Ironwood Consulting had spent 12 years building a reputation in operational efficiency consulting for mid-market manufacturers. Their partners had deep relationships, strong referral networks, and a track record that most firms their size could not match. None of that was visible on their website.
The old site was built in 2015 on a WordPress template. It listed their services, included a brief "about" page with stock photos of people shaking hands, and had a contact form. It scored 52 on Google PageSpeed. The bounce rate was 71%. Contact form submissions averaged four per month — most of which were spam or irrelevant inquiries.
Ironwood was not struggling for clients. But they were entirely dependent on referrals. Every potential client who found them through search or a cold introduction would check the website before taking a call — and what they found did not match the calibre of the firm they were about to engage.
We started with a half-day brand strategy session with the two founding partners. The goal was to extract and articulate what made Ironwood genuinely different: the specific type of problem they solved, the industries they operated in, the size of engagement they were built for, and the outcomes their best clients had achieved.
Out of that session came a clear positioning: Ironwood was for mid-market manufacturers ($50M–$500M revenue) with operational inefficiencies that were costing them margin. Not generalist consultants. Not big-firm overhead at boutique-firm prices. Specialists, with evidence.
We designed the site architecture around that positioning. The homepage would communicate the core value proposition in 10 seconds, back it up with specific outcomes in the next 20, and funnel qualified visitors toward a 30-minute scoping call. Nothing else.
We built a new visual identity — a refined typographic system, a darker and more authoritative color palette, and a grid-based layout that communicated precision and expertise without being cold. Real photography of the partners and their client environments replaced every stock image.
The case study section was central to the architecture. Rather than a generic testimonials page, we built three detailed case studies — each showing the client's situation before engagement, the specific interventions Ironwood made, and the measurable results. Each case study ended with a quote from the client contact and a direct CTA to book a scoping call.
The contact flow was simplified and reframed. Instead of a generic contact form, visitors were asked three qualifying questions before submitting: industry, revenue range, and the nature of the problem they were trying to solve. This pre-qualified inquiries before they reached the partners and improved the quality of every conversation that followed.
The site launched on a Tuesday. By the following Monday, two inbound inquiry calls had been booked — more than Ironwood typically received in a full month from their website. Within 90 days, monthly contact form submissions had increased from four to fourteen. Bounce rate dropped from 71% to 38%. PageSpeed score improved from 52 to 96.
More meaningfully: the quality of inquiries improved. Visitors who submitted the qualifying form were pre-screened, context-aware, and ready to have a serious conversation. The partners spent less time on calls that went nowhere and more time on calls that led to proposals.
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