The website
The site backs up your reps after they leave the room. It is built so an architect finds capabilities, finishes, typical spans and who to call within a few clicks, and written so search engines and AI assistants can quote it.
Marketing for manufacturers and subcontractors
Marketing for precast concrete producers and building-product manufacturers.
Old Plank Group runs the website, search, email, photography and company LinkedIn page for precast producers and building-product manufacturers as one monthly program. Retainers start at $8,500 a month, and photography is added at the Growth level. Each month you get a one-page report listing the inquiries, sample requests, plant visits and bid invitations we tracked.
The problem
Why producers hire us
Your reps walk the plant and leave a good impression. Then the specifier looks you up from their desk. If the website is ten years old and the photos are phone shots, the impression starts over.
The structure is usually decided during design, before the job is bid. Our work is aimed at getting your plant known to the design team by then.
What architects told the AIA
Your website is where the architect decides whether to keep looking.
- 71% start product research by searching for the product or category.
- 74% leave a manufacturer's website if they cannot find what they need within a few clicks.
Source: The American Institute of Architects, The Architect's Journey to Specification, 2018. Survey of 400 architects.
Scope of work
What we build
Email between projects
Email keeps your name in front of the people who will pick a supplier the next time they have a job or a problem, and the report shows recorded opens and who replied.
Photography your sales team can use
Plant and jobsite photography, shot for the way it gets used: proposals, spec sheets, the website and the trade-show booth. We never use stock.
LinkedIn posts of your projects and people
The posts show real projects and real people from your plant, on a steady schedule.
Who it is for
Who we work with
The core of our work is precast producers, building-product manufacturers, the suppliers who sell into them, and the subcontractors who install their products. The work changes with the buyer.
- Producers
- Producers are rarely specified by name. They get certified and prequalified, then invited to bid. The work is getting your capabilities in front of the people who decide which plants get invited, while the structure is still being drawn.
- Suppliers architects choose
- Formliners, pigments, thin brick and finishes get picked by architects. The work is content an architect can use while writing a spec, and the report counts the sample requests and education bookings that follow.
- Suppliers the plant buys
- Hardware, chemicals, admixtures and form release have to meet the project specifications, but the plant picks the supplier. The work is being the name the plant already knows on the day the current supplier ships late or a mix goes wrong. The near-term goal is earning a trial.
The same work fits the contractors and subcontractors who bid and build with these products.
Engagement model
How pricing works
Marketing retainers start at $8,500 a month, with no hourly billing. The fee is flat and covers a set scope each month. One team writes, designs, builds and shoots the photography, and you have one person to call.
Larger programs add more photography, video, original research and trade press.
See the pricing levelsReporting
The monthly report
The monthly report is one page. It lists the inquiries we can identify, where they came from, and the sample requests, plant visits, and invitations to bid that followed.
If we tracked no inquiries, sample requests, plant visits, or bid invitations that month, the report says so, and we talk about what changes.
| Website inquiries | Who wrote in and the page they came from |
|---|---|
| Sample requests | Which products were requested and by whom |
| Plant visits | Visits booked and who is coming |
| Invitations to bid | New invitations and where the contact first came from, when we can trace it |
| What was sent, with recorded opens and replies to sales | |
| What was posted and how many people saw it |
Questions and answers
What plant owners ask us
Can you get us specified?
Producers are rarely specified by name. They get certified and prequalified, then invited to bid, and the structure gets drawn around precast, or around another product, long before bid day. Our work is to put your plant and what it can do in front of the people drawing it while that is still being decided. We do not guarantee a spec or a bid win, and we do not promise a search ranking. The monthly report shows who found you and what it led to.
What does a precast marketing firm do?
A precast marketing firm builds and runs the sales tools a producer or supplier needs: the website, email, photography and the company LinkedIn page. Our work is scoped to how precast gets specified and bought. You keep selling, and we make sure what buyers find when they look you up backs you up.
Do you work with suppliers or only producers?
We work with both. Our clients are producers, building-product manufacturers, the suppliers who sell into them, and the subcontractors who install their products. We also build websites for architecture firms.
What does precast marketing cost?
Marketing retainers start at $8,500 a month, with one team and no hourly billing. Larger programs add more photography, video, original research and trade press, and they cost more. The pricing page lists the levels.
Do you show client work or results?
Client work is confidential, and we name a client only with its permission. We do not publish case studies or testimonials to sell ourselves.
Do we need to teach you the industry first?
No. We work in the precast industry every day. We already know the products and how projects are bid.
What gets built first?
The website and the photography come first, because everything else points back to them. Email and LinkedIn start once there is something worth pointing people to.
Do you replace our marketing person?
No. Where there is someone in-house, we work alongside them and carry the load they do not have time for. Where there is nobody, we are the department. Either way you deal with the same team every month.
Talk to us about your plant.
Old Plank Group takes on a few retainer clients at a time, all in industries we know firsthand. We answer within one business day.