Customer story: Hydrofarm

Streamlined automation for marketing workflows

Controlled environment agriculture

About Hydrofarm

Hydrofarm is a leading manufacturer and distributor of branded hydroponics equipment and supplies for controlled environment agriculture.

For over 40 years, they've served growers with innovative products including grow lights, climate control solutions, and nutrients across a 3,000+ product portfolio.

As a publicly traded company with 500+ employees globally, they needed efficient collaboration workflows to support their diverse product brands and marketing campaigns.

500+ employees

47 years

3,000+ products

NASDAQ listed

Website: https://hydrofarm.com

Headquarters: Shoemakersville, PA

Adopted Comind.work in 2011

The challenge

Fragmented systems blocking streamlined campaigns

Hydrofarm's marketing department was constrained by disconnected business applications and manual approval processes that prevented efficient campaign coordination across their diverse product portfolio.

Their complex approval process involved multiple stakeholders including product managers, brand managers, legal teams, and senior leadership, each with different approval authorities.

The fragmented systems using email threads and shared folders created bottlenecks, with materials getting stuck in approval cycles that competitors had streamlined through better automation.

Disconnected feedback systems

Version control chaos

Approval bottlenecks

Manual tracking

The solution

Custom workflows with real-time collaboration

Comind.work enabled Hydrofarm to replace fragmented manual processes with streamlined automation that matched their specific organizational structure and approval requirements.

The platform's flexible workflow design allowed them to handle both structured approval processes and ad-hoc collaboration for different types of marketing materials.

They implemented different automated workflows for various campaign types - from simple social media posts to complex product launches requiring multiple approval levels.

Streamlined approval automation

Replaced disconnected manual approval processes with automated workflows tailored for different marketing materials and campaign types.

Real-time collaboration

Consolidated feedback and eliminated email chains, allowing stakeholders to collaborate directly on marketing materials.

Approval visibility

Clear visibility into approval status and bottlenecks, showing exactly what needed attention and when.

Version management

Centralized version control eliminating confusion about which materials were current and approved.

The results

Streamlined efficiency through automated processes

Automated workflows replaced fragmented manual systems, dramatically decreasing marketing approval times while version control issues were virtually eliminated across the organization.

The improved transparency led to better communication and faster decision-making, allowing Hydrofarm to be more responsive to market opportunities.

Success in marketing led to adoption across other departments including product development, sales operations, and training teams.

Key features that made the difference

Workflow automation

Custom approval workflows automatically route materials to the right stakeholders based on campaign type and budget implications.

Impact:

Reduced marketing approval time by 50% and eliminated manual tracking overhead.

Collaborative feedback

Real-time collaboration tools allow multiple stakeholders to review and provide feedback directly within the platform.

Impact:

Version control issues were significantly reduced, eliminating confusion about current materials.

Process transparency

Dashboard visibility shows approval status, bottlenecks, and next steps for all marketing materials in the pipeline.

Impact:

Marketing managers now spend far less time tracking approval status and more time on creative work.

The platform gave us exactly what we needed - custom workflows that matched our approval structure with complete visibility into the process. We can now launch campaigns faster and respond to market opportunities without getting stuck in approval bottlenecks.

— Heather Bené Dubin-Brians

Senior Coordinator, Trade Marketing & Digital Development, Hydrofarm