You don’t have to be in the wholesale industry for long to see how fast it moves. To make sure that you either get or stay ahead of the competition, Trade-In Tech wanted to bring you some valuable wholesale marketing tips. Apply these tips to your business and you should soon start to notice that leads come pouring in.
When it comes to wholesale marketing, things are a little different than how you’d approach a traditional marketing plan. But, don’t worry, we’ll walk you through every step.
In this article, you’re going to find out:
Why now is a great time to become a wholesaler
The main goals of effective wholesale marketing
Wholesale marketing tips to ramp up your company’s sales
How Trade-In Tech can bring your business even more customers!
Why Now’s a Great Time to Enter the Wholesale Industry
There are several reasons why you might be interested in wholesale marketing. It's safe to assume you want this information because you either want to enter the wholesale industry or are currently working in it and want better results. Here's why we believe this is a great time to enter the wholesale industry.
Technology
The Internet and mobile devices continue to make it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world, to access your products and services. This makes selling them much easier than ever before. As a result, people are buying more goods and services across the world.
Technology also makes running your business easier than ever before. With so much data and information at your fingertips, it’s not difficult to keep track of the customers you already have and find new leads at the same time.
The Internet is also great for publicizing your brand. You can reach large audiences in a very short amount of time. The best part is that marketing your business doesn’t have to cost a fortune!
The Popularity of the Wholesale Industry
Now is also the perfect time to enter into the wholesale industry while it continues growing rapidly. Research shows that, while taking a mild dip in mid-2020, the wholesale industry's monthly sales are only increasing.
Recent data shows that 2021 was one of the best all-time months in terms of sales for the wholesale industry. In May 2021, monthly sales in the wholesale world reached an astounding total of $546 billion!
You Found a Great Resource to Help You Out!
It's understandable to want a helping hand before you start a major venture. If the venture you want to start is a wholesale business, you came to the right place. Trade-In Tech helps electronics wholesalers around the world start and ramp up their respective companies!
The Three Main Goals of an Effective Marketing Campaign
Before we start getting into all of the wholesale marketing methods your business can start applying, it’s important to learn why your business should market itself. In the wholesale world, most companies have three primary goals. Let’s break each of these goals down.
Gaining More New Customers
Almost every business owner wants to gain more customers. Considering that, it makes sense that this would be one of the main goals of a wholesale marketing campaign. Even if your company has customers now, you probably want more both now and in the future.
With the right wholesale marketing plan, you get to reach more people. Plus, this wave of new and interested people can also rapidly increase your customer base.
Getting More Orders From Your Current Customers
Okay, so you have more customers working with your business to either buy or sell electronics. That’s great! But how many products are each of your customers ordering? Is there room for improvement?
The answers to these questions are likely yes. As you’ll read in the next section, there are tons of wholesale marketing methods that can help you get your current customers to order more frequently.
With a great wholesale marketing plan, you can start enticing your current customers to fill up their respective carts with as many products as possible.
Increasing Sales Revenue
The third and final goal of a good wholesale marketing strategy is to increase sales revenue. Essentially, this means focusing on getting your business to earn more money year-over-year. It’s what many of the largest companies do to become such massive businesses.
How do they go about increasing sales revenue? By focusing on innovation and growth. If you're using the right marketing plan, your business uses both innovation and growth to scale itself.
Wholesale Marketing Strategies That Work
Let’s now start learning the most effective marketing tips for wholesalers. With these tips on your side, you’ll be able to take your wholesale business to the next level.
1. Figure Out Where You’re Currently Positioned
There seems like about a million and a half ways to market a company. Some work better than others. Don’t worry - we’re only going to be covering the most effective marketing methods here. But, before you start choosing which marketing methods to apply to your company, it’s good to know where your business stands now.
It’s kind of like the saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, every road will get you nowhere.” But, before you can know where to go, it’s helpful to first learn where you are right now.
Some companies overestimate this position, thinking that their online marketing is great. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s horrible.
Then, there are companies that do the opposite of this. These companies think they will never have success online when making a few small changes can lead to incredible results!
Fortunately, regardless of how you feel about online marketing, now’s the perfect time to see where your company stands online. So, how are you going to do this? You have a few options. Let’s take a look at each of them.
