Targeted marketing – sending a targeted message to the profiled buyer – has been shown to drive almost 8X more revenue per campaign than mass marketing approaches. Distributors who employ targeted marketing report many benefits including:

• Increased revenue growth
• Elevated sales rep execution
• Increased close rates
• Improved marketing ROI
• Higher market share/customer spend
• Maximized customer retention

Here are eight reasons distributors love targeted marketing.

It’s Easier and Less Expensive Than You Think

Is targeted marketing expensive? It depends. Certainly, many distributors are intimidated by the thought of hiring new marketing experts, running data analysis, and learning sophisticated technology. Fortunately, with our years of experience in distribution sales and marketing helping hundreds of distributors grow their revenue, we’ve designed proven practices that you can put into play for a fraction of the cost of a single new hire.

A big budget is no longer a requirement for successful targeted marketing. And by targeting your messages to the right customers, you will increase your revenue, ROI and lines per order driving new profitability far beyond your small marketing investment.

It Doesn’t Require Specialized Expertise

It’s true that a successful marketing campaign is a real team effort. First, you need to do some data analysis around profiling the right lists. Next, you need to write effective copy and design engaging graphics. You need to understand how to build HTML messages, track deliverability, comply with spam laws and more. It can seem daunting to get started.

That’s why we’ve created a program we call Targeted Marketing as a Service (TMaaS) that provides all the benefits of an expert targeted marketing strategy at a fraction of the cost of hiring a marketing employee and executing complex campaigns. We can make the entire process turnkey, so you don’t have to worry about any specialized expertise.

You Stay Top of Mind with Customers

Today’s marketplace is too crowded and too competitive to rest on your laurels. You can never assume that your customer knows about the details of your products and services. And even long-term customers forget the depth of your product lines and need to be reminded.

Emails Are More Popular Than Ever with Buyers

According to recent surveys, email marketing is perhaps even more effective with millennials and remains popular and effective with consumers of all ages. According to the study, nearly 68 percent of teens and 73 percent of Millennials said they prefer to receive communication from a business via email. In addition, more than half rely on email to buy things online.

Customers are Mobile and Prefer Targeted and Timely Information

Many customers in the distribution industry spend their days in the field working jobs. They rely on emails and text messaging all day long. The bottom line is that your customers will love your messages if they provide value. If you send them information, specials, offers that are unique and valuable to them, they will appreciate getting these messages from you.

More Customers Are Using Social Media

Why would you share your messages through Twitter and LinkedIn or build out followers on social media when your customers spend most of their time working? According to IDG, 84 percent of C-level and VP-level buyers are influenced by social media when purchasing.  It’s how they do research and how they share information about products and services. Fortunately, if you have already instituted a strategy of targeted messages, adding those messages to your social followers is easy.

The Technology Has Become Easy and Cost-effective

Marketing technology seems to change every week. It can seem intimidating to know what tools and techniques you need to use to stay competitive. In fact, only one-third of the distributors we surveyed do any kind of targeted marketing at all. Almost anything you do will put you ahead of the pack so you don’t need to start with the most expensive and complicated system. It’s actually more effective if you start with a system built for distribution so that it is cost-effective and intuitive to use.

We’ve spent years designing technology that is easy to use for distributors and we’ve even taken it a step further when it comes to targeted marketing. Our TMaaS service includes the entire SMP platform for sales, marketing, and data and our experts can run it for you if you prefer a hands-off approach. It’s truly the best of both worlds. You get experts running the leading distribution CRM and BI platform for you. You get all the benefits without the expense or headache.

There is Power in Your Data

Too many distributors take their data for granted, especially when it comes to customer sales data. You may be surprised how much data is available to you when you gather it into a centralized customer database. We can help you gather your random spreadsheets, Outlook contacts and ERP purchasing data to quickly spin up large and targeted marketing lists. And once you start your targeted marketing programs, those lists will grow. We’ve seen 10X or more list growth just through effective marketing.

If you’d like to learn more about how TMaaS can help you, please schedule a quick 15-minute conversation to get started.