Both the EU and the USA are very online-oriented economies, with 375 million European and 254 million American internet users, and an ecommerce spend of $379Bn and $225.5Bn respectively (2012). If you’re selling your products via distributors and think that you can avoid being involved in the online world then you are mistaken; you’re making your brand less competitive and missing out on business. Moreover, these trends are not going to slow down; expected 2014-2015 ecommerce growth rates are at 18% for the EU and 13% for the USA. Learn why and how you should use online presence and marketing to support your distributors!
WHY
It is predominantly customer demand and expectations that drive business online. Building your online brand is too important for you to delegate to your distributor who will be representing many brands. The customers do not care whether they purchase your product directly or via distributors, but they want to learn more about your product from your website, follow your Facebook page, and to subscribe to your newsletter with special offers – not your distributor’s! You should embrace the fact that the modern day population is eager to embrace your brand online, recommend your products and services, and voluntarily provide you with feedback, helping to improve your products and services.
Make sure you own your brand and you promote it. Purchase domains of all target countries, e.g. companyname.co.uk for the UK and companyname.com for the USA. If you don’t own them, they remain available to your distributors/competitors, who can exploit and turn your brand’s value into a money-making business.
Many B2C and B2B businesses selling via distributors are still responsible for their marketing and demand generation. By building local country websites and optimizing them to local search engines, you will make sure that your audience will be able to find you, helping you extend your reach and brand visibility. This in combination with building a dedicated distributor page with your requirements can even help you bring and qualify potential distributors, and you can select those that best suit your needs.
Help your distributors sell your brand by providing product marketing materials and by generating enquires through your website. Support them by building a strong community around your brand on social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Distributors or not, it’s all about developing your brand visibility. And the space where people and business are expecting to find you today is online.
Check out our 15 tips to improve your international online presence, or read more on identifying, engaging and managing distributors in our International distributors whitepaper.