By Mason Nichols
NPCA members highlight the importance of operating a modern, ever-evolving website.
In the past five years, has your company changed? Perhaps you’ve hired a new plant manager who has drastically improved production processes in your plant. Maybe you’ve purchased a new piece of equipment that allows you to manufacture more product than ever before.
Regardless of the area, you recognize that change is important. It’s key to helping your business remain competitive in the precast concrete industry and helps ensure your continued success.
But what about your website?
Your customers are relying more heavily on mobile devices each year, so the need for an updated website is paramount (1). Recognizing this, many NPCA members have recently upgraded their websites to propel their businesses forward and sell even more product.
We spoke with employees from Spillman Co., A.C. Miller Concrete Products, Easi-Set Worldwide and Shea Concrete Products to learn more about their websites, including the new features offered and ultimately, how the changes made will benefit each business.
Spillman Co. – spillmanform.com
Q: How do you use your website as a marketing tool for your business?
A: Our website highlights the three unique businesses that we operate: custom form manufacturing, resale products (plastics and magnets) and automated manufacturing solutions. We use monthly email newsletters to highlight a product and to drive customers to our website. Going forward, we plan to use the blog portion of the site to highlight certain projects. A database of previous project articles will be an asset to the sales team to lend credibility and show our capabilities.
Q: Why did you decide to redesign?
A: The website was last updated about six years ago and then “upgraded” about four years ago so it could be viewed on mobile devices. Navigation through the old site was cumbersome. The purpose of this redesign was to give us a fresh and relevant look along with better performance on mobile devices.
Q: What are the new features on your website that will have the greatest impact?
A: We’ve incorporated a first-generation online ordering feature for our standard plastic and magnet products. Orders can be placed through the website. Our in-house personnel then process and bill the order.
Q: What benefits have you already seen as a result of the redesign?
A: The layout is much better and easier to navigate. This upgrade also tied our blog to our website. Now all of our content – the blog, website and uploaded newsletters – is discoverable via search engines, making it easier to find our site.
Q: How do you see your website continuing to evolve in the future?
A: Future upgrades will further automate the online purchasing process. We will add new articles and blogs as we move forward. We hope our website will evolve into a tool our customers rely on to solve complex casting problems. Our hope is that the content we create on our website will be helpful to our industry and ultimately drive our business forward.
Answers provided by Don McNutt, president and chief operating officer.
A.C. Miller Concrete Products – acmiller.com
Q: How do you use your website as a marketing tool for your business?
A: We use it for sales quotes, but beyond selling and marketing, it’s also an educational tool that shows the benefits of using precast concrete.
Q: Why did you decide to redesign?
A: It was time! We needed a fresh new look. We also wanted more capability to update our information more frequently.
Q: What are the new features on your website that will have the greatest impact?
A: A quote request template, enhanced product section, payment portal, easier navigation and an adaptive design, which allows our website to work on a range of screen sizes.
Q: What benefits have you already seen as a result of the redesign?
A: We have seen an increased sales quote volume as well as an overall enthusiastic response to the new design.
Q: How do you see your website continuing to evolve in the future?
A: A website is like a living organism. You have to keep nurturing it or it will die. We will continue to update and modify the site to keep it relevant and to keep our audience engaged.
Answers provided by: Ramzi Kawar, executive vice president; Dave Gautreau, sales manager; Sharon Philippe, marketing manager.
Easi-Set Worldwide – easiset.com
Q: How do you use your website as a marketing tool for your business?
A: Easi-Set deploys multiple websites that speak specifically to the needs of our diverse customer base, offering details and specifications and showing examples of our work. The corporate website, easiset.com, explains in detail the benefits of our proprietary precast product licensing program, which is aimed at precasters looking to expand their product lines. Each of the five additional product websites go into the specific details and benefits geared toward the end user of that product.
Q: Why did you decide to redesign?
A: The main reason for updating to a responsive design was to comply with the new rules set forth by Google to provide a greater customer experience for mobile and tablet devices. We had already upgraded the sites to a content management system in the past five years, which gave us greater in-house control of process and ability to make changes and add content.
Q: What are the new features on your website that will have the greatest impact?
A: Responsive technology for optimal viewing on any device, cleaner coding for faster download times, an improved content management system that cuts down on time spent updating the site, a floating right-hand column quote request form which has improved our response rate, and larger project and photo galleries.
Q: What benefits have you already seen as a result of the redesign?
A: More traffic and quote requests. The newest content management system has given us a greater ability to make the majority of content changes and additions in-house as opposed to paying our outside web development firm.
Q: How do you see your website continuing to evolve in the future?
A: We continue to tweak coding and technical issues to have the sites perform as optimally as possible. The main goal moving forward is to add to and change the content on the sites. Google wants to see relevance in your content, and that your website is renewed and refreshed on a regular basis. Gone are the days of just having a good website being enough. It is now a constant evolving machine that you must consistently feed and improve if you want to stay ranked on the first page of search results. We also highly value any comments or suggestions our customers make about the sites, and make changes where appropriate to meet their needs.
Additional websites: easisetbuildings.com, slenderwall.com, jjhooks.com, softsoundwall.com, beachprisms.com
Answers provided by Arthur Miles, president.
Shea Concrete Products – sheaconcrete.com
Q: How do you use your website as a marketing tool for your business?
A: Our site is a tool for three different groups of people: engineers (specifiers), contractors and homeowners. Engineers can download drawings and get information on using precast products. Contractors can get quotes and view PDF drawings of all our products. Homeowners are primarily interested in our concrete steps and get all kinds of information on size, styles and installation. We also have links to photos and videos to help provide additional information.
Q: Why did you decide to redesign?
A: We feel that every 5 years or so, you should refresh your website to keep people interested. Updating your site also helps with rankings in search engines such as Google. We also need to keep up with ever-changing technology. The site needed to be responsive for smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices.
Q: What are the new features on your website that will have the greatest impact?
A: More photos and videos, an updated catalog view, responsiveness to any screen size and enhanced search engine optimization.
Q: What benefits have you already seen as a result of the redesign?
A: The website just recently went live. We are hoping to get a better response organically in search engines and be more user friendly (fewer clicks) for customers coming to our site. When people come to our site, I want them to feel that we are a modern company with a personal family image and a wow factor. We have already heard positive feedback from customers.
Q: How do you see your website continuing to evolve in the future?
A: Many people – myself included – do a lot of research online and want answers to questions after normal business hours. I hope our website can be a tool for doing this. Then, during regular hours, we can follow up with a personalized email and phone call. I am amazed how many inquiries we get from the website from 5 p.m. to midnight from engineers, contractors and homeowners.
Answers provided by Greg Stratis, president.
Mason Nichols is the managing editor of Precast Solutions magazine and is NPCA’s external communication and marketing manager.
Resources
(1) searchengineland.com/its-official-google-says-more-searches-now-on-mobile-than-on-desktop-220369
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