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2026 Marketing Year in Review
Year-end review and 2027 planning meeting: what the website, search, ads, email and LinkedIn tell us, and where 2027 should focus.
2026 at a Glance
Organic search brought a third of visits but 71% of recorded actions, with 68% of sessions engaged, making it the clear driving force.
68% of users were engaged, up from 58% in 2025.
Accoya, Kebony and Tricoya show up in search, landing pages, email clicks and the best-performing LinkedIn posts.
Originals averaged a 23.9% open and 3.3% click rate; July and September content stood out.
Website & Audience
How people find rexlumber.com, how engaged they are when they arrive, and which pages do the work.
- Where visits come from
- Visit quality by channel
- Monthly rhythm
- Pages that start the journey
Search Brings the Visitors Who Stay
Direct is the largest source (61% of sessions), but switch to engaged sessions and organic search leads by a wide margin: 24,616 vs 11,997.
Organic search is where interested buyers actually come from. Raw visit totals overstate how many real prospects reached the site.
Direct also absorbs untagged email and bookmark visits, so it is a mix of real and low-quality traffic.
Report on engaged visits as the headline traffic measure, and keep investing in search content that brings qualified visitors.
Engagement Varies by Source
Referral (73%) and organic (68%) visitors engage most; Direct sits at 19%. AI assistants are small but convert to actions at 7.3%.
Partner/referral links and AI tools like ChatGPT already send high-intent visitors. These are emerging discovery paths worth nurturing.
AI Assistant is only 412 sessions; showing relatively high intent signals. This warrants continued optimization.
Keep product pages clear and well-structured so AI tools and partners can cite Rex accurately, and pursue more trade and partner listings.
Steady Demand with a Winter and June Lift
Page views peaked in Jan (20,984) and dipped in spring and September. Interaction per view stayed flat, around 3.0 events per page.
Traffic follows a planning-season pattern rather than one-off spikes, so campaigns can be timed ahead of busy months.
Without 2025 data we can't say whether this is growth or seasonality.
Schedule product campaigns (decking, exterior wood) for late winter, ahead of the spring building season, and compare against 2025 next review.
Who Is Visiting — and From Where?
The 2026 exports don't include a country breakdown, so every figure in this report includes all countries. That matters for Rex, which sells in the U.S.
A U.S. vs. international view, with China and Singapore shown separately and a "U.S.-focused" version of the key charts.
Low-engagement international visits can make reach look bigger and conversion rates look smaller than they really are.
Product Pages Are a Major Front Door
After the homepage (33,660 sessions), the Lumber and Accoya pages start the most visits. Location pages (Englishtown, Acton) produce actions at a high rate for their size.
Visitors land deep in the catalogue, so each product page needs to work as its own pitch, with a clear next step.
Some recorded actions come from the employment page; those are job seekers, not buyers.
Add clear quote/spec request prompts to Accoya, Tricoya and moulding pages, and replicate what's working on location pages.
Organic Search
What people type into Google before they find Rex, and where the biggest untapped visibility sits.
- Brand vs product demand
- Top non-brand searches
- Pages with visibility to convert
Product Searches Show \nReal Demand Beyond the Brand
Brand searches drove 6,725 of 11,080 clicks. Non-brand searches earned 4,355 clicks from far more impressions, led by hardwoods, moulding and millwork.
Rex already appears for valuable product searches, but most of those appearances don't become visits. That gap is the growth opportunity.
Impressions count appearances in results, including low positions few people see.
Build out species and moulding content that answers buyer questions (applications, profiles, availability) to lift rankings and clicks.
Wholesale and Specialty Searches Lead the Way
| Search | Clicks | Impressions | CTR | Avg. position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| wholesale lumber | 150 | 8,668 | 1.7% | 6.6 |
| lumber yard near me | 86 | 4,680 | 1.8% | 21.7 |
| accoya wood | 84 | 19,210 | 0.4% | 5.7 |
| cypress lumber | 74 | 7,552 | 1.0% | 8.2 |
| tricoya | 74 | 3,527 | 2.1% | 8.1 |
| white cedar lumber | 59 | 2,151 | 2.7% | 6.1 |
| wholesale hardwood flooring | 56 | 6,729 | 0.8% | 7.7 |
| wholesale wood | 50 | 2,776 | 1.8% | 6.8 |
| lumber wholesale | 48 | 1,881 | 2.6% | 6.4 |
| wholesale lumber near me | 48 | 2,662 | 1.8% | 8.1 |
| tricoya mdf | 44 | 1,781 | 2.5% | 7.5 |
| accoya | 35 | 8,428 | 0.4% | 19.0 |
| bulk lumber | 34 | 2,189 | 1.6% | 5.9 |
"Wholesale lumber" is the top non-brand search. "Accoya wood" appears 19k times but ranks around position 6, and plain "accoya" ranks near 19.
