Strengthening Brand Authenticity through Content Development and Marketing Automation
Gray Solutions, now part of Gray AES, a subsidiary of Gray, Inc., isn't your average automation company. They focus on revolutionizing industries like food and beverage through cutting-edge solutions in robotics, automation, and digital transformation. Their team tackles challenges with curiosity and ingenuity, helping customers achieve production efficiency, labor resiliency, and faster time-to-market. They thrive on pushing boundaries and embracing challenges that others run from.
Founded in 2018, the company initially found success on a world-class pet food operation. In 2021, they acquired Stone Technologies to expand their team and locations. Later that year, Control Engineering added them to their list of Top 20 System Integration Giants, and in both 2023 & 2024 Rockwell Automation named Gray Solutions as their System Integrator Partner of the Year.
Fueled by this growth, Gray Solutions built upon the equity of the Gray brand to stand out as a leading system integrator, bringing their unique internal culture and way of working forward to their external brand. From a bold new look and feel to a new modern website, Gray Solutions was committed to starting fresh with their marketing efforts.
A Unique Approach to Content Development
To best meet Gray Solutions’ needs, we took a unique approach to content development. Since they were starting from scratch with their marketing efforts, our team created core content for each of their service areas. From this core content, their team and Web agency derived the materials they needed for their new website. They also had the ability to quickly and easily create additional content that was consistent in style, tone, and messaging across a range of sales and marketing materials including articles, emails, social content, and slide decks. This approach was extremely efficient and cost-effective for Gray Solutions and allowed for seamless collaboration between the teams at TREW, Gray Solutions, and their Web agency as we worked together to create a large amount of content on a tight timeline ahead of their brand launch.
After working with their SMEs to create this core content, we became well-versed in the various areas of their business, making it easier for us to continue to support their content development for specific campaigns and initiatives. As a result, once the core content was created, we also developed the following pieces:
- Project profiles
- Sales decks
- Email nurture series
- Contributed articles
- Campaign narratives around specific customer pain points for various areas of their business
Leveraging Marketing Automation with HubSpot
Working in tandem with the content development portion of the project, we also helped set up the infrastructure for marketing automation by implementing HubSpot and integrating it with their existing CRM. The integration ensured two-way data sync for contacts, accounts, and opportunities eliminating the need for manual data entry in both systems. This not only saved time but also ensured data consistency across the platforms. This improved transparency across departments and empowered their business development team with richer contact data, ultimately leading to more targeted marketing campaigns and a smoother sales cycle.
With the foundation in place created by the HubSpot and CRM integration, we were then able to leverage the power of HubSpot’s marketing automation features. We worked with their team to create internal workflows to manage leads, segment their database, and build custom reports so they can quickly access the metrics they care about most. We prioritized email marketing as the first area of focus, creating custom templates that matched their new brand. From there, lead nurturing began by implementing automated email workflows to key contacts.
As the Gray Solutions’ team grew more comfortable with HubSpot, we were able to expand into more advanced projects including segmenting contact form submission inquiries for annual tracking, implementing lead scoring, and managing campaigns.
Developing Content to Support the Alignment of Multiple Successful Gray Companies
Shortly after the Gray Solutions rebrand was complete, their parent company, Gray Inc., launched plans to create a new strategic business alignment that involved combining three of their existing companies, Gray AE, Gray Solutions, and InLine Engineers, into a single professional services company – Gray AES. To support the launch of this new integrated architecture, engineering, and automation firm, Gray first and foremost needed new web content to convey the strengths of each of these incredibly successful companies through the lens of their new unified brand.
Our team was contracted to develop content for new website and sales and marketing collateral. Since we were already highly familiar with the company’s service offerings, we also stepped in and started adding value to the alignment process right away by providing strategic guidance on the new company’s website architecture.
On the content development side, we leveraged our established trust with the team at Gray Solutions to quickly form relationships with key contacts at both Gray AE and InLine Engineers. As a result, could quickly step in and develop all the necessary content to help implement a second successful rebrand by the target launch date.
On the marketing automation side, we worked diligently to transition Gray Solutions’ existing marketing automation software to reflect the new Gray AES brand identity. This included updating branded assets and realigning lead flow processes to support the combined business structure.
