Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.. What works for 3PLs

There are a lot of buzz words going around when it comes to online marketing. We are going to focus on, what works for a 3PL warehouse when it comes to marketing online. I will rate them all by how useful I think they are when it comes to online marketing.

* * * * * : Very Useful

* : Not Useful

1. Facebook

Facebook lets you create your profile which could be personal and business. It can allow you to post relevant links, photos, comments etc. And it can let you connect with other individuals. Facebook is still morphing into a useful tool for businesses. In terms of its usability for a 3PL, it is not there yet.

Rating: **

2. LinkedIn

Now this is something you cannot go wrong with. Just about everyone in your professional circle is on it. If they are not, hmmm... Great tool for networking and asking questions. Create your LinkedIn profile. Your profile and the questions you ask or answer are all indexed very favorably by the search engines. You need to be on it and fully explore this option. Infact, if you join a group where your potential customers may come from and announce what services you offer, you may just get new business. For example you may choose to be a member of the group called "Importers of Food & Beverage" and in the discussion, you could mention that you have food grade storage capacity to offer. This could lead to potential customers contacting you with actual interest.

Rating: *****

3. Twitter

Noise, Chatter, Clutter etc etc. This powerful tool has to be used properly in order to add value. Currently it is more of a ego building tool, where people measure their worth in terms of how many followers they have. Even if you have followers are they listening ? Long and short of it, subscribe to protected groups and only subscribe to twitter groups that are meaningful to your industry. SpaceSpecials has a new twitter group called http://twitter.com/warehousewanted where we plan to send out enquiries we receive on our website from potential customers who need to get in touch with multiple warehouses with their requirements.

Rating: ***

4. Blogs

Blogs are great, if you have great stuff to write about. Writing blogs just to get higher ranking on the search engines, dilutes your credibility. Keep your articles small, to the point and conserve bandwidth. Do not forget to syndicate your blog via websites such as blogcatalog.com. Use Blogger from Google, which is what I am on, it is easy to setup and use. Use blogs to talk about special services you offer, positive or negative incidents that happened in your company. Great tool, especially if you have content that is unique and people want to read about it. Such as "Challenges faced by 3PLs when working with startups" or "Finding warehouse space, where do I start ?".

Rating: ****

5. Vertical Search Engines

These are the search engines that exist to make industry specific search simpler. For example if a customer is looking for "fulfillment" and they type "fulfillment atlanta", Google or Yahoo may also show results pertaining to personal fulfillment or emotional fulfillment. With a vertical search engine catering to warehousing industry, you know for a fact that fulfillment means order fulfillment or product fulfillment.

This type of search engine also lets customers locate companies by geographic selection, services offered and many other criterion. For 3PL and warehousing industry we only have a handfull of good vertical search engines, so please make sure you sign up on these. Some of them are relatively inexpensive, and they can bring you customer enquiries from really motivated customers. In addition to that they make your own company website feature more favorably in traditional search engines due to inbound links.
They are also called online directories. SpaceSpecials.com is one such directory.

Rating: ****

6. Pay Per Click

PPC (Pay Per Click) on Google for example is quite expensive for keywords such as "fulfillment", "warehousing", "warehouse space" etc. Besides these keywords are too generic and do not really define what you are offering. For a warehouse in Allentown, Pennsylvania offering order fulfillment services, the keyword should be something like "Fulfillment Allentown Pennsylvania". This will not be as expensive as simply "fulfillment" and will give you more targeted traffic. Work with companies that specialize in search engine optimization and talk to them about PPC. Estimate a budget upto $5000 per month. You should see some good returns.

Rating: ***

7. Paid Advertising

All websites have a program where you can buy ad space. Here you can simply call the website and find out how to advertise with them. Please keep in mind, when spending your advertising dollars, do not advertise in places which is frequented mostly by your peers. You need to go where your customers are. I would put targeted ads on websites such as National Association of Wholesalers (naw.org), Practical e-Commerce (practicalecommerce.com), Alibaba - Global Trade Directory (alibaba.com) etc.

Rating: ***

There are many more ways a 3PL warehouse can get the word out and market itself online.

Please keep in mind the number of customers looking for warehouse or fulfillment services are not that many as compared to number of customers looking for shoes online. That is why to be out there in front of the few potential customers needs carefull planning.

Tweet your requirements into Cyber Space

There are a number of customers looking for warehouse space and services. Traditional way to do that is to either look up warehouses online or find a broker. Looking up online or through a webiste means sending out RFI (request for information) to many warehouses via email and then waiting for a response.