Google Search Console (Free)
If you’re just getting started in the world of wholesale marketing, you might not have a lot of money to spend on software or services. Fear not, Google has something called Search Console that can provide a ton of help for understanding where you stand in terms of online popularity among your competitors.
Best of all? It’s totally free. The only thing you have to do to use Google Search Console properly is to have your website connected to this program. This sounds more intimidating and technical than it really is.
Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Make or sign in to your Google account.
Step 2: Go to Google Search Console.
Step 3: You’ll see an option that says “Add a property.” Click or tap on that option.
Step 4: Next, you’ll select the “Website” option.
Step 5: Enter the homepage URL of the website you want information for.
Verifying Your Website
At this point, Google will need to verify that you are the owner or someone in charge of making changes to your website. Now begins the verification process. Fortunately, it’s not that complicated and you have a few options to complete this last step before you can get started with Google Search Console.
You have several options when it comes to verifying your website. There’s no right or wrong option. However, you might be more comfortable with a verification method that sounds at least somewhat familiar.
You can upload an HTML file to your website through its hosting platform if you’re somewhat comfortable with the web design side of things. If you are used to publishing and editing your website through a CMS (content management system), you can verify your website by adding an HTML tag.
Since there are so many Google products and services out there, this company tries to make it a little easier for those who already have either a Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account.
In most cases, the verification process should be complete in a couple of minutes. Once your company’s website is verified, Google will automatically start accumulating data about it and how it’s ranking. It usually takes a few days for the first wave of information to come in.
Ahrefs/SEMRush/Other Paid Services (Paid)
If you want to find out even more about your company’s website and where it’s positioned in terms of online popularity, there are other services out there. Services like Ahrefs, SEMRush, and others can let you know about website rankings, keywords, and lots of valuable information about your competitor’s overall online marketing efforts.
As it is with Google Search Console, you’ll still need to create an account and prove you’re the administrator of your website. Once this information is verified, you can start checking out everything these internet marketing tools have to offer.
The prices of each of these services vary. If you’re just getting started, you can probably wait a while before getting any paid service. Instead, wait until your created content and your website both have time to be out in the world for a little bit.
After you get a few posts under your belt and some online traction forming, you can consider whether or not a paid online marketing tool is worth it or not.
2. Make a List of Attainable Goals
By using one or all of the methods to learn how your website is performing, you now have the information you need to start creating goals. Will your business reach every goal it sets? Maybe, maybe not.
But creating attainable goals can be a powerful force that drives your business to new heights. When you set goals for your site, make sure they are realistic in light of your own skill level and that of industry standards.
For example, a brand-new business probably isn't going to reach $1 million in sales during its first year. Instead, maybe annual sales of $50,000 or $100,000 might be more attainable.
On the flip side, the owner of a company that regularly earns $10 million annually for ten years in a row probably wouldn't celebrate making another $10,000 in sales. So, you also don't want to aim your goals too low to where they're almost effortless to achieve.
Admittedly, the goals you create when starting your business might not end up being what's important to you and your company in the future. However, setting goals this early instills the importance of how future goal-setting will help you as a business owner.
3. Create a Profile of Your Company’s Best Customers
Every business owner should be excited after each transaction their company makes. With that said, let’s be honest, there are some customers you like more than other ones. Understandably, most business owners consider their best customers as the ones who spend the most money.
It’s now time to find out who your company’s best customers are. This method doesn’t require a lot of guessing, all you’ll need is sales figures. Take a look at the customers who spent the most money with your business. Then, find out everything about them.
What website are they visiting your business on? Are there any particular times of the day or week where these customers are most likely to make a purchase? Do you have any additional information that might suggest who your best customers are?
Armed with this information, you’ll now want to think about why these customers spent so much money with your business. Did your business have the right products? Did it offer an amazing customer service experience? What factors helped contribute to these customers making so many transactions?
As you research these customers, you can also begin creating customer profiles or personas. Many companies do this as part of their respective marketing research. So, in a separate document, start listing details about these people or companies.
You’ll want to list names, sales figures, revenues, how long they’ve been your customer, and anything else relevant to the personas you create.
The real benefit of having this information will come when your company gets ready for its next marketing efforts. You can now tighten your marketing messages and budget to attract more customers that match the ones spending so much money with your business.
