CONCRETE NETWORK Case Study New Rules of PR and Marketing

Website

Concrete network •  The Concrete Network provides information about

residential concrete products and services and helps buyers and sellers connect with each other. The company targets consumers and builders who might want to plan and build a concrete patio, pool deck, or driveway— this audience makes up the business-to-consumer (B2C) component of The Concrete Network— as well as the concrete contractors who comprise the business-to-business (B2B) component. The Concrete Network's Find-A-Contractor service links homeowners and builders who need a project done with contractors who specialize in 22 different services located in 221metropolitan areas in both the United States and Canada.

Website

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, web content sells concrete!

The company's ongoing PR program includes two direct-to-consumer news releases per week

• articles on the site •  free online catalogs

• photo galleries for potential customers

The Concrete Network gets more than 10 times the traffic of any other site in the concrete industry “We know how many visitors reach us via the news releases, and it is similar to paid search engine marketing,” Peterson says, but at a lower cost. “We're also generating links from other sites that index the news releases, and there is a media bonus, too, when we get mentioned in a story.” He adds that the site averaged 550,000 visitors per month in 2005 and 850,000 in 2006. In 2009, against a backdrop of an economic crisis, a dramatically slower construction market, and 40 percent fewer searches in the concrete category, the site broke the 1 million visitor per month barrier and is still growing.

“Every business has information that can contribute to the education of the marketplace. You need to ask yourself, ‘How can I get that information out there?’ You have to have a bit longer view and have a sense of how your business will be better down the line. For example, we created an entire series of buyer guides, because we knew that they would be valuable to the market. You need to think about how a series of 100 news releases over two years will benefit your business and then commit to it, understanding that nothing is an overnight thing.” say Peterson CEO Concrete Network

Website should build the tribe…

REFERENCES