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Andex Industries

Andex Industries

AndexPDF companion

Based in Escanaba, Mich., Andex Industries manufactures a wide range of display card packaging solutions such as blister cards, clamshells and thermoform trays. It traces its roots back to 1960 and today generates more than $12 million in annual revenue with about 85 employees. In late 2011 Andex entered Michigan’s statewide Economic Gardening network, where it worked with the National Strategic Research Team (NSRT).

“I didn’t know what to expect,” says John Anthony, Andex’s president. “Yet once the process started, it was clear the researchers weren’t trying to reinvent our work flow or company. They were there to work on strategic solutions that we could implement ourselves. I also appreciated the fact that they didn’t come in with preconceived notions but instead spent considerable time talking to us about what

we needed. It was a back-and-forth dialogue, and there was good deal of accountability and quality communications. They were really on top of things.”

Increasing revenue was a key objective for Anthony, and with that in mind, the NSRT focused on enhancing Andex’s online presence. Researchers analyzed the company’s website, along with its online marketing strategy, and then provided information for:

Giving the website a more contemporary, customer-friendly look with more photos and less text. Beefing up calls to actions and help tools, including the implementation of a chat application. Making the website more flexible for the future, including operational compatibility with cell phones and tablet — and thinking about how design would look on small screens as well as large ones. Coordinating online marketing with website design, such as cross-linking names and addresses of Web pages with key words that Andex bidded for, so it could improve its quality score on Google Adwords.

“Just prior to the Economic Gardening engagement we had started a website redesign initiative, and the NSRT really complemented that work,” Anthony says. “Although we were familiar with online bidding for key words, the researchers gave us additional insights on how to improve our efforts so we could get the biggest bang for our buck.”

For example, among Andex’s products are skin board and blister packaging, and consumers often found their way to the company’s website when looking for treatments for skin irritations. Excluding the words “burn” and “bandage” helped reduce some of these irrelevant hits that were creating a high bounce rate and a poor return on pay-per-click dollars.