The challenge
Girdwell manufactured process control instrumentation sold into water treatment and chemical plants. Every datasheet, wiring diagram, and compatibility matrix sat behind an email gate. Marketing was proud of the lead volume — around 900 downloads a quarter. Sales considered those leads worthless, and they were largely right: most were students, competitors, and engineers who entered a fake address to get the PDF. Meanwhile the actual specifications were invisible to search, so buyers comparing instrumentation never found Girdwell at the stage where the shortlist gets made.
What we did
Ungated everything technical
Every datasheet, protocol reference, and compatibility matrix was published as structured, indexable HTML rather than gated PDFs. Raw form fills fell 71%, which was uncomfortable for two months and exactly the intended outcome.
Built a selection tool as the real conversion point
Instead of gating documents, we captured intent where it actually exists: a configurator that narrows to the right instrument by process medium, pressure range, and output protocol, ending in a quote request pre-filled with the exact configuration.
Published the compatibility data competitors hide
PLC compatibility, supported protocols, and known integration constraints — including the cases where Girdwell's instruments don't fit. Engineers checked those pages obsessively, and the honesty about limitations came up repeatedly in sales calls as a reason for trust.
Reframed what marketing reported
We stopped reporting downloads entirely and replaced it with configurator completions and quote requests. That change is what got sales to start working marketing leads again.
The result
Qualified quote requests grew 126% while total form fills fell 71% — fewer leads, dramatically better ones. Organic traffic to technical pages grew 340%, and average deal size rose 38% because buyers arriving via the configurator specified more accurately.
“Our lead numbers went down by two thirds and our revenue went up. It took me a quarter to stop flinching at the dashboard. Sales stopped complaining about marketing leads for the first time in six years.”