These are trade buyers looking for a supplier. Moving a few places up on Accoya and wholesale terms could mean many more qualified visits.
Strengthen the Accoya hub page and create a wholesale buyer page that speaks to retailers, millwork shops and contractors.
Key Product Pages Are Seen Far More Than They're Clicked
The Lumber page appeared 219,175 times for 1,828 clicks; Moulding and Accoya show the same pattern.
Google already trusts these pages enough to show them. Better titles, descriptions and content depth can turn more of that visibility into visits.
Refresh titles and descriptions on the top product pages, and add FAQs and spec details that match how buyers search.
Paid Search
Two Accoya campaigns ran in tandem from May to July with $3,000 in total spend.
- 2,445Clicks at a 3.52% blended CTR
- $1.20Average cost per click
- 39,000Impressions
- 40Recorded conversions
Performance Max Delivered More Recorded Conversions for Less
Performance Max recorded 32 conversions at $28.76 each; Search recorded 8 at $260.05 but earned the higher click-through rate.
Recorded conversions point to Performance Max, but we don't yet know which of those actions became real Accoya projects.
Low-cost platform conversions alone shouldn't drive budget increases.
Connect ad conversions to actual inquiries and quotes before scaling, and test Accoya ads on high-intent search terms surfaced in organic data.
Email Marketing
10 monthly campaigns and 8 resends YTD, reaching inboxes 56,782 times.
- 23.9%Open rate on original sends, Up 12.3% YoY
- 1,647Unique clicks across all campaigns
- 0.26%Unsubscribe rate, Improved 12.2% YoY
Practical, Capability-Focused Topics Earned the Most Attention
July's custom millwork email (34.4% open, 4.9% click) and September's Grad System email (33.3%, 4.6%) beat the 23.9% / 3.3% average.
Subscribers respond to content that helps them do more work or expand what they offer, not just product news.
CTR can seem to reduce when sending to the entire list, versus the "engaged" contact
Plan 2027 emails around buyer problems: capacity, lead times, finishing and specifying, with one clear next step each.
Resends Add a Second Chance at Click-Throughs
Resends reached 12,948 inboxes with a 12.0% open and 1.4% click rate, about half the originals, with unsubscribes about the same (0.23%).
Resends cost little and don't drive people away, so they're a useful nudge, especially for important product launches.
Recipient-level data is always available in Mailchimp, and reviewed monthly for added insights.
Keep resends for priority campaigns with a fresh subject line, and test sending them on a different day or time.
Email Readers Head Straight to Product Pages
Product and content pages earned 7,825 email link clicks, but the website only recognized 7 visits as coming from email.
Email is doing more for the website than the analytics show. Its visits are being counted as Direct, which understates email's value.
Click totals include repeat clicks by the same person.
Tag every email link so 2027 reporting shows exactly which emails bring visitors, actions and inquiries.
43 organic posts reached 26,539 impressions and 991 clicks.
- 3.7%Click-through rate
- 100%Organic, no paid promotion
- Content mirrors the email calendar
Steady Organic Reach and a Growing Audience
Monthly reach held between roughly 1,500 and 3,500 impressions, and the page gained 268 new followers YTD. April and May were strongest, driven by the relationships and Kebony posts.
LinkedIn reaches the trade audience reliably, and a relationship-driven story outperformed pure product posts on clicks.
Mix people-and-partnership stories with product posts, and consider a small sponsored test to reach architects and specifiers.