Twitter provides an alternative. That is right, the days of sending an email out so that the service providers can respond to your RFI (request for information) are fast coming to an end. One good use Twitter can be put to, is to broadcast your message onto a group of subscribers. Most important aspect to consider is that Twitter can actually put your message on the cell phones of the subscribers.

Consider this for example, your customer is looking for warehouse space in Michigan. All, she has to do for that is to go to our website (http://www.spacespecials.com/) and type in something like "Looking for 6000 sq feet of warehouse space in Michigan. Call me at 867 5309 Jenny (sound's familiar :))." All the warehouses who are subscribed to our Twitter group will then receive this message via the Twitter network on their cell phones.

Now this is what Twitter is all about. Enabling communication between the broadcaster and a host of subscriber. Twitter enables us to subscribe to a group of our choice and get important notifications on your cell phone. The key to all this is to subscribe to channels that will provide relevant and important information. There are a lot of Twitter channels where people simply type something for the sake of typing something. This adds to the clutter and defeats the purpose.

The other important thing to consider is that by keeping your twitter account strictly for business eliminates all that unnecessary noise and clutter which keeps you from seeing the important messages or tweets. I encourage you to subscribe to groups that are protected, which means that you need permission from the group owner before you can join them. The group owner ensures that you are from the industry and therefore eliminates unnecessary noise.

SpaceSpecials.com has created a new Twitter group strictly for this purpose. Go to http://twitter.com/WarehouseWanted to subscribe to the notifications. This has been created to pass on enquiries from actual customers looking for warehouse space and services in your area.

Hiring a marketing professional ?

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How essential are web marketing skills when hiring someone for fulfillment marketing job ?

Just about ten years back, you would look for the following in a salesperson :

1. A personable personality.


2. Excellent communication skills.


3. An ability to foster new contacts within major manufacturing or wholesale organizations.


4. Heavy dose of ongoing networking with established clients.


5. Last but not the least, be very aware of what your competitors are upto. Attend, regular networking workshops organized by the trade organizations.

What do you look for when hiring an individual for sales and marketing in today's environment ?

Things have changed completely in last ten or even five years. And that big change has been brought about by the internet.

Web marketing today has become a major force when making your presence felt. As per the source on eMarketer.com, an authority on market research information related to the internet, "US marketers will spend $36.5 billion on online advertising, about 10% of their total media budget. They will continue to shift their spending into online advertising. The fundamental shift from non-online will not abate for several years."

Given that internet has become a source to reckon with, more and more warehousing companies are asking themselves the fundamental question, how much web marketing experience is required in sales.

There are two options available:

1. Cultivate web marketing experience in house.


2. Out source all web development and web marketing.

Both have their merits and drawbacks, and the ideal scenario lies somewhere within a happy mix of both.

Fulfillment Companies and the Website

If you are in the business of order fulfillment, you cannot escape the primal need of having a website. For a small to medium sized operation, it makes perfect sense to outsource it. If you are a large sized operation, you are free to do what you want, including hiring full time web professionals.

For order fulfillment companies, the website will be used for two purposes, order taking from your clients and to give you exposure on the web.

The development of basic website which introduces you on the web, should almost always be outsourced. Once the basic website is done, it will need to to be enhanced to integrate with an order management software. Your clients can then enter their orders and view reports on inventory etc. You will most likely buy a pre-packaged solution for that as well.

There are several options available when shopping for fulfillment and order managment software, but the focus of this article is on finding new business on the web.

Your basic website, that announces your arrival on the web, is the one that needs to be fine tuned to get the maximum web presence and therefore get you new customers looking for the services you offer.

To make your company noticed on the web is a science in itself. They say for real-estate its location, location, location but for web marketing the mantra is Google, Google, Google. And this is easier said then done.

Web Marketing for Fulfillment Company

I would highly recommend outsourcing the nitty gritty of web marketing work. But when hiring a sales and marketing person, make sure your potential candidate is aware of the following buzz words:

1. Organic listings. - These are the listings on the left hand side of the Google search results. The listing on left hand side is free.


2. Pay Per Click. - These are the listings on the right hand side of the Google search results. You pay to be included in these listings. More you pay the higher up you will show.


3. Analytics. - This is a tool used to monitor the traffic to your website. It tells you how effective your website is and how many visitors its attracting on a regular basis.


4. Key Words. - Key words tell the Google search engine, how to categorize your website. Google uses many other criterias such as content on the web page, links to your website etc to determine how to place you.


