CASE STUDY: Reimagining Raindrop.com: A Joint Effort for a Stronger Digital Presence
Overview
Raindrop, an AI-powered enterprise spend management platform, partnered with Sandcastle Web Design & Development and branding agency Fight or Flight to redesign its website. The goal was to improve usability, enhance SEO performance, streamline content management, and better communicate Raindrop’s unique value to decision-makers in finance, procurement, legal, IT, and executive leadership.
The previous site, built on the Gatsby CMS framework, required developer intervention for even minor updates. This limited the marketing team’s agility and made publishing new content time-consuming. Our joint team delivered a new WordPress-powered site that is fast, scalable, visually consistent with refreshed branding, and simple for Raindrop’s team to manage internally—helping them keep pace with their marketing and sales initiatives.
View the Raindrop portfolio project
The Challenge
Raindrop’s leadership knew their existing website wasn’t meeting expectations. Key challenges included:
- Difficult Content Updates: Gatsby CMS required developer involvement for all changes, creating bottlenecks for Raindrop’s marketing team.
- Inefficient Navigation: Users had to click through multiple layers to reach key information, with no persistent site navigation visible at all times.
- Inconsistent Branding: Mixed imagery styles and color usage diluted brand recognition and messaging impact.
- SEO Limitations: Site structure, speed, and keyword optimization weren’t aligned with Raindrop’s growth goals.
- Competitive Landscape: In a crowded procure-to-pay market, Raindrop needed a website that quickly communicated its unique platform features and benefits to multiple audiences.
The Solution
Sandcastle collaborated closely with Raindrop and Fight or Flight to deliver a strategic redesign:
1) Discovery & Brand Alignment
- Fight or Flight led a comprehensive brand refresh, refining typography, color palette, iconography, and messaging for target personas.
- Content was rewritten to focus on Raindrop’s key differentiators, SEO keywords, and specific audience pain points.
2) WordPress Platform Migration
- Moved from Gatsby CMS to WordPress, enabling Raindrop’s marketing team to independently manage pages, blogs, and landing pages without relying on developer resources.
- Implemented a flexible, future-proof structure to scale with Raindrop’s evolving marketing needs.
3) Design & Navigation Improvements
- Customized a professional WordPress theme to reflect updated branding guidelines provided by Fight or Flight.
- Reorganized site navigation and sitemap to:
- Highlight platform features and modular components.
- Address the needs of different stakeholders (executives, IT, finance, procurement, legal).
- Reduce click depth and ensure navigation is visible at all times.
4) Content Migration & Build-Out
- Migrated ~100 pages of content and blog posts from the previous site.
- Created new, targeted landing pages to support sales enablement and SEO campaigns.
- Embedded Vimeo videos, HubSpot forms, and lead capture workflows to support Raindrop’s marketing strategy.
5) Performance & SEO Optimization
- Optimized site architecture, speed, and mobile responsiveness.
- Improved metadata, headings, alt tags, and URL structures for better search rankings.
- Laid groundwork for ongoing SEO initiatives, including Generative AI-driven content optimization in collaboration with Fight or Flight.
The Results
The redesigned Raindrop.com delivered immediate value:
- Faster Content Updates: Marketing team now publishes new content and pages in minutes without developer support.
- Streamlined Navigation: Key information is accessible with fewer clicks, improving visitor engagement and lead conversion potential.
- Brand Consistency: Updated color palette, imagery, and iconography align the website with Raindrop’s refined identity.
- Improved Performance: Faster load times, enhanced SEO structure, and scalable architecture position Raindrop for long-term digital growth.
- Future-Ready: WordPress provides flexibility to evolve with Raindrop’s sales and marketing initiatives.
Client Feedback
Working with Sandcastle was a breeze - from helping us design a site structure that allowed for easy navigation to ensuring the design was clean and easy to manage. Our team is now able to do our own updates in minutes as opposed to days and creating new content is simple with the flexibility to make adjustments on the fly. The Sandcastle team was always prepared, work progress and status was available at all times, and any feedback was easy to give and implemented quickly. Our new website is something I am proud of, and we are already seeing traction for lead generation after go-live. — Shannon Kreps, VP Marketing
Collaboration with Fight or Flight
Fight or Flight was instrumental throughout the project—leading brand refinement, rewriting key page content, and providing custom graphics and icons. Their messaging expertise helped ensure Raindrop’s value proposition was crystal clear for each audience segment.
Working with Sandcastle is a dream for strategic collaboration. From the earliest scoping sessions to the final stages of launch, David, Ashlee, and the team have consistently brought clarity, creativity, and technical rigour to the brief. Whether it’s navigating complex user flows or architecting a platform built to scale, Sandcastle has been a genuine partner. Their responsiveness, transparency, and commitment to quality have made them an integral extension to our team, and we’re excited to keep building more together. — Dan Bird, EVP Global Head of Innovation and AI
Looking Ahead
Sandcastle and Fight or Flight continue to partner with Raindrop on SEO and site optimization, leveraging emerging Generative AI tools to improve content performance and search rankings over time.