HousingZone, Bizy to launch HousingZone Deals site featuring building products discounts; site intended to help builders, remodelers improve profits, provide manufacturers with marketing channel

Lorena Madrigal

CHICAGO , August 17, 2011 (press release) – HousingZone™, the leading online portal for home builders, remodelers and contractors, and Bizy™ LLC, operator of co-branded vertical industry deal sites and BizyDeal.com, today announced the launch of HousingZone Deals, the first-ever deal site from a business media company.

To go live in October 2011, HousingZone Deals will feature weekly discounts on building products such as doors, windows, faucets, locksets, lighting, roofing, construction software, home plans, decking and siding for HousingZone's more than 100,000 unique monthly visitors.

"The timing of HousingZone Deals couldn't be better, as residential construction and remodeling have been hard hit by the recession," said Tony Mancini, Group Director-Principal for HousingZone parent SGC Horizon. "Powered by Bizy, HousingZone Deals will help builders and remodelers improve their bottom lines with heavily discounted goods and services while providing manufacturers with a powerful new channel to promote their products to a large and very targeted audience."

In addition to industry-specific items, HousingZone Deals will likely feature more general business-to-business offers from BizyDeal.com seller partners, which have so far included LinkedIn, Experian, Constant Contact and The Fairmont Hotel as well as providers of trade show displays, telemarketing campaigns, texting platforms, virtual assistants and other important products and services.

"We are excited to be working with HousingZone, one of the fastest growing and most innovative sites for builders and remodelers," said Gary Slack, co-founder of Bizy and founder of the global business-to-business marketing services agency Slack and Company. "Online deals have proven themselves as a way for buyers to save money and for marketers to grow sales. With HousingZone Deals, marketers will have another tool to build brand awareness, sales and long-term customer relationships."

According to Mancini, HousingZone partnered with Bizy not only for its turnkey b-to-b deals solution but also for its expertise in developing effective, sales-driven business-to-business messaging and design.

"To be successful, HousingZone Deals must offer compelling incentives that convert visitors to customers," he said. "Other deal sites are too consumer-focused and incapable of providing a marketing edge for our advertisers. Bizy knows how to market to businesses."

In May 2011, Bizy became the first deal provider to partner with an industry trade show, powering the National Restaurant Association's successful NRA Show Daily Deals during its annual conference in Chicago. Bizy is weeks away from launching a co-branded deal site for the commercial construction industry and is in active discussions with many other vertical industry trade shows and publishers.

About Bizy
Bizy (www.bizydeal.com) develops co-branded online business-to-business deal sites in concert with trade show producers and vertical business media companies and also operates www.bizydeal.com, one of the world's first b-to-b deal sites targeting the small business marketplace. Bizy was co-founded in March 2011 by Gary Slack, CEO of b-to-b marketing agency Slack and Company, and Lou Friedmann, former EVP of marketing for optionsXpress, the fastest growing online broker of the past decade.

About SGC Horizon
HousingZone (www.housingzone.com) is operated by SGC Horizon, the leading provider of information to the building and construction industry. SGC Horizon serves the infrastructure, equipment, residential and commercial construction markets with award-winning publications, dynamic websites and industry leading events. SGC Horizon's brands include Professional Builder, Professional Remodeler, Custom Builder, HousingZone, Show Village, Building Design+Construction and Construction Equipment. SGC Horizon is a division of Scranton Gillette Communications (SGC) a 104-year-old privately owned business-to-business media company based in Arlington Heights, IL, with offices in Scottsdale, AZ.

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