4. Start Using Heatmaps
It seems like each year there are all sorts of new marketing trends designed to make companies more popular. With that in mind, one of the most popular recent trends in this world is the heatmap.
Normally, someone in the world of wholesale electronics wouldn’t get much use from an actual heatmap. But that’s not the kind of heatmap we’re talking about. Instead, this is a digital heatmap that shows where people are clicking around on your website.
Many heatmap services can also let you watch back recordings of website visits. If you’re unsure why your website isn’t leading to new customers or sales, having heatmaps can be a game-changer.
For example, maybe people aren’t clicking the “buy now” button on your website. If this is the case, you can go back and change the color of that button to stand out more against the background of your page or make it bigger overall.
Or maybe you're unsure about the words you used on a recent landing page. With heatmaps, you'll get to see exactly how people react to what you're writing.
A heatmap can help you learn what parts of your website are converting leads or otherwise helping your business achieve its goals. It can also show you problem areas of your website that are frustrating visitors, potentially into the arms of another business.
When you're looking over your website's heatmaps, you generally want to see longer visits (longer than a minute is best) and the user taking action. This action might be clicking a button or link. It might also be getting the user to navigate through a page or two.
5. Put Time Each Week Into Building Relationships
One of the best ways to get your website (and your company) in front of large audiences is by having it show up on other websites. Sadly, there’s no magic button you can press for this to happen. However, with a little time and work, you can get these links that your competitors might pay hundreds of dollars (or more) to have.
The secret to getting these powerful backlinks and a larger audience? Building relationships. Before you roll your eyes at that last sentence, hear us out. It’s time-consuming. It’s boring. But building relationships gets results, plain and simple.
First, you need to find the right contacts. These contacts will be people in charge of making content-related decisions for the companies they work for. The titles for these positions can vary. Sometimes, you'll need to speak with a Head of Content, and other times it could be a Content Manager.
Look for websites that are relevant to your industry. Since you're here, it's fairly safe to assume that you work in the electronics industry. So, you should try and find websites that are about electronics. It's also a good idea to check out and follow these companies on their social media pages if they're available.
If you flip phones, you might look for websites of companies that partner with phone flipping businesses.
As you continue creating content, it will become much easier to potentially get something published about your business on these websites.
6. Send Out Direct Mail
In today’s world, we’re used to doing almost everything online. This situation sometimes makes it feel like you’re never truly “out” of this world. The online world is also likely where your competitors are reaching out to other companies, looking for networking opportunities.
So, do things differently. Instead of sending out email blasts that might not get read in crowded inboxes, take a more direct approach by sending out direct mail to prospective customers. Direct mail remains a proven way to get the attention of companies or people you want to work with.
But, before you can start sending out mail, you need to know where it’s going. To do this, you’ll first want to come up with a list of prospects. Ideally, this list should consist of any company that your business wants to turn into a customer.
When it comes to the length of your prospect list, it’s entirely up to you. However, as a general rule of thumb, we recommend having a list of at least 100 prospects to send mail to.
Why should you send out direct mail to so many prospects? Because, while direct mail can help your business increase its conversion rate, it’s not going to win over everyone. You also will likely run into several instances where your mail never reaches its intended destination or a company changed addresses.
So, sending out 100 pieces of direct mail helps to give you a decent shot at a few of your respondents giving you a positive response.
You can use direct mail to share information about your website or business. You could also send out coupons or other promotional material that would be useful for people in terms of making purchasing decisions.
Additionally, you can also ask the recipient to reply directly with their thoughts on what you sent over. Doing this can help you quickly gain insight into how these people feel about this approach. It also entices people to leave a potential response about working with your company.
7. Incentivize Your Company’s Current Customers
It would be awesome if everyone referred out your company to other people. However, you can almost guarantee that this won't happen 100% of the time. You can also give your customers incentives to encourage them to spread the world about your company.
Incentives are excellent ways to reward your customers for letting other people know about your company. While being a great form of marketing, your business can also strengthen its relationships with the customers that become or are currently affiliates for your company.
But how should a company incentivize its customers? Here are a few examples:
Give them a discount for bringing in referrals, such as 5% off for each successful referral.
Offer a free product to customers that make the most referrals each month or quarter.
Pay your customers for referrals. It might not be as cost-effective as a discount on electronics, but money is just about the most powerful incentive there is!
