Validating Market Demand Before Scaling Investment
How Bell Lumber & Pole built momentum in a new regional piling market.
IMPACT METRICS
4X higher
clickthrough rate than industry
63% lower
cost-per-click than industry
7 SQLs
in the first 60 days
Nearly $1M
in bid activity
CONTEXT
Bell Lumber & Pole, a leading infrastructure supplier to the utility, telecom, mass timber and woodlands industries in North America, set out to expand their piling sales into the Southeast and Gulf region. Demand signals in this area were unclear, and market dynamics varied significantly from their core footprint.
Rather than overinvest early, Bell needed a way to validate demand, refine messaging, and align sales and marketing around real market feedback.
Challenge
The team lacked visibility into how regional buyers were searching, evaluating, and prioritizing piling solutions. Awareness of Bell was low, messaging had not been tested in-market, and sales needed stronger signals to guide outreach. At the same time, marketing needed confidence that investment would translate into qualified sales leads.
Approach
DKY built a focused pilot designed to generate both demand and insight.
Sales, marketing, and agency teams aligned on success criteria, lead qualification, and feedback loops. Paid search was used as a controlled signal, supported by regional messaging, a dedicated landing page experience, and CRM integration from the user’s first interaction through sales follow-up.
EXECUTION
Campaigns launched across Florida, Texas, and other key Gulf states, with messaging centered on application fit, project readiness, and performance in coastal environments.
Performance was measured against downstream sales activity, not just engagement, allowing for continuous refinement based on real conversations and bid activity.
What it Unlocked
The pilot confirmed strong market interest and provided a repeatable model for expansion.
Bell gained clearer insight into regional demand, pricing dynamics, and buyer expectations, while strengthening alignment between marketing and sales.
The campaign also surfaced a significant strategic partner opportunity, generating a substantial amount of unexpected quoted business. Following the pilot, Bell extended and relaunched the campaign and is currently looking to apply this model across other business units.