Recently, I received an invitation from a media to write a brief comment and answer for the following case. It happened that my research field was industrial brand marketing , so I readily agreed.
ask:
Our company is an enterprise specializing in the research and development, production and sales of small instruments. The products are mainly used in some smelting, chemical and manufacturing enterprises. In recent years, the entire industrial product industry has not been very prosperous, so that traditional industrial product marketing like ours has begun to decline. It has become a common phenomenon that it is difficult to find customers, communicate difficult, and make orders more difficult. In order to break through, I want to seize Latest Mailing Database the tide of e-commerce and let the company vigorously develop network marketing channels. However, the vice president of marketing did not agree with my idea. He believes that industrial products, as professional products for enterprises, are quite different from consumer goods such as clothing and home appliances for mass consumers. The professionalism determines that their sales process is more complicated, and it is not suitable to simply sell through online channels. Investing will only pay off. So, is our company suitable for e-commerce? How can e-commerce really play its due role?
answer:
I very much agree and support your point of view. In the Internet era, if any company, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, is still skeptical about the role of Internet marketing, it will definitely be phased out by the market. As a small industrial product enterprise, the reason why you are facing such a dilemma is not only related to the downturn of the entire industry, but also directly related to the diminishing effect of the traditional marketing methods you have adopted. We know that the traditional marketing methods of industrial products companies are sales-oriented, dominated by relationship marketing + gray marketing, but with the improvement of customer procurement processes, the increase in the cost of relationship marketing and gray marketing, and the increase in the mobility of sales personnel Enhancement, this model is becoming more and more difficult to adapt to changes in the market, and there is an urgent need for innovation in concepts and models.
The rise of network marketing in recent years has brought a subversive development in the field of consumer goods marketing, making many companies change their original marketing models and quickly join the tide of network marketing, establishing their marketing platforms on social media and On the basis of new media, innovation is unprecedented. Compared with the Internet marketing of consumer goods companies**, most industrial product companies are scattered due to the small number of customers, expert decision-making and complex purchasing processes, which make it impossible to directly trade and accept orders online like consumer goods companies. Implement network marketing with confidence. However, we have to admit that the rise of the Internet is rapidly changing the status quo of industrial product marketing. The difficulty in finding customers, communicating, and closing deals that you mentioned is also brought about by the emergence of the Internet to a certain extent. serious problem. For example, the current industrial product customers looking for information on suppliers, products, technologies, etc., rely more and more on Internet search, Internet word-of-mouth, and Internet public opinion. In the information collection stage, customers have less and less time and patience to accept visits from salesmen, and customers are more and more Participating in industry exhibitions and reading paper industry media less and less make traditional marketing methods more and more impossible.
The implementation of network marketing for industrial products is not to pursue direct online transactions and acceptance of orders, but to provide information online, enhance customer trust, establish brand image, create good reputation, and achieve in-depth offline communication, inspection, testing, and transaction. and other links, both online and offline. At present, the more effective network marketing methods recommended by Zhang Dongli are as follows:
1. Build a corporate website that increases social media and interactive features and experiences.
2. Precise setting of keywords for search engine optimization.
3. Regular delivery of technical articles and news.
4. Occupation of knowledge and question and answer platforms (question and answer, library websites).
5. Guidance and coverage of IWOM.
6. The application of social media (Weibo, WeChat, blog, etc.).
7. In-depth cooperation with industry network media, etc.
It can be said for sure that you don’t need to worry too much about the investment in network marketing that your vice president of marketing is worried about, because for small and medium-sized enterprises, as long as they master certain methods, network marketing is the most cost-effective marketing method. Finally, I hope that your company can use network marketing to get out of the predicament and achieve good business growth.