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Is Sales and Marketing taking a back seat ?
One of the most over looked functions in the day to day operation of a warehouse, is sales and marketing. It is surprising, how even the more established warehouse companies do not make adequate effort to get the message out about the services they offer.
If a warehouse offers order fulfillment services, then that is the bread and butter of the company. Finding new customers should be foremost on the agenda. Order fulfillment customers are fickel as they may scale back, go out of business or just move on to a different company. How then do you keep the seat warm.
Do's and Don'ts !!
It seems that marketing on Google and Yahoo seems to be the place where most companies consolidate their efforts. But since staying on top of the search engine is not only a challenge, but it is simply not a realistic expectation in the long run. SEO can only go so far in getting the word out, and it is fickle. You cannot base your entire marketing strategy around that.
I would suggest the following additonal avenues, which should be fully explored when chalking out a sales strategy:
1. Participating in trade shows. This is not just to hob nob with your peers, but in trade shows where you actually expect to meet potential customers. Trade shows catering to ecommerce industry or to the wholesale industry would be a good place to start.
2. Advertise specials on your services. Place an ad giving incentives to new customers for joining. Give discount on storage space, shipping and handling, pick and pack services etc. If you have a new facility with space sitting around give a huge discount on storage space for the first year. It will not hurt your bottom line.
3. List your warehouse on the search engine that caters to your industry. Specialized search engines, filter most of the traffic and usually brings in customers who are serious about finding services that you offer. Getting a top spot or a visible spot on a such a search engine should not be difficult.
Check us out at http://www.spacespecials.com/ and see how we can help you get the word out on your 3PL warehouse.
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2 comments:
Maybe in another post, you could suggest some upcoming trade shows that will be usefull from a marketing standpoint.
Choosing an order fulfillment services gives merchants the opportunity to convert some of their fixed costs into variable costs.
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