Top Posts by Reach
| Post | Posted | Impr. | Clicks | Engagement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expanding production doesn’t always mean doing everything yourself. Custom mil… | 07/08/2026 | 2,028 | 51 | 4.2% |
| Rex Lumber knows what it takes to build lasting relationships, here in the US … | 04/15/2026 | 1,502 | 172 | 14.2% |
| Kebony® is more than wood. Kebony employs a patented technique developed in No… | 05/13/2026 | 1,402 | 70 | 7.6% |
| From Concept to Completion: How Rex Lumber Supports Your Project Lifecycle Re… | 02/04/2026 | 1,371 | 31 | 3.9% |
| Accoya already performs exceptionally well. Rex Lumber adds value by convertin… | 08/12/2026 | 1,074 | 54 | 7.4% |
| Accoya® is well known for decking and siding, but its potential goes way beyon… | 08/19/2026 | 1,037 | 37 | 6.9% |
| Tricoya®: Value in machinability. Durability gets a lot of attention when tal… | 10/14/2026 | 1,015 | 20 | 4.1% |
| Sapele is renowned for having the warmth of mahogany with added durability and… | 04/22/2026 | 1,008 | 74 | 10.9% |
| Our booth at the 2025 LBM Expo featured something unexpected… a custom, handcr… | 01/07/2026 | 995 | 50 | 8.9% |
Thousands of Actions — The Next Step Is Knowing Which Are Leads
Visitors started 3,778 forms, downloaded 2,740 files and clicked to call or email hundreds of times.
Recorded actions don't show us which inquiries turn into projects, so growth decisions should follow lead quality, not just action counts.
Though some form starts and submissions can be attributed to bot traffic, our goal is always to help close that gap, hence recent SEO decisions to add fpartially populated orms to major brand pages.
Focus internally on lead attribution with sales staff, rack inquiries through to quotes and orders in 2027.
Specialty Woods Connect the Whole Story
Accoya, Kebony, Tricoya and millwork show up consistently whether people search, read email or scroll LinkedIn.
| Theme | Search clicks | Top-landing sessions | Email unique clicks | LinkedIn impressions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accoya | 203 | 2,668 | 933 | 3,457 |
| Kebony | 71 | 0 | 458 | 2,969 |
| Tricoya | 150 | 549 | 386 | 2,183 |
| Moulding / millwork | 299 | 1,696 | 325 | 4,157 |
Landing sessions counted from the top 15 landing pages only. Email clicks from each campaign's top links.
Accoya is the strongest cross-channel product, with the most landing sessions and its own ad campaigns. Clearer application guidance and spec support can help more of those visitors take the next step with Rex.
Run coordinated product "seasons" where search content, email, LinkedIn and ads all focus on one specialty wood at a time.
2027 Priorities and Goals
Five priorities that build on what worked in 2026 and close the gaps in what we can see.
- Grow qualified search demand
- Make specialty woods easy to specify
- Turn actions into tracked leads
- Sharpen email and LinkedIn
- Spend on ads only where leads are proven
Proposed 2027 Goals
All targets are proposals for discussion today, not forecasts.
| Initiative | Measure | 2026 baseline | Proposed target | How we'll track it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grow non-brand organic search | Non-brand Google clicks | 4,355 (Jan–Oct) | +15% for same period | Search Console, quarterly |
| Specialty wood hub pages | Sessions on Accoya / Tricoya / Kebony pages | 3,217 landing sessions | +20% | GA4 landing pages |
| Qualified lead tracking | Inquiries confirmed as suitable projects | Not yet measured | Set baseline in Q1 | GA4 + CRM review, monthly |
| Email engagement | Click rate on original sends | 3.3% | 3.8% | Mailchimp, per campaign |
| LinkedIn reach | Organic impressions | 26,539 | +25% at ≥3.5% CTR | LinkedIn export, quarterly |
| Paid search efficiency | Cost per qualified lead | Not yet measured | Set after lead tracking | Google Ads + CRM |
2027 Roadmap
- Agree lead definition
- Tag all email links
- Add country view to reports
- Refresh top product page titles
- Accoya & decking season campaign
- Wholesale buyer page
- Small LinkedIn sponsored test
- Moulding & millwork content push
- Review ad spend vs qualified leads
- Mid-year results check-in
- Tricoya / Kebony feature season
- Full-year comparison with 2026
- 2028 planning
Recommended Reporting Cadence: Monthly reporting, Quarterly strategy check-ins.
Let's Talk...
Which buyers matter most in 2027: Retailers, millwork shops, contractors, architects?
Which inquiries are worth tracking as real opportunities, and who confirms them?
Which product lines can take on more demand without straining supply or sales personnel ?
Which two or three numbers define a successful 2027?
What services can increase in volume without over-allocating Rex's in-house capacity?
Let's discuss your growth goals for 2027.
Comparison Data That Would Strengthen This Story
Shows whether organic and product-page growth is real or seasonal.
Confirms whether non-brand and Accoya visibility improved.
Benchmarks open and click rates against Rex's own history.
Shows audience and reach growth on the page.
Enables the U.S.-focused view (excluding China and Singapore).
Connects marketing activity to real opportunities.