Page 28 - MetalForming January 2011

Turn Your Website into a Powerful Marketing Tool
Now we’re getting somewhere, the folks at Killean said, and were prepared to dive into site development based on Diemasters’ once-guarded propri- etary strategies.
“Opening the door to our propri- etary processes might seem risky,” says DeLay, “but we know from experience that just because someone learns how we do things doesn’t mean they can easily copy what we’ve done and imple- ment it in their own shop. It’s easy to buy new equipment, but not so easy to reengineer a process.”
The Proprietary Product Flow Process
What was proprietary and is no longer? For starters, visit the website (www.thediemasters.com) and link to the product flow system. Diemasters says that it designed its proprietary product-flow system to ensure every- thing moves through the plant as effi- ciently as possible, in line with the The- ory of Constraints. The system proves to
prospects that “we can stop on a dime if there is a change in product design, or if order volumes suddenly drop off,” says DeLay. “Customers want to know that if they call tomorrow and stop pro- duction, that we can quickly stop and, at the same time, limit their liability. Then they want to know how quickly we can get back up to speed when we need to.
“We used to hold that process very close to the vest,” DeLay adds, “but now realize what a huge mistake that was. Putting it out there on our website has helped the new site gain traction and has raised our search score. We find that as more and more OEMs are looking to dual-source their critical products, they’re considering only the top 10 or so companies that might come up on an Internet search.”
Earning High Scores
Thanks to the thorough approach Diemasters took with its new website— in the product flow area and others—it’s
consistently appearing in the top 10 sites of companies of interest. And DeLay is finding that OEMs typically will ask to visit only three to five of those top 10. Since launching the new website, DeLay definitely notices an increase in the number of visits from prospects.
“Once we get prospects into our plant,” adds DeLay, “the conversion rate is high.” For example, DeLay describes a new account landed last July specifi- cally due to the supercharged website.
“The strength of the new content added to the site drew them to the site and led to a visit to our facility,” says DeLay. “After they witnessed in person what they viewed on the site, they decid- ed to source a major assembly with us.
“One of the primary goals we estab- lished when deciding to invest in the website was to use it to open the door to more complex assembly work for our customers, and that’s exactly what this new project comprises,” contin- ues DeLay. The new customer has Diemasters manufacturing parts for,
26 MetalForming/January 2011
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