Marketing Outsourcing Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC)

The Challenge

Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC), an industrial technology company, wanted to substantially step up its marketing efforts. However, the company lacked the internal resources to accomplish everything it hoped to achieve and the time necessary to recruit and hire a full marketing team.

The Opportunity

In late 2019, CCC made the decision to outsource its marketing to HexaGroup. The partnership officially kicked off in January 2020, beginning a years-long relationship in which HexaGroup has served as CCC’s integrated marketing communications department.

The Solution 

Full Integration

Outsourced marketing is at its most effective when fully integrated with the client. Though based in Houston – hundreds of miles away from CCC’s headquarters in Des Moines – the HexaGroup marketing specialists who work on CCC operate as an extension of the company.

The HexaGroup team dedicated to CCC is composed of a program manager, marketing consultant, art director and content manager. All team members, despite being fractional, are integrated into CCC’s company structure and have access to the same internal data as CCC employees.

Most interaction is virtual, though ongoing face-to-face meetings and workshops are scheduled on an as-needed basis. In addition to routine marketing communications services, CCC taps into the HexaGroup support team for strategy, video and web development, digital advertising and other specialty needs.

Go-to-Market Strategy

At its foundation, the relationship between HexaGroup and CCC is one that goes beyond marketing support to help guide — and sometimes even drive — the company’s plans. Because HexaGroup is fully integrated and viewed as an internal team, we’ve been able to assist CCC in identifying and capitalizing on customer needs to take the company’s product portfolio in new directions.

One such example of the latter is CCC Inside, which integrates CCC’s industry-leading turbomachinery controls directly into third-party distributed control systems. HexaGroup helped lay the groundwork for this new offering by engaging CCC in a week-long strategy and planning workshop. This led to the creation of a sales playbook, the development of marketing collateral and the formulation of a go-to-market launch plan for CCC Inside.

HexaGroup is also working closely with CCC worldwide sales and product management team to develop targeted and market campaigns such as carbon capture, LNG and FPSO and support the company in product launches that take place 2 or 3 times a year.  

Marketing and Advertising Support

HexaGroup serves as CCC’s embedded marketing department, which includes handling the design and development of new marketing materials upon request. In the years since CCC outsourced its marketing to HexaGroup, we’ve written copy and generated designs for everything from flyers to brochures to PowerPoint slide decks.

Content creators at HexaGroup also take on blog writing and social media management for CCC, which includes researching industry topics and interviewing subject matter experts. On occasion, HexaGroup also aids CCC in the creation of technical white papers and internal sales playbooks.

Event Planning

The energy industry is one that trends toward more traditional activities like in-person meetings and events. However, the pandemic arrived in 2020 to change how a lot of companies did business: CCC included.

Operating on a reduced marketing budget, HexaGroup leaned into webinars as a way to fill the gap and ensure CCC’s best and brightest could still get in front of the company’s target audience. HexaGroup crafted a webinar campaign strategy to attract key industry stakeholders and drive registrations. As a result, CCC conducted a total of four webinars in 2020, including one attended by over 400 guests.

In 2021, we continued our efforts to provide CCC subject matter experts with an online platform. Several more webinars took place that year, enabling CCC to establish itself in new markets and demonstrate the know-how possessed by its turbomachinery control specialists.

Finally, at the tail end of 2021, in-person trade shows once again started to take place. For the Turbomachinery & Pump Symposium, which occurred in mid-December, HexaGroup fully coordinated CCC’s participation in the event from start to finish. This included managing overall logistics, identifying sponsorship opportunities and procuring company-branded merchandise while ensuring HexaGroup team members were onsite to assist CCC employees.

Plans are already in motion for CCC’s trade show attendance in 2022, with two shows currently on the schedule. HexaGroup will once again take point on coordinating CCC’s presence at these events.

Martech Implementation

It was always part of HexaGroup’s strategy to further CCC’s capabilities in digital. The aforementioned pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, however, accelerated the timeline. With on-site meetings and sales presentations put on pause, HexaGroup and CCC pushed resources toward developing additional ways to get the word out.

The year 2020 saw HexaGroup implement the full HubSpot suite into CCC’s marketing toolkit. This allows for more effective content creation, digital campaign tracking, lead generation and contact management. In 2021, we doubled down on HubSpot, building CCC’s Resource Center on top of the platform while introducing structured lead scoring and refining our lead nurturing efforts. At that time, HexaGroup also started to offer more thorough campaign reporting through Databox.

Even more martech enhancements are planned for the early stages of 2022 and beyond. In the final quarter of 2021, HexaGroup started work on a complete website redesign that is expected to launch in Q1 2022. We’ll also continue to optimize CCC’s HubSpot implementation and further integrate the company’s website with the HubSpot CRM.

The Results 

In terms of meeting the objective – providing CCC with a complete outsourced marketing solution – the project has succeeded thus far. HexaGroup has stepped in to fill the role of an integrated marketing department, handling all related tasks while keeping communication and integration at the forefront. We’ve also aided CCC in furthering its digital efforts, enabling the company to reach new customers and expand into new markets.

Outsourced marketing will not work for every company. It requires buy-in at the highest level, trust in systems and processes, a willingness to collaborate and the desire to not just be a client, but a partner. CCC has been an outstanding partner that we’ve enjoyed working with since the project began in 2020. We look forward to continuing the relationship for years to come.

Proven Methodology. Amplified Results.

At HexaGroup, performance is in our DNA. We’ve spent the last two decades honing a six-step marketing methodology that balances proven best practices with each client’s unique objectives. Armed with in-depth knowledge of the energy, technology and professional service sectors, our team hits the ground running to achieve your KPIs.