5. Blogs. - This is a free for all notebook style forum, where you can pen your thoughts, experiences and even usefull information, that you want to share. Hey, you are reading one right now (and I hope it is usefull !!)


6. SEO. - Search Engine Optimization. This is a science in itself, unless you are planning to hire a full time web professional, do not get involved in this. Just know that there are ways, these professionals know, to tame the Google monster.

A salesperson knowledgeable in the web marketing aspects will be much better equipped to guide the company handling your web marketing. After all, most of your business in the coming year will be coming from the web and you want to be prepared.

Having said that, we can never discount the all important sales person traits such as that personable personna.

Non Asset Based 3PL

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When it comes to non asset based 3PLs, assisting their clients with setting up a distribution center, it seems that their choice is limited to only the companies that the 3PL has relations with.

There is no denying that relationship is important in this business, but in today's environment with thousands of quality 3PLs out there, we cannot simply count them out due to lack of relationship. When a non asset based 3PL is trusted by his/her client to put together the complete network of services, it is fair to expect that all possibilities will be considered with the end goal being, putting together the most cost efficient network. Which means new relationships should be forged, where none existed previously.

The capacity of a asset based 3PL changes from day to day. There will be highs and lows in the area of space and services offered. Also, there will be new 3PLs actively seeking business and giving huge incentives to join in. Non asset based 3PL should be aware of such offering and factor them in, when assisting their clients. They should be aware of 3PLs with excess space in a new distribution center, which the 3PL is looking to fill up asap.

One of the main reasons the non asset based 3PLs are restricted to using resources from their personal contacts and not seeking out new 3PLs, is that the communication between asset based 3PL and a non asset based 3PL is missing. There is a huge void that needs to be filled in, in the 3PL industry where requirements change every day, the offerings of space and service by asset based 3PLs also change on a regular basis. The collection of such information should be an ongoing process and should happen even outside the person to person networking opportunities that do exist.

If there existed a portal where asset based 3PLs could advertise availability and special incentives on fulfillment and storage services, this would help both the seeker and the provider.

We at SpaceSpecials.com is one and only such portal where asset based 3PLs can list their availabilities. At the same time the non asset based 3PLs can check out those listings and post any specific requirements of their own. We are convinced that doing so will be beneficial for all.

Once again communication among 3PLs is the key to progress and that is what we are all about.

Order Fulfillment Centers in a Nut Shell

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Introduction

All retail and wholesale businesses at some juncture will contemplate outsourcing warehousing services to an order fulfillment center. The order fulfillment centers are also referred to as 3PL (third party logistics) warehouses. They are mostly privately owned independent entities.

The services they offer are referred to by different names such as Public Warehousing, Fulfillment warehousing, Storage Warehousing, Warehousing and Storage, Warehousing Distribution, Inventory Fulfillment, E-commerce Fulfillment etc.



Services provided by Order Fulfillment Centers

Typically an Order Fulfillment Center will offer the following services:

Warehousing and Storage

First and foremost the Order Fulfillment Center will offer warehousing and storage services. Most 3PL have a sophisticated array of equipment to compliment their warehouse storage services. This equipment will include conveyor belts, forklifts, racks, docking doors, scanners etc. All the operations in a warehouse are tied together with the help of a Warehouse Management System (WMS).

The customer utilizing the services of the 3PL will ship their inventory from their warehouse to the 3PL warehouse. 3PL warehouse will also continue to receive new inventory or returns on an ongoing basis.

In warehousing distribution, how the items are stored in the warehouse, plays an important role. For certain types of items first in first out is the norm whereas for some other items such as perishables first in last out is the norm. This is to ensure that no perishable good sits on the aisles longer then it has too.

Order Taking

An order fulfillment center will typically utilize a web based application, where the customer will enter the orders online. Once the order has been received by the order fulfillment center, it will then process the order. Orders can also be conveyed to the order fulfillment center using electronic feeds using files in many different (EDI) formats. These formats are pre agreed upon by both parties. The transmission of data can be once a day or real time.

Order Fulfillment

Once the order has been received, following key pieces of information is required to process the order:

SKU that uniquely identifies the item
Customer Information
Quantity
Shipping Method
Other Miscellaneous handling instructions

Based on the SKU, one of the key operations the fulfillment center provides is to be able to locate the item. How the items are stored in a fulfillment center is no easy feat. Storage of items is ideally done based on fast moving items closer to the docks and slower moving items further away. As items continue to ship out, the front aisles continue to get replenished with the fast moving items.


