Pallet Enterprise magazine has selected the best five U.S. pallet company websites for 2022.The winners included both small and large companies in the industry and were recognized based on four primary criteria.
The company website is no longer a separate marketing channel that just gets included in the overall mix of marketing for your company. It is now the most important guide to your company.
Its value in communicating information, selling your products and services, telling your story, and even recruiting new employees is the identity of your company. When the world and that potential customer come to your door, they are starting at your website.
Thankfully, companies in the pallet industry continue to move forward by leaps and bounds in their website design and digital marketing efforts.
The Pallet Enterprise magazine staff, along with WoodView Media Company, are pleased to announce the Pallet Enterprise Top Pallet Company Website Awards for 2022. The awards are for companies across the industry and include pallet manufacturers, recyclers, and brokers located in the United States. The awards are divided into the Top 5 Overall and 5 Honorable Mentions.
The first step in the process was to research and narrow down the overall choices for this competition to 100 websites. Not an easy task considering there are literally hundreds of pallet company websites.
At the conclusion of that first step, those 100 websites were then further narrowed down to 30 top performers, and those finalists were evaluated using four primary criteria: content, service, brand and uniqueness. The winners are recognized in this article and are authorized to promote this recognition in their print and online communications.
Top Performer Criteria
The goal of using the four criteria is to focus on key areas where a company’s website sets itself apart. While there are numerous other factors that are elements of the criteria, it’s important to understand the general framework utilized to determine the overall scoring in this year’s competition. Each of these criteria is further defined here:
Content – how the information on the website is presented. Key points are if the content includes information on the company, products and services for the customer, potential hire or the public at large.
Customer Service – the functionality of the website in terms of customer interaction. For example, does the website include quote, order and contact capabilities?
Brand Messaging – the identity of the company website as expressed through branding and messaging. Does the website include Company Mission, Vision and Value statements? Does it convey a unique selling point(s)? Do the graphic design, images and layout coordinate the messaging?
Uniqueness – any unique features of the website that spotlight the company in a truly interesting way. This could be infographics, downloads, and/or tools that are part of the website and available to anyone that visits.
The websites listed below are in no particular order of award. Each demonstrated notable strengths, and the panel also included “honorable mentions.” In the future, if you would like your website to be included in the list, please email chailleb@gmail.com
The Top Performers of 2022
Nelson Company
https://www.nelsoncompany.com/
The Nelson Company website’s overall clean design and use of icon-style graphics made navigation easy and interesting. A feature that stands out on certain pages is the ability to narrow down searches through category tags.
Also, nearly every page offered a succinct explanation of products and services and ended with a contact button. The scroll down effect in page navigation was used effectively in both storytelling and funneling the visitor to contact touch-points. The design also connected with social media channels and an interesting layout to the blog posts.
Conner Industries
https://www.connerindustries.com/
Conner Industries has been in the running for a few years now and has continued to “up their game” with their website and messaging. The interface is straightforward overall and utilizes an excellent blend of images, graphics and text to convey its message about the products, services and industries served.
The website offers ample opportunities to contact the company for quotes and questions and offers clear explanations in product and service navigation paths to do so. A nice feature is how the Conner website ties specific products and services to particular industries. That’s a focused and great value proposition for the customer. Also, the sustain-ability messaging was clear and concise, with a good mix of images and content to keep it interesting and relevant.
Challenger Pallet & Supply
Challenger Pallet and Supply has recently refreshed its website, and the efforts have definitely paid off. The homepage utilizes video very effectively “above the fold” (before scrolling down), and the graphics and text stand out with vivid colors and excellent typography.
Challenger offers an excellent “Meet the Team” section with interesting bios and clear pictures of each team member.
The design utilizes a unique infographic on the company’s “Sustainability” page to explain the lifecycle of a pallet and put existing resources like the Nature’s Packaging video to good use.
The contact and quote buttons stand out and invite clicks as well.
Pallet Logistics of America
Good use of images, text and icons with scrolling navigation to invite the visitor to read more and interact with the website. One notable feature is the use of large text for the content, which makes it easily readable. The new website is part of an entire brand refresh campaign. The brand messaging is focused on pain points for pallet users, and the website does a good job of connecting with key drivers for changes in pallet purchasing decisions.
PLA also makes good use of case studies as downloadable documents. This is a great technique for both messaging and functioning as a “leave behind” for customers to check out at their convenience.
The PLA “Responsibility” navigation tab comprises a whole subset of topics centered on sustainability and environmental impact and explains how PLA sets itself apart from competitors in this area. This section includes another downloadable document, a sustainability report. Also, the website focused on employee welfare and positive culture development. Smart companies are designing at least part of their website with potential new employees in mind.
Hope Timber Pallet & Recycling
While the overall appearance of the Hope Timber website is comparatively simple, it uses its resources quite well to convey a positive message around core values and family business. Its mix of graphics, content, and images isn’t cluttered and aids well in navigation.
One special note here is the use of a “popup” when landing on the homepage. While popups can be annoying while blocking content, the Hope Timber popup slides itself to a relatively conspicuous spot on screen to stay out of the way but still be present enough to draw attention. And it focuses on career opportunities with the company. The company is offering sign-on bonuses as a way to attract new workers.
The blog features interesting posts and is updated regularly. Fresh content is important to attract attention from search engines and give visitors a reason to keep coming back on a regular basis.
Honorable Mentions of 2022
The honorable mention websites display a notable feature or tool that really made them stand apart from the others in our list. Here in no particular order are the “Honorable Mentions” of 2022.
Oakland Pallet
https://www.oaklandpallet.com/
Oakland Pallet stood out to the judging panel for its use of the pallet builder tool available on its website through a side tab called, “Build Your Own Pallet.” What an absolutely fun tool to play with and offer as a selling point.
While the tool isn’t nearly as robust as Best Pallet™ or the Pallet Design System™, it is certainly capable of producing a unique pallet with schematics, component cut list, 3D view, and checkout. They may want to think about putting more emphasis on the tool availability by changing the tab to a brighter color or putting it into the overall navigation instead of a side tab.
Rose Pallet
Rose Pallet really shines on its “About Us” navigation tab, which includes a great breakdown of the company story, its leadership, testimonials that include videos of customers talking about Rose Pallet, and a blog that is updated regularly with interesting topics by different members of the leadership team.
FCA Packaging
FCA Packaging is another company that utilizes downloadable documents, such as case studies and testimonials. Also, its product and service descriptions are extensive and invite the visitor to navigate to an FCA contact form at the bottom of the page for answers. The design does a great job of tying together product and service descriptions to meet the needs of specific industries and applications. Its customer-focused content shows that FCA Packaging understands the technical challenges of transport packaging design.
Lakeland Pallet
https://lakelandpalletsinc.com/
The Lakeland Pallet website uses a graphic interface and navigation plan that are image-heavy but novel and well put together. While the color scheme does work well in most cases, the designer should review the text color on some of their pages to make sure that it is readable against the background. The use of slide-in images in product and service explanations is an interesting approach.
Tri-County
Tri-County Pallet is another small to medium-sized pallet provider that uses its available resources well. The website is uncluttered and easy to navigate. The real standout is in the website’s breakdown of descriptions for various products and services. Tri-County’s website offers the right blend of information and images without overloading the visitor with text-heavy explanations. The blog is also a standout as it provides interesting, relevant topics and is updated frequently.
Conclusion
That does it for this year’s Pallet Enterprise magazine website awards. Our selection team would like to thank the companies that were a part of this year’s list. Please remember, if you would like your company included next year, drop us an email at chailleb@gmail.com.
