This is a question many first time users of B2B marketplaces ask
themselves. A few expect that the registration itself will bring
them a number of new customers. In some cases this might by
true! Especially, if you are a seller of some much coveted
items. But for rest of us, things are a little trickier! A large
B2B marketplace has a lot of suppliers of similar products, who
are vying for the attention of potential customers. To establish
your company as a favored one among them is not an easy task!
However, a little planning and thorough follow up of some basic
guidelines improve your chance of getting noticed by buyers
significantly.
Below, I outlined some of the basic steps that you should take
once you seriously decide to market your products using B2B
marketplaces. 1 Write a nice profile When a prospective client
sees your trade lead ad or your product on the marketplace and
feels interested, the first thing he does is - checks your
company profile out. That's where the buyer gets his initial
information about your company. If you have a virtually blank
profile with a very little information on your company, doubtful
that the potential client will even bother to make a request for
quote. That's why you should spend a little time on writing a
nice company profile. Here are some aspects that you should
emphasize on while writing your company profile.
Start your profile with something noteworthy about your company.
This could be the distinct quality that sets your business apart
from your competition.
Describe your present customer base, target market and any new
products or projects that you are planning to come up with.
Write a bit about your company history. When the company was
incorporated? What is the business form?
If you have something to boast about, do it! If you feel that
your sales figures are impressive, why not mention them.
Be brief! The profile should not be more than five paragraphs.
You don't want your buyers to get bored!
2 Include your logo on your Storefront page If you would like
to separate your company from many other similar vendors, you
have to think seriously about creating a brand for your company.
Brand is the distinctive pattern of your business operation. It
portrays the nature of your service or product, your uniqueness
in comparison to others etc. A nice looking logo is a key to
branding your company. Customers will remember your company name
better if you have a great logo to go with.
3 Add products to your storefront It is important to have your
main products, products that are your primary sale generators,
added to your storefront. Products with nice picture and well
descriptions capture buyers attention more than any thing else.
After all the reason that the buyers are on your page is to look
for the products that they need.
New Great Storefront Services Whether you are a small
enterprise, which sells goods and services locally, or you are a
medium to large company with global reach, Rusbiz is planning to
introduce great storefront services with complete corporate site
to match your every business need. Features include: Basic
Single page storefront
10 products in E-catalog
Sales through e-marketplace
RFQ and Quotation
Negotiations
Internal Messaging Service
Many other features Available now and it's free! Enterprise 10
different templates to build multiple-page storefront
100 products in E-catalog
Sales through e-marketplace
RFQ and Quotation
Negotiations
Purchase Orders
Invoices
Tax Calculation
Shipment tracking
Internal Messaging Service
Merchant Account
Many other features Coming soon! Corporate 10 different
templates to build multiple-page storefront
1000 products in E-catalog
Sales through e-marketplace
RFQ and Quotation
Negotiation
Purchase Orders
Invoices
Tax Calculation
Shipment tracking
Internal Messaging Service
Merchant Account
Many other features Coming soon! 4 Make nice pictures of your
products Nothing can turn off a prospective buyer than a hazy or
blur picture of the product that he intends to buy from you. If
your competitor's product with exactly same features has nicer
picture, guess who has a better chance to get the business?
Spend some money and take professional pictures of your
products. Make sure that you followed all the instructions of
the Portal before uploading the pictures.
5 Post your products for sale on the marketplace Product
visibility is the name of the game! Don't confine yourself just
by adding products to E-catalog and your Storefront. Post
products for sale on the E-marketplace.
There are numbers of great advantages of posting products on
E-marketplaces:
Frequent browsers of marketplace can see your products Buyers
can compare your products with others on marketplace Buyers can
take an immediate buying decision and make an instant Purchase
Order.
6 Post trade leads For many not-so-savvy users of B2B sites
it's a bit complicated to make buys and sales through
marketplaces. They prefer to get trade leads from the site and
make contacts with buyers or sellers by fax, phone or just
emails. Posting trade leads is a great marketing method to tap
new territories. Don't be disappointed if you do not get
immediate feedbacks. Repeat trade leads at least once in a
month. Since normally a portal constantly acquires new members,
in order to expose the leads to bigger audience, it is
worthwhile to post trade leads frequently.