Shipping and Handling

Once the item has been plucked from the shelf and is ready to be shipped, two key components are considered: Packaging and
Shipping. If the item has to be shipped individually to the consumer, it is typically packaged and then shipped the same day or using the next day shipping service. UPS, Federal Expresss are typically used for this type of service. Since, the number of shipment volume is significant, these companies offer, order fulfillment centers, heavily discounted prices. This is an important saving that is passed on to the client.

In some cases items may be getting shipped in bulk, for example to a retail outfit. In such cases, the key component is consolidation. As the weight of the shipment can be considerable, services such as UPS and Fedex is not always cost effective. The distribution warehouse will then look to consolidate shipments using a private carrier. Shipments which constitute less than truck load (LTL) are consolidated with other shipments going in the same direction, to realize better savings.

Processing Returns

Last but not the least is the capability the fulfillment center should provide in the area of handling returns. Returns require more attention to details then any other aspect of fulfillment. Return requires manual inspection of the item. Notes on the condition of the item, needs to be entered. The item will be returned to a separate area that will be earmarked for return goods. These goods will eventually be sent backed to the manufacturer or the retailer may choose to take other actions.

Selecting a Order Fulfillment Center

Three types of businesses typically look to outsource warehousing and storage operations:

E-Commerce Retailers
Wholesale Distributors / Importers
Manufacturers

Small Medium Sized Companies

If you are a small or medium sized operation (say with the net revenue of three million or less), you could search for order fulfillment companies online or go by word of mouth.

When selecting the order fulfillment company keep in mind the following selection criteria:

1. Product specialization
2. Location of the warehouses as per the proximity to your customers
3. Size of the warehouses
4. Order Management System and Reporting
5. Costs

Large Companies

If you are a large wholesaler, distributor or manufacturer and you are looking to outsource the warehousing and fulfillment operations, your best bet would be to engage a non asset based 3PL to setup your operations or engage a consultant to understand your requirements and locate a suitable asset based 3PL partner.

What are we marketing here ?

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Are we marketing "Warehousing" or "Order Fulfillment" ?

It is time to figure out what exactly are we marketing when we say "Marketing Order Fulfillment Services". It is important to establish as to what words will seekers of such services be typing in the search engines when all they want is a warehouse company who can undertake shipping and handling for them.



Some of the terms that have been thrown out there are: 3PL Warehousing, Order Fulfillment, Distribution and Warehousing, e-Fulfillment, Public Warehousing, Warehouse Services and so on.



It is important that the companies offering all the above services agree on a key term that relates to the market segment they are targeting. In my opinion the market segment is broken up as follows:

• 3PL Warehousing : Stands for third party logistics warehousing. This term is most appropriately used when you need a finer control over trucking, shipping and warehousing. For large companies which need more control over their logistics operation, 3PL warehousing will actually translate into getting into a long term contract with a warehousing company. The warehousing company will in return customize their services as per the needs of client. The customization can entail using customized warehouse management system, having dedicated floor space and having the operations customized as per the client's requirement. This arrangement is also know as contract warehousing. The main difference here is that such an arrangment requires a long time commitment from the client.
  
  Usage: Used mostly in context of providing warehousing services to very large customers, looking for customized services and willing to work on a long term basis.
  
  Synonyms: Warehousing and Distribution, Contract Warehousing
  


• Order Fulfillment : Order fulfillment, my personal favourite, is most often used when working with a e-commerce company. Order fulfillment should entail the full cycle of receiving orders online and also processing returns. The client in most cases will be ambiguous of how its being done internally. The only aspect revealed to the client is the cost structure of price for storage, picking and handling and shipping. Also, returns are priced seperately. Once the client agrees on the price structure, behind the scenes a lot of consolidation is done by the fulfillment company. Therefore, many different companies are sharing the same warehouse resources.
  
  Usage: Used mostly in context of ecommerce companies and small to medium sized wholesale distributors.
  
  Synonyms: e-Commerce Fulfillment, Fulfillment House, Public Warehousing

Who are our customers ?

In my opinion there are only two sectors 3PL warehouses serve.

1. Large companies looking to outsource their warehousing. These companies typically are manufacturers or large wholesale distributors. They can also be large retail chains. Go with the term 3PL warehousing.
   


2. Small and Medium sized e-retailers and wholesale distributors. These are the guys who need back to back order fulfillment services. This is the market that will see double digit growth in the coming years. Go with the term Order Fulfillment.

Therefore when marketing the services your warehouse provides, lets keep this distinction in mind.

