Social media is not considered by most respondents to MDM’s recent State of E-Commerce in Distribution survey to be very effective at driving revenue through e-commerce. But continued efforts with social media will complement other approaches online, Jonathan Bein writes in The State of E-Commerce in Distribution: The Multichannel Factor.
As the generational shift continues, more customers will be on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Even if it’s difficult to measure a direct return on investment with these tools, they contribute to a total brand awareness to existing customers, as well as companies that may not already be on your radar.
Overall, distributors will see better results online when they take a multichannel approach and avoid tunnel vision when it comes to marketing to potential and existing customers to drive demand.
This approach meshes with that of some of the largest industrial distributors, including Grainger, who often touts its multichannel strategy of using offline tools – sales force, service centers and catalogs – and online tools, such as search marketing, e-commerce and mobile.