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 :
- A personable personality.
- Excellent communication skills.
- An ability to foster new contacts within major manufacturing or wholesale organizations.
- Heavy dose of ongoing networking with established clients.
- Last but not the least, be very aware of what your competitors are upto. Attend, regular networking workshops organized by the trade organizations.
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:
- Cultivate web marketing experience in house.
- 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:
- Organic listings. - These are the listings on the left hand side of the Google search results. The listing on left hand side is free.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 !!)
- 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.
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2 comments:
Interesting article. I am still not sure, if I should be hiring a marketing professional just for web marketing and another one for finding new accounts the traditional way. In my opinion it is very difficult to find all the skills in one person.
Joe.
Good post. I loved your breakdown of the marketing needs for a fulfillment company. My favorite line was probably the last one though. That personable persona is extremely important, and not just in sales.
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