How Can I Improve Our Marketing
Marketing a Packaging and Shipping Materials Retailer
At Gaebler, we've seen what great marketing can do for a small business. But if you own a packaging and shipping materials retailer, exceptional marketing may well be the determining factor in your long-term survival and success.
We recognize that the best packaging and shipping materials retailer entrepreneurs are adept at promoting their brand and products. However, capable marketing is elusive for many leaders in this industry.
It's not hard to convince most business owners that marketing plays a vital role in strategic planning. But in a zero-sum economy, there are winners and losers -- and here are some of the things that will help keep your packaging and shipping materials retailer at the top of the heap.
Strategic Partnerships
Strategic partnerships offer packaging and shipping materials retailers economies of scale, not to mention a larger promotional footprint. Joint ad campaigns, mailings and other marketing initiatives can be conducted on either a short- or long-term basis, as long as each partner is involved in the creation of messaging and has approval authority over the content that is released.
Marketing Collateral
There is nothing insignificant about marketing collateral. Even small pieces of marketing content, from business cards to product sheets, say something about your packaging and shipping materials retailer. To squeeze the most impact from your collateral, it needs to be targeted toward its recipients. Delivered to the wrong person, a valuable piece of collateral will collect dust. For direct mail campaigns, premium mailing lists from established vendors can protect the value of your investment. If you're like most business owners, you invest substantial resources in the creation of quality collateral. If you don't invest similar resources in mailing lists and other distribution channels, your packaging and shipping materials retailer's investment in collateral will be pointless.
Loss Leaders
Like many businesses, packaging and shipping materials retailers understand that more customers will walk through the door if a few products are priced at less than full retail value. Moreover, a loss leader marketing strategy can compensate for dead periods when customers tend to making purchases. But to be effective, loss leader marketing requires planning, especially in product selection and price points. For the majority of packaging and shipping materials retailers, the real benefits of loss leaders emerge through the careful marketing of other products, usually offered at a much higher margin. With adequate preparation, a loss leader promotion can be publicized through all of your company's marketing channels, including the company website.
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs