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.

Previous: Expansion Through New Products >>

Please call us at 1-800-621-5617, fill out our contact form or email us at info@corrugated-metals.com to see how you may benefit from using CMI's roll forming and metal corrugating services.

Company History | News Articles | Back to About Us
Contact Corrugated Metals | Site Map | Home