Knowing Is Half the Battle
Order big or order little? Go digital or stick with paper media? Start working on your catalogue now, well before Christmas, or promote a new product that’s hot from the supplier? Decisions, decisions, decisions. And in product fulfillment, like any other business, there are a lot to make.
In fact, if you’re in the product fulfillment game, you already have a pretty good idea how hard it is to make the best decisions for your business. You want your choices to bring you success, as well as please the customers. The only trouble is knowing what decisions are the most crucial to make and when to make them.
While it’s hard to make the right decisions, it’s often easy to make the wrong ones. You may not know what to do, so you often see yourself making bad decisions—decisions that cost you a ton of money and hurt your reputation. These are issues that, had you had prior knowledge, you possibly could have avoided.
War veterans say that knowing relevant information is half the battle. Tips on what to avoid in direct marketing are just the sort of knowledge one can use to stay away from the major business pratfalls. Knowledge of one particular area—direct marketing—and its trends can save your product fulfillment business a ton of hassle.
Overcoming Obstacles
The common trends in direct marketing for product fulfillment are fairly well documented. They aren’t set in stone, but there still remain some things that are seen as obstacles to the pros. Overcoming these obstacles or omitting them outright can only be beneficial to your product fulfillment business.
The start of your direct marketing campaign is the first area to address. Make sure that you push your business, its products, and your reputation in earnest. A lot of product fulfillment businesses try to rebrand themselves, or create some sort of odd subsidiary to promote to clients; however, this will make clients and the public confused and suspicious about how your business operates.
Making false promises is another no-no. Some product fulfillment pros get wind of new products and/or deals from their supply chain companies without confirmation. They then go and promise these to clients, only to have to break this promise when they find out everything is bogus. This is as unprofessional as it gets and will yield nothing but scorn from the public. Only say you can deliver what you can actually deliver. A lot of direct marketing services in Florida have noted that they’ve stayed in business as long as they have by offering good services under surprisingly limited conditions. In the end, there’s no shame in being honest, provided you also deliver quality service.
No Urge Overkill
The old music and film industry adage about running something successful “into the ground” is of no value to product fulfillment pros. People get bored easily these days, thanks in part to all the digital media, TV ads, and online pop-ups they have to contend with. Saturating their lives with promo material will see your number of direct marketing leads sink, especially if you are doing an e-fulfillment service and constantly sending out junk e-mails. Clients will react poorly to material like junk mail and delete it.
It’s okay to not know the answers, but you can learn by asking the right questions. In product fulfillment-based direct marketing, finding out what not to do can be great for your business and can save you so much in the end.
Need solutions to your product fulfillment problems? APS Fulfillment, Inc has the knowledge and services to make your direct mail and product fulfillment ventures more successful. Contact APS Fulfillment, Inc by e-mail at [email protected], visit their web site at www.apsfulfillment.com, or phone at (954) 582-7450.