You might also try to team up with other companies in your industry. This doesn't (and shouldn't) have to be any business that's remotely competitive with your company. Instead, why not try to strike some sort of partnership with a business in your industry that you don't directly compete with?
Understandably, finding these types of companies can seem a little confusing. That's why we're going to break down an example of these types of partnerships.
For example, if you’re looking for customers to help grow your phone flipping business, then offer coupons to other companies that can send you new customers. Incentivizing current customers is a great way to take your business to the next level.
8. Ask Your Customers What They Want
If you’re like most people, it often feels good to give your opinion about something. Unfortunately, many companies aren’t taking advantage of the massive opportunity they have to find how well or badly they’re doing. But you don’t have to be that kind of business.
Your company can take its marketing and other strategies to the moon by simply asking for your customers’ opinions. Of course, you don't exactly want to position this request like your company doesn't know what to do next. It's okay if you feel that way right now, but you don't want your target audience to know that!
One of the best ways that companies from all walks of life ask customers how they're doing is with an NPS (Net Promoter Score). An NPS is another term for describing a type of survey someone would take to rate their experience with a product or service.
You've likely completed many of them before, in one way or another.
An example of this survey would be a company asking you how a recent experience with it went. It might look something like this:
"How did we do? Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 - 10."
You can keep things simple like the example above. It's also possible to get more detailed and create more questions for your target audience to answer. With that said, you don't want to go overboard.
After all, when's the last time you filled out a survey with more than a few questions? If we can speak for us at Trade-In Tech, it's been quite a while!
9. Track Your Marketing Campaigns
Some companies assume that creating marketing campaigns is all they need to either become or remain successful. This makes about as much sense as putting raw meat on a cold grill and hoping it will cook with no heat.
To truly understand how well your marketing efforts go, you must track your marketing campaigns. This type of tracking doesn't require much in the way of manual work. Thankfully, almost every modern marketing app, service, or program automatically tracks campaign metrics.
The thing you'll need to do is make sure that you're watching these metrics and how things are going compared with your company's goals and/or key performance indicators (KPIs).
Want More Wholesale Success? Become a Member of Trade-In Tech!
Another tip that is great for your company’s continued success is to start joining online directories. However, as you can imagine, there are a lot of online directories on the internet.
With that in mind, before you're done reading this post, here are a few reasons why Trade-In Tech can be a major help for your wholesale company.
A Large Network of Members Around the World
Wholesale electronics remain incredibly popular throughout the world. Considering that, you don’t want to waste your time listing your electronics or browsing listings in small groups.
Fortunately, you won’t have to deal with this problem when you become a member of Trade-In Tech. That’s because Trade-In Tech is a massive wholesale electronics platform. Because of that, we have members listing electronics and making sales throughout our website.
By joining Trade-In Tech, you can start finding the network of buyers and sellers you need for your business to grow quickly. Best of all? Trade-In Tech is home to many electronics wholesalers.
An Exclusive Members-Only Marketplace
In the world of electronics, you're not going to get too far without products to buy and sell. Unfortunately, some new business owners can spend weeks or months trying to find websites that have what they're looking for.
Then, you also have to deal with the time-consuming hassle of jumping between online stores. Needless to say, this situation can become quite stressful.
Fortunately, you won't have to deal with these problems when you join Trade-In Tech. That's because we proudly have our own marketplace! Trade-In Tech's electronics marketplace always features new listings from sellers around the world.
A Focus on Keeping Our Network of Members Safe
Whenever you're making transactions online, safety is always an important top concern. That’s why Trade-In Tech’s main priority is keeping each of our users safe.
Before becoming a member of Trade-In Tech, you’ll need to complete our verification process. This is how we help prevent any would-be scammers from gaining potential access to our platform. By doing this, Trade-In Tech’s many members can make transactions without being annoyed by lots of scammers or non-serious parties.
After you join Trade-In Tech, you can rest assured that our 24/7 support network will be there to answer your questions or take care of any potential issues you might have.
To wrap things up, it’s wise to use wholesale marketing strategies to the advantage of your business. By understanding how this type of marketing works, you can help ensure that your wholesale business remains successful for years and years to come. If you want to launch or grow your wholesale company quickly, visit tradeintech.com to learn more about our wholesale platform.