For the last year or so the lion’s share of the talk in ecommerce marketing forums and message boards has revolved around social media marketing. Sites such as Facebook and tools like Twitter have been embraced, for better or worse, as the future of online marketing, especially for those ecommerce businesses that rely on order fulfillment for their profit model. The idea behind such fascination is the same theory that’s guided advertising and marketing for close to sixty years: how to capture that elusive, lucrative youth market.
But to focus attention only on that one demographic is to your customer base and our ecommerce business similar disservices at the same time. While it’s true that young people, especially the 18 to 24 year old age group, are enamored of Facebook and Twitter – some might even say hypnotized – those technologies and tools are not “terminal.” That is to say, they are not irreplaceable, nor is it unreasonable to believe that something will replace them in due course. Remember MySpace? All the rage a few years ago, it’s now seen as little more than a preliminary to the greater online existence of Facebook.
Marketing For Everyone (Else)
Twitter as a phenomenon – both online and in the real world – is largely an event sequestered within the younger demographics. Older people, even those in their upper twenties, are far less likely to participate. In fact, this group is even more suspicious of online marketing schemes, having come of age with the Internet in its infancy, when spam and pop-up advertisements ran largely unchecked across the online landscape. Spending large amounts of time resources and investment trying to reach them via Twitter or other instant message could likely be a waste of time.
Things look a little brighter with Facebook. Frequently a tool for thirtysomethings to reconnect with friends from high school and college, the social networking site nevertheless remains dogged by controversies regarding its privacy protection and sharing of information. Still, opening a Facebook page for your business costs nothing, and makes a great way to spread information about your site and its product line.
Taking A Different Approach
Another effective means of building your business’ market presence includes third party order fulfillment, including warehousing, order processing, and distribution fulfillment. These fulfillment service companies allow you to grow your front end without getting distracted by the myriad details of logistics management. Such fulfillment service companies also offer a variety of pricing plans, making them affordable.