Elevating the market position of SSI, a 50-year-old Lifeboat Manufacturer to a Global Brand with brand refinement, web development, SEO and online marketing, all whilst increasing sales.
Survival Systems International is an established, family run, innovative lifeboat manufacturing company spanning over 50 years and 12 regions across the world.
However, as with many established companies within the manufacturing world their sales funnels was time consuming and heavily dependent on customer relationship building such as trade shows, networking and in-person sales channels.
Like many legacy manufacturers, SSI hadn’t yet unlocked the power of digital sales. My challenge was to modernise the brand, build a scalable sales funnel, and reposition the company as an innovative, global leader without losing the equity built over five decades.
I updated the SSI brand and visual identity from the ground up, capturing the companies excitement, values and vision in an updated logo, brand style guidelines and across all marketing touch points. This brought together a clear vision, global feel and consistency to the company’s main regions around the world.
Brand Strategy
• Brand Positioning
• Brand Audit & Strategy
Brand Identity
• Visual Identity & Brand Guidelines
• Website Design & Development
Marketing
• SEO (Global)
• Graphics
• Pay Per Click Campaign (Global)
• Art Direction
• Sales Force CRM Integration
• Marketing Material
The Results
• 30% increase in inbound leads since launch
• 5% conversion rate from cold leads
• Qualified leads grew in both volume and quality
• New staff hired to manage increased demand
• Full Salesforce CRM rollout to manage pipeline
The Transformation
We began with a full brand audit to uncover how SSI was perceived - both internally and externally.
The insights helped reshape how SSI presented its products, told its story, and connected with customers.
Brand Strategy & Identity
Brand Positioning | Brand Messaging | Updated Visual Identity | Global Brand Guidelines
I developed a new logo and refreshed visual identity to reflect SSI’s expertise, innovation, and global reach. This was rolled out across every marketing touchpoint - from sales decks and brochures to uniforms and signage - giving the company consistency and confidence in every region.
Website & Funnel Development
Website Design & Development (across 9 regions) | Sales Page Creation for Core Products/Services | Copywriting & Visual Direction | CRM Integration (Salesforce)
A new lead-focused website was built to support a scalable sales process. With a restructured site hierarchy, product-specific landing pages, and a focus on conversion, SSI was finally positioned to generate cold leads and convert them.
Since the website launch in 2020, online customer leads have increased by 30% with a conversion rate of 5%. This led to an overall consistent rise in sales.
Overall the quality of leads were more qualified and more ready to buy.
This rapid rise in leads led to the hiring of new staff and the integration of Salesforce.
Marketing & Sales Enablement
Global SEO Strategy | PPC Campaigns | Salesforce CRM Integration |
Marketing Collateral & Brochures
Targeted SEO and PPC campaigns were launched to drive traffic and generate leads, while high-quality imagery and brand-aligned graphics ensured visual consistency across all campaigns and content.
" Paul's ability to work with managers around the world and distil the message, services, products, and industries of our 50-year-old company into a clear brand, website, and consistently growing sales system was astounding. "
James Dodgson
Global Business Manager @ Survival Systems International
Higher quality imagery were collected with a renewed focus on the main products of SSI.
Colour correction was also used to better match products to the SSI brand and bring consistency across all global marketing touchpoint.
A new website was developed covering the 9 main SSI regions around the world.
The SSI business model was closer to that of Apple than of Shell Oil. SSI developed premium bespoke products while offering their customers complimentary services.
SSI now presented its main products with greater conviction and focus with benefits being more quickly and easily depicted.
Higher quality imagery were collected with a renewed focus on the main products of SSI.
The Back Story
Survival Systems International are the original designers of the globally adopted single-fall lifeboat capsule. For over 50 years, they’ve been manufacturing and servicing lifeboats in some of the world’s most demanding industries and environments.
But the Oil & Gas sector is massive, and standing out requires more than engineering excellence; it requires brand clarity, smart positioning, and a marketing and sales strategy that works around the clock.
Project Key Deliverables
- Brand Strategy & Guidelines
- Website Development Across 12 Countries
- Global SEO Package
- Global PPC Campaigns
- Salesforce Integration
SSI had to greatly increase its brand awareness and 'muscle in' as an established yet innovative, global player. While SSI was a highly respected and established company within the Oil & Gas industry, the sheer size of the Oil & Gas industry made it difficult for SSI to become a well-known brand.
SSI had to build its brand awareness and set itself apart from its competitors.
CEO Mark Beatty wanted to take SSI into the future, however, sales were developed and closed over many years of customer relationship building and in-person meetings. While this approach worked, when times were tough it left little room for manoeuvrability. Getting your ‘foot in the door’, so to speak, was always the challenge.
“You can’t sell lifeboats online,” said Mark Beatty, the sceptical owner of SSI as we discussed how branding, SEO and digital marketing could help his company.
It took me 7 months, but he was happy I proved him wrong when a cold lead generated from an organic search culminated in the sale of a £78,000 lifeboat capsule.
After a company audit and competitive analysis I decided to reshape how SSI presented itself and its services.
SSI was now presented as a modern, innovative and agile company with a renewed focus on its key components, its specialised lifeboat products and accompanying lifeboat services.
SSI could react faster and offer a higher standard of customer service than most of its competitors.
In a competitive industry against global players such as Palfinger and Survitech and with our competitors enjoying larger budgets, SSI was now repositioned and streamlined SSI to play to its strengths.
With a renewed focus and streamlined approach to how the main SSI products and services were positioned and presented, a new website and website hierarchy was developed which mirrored how the company now presented itself.
Sales pages were developed for each product and service alongside strong SEO packages.
The initial goal of increasing smaller “low hanging” leads in the UK market was far outstripped as more leads (and a higher calibre of lead) led to the hiring of new staff and the integration of Salesforce to manage the consistent influx of online leads generated.