and was curious how we would approach their inbound marketing efforts to support their larger business goals. They were very clear that they didn’t want a ‘rinse and repeat’ plan and they wanted a fresh perspective on what they were doing as well as what they weren’t doing. It was an exciting opportunity to dig into a brand and business we know and love and help make an impact.

Bernick’s is a fifth-generation family-owned provider of beverages, vending, and food solutions to Minnesota and Wisconsin territories. As a distributor, they represent leading brands like Pepsi, Mt. Dew, Dr Pepper, MillerCoors, and New England Coffee - just to name a few. Their business is focused on bringing the very best food and beverage options to customers, employees, students, patients, and staff across the Midwest. As a 105+ year-old business family headquartered in Central MN, they serve more than 10,000 soft-drink, hot beverage, beer, vending, and micro market customers. Aside from doing great business, Bernick’s is a great company, built on a foundation of service, community, family, and excellence - we loved that their values align so closely with our own.

When Bernick’s initiated the conversation with us, we were flattered that they referenced our reputation and expertise in both inbound marketing strategy and execution. Their team has been using HubSpot for just shy of a decade, and we were happy to step in, get a lay of the land, and put together a plan that met their needs for continued growth, sales and marketing integration, and overall ROI. Bernick’s had a strong foundation laid, but were looking for a partner to be part of revisiting their strategic plans for elements of their inbound strategy - blogging, website content, conversion, automation, photo and video, etc. - and how they could level up what had been done in the past. We’re all about it!

Bernick’s is what we consider a dream client. Why? Trust, value, and communication. They’re a true partner in every sense of the word. Clients like these are great to work alongside; they’re a team that values our insight and collaborates with us to get action items across the finish line. What could feel like an ‘us and them’ relationship, is truly an integrated partnership - both with marketing and with sales teams. This has been imperative to the success and growth they’ve seen over the years. We have regular calls and meetings so that as the business grows and adjusts throughout the year, we’re in step with them to keep our eyes on our strategic goals and to assist however we’re needed.

Leveraging HubSpot for Successful Sales & Marketing

The team at Bernick’s is very familiar with inbound marketing. They’ve been leveraging this methodology for years and have harnessed the power of HubSpot for both their sales and marketing teams. When we came aboard, we wanted to look at what we could do differently, where we could think outside the box, and how we could approach both inbound marketing and the current setup of their HubSpot Marketing and Sales portals to take things to the next level - no rinsing and repeating here! Their inbound marketing campaign included elements like:

• HubSpot Portal Audit: HubSpot is an extensive tool and like many kinds of software, the data and how it’s being used can start to accumulate and get disorganized. Bernick’s has been using HubSpot for nearly a decade and expressed the desire to review and revamp their portal with a HubSpot audit. We dug in with the focus of leveraging the tool for both marketing and sales and provided a document of our findings and recommendations.
  
  
• HubSpot Portal Optimization: Before we started executing marketing content, we prioritized getting Bernicks’ HubSpot to work smarter, not harder. We spent time methodically combing through the various components of their HubSpot portal to identify areas for opportunities to clean, purge, merge, organize, and optimize - in every tool of every hub.
  
  
• Content Clusters: Although Bernick’s has been blogging in various capacities for many years, we wanted to consider what leveling up that content would look like. The content cluster model, at its core, is a way of organizing a site’s content pages using a cleaner and more deliberate site architecture. (Not familiar with Content Clusters? Learn more here.) After discussions with their team, we identified five core business offerings that had opportunities for renewed keyword research and more in-depth, strategic content to amplify their SEO. We built an optimized plan for updated website pillar pages and new blogs for each cluster.
  
  
• Client Story Features: We know that telling stories is part of all great marketing plans, and we’ve seen the success it can have for other clients. So, we took a look at how Bernick’s can talk more about how they service customers by shining a light on who they serve. Think Humans of New York and St. Cloud Shines meets Bernick’s. Focusing the customer as the hero in content gives Bernick’s the opportunity to call out the locations they serve, various sizes of their customer portfolio, expansive lines of businesses, and key industries they work with – all while serving up interesting story-format content that helps with SEO.
  
  
• Content Consolidation + Removal of Duplicate Content: As mentioned, Bernick’s is no stranger to content. But because they’ve been in the inbound marketing game for so long, there were instances of duplicate and redundant content that began cropping up. We didn’t want to get into an instance of experiencing negative SEO so we reviewed their content as a whole to identify where content could be consolidated and if duplicated, removed.
  
  
• Smarketing Efforts: We know Bernick’s is most successful when their sales and marketing teams are closely aligned and executing their integrated approach. Leveraging their marketing and sales hubs, we outlined smarketing efforts to assist in increased lead generation, higher close rates, and an improved customer experience. Smarketing = Sales + Marketing, and if the marketing and sales teams work well together, leads receive the right communications and information at the right time to nurture them in their buyer’s journey.
  
  
• Website Updates: At the onset of the new year, we wanted to take a step back and review how Bernick’s website was (and maybe wasn’t) working in their favor. Based on our in-depth view of traffic, content, and analytics, we were able to get a clear picture of how the website was performing and made various improvements to both performance and user-experience elements to maintain healthy SEO, page speed, size, security, and more.
  
  

Taking Digital Marketing to the Next Level

When it comes to needing a fresh perspective or taking a fine-tooth comb to your marketing and sales efforts, we’re ready to roll up our sleeves, link arms, and dig in to build a roadmap to success as a partner in your corner.

“Greenline went in-depth with our cross-functional teams to thoroughly understand our company, our teams, our processes – but most importantly, how we’re using our website, online forms, and digital marketing to attract and secure new customers. They helped us make that process both efficient and user-friendly. The goals we create are ours together because they are an extension of our internal marketing and sales teams. Dedicated, resourceful, responsive, thorough, personal, passionate – Greenline is a true partner.”  
– Eve Miller, Director of Marketing

No one likes to feel stuck in a rut, especially when it comes to your marketing and sales efforts and/or budget. We love to come in and dig into what you’ve been doing, how you’ve been doing it, what results you’ve seen, and put all that together - as well as consider what you haven’t tried - all in the name of taking your sales and marketing efforts to the next level.