For any business to thrive, they need to make their presence in the market apparent. There are choices small business owners need to make when it comes to targeting their audiences and clientele. It’s not an easy process by any means, and many businesses that have been around for decades are still struggling to keep up with changes in their respective markets and industries.
Most of us are familiar with the way marketing and advertising work in business; billboards, social media advertisements, digital marketing campaigns, and more—but that’s for retailers who want to target their consumers. Things are much different for wholesalers.
Wholesalers have a particular market that they cater to and engage with and many don’t realise the value of marketing for their customers, i.e., retail businesses.
The advantages of time-sensitive marketing for wholesalers
Marketing in and of itself is often neglected by wholesale business owners, since they’re under the impression that it’s not necessary when dealing with retail clients. B2B marketing offers businesses the potential for improved performance throughout the year.
However, in certain seasons, when there is potential for even greater business, such as the holidays, it’s important to take the chance and push out time-specific campaigns and connect with potential and existing customers.
It’s the perfect time for you to establish a brand presence
If your brand doesn’t have as much of a market reach as you’d like, the holiday season offers you a unique competitive edge to be able to do so. During the holidays, businesses are scurrying to meet increased demand and often struggle with meeting deadlines. More often than not, they’re stretched out in terms of capacity and may feel themselves in a crunch if their supply chains aren’t streamlined.
Now, consider yourself a wholesaler that’s able to help these businesses out of this rut. By pushing your products out to the market through timely marketing tactics and techniques, you will be able to establish yourself as a reliable supplier for retailers in their time of need.
Your brand identity is the basic building block of your business’s presence in the industry. Cash in on your brand’s unique identity to attract the retailers you want yourself to be known to. This can be done by using your company’s brand name to sell manufacturer or producer’s goods to the retailers.
Use cold calling, emails, samples and incentives, and identify the prospects among your current clients to market yourself around the holidays.
Better opportunity to understand customer needs
By profiling your audience, identifying current prospects, getting customer feedback and using those for holiday marketing, you can interact with clients in innovative ways. The more information you have, the more targeted—and successful—your approach can be. Carry out surveys, take requests and introduce promotions. This way, you’ll be able to gauge what their needs for the season are.
For the food and beverage wholesalers, for instance, knowing a certain product will be in higher demand over the holidays, can help you streamline delivery for that product. For example, if your niche is primarily providing granulated and powdered sugars to bakeries and food businesses across town, the holidays present a great opportunity for you to reach out to these clients in advance.
Once retailers know their suppliers will be able to meet their needs, retail customers feel seen and heard; they’re more likely to rely on you for the future.
Offer special pricing and discounts to specific customers
OrderTron allows wholesalers to offer certain clients special pricing for products, without altering their rates to the rest. This way you can reach out to chosen clients and offer them deals, discounts and incentives that they might benefit from.
Of course, offering holiday promotions and discounts across the board is another great tactic that allows you to capture greater market share. Your customers will feel valued and appreciated, all the while giving you their business.
How you price your products is up to you but remember to take advantage of the holiday season through discounts and sales. The holiday season is the perfect time to give—and instead of hiking up prices, it might work in your favour to lower them. It’s estimated that Australians will spend $51 billion across retail stores during this year’s holiday season.
From the wholesalers’ point of view, it’s a goldmine just waiting to be dug up. Why not incentivise your clients using the data from the retail world to your advantage?
Shows retail clients you’re invested in their success
Understand that as a B2B business that offers goods at wholesale, your clients are also businesses with goals and milestones. Their success is your success, because when a client offers high-quality products and services through the use of the raw materials and goods you offer, their clients are left happy and their sales go up, too.
In the long run, having loyal customers who can rely on you for their needs, even if your prices aren’t the most profitable for them, is what proves to be beneficial. Instead of gaining new clients, when the focus is on retaining old ones, your wholesale business will see greater returns.
Promotions create a sense of urgency for action
This might seem a little superficial, given that it’s a temporary fix; but remember, we are talking about season-specific promotional marketing. Creating a demand for your products is what helps it sell, in addition to quality, customer service, niche and affordability. It can be suspicious if you market it as a must-have all through the year.
During the holidays, however, people are more likely to spend more and purchase with more fervour because some offers seem to be too good to miss. The use of phrases like ‘limited time offer’ and others like it, can create hype that will get you the revenue you’re looking to achieve this holiday season.
Of course, language, phrasing, deals and specials will vary for B2B wholesalers, so even incentives like free shipping on the first order or all orders placed in a certain window can act as an incentive.
Establishes your authority among retailers and is a testament to your efficiency
Apart from helping you form a stronghold in the industry, early offers, reduced pricing and predicting your clients’ needs in advance is what help reflect the fact that you are proactive and dedicated, as well as reliable.
It shows retail customers your commitment to their success and your efficiency, how thorough you are and to be able to rely on you for important orders. With early order taking and processing, it’s easy to place orders from your own manufacturers as well. OrderTron is a powerful order management system that helps you do just that. It will also give you insights on your stocks, process early orders and alert you on specifics that need to be aligned.
Take the initiative and put yourself out there for current and potential clients in your industry to see. Marketing your brand is incredibly effective, and if you haven’t been engaging in it, you’re missing out.
Things to focus on alongside marketing
While marketing yourself and your company, it’s also important to not oversell yourself or your brand because that can lead to disappointment and poor impressions on clients.
Unless you’re certain your company is equipped to handle the influx of orders that will pour in as a result of aggressive marketing, don’t venture into it.
Focus instead on improving your customer relations and communication through the overall service delivery and order management process. Invest in an order management software like OrderTron that will help you process and manage your orders and clients in the most efficient way possible.
Keeping all your client data in a single place, organising them based on tiers, groups, and seasons, you can use the data available to you to target and push out season-specific content and promotions with ease.
The system will also handle any and all incoming orders for you, updating your stock in real-time. For the holiday season, when pressures are high and supplies can be low, it’s incredibly useful to have a streamlined process and system in place.
Given that this OMS will update your stocks in real-time and update you accordingly, you can better predict what goods you need to stock up on before dispatching and finalising orders. It will also allow you to process bigger orders—both, in terms of volume and quantity.
You will no longer have to deal with manual order taking processes that are prone to error and overlooking, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business, including marketing. You’ll be able to deliver on your claims and not worry about the logistics consistently.
The holidays are the perfect time for small businesses to up their sales and expand their customer base, because competitors are also struggling to fulfil the increase in demand. By staying ahead of the game and making the right decisions tailored to your clientele, you’re good to go.
You have social media, digital platforms and even OrderTron’s own messenger platform to connect with your clients. Make use of whatever resources are available to you and give your business a chance to grow fully.
If you’re not sure about how OrderTron can benefit your food and beverage wholesale business, feel free to reach out to the company to understand more about the benefits this software offers.