Website Best Practices for Concrete Manufacturers

Your Website Is Your 24/7 Sales Rep

In today’s business world, websites are the most critical tool in a company’s sales toolbox - especially for manufacturers in the concrete industry. “75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience,” according to business research firm Gartner (source). If you’re a concrete manufacturer and you’re looking for website best practices so you can reach those 75% of buyers who don’t want to talk to your sales rep, you’ve come to the right spot. It’s easy to find great resources about website best practices in general (Hubspot offers a very comprehensive guide). However, finding website best practices specifically for concrete manufacturers is hard. And let’s face it - our industry is unique!

That’s why we wanted to share what we’ve learned about website best practices in the concrete industry over the past few decades. At Aster Brands, we’ve been helping precasters and hardscape manufacturers grow their businesses since 2000. Personally, I’ve been working with these manufacturers on marketing their businesses since 2008, with a heavy focus on websites especially since 2021. I’ve seen a lot, I’ve tested a lot, and I’ve learned a lot!

Whether you’re in the precast or hardscape manufacturing world, this article will help you pinpoint website best practices unique to our industry to ensure you’re positioning your company to maximize traffic, leads, and ultimately sales.

WHAT do you do, and WHERE do you do it?

In my 15+ years of working in the concrete industry, one of the most common issues I see on manufacturer sites is that it’s not IMMEDIATELY clear what the company does, and where they do it. This is likely costing you business if this is the case for your site!

As Donald Miller of Storybrand says, "don't make your customer burn calories to understand what it is that you do." People will click away if they have to think too hard - so make the very first headline and image on your site count! Prioritize clarity over cleverness here. A simple headline on your homepage could be something like, “Premium Retaining Walls in the Greater Atlanta Area” - accompanied by a great product photo including people enjoying your product - both for scale and for human connection.

Clearly identifying the area you serve is critical for a couple of reasons. We’re in the concrete industry and concrete is heavy. Depending on what you manufacture, you likely can’t ship it very far without running into freight expense issues. So why compete for traffic in Omaha if your service area is Albany? Be realistic about your shipping radius, and then make that clear on every page of your site.

By making it clear where you serve, you’re:

• Helping visitors understand if they’re a good fit for your business
• Telling search engines where to show your site and who to show it to
• Saving your sales rep time from answering calls from people you can’t realistically serve due to shipping costs

Your product expert MUST review your content!

Your website is essential for building trust with your customers, and if it contains incorrect information that a contractor or engineer can spot from a mile away - it could be costing you sales.

If you’re like most concrete companies I know, you got into the concrete business because you love working with your hands and solving real problems in the world. Chances are good that you might not have a robust marketing team and you’re working with a marketing agency on a new website.

The challenge in working with a marketing or website agency is that they’re never going to understand your products as well as your boots-on-the-ground salespeople do. That’s why your product sales experts must read every page of your site.

Making sure your product and sales experts review content is especially important if AI is involved in drafting any content. AI generated content can serve as a great starting point, but it’s essential to review to make sure it matches your brand voice and that the information is accurate.

Customize and localize content from vendors

Most precasters and hardscape producers we work with manufacture a combination of licensed products (like Redi-Rock, Rosetta Hardscapes, Pole Base, or Novum Wall), white-labeled products, commodity products, and products they’ve developed or invented themselves.

When building website content for your licensed or white-labeled products, it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of content that’s already been created by the brand you’re licensing from. Product catalogs, product pages, blog posts, engineering pages, and brand guidelines are all great places to pull content ideas from. However - it’s never a good idea to copy and paste content directly from another website. Search engines can penalize duplicate content - so it’s bad for you and bad for the website you’re copying from (source).

Instead, we recommend using your vendor’s content as a starting point or inspiration, then customizing it and localizing it for your particular market. Often, there’s a reason a product is particularly successful in your local market - whether it’s your topography, the product size or color, or a local construction challenge. Play up those local angles to add more value in your market and differentiate your content from all of the other manufacturers of that product!

Make engineering and installation resources easy to find - especially on mobile!

For most precast and hardscape products, engineering and installation resources are critical in the sales and construction process.

Engineers need easy-to-find information on dimensions, weights, specifications, pallet information, preliminary height guides, and layout. If you’re working with a licensed product, consider linking back to technical resources on the licensor’s website to ensure the information is always up to date.

On the installation side, make sure installation information is easy to find to help ensure proper installation and ultimately, happy customers. While your entire site should be mobile-friendly, it’s critical that your installation resources are easy to access on a phone so that a contractor in the field can double-check installation processes to ensure everything is completed properly. It can also be helpful to make sure installation resources are available in other languages if relevant in your market.

Show off your local projects

A great advantage of working in the precast and hardscape manufacturing world is that the products you make have a big impact on your local infrastructure. Whether you’re creating solutions for highways or backyards, you have a tremendous opportunity to showcase your work on your website.

The key to this is making photography part of your company culture. Make sure your sales rep is photographing every job, or schedule a photo shoot of your top projects each year. Then showcase that photography on your website, with project names and addresses when possible.

Over the years, engineers and contractors have told us over and over that they love seeing projects nearby and will often go visit existing projects to see products in real life. They want to see that your products work with your soils, weather patterns, and local topography. Help them establish trust by showcasing your local projects on your website (and in your literature and social media).

Prioritize driving traffic to your site

Refreshing or creating a new website is a big job, and it can be tempting to feel like you’re “done” once your site launches. In fact, we find that many manufacturers stop once their website has launched.

However, you’ll likely be disappointed in the traffic and leads your site is generating if you don’t also create a strategy and budget to generate traffic. What good does a fresh website do if no one is visiting it?

There are many options to promote your site that will depend on your market, goals, and budget. But some common, effective ways to drive website traffic in the precast and hardscape manufacturing industries are:

• Search engine optimization (great Hubspot resource here)
• Google Business Profile optimization
• Social Media Best Practices in the Concrete Industry
• Advertising, especially digital advertising
• Trade shows and/or association meetings
• Job site signage, truck signage, installation crew apparel, literature

Tying it all together

Ultimately, your website is your 24/7 sales rep - answering your customers’ questions and building trust on your behalf. It’s the foundational tool for marketing your business.

While the best practices highlighted above are important specifically for the concrete industry, there are other foundational best practices that are super important in developing your website! For example, be sure your site:

• Has effective, optimized calls to action to ensure that visitors know what action you want them to take (Get Pricing has worked well with many of our customers)
• Provides social proof/testimonials
• Makes it easy to get in touch (address, phone number, email, web form, chat)
• Has a great About Us page that focuses on your WHY, and not just your history. People like doing business with real humans who they like and trust!
• Has an analytics tool installed, and you review your results regularly to continue making incremental improvements and optimizing your results

When your site follows these best practices, you will stand out from most concrete manufacturers. And when your website stands out - you’re capturing more business in your market and changing your community in a concrete way.

Exclusive for Aster Brands Manufacturers: Log in to each respective brand's secure site for more website best practices and blueprints for successful brand and product pages.