What makes "specials" such a powerful marketing tool for 3PL warehouses

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3PL Warehousing Space gets crowded

As the 3PL warehousing space gets more crowded, the challenge for finding new customers is becoming paramount. Where does a 3PL start, when looking for a customer? Especially, since customers can come in all shapes and sizes. You could have a young e-commerce company, which has been content with working on drop ship basis with their vendors, suddenly deciding to host inventory and outsource order fulfillment. You could have a wholesale distributor, who have had his own warehouse building, but has now grown too big for it. Most of the businesses that go un-harnessed fall into the category of small and medium sized businesses looking to outsource their operations to an order fulfillment company.

Online marketing, is there room for everyone ?

For businesses looking for 3PL warehousing and order fulfillment services, tool of choice undoubtedly is the online search engine. The problem that the 3PLs face is that a search engine can only host so much information on the first few pages. Most of these spots are taken up by the heavy hitters in the industry, leaving the smaller 3PLs, or newer entrants, at a disadvantage. For smaller 3PLs it may be close to impossible to get that coveted spot on the search engines.

Even if your business was to appear on the first two pages in the search engine, how do you distinguish yourself. It seems like in the world of 3PL warehousing, most companies are offering services that are very similar. And worse, they are located close to you.

Specialized Search Engines

There is an alternative to marketing your business online. You can list your business on an online search engine that specializes in your industry. SpaceSpecials.com is one such search engine which specialize in promoting businesses that offer public warehousing and e-commerce fulfillment.

The main advantage with a vertical search engine such as SpaceSpecials.com, is that customers visiting a specialized search engine are much closer to making a decision, as opposed to a visitor browsing on the general search engine. The industry insiders are speculating that the vertical search engines which are industry specific will play an important role in the near future. To the point that they may even threaten the dominance of Googles and Yahoos when it comes to searching for businesses.

It is not hard to see that a favorably positioned vertical search engine on Google search will allow the users searching for a warehouse to perform more informed searches using criterion such as geographic location and services offered. The warehouse seekers now have a much better tool at their disposal as opposed to sifting through pages of information which may or may not be relevant.

The other good news is that listing on a specialized search engine costs fraction of what it costs to stay optimized on the major search engines.

Power of “ warehouse specials”

If all your competitors are offering pretty much the same services and worse they all seem to be located in the vicinity. What is a 3PL warehouse to do ? How can you raise that flag and shout “hey look at me, over here !!!”

Well one way to do that is to offer “specials” on warehouse space or services. The concept of offering specials is not a new concept, for almost all other businesses this has always been a preferred way to attract new business.

Special offers are more relevant to 3PL industry, than in any other industry. Public warehousing is noncommittal in nature. Which means anytime a customer scales back or there are seasonal highs and lows, you will either have excess warehouse space sitting around or you will have labor twiddling their thumbs. This weakness can be turned into a great opportunity for attracting new business.

By making informed decisions based on past experience, most logisticians or sales personnel can estimate, how much of the space will remain available and for how long. Using this informed judgment, you can put up a special offering and offer that space at a special discounted rate for that period, same goes for services offered.

Examples of Specials

Some examples of specials would be:

1. XYZ warehousing is offering 10% discount on storage for the first one year in their new facility in South Carolina. Call Bob at ext 122.
2. Special offer on Kitting and Assembly. 20% discount on Kitting and Assembly services for the first one year of signup.
3. Special offer on Gift Wrapping. Free Gift wrapping for the first six months of signup.
ABC warehousing is offering 10% discount on all all handling charges in all their locations.


Similar offers of discount on storage, pick and pack, cross docking etc for limited time can be placed as often as you want. SpaceSpecials.com will let you place your advertisement and specify an expiry date for the special offer. The special offers are also pushed to the major search engines for greater visibility.

Why is this not happening already ?

Why is this not happening already, because currently 3PL warehouses do not have a place where they can advertise such specials. What we need is a warehouse portal which is known for listing “specials on warehouse space and services”.

SpaceSpecials.com does just that. We already have a very favorable ranking in major search engines, and even though we are barely few months old, we are starting to get motivated customers on a daily basis. By putting specials on warehouse space and services you are keeping yourself ahead of the competition, while running your business at optimum capacity.

Act Now !!!

Talk to your sales team, manager, owner, come up with the specials for the season. This is the right time to solicit new business as the holiday buying season is almost here and many e-retailers and wholesalers would be looking to outsource part or all of their order fulfillment business. SpaceSpecials will get your word out.