Laerdal enhances customer communication with Optimizely DXP and modern site design

Laerdal Medical is a world leading provider of training, educational and therapy products for lifesaving and emergency medical care.

As one of the first companies in Norway to offer e-commerce, Laerdal Medical sold its training and emergency medical products online via a homegrown website built over 15 years ago. Customers were able to purchase Laerdal's products on the website in ten markets, but the solution consisted of a very basic product catalog and shopping cart. Laerdal lacked the resources to present its content and products in a way that would help customers understand how the company and its products could help them reach their goals. Implementing a more advanced digital strategy, with the infrastructure to support it, would improve Laerdal's ability to communicate with its customers, improve the overall customer experience, and offer a mobile-friendly experience for visitors coming from phone and tablet. With just two employees within the company able to edit and enhance the current site, Laerdal also sought to deploy a more user-friendly platform that could be utilized by all team members.

After careful evaluation of both Optimizely and Sitecore solutions, Laerdal determined the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform would provide better value for the price and was easier to use - one of the company's key requirements. With more than 37,000 people in the Optimizely developer community, Laerdal also felt confident it would have the resources necessary to reduce the risk of undertaking such a large project. The Optimizely Digital Experience Platform provided the flexibility and scalability to grow with the business, accomodating both current and future needs including a robust e-commerce platform, ability to easily expand into new markets, ease of use for editors, global capabilities and support, and the ability to easily integrate with existing business systems.

The project was split into two phases and rolled out across 29 websites with e-commerce in 18 international markets. The first phase addressed Laerdal's content needs using Optimizely Content Cloud. Phase two will include the addition of Optimizely Commerce.

The solution is hosted on Microsoft Azure and integrated with backend systems including an ERP, CRM system, and Eloqua marketing automation. Laerdal is also utilizing personalization on site. Eight different personas, including purchaser (e.g. hospital procurement department), trainers (looking for products to solve their needs in classes), and technical customers (needing to know how to set up and fix products), have been created with very different customer journeys enabled. The company hopes to further optimize the website with A/B testing and personalization for first-time visitors vs. returning visitors in the near future.

Implementing the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform has helped Laerdal improve its communication with customers. The new, more modern site employs a completely different look and feel, and puts connecting visitors with the right solutions for their particular needs first and foremost. The website has been well-received by customers, with Laerdal experiencing a 28% improvement in bounce rate since launch.

Site editors have reported a much better experience using the new platform, citing Optimizely offers more opportunities to create better content and interact with customers.

"With so many different stakeholders in a global organization, it's important to get everyone aligned internally before the project kicks off and to keep the lines of communication open throughout," says Pål Oftedal, Director Marketing Communications at Laerdal Medical. "Finding a partner that you can trust is key, and we found that in Optimizely. The new site is a big improvement for customer experience and the way Laerdal communicates."