Corrugated Metals Article
Marketing: Get Found
The hottest vehicles driving sales leads online are search engines—and
small businesses found them first. But the game is changing. Here's
how creative companies are staying one step ahead.
Ken
Carlton, vice president of Corrugated Metals of Chicago, doesn't pretend
to be a web-savvy guy. "I'm down here bending steel," he says. "I don't
know anything about the Internet. "For a long while that was sort of
the motto at Corrugated, a 116-year-old, privately held maker of roll-form
metal products for metal siding and railcars.
By April 2001 the website of the $20-million-plus-a-year company had
drawn exactly four sales in two years. You can crow over four cars,
four homes, four Emmys—but unless you're selling aircraft carriers,
four sales aren't going to cut it. Carlton turned to a web designer
who—for $42,000—revamped the site and introduced him to
a nifty marketing technique. Within a year Corrugated averaged 20 new
online customers a month, whose orders have ranged from $500 to $3.5
million. Last year, in one of the worst downturns the metal-manufacturing
industry has ever faced, Corrugated's sales rose 35%. Says Carlton:
"I shudder to think what our company would look like" without the new
web-marketing plan.
Featured in Fortune Small Business.
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