Do you own or want to start a direct-to-consumer distribution business? Then you need to think about the best ways to market your business.

A direct to consumer distribution business is cheaper to start and manage than a warehouse distribution, but both require a quick turn-around of products in order to operate efficiently and profitably.

However, warehouse distributors often charge a warehouse storage on products that they don’t own, but serve as a middleman between manufacturers and retailers. Direct-to-consumer distribution businesses generally receive no warehouse storage fees. So marketing is vital to their quick movement of products and ultimate success.

Marketing A Direct-To-Consumer Distribution Business: Target Market

The first major marketing decision for a direct-to-consumer distribution business owner is what kinds of products that they will sell to what kind of customers.

Because the large warehouse and wholesale distributors already have the business of large volume products that are mass marked, the best approach for a direct to consumer distribution is to go after crumbs that fall from their table. In other words, find a product designed specifically for a target market, not presently being well served.

Then learn everything you can about that target market in order to get and keep them as customers. This requires that you know what they want and need, what motivates them to buy, and what they expect in customer service.

Marketing A Direct-To-Consumer Distribution Business: Internet

One of the fastest growing ways of marketing a direct-to-consumer distribution business is through the Internet.

Many publishers of information products distribute direct to consumers by immediately downloading digital products to their customers computers. It’s quick, inexpensive, and serves customers desires for immediate gratification.

Other Internet marketers work with drop shippers. They market and sell real products. The drop shippers are often the manufacturers who fulfill and ship each order. Then they send the marketer a commission check.

Regardless of the type of distribution, the key to success in any Internet business is offering a niche of people products that they want. Without that focus, your business will be lost in a vast ocean of sites and Internet marketers. So if you choose to market over the Internet, you must define a narrow target market and discover the best appeals for its members.

That’s the only way that you’ll be able to get enough traffic to sell enough to make a profit. Conversion rates range from 0 to 4%, with 4% considered excellent. So you can’t expect to make more than 4 sales per 100 visitors to your site.

After doing your market research and setting up your web site, doing individual promotions through the Internet is the least expensive way of marketing your direct-to-consumer distribution business.

Marketing A Direct-To-Consumer Distribution Business: Direct Mail

Direct mail has long been a good marketing technique for direct-to-consumer distribution businesses. It requires the following steps:

Focusing on a target market that can be identified by demographics and buying behavior,

Buying a good mailing list of just the people in the target market,

Writing and designing effective sales literature to appeal to the target market, and

Fulfilling and mailing orders.

Sales can be lost and your business ruined in any of the above steps. Even when you implement each step effectively, sales conversions for direct mail campaigns are only 1%. Thus you have to do the math and know that you can make a profit if you only sell once for every 100 packages that you mail.

To cut costs, many direct mail marketers now use postcards as the first phase of a two- phase direct mail campaign. To use this tactic, you narrow down potential customers with the postcard and then send complete packages only to those who reply to the postcard.

Direct mail is more expensive than individual Internet promotions, but cheaper than most other ways of marketing your direct to consumer distribution business.

Click to read more specific ideas for marketing a direct-to-consumer distribution business.

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Submitted to Article Directories 5-19-08: Marketing A
Direct-To-Consumer Distribution Business