Captain Ludd
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- Jul 21, 2013
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Hey guys, this is my first post on the forums here and my brain has kind of been in overdrive since I read MJ's book, looking for opportunities and ideas. Anyhow, I came up with a rough concept for a website today, and wanted to hear some feedback from marketers.
I work for a small company selling a specialized kind of IT hardware, as well as maintenance and professional services for the gear. 99% of the gear we sell is used, and the margins can be really high. There are probably less than 10 companies in the country exclusively focused on the used market like we are, and we are definitely one of the leaders as far as web presence. In fact, we may be the only one with a dedicated marketing team putting out blogs, newsletters, and email campaigns.
But despite our highly google-ranked web site, in truth we mostly drop-ship hardware from bigger suppliers and tack on a 50% markup. We rely on our web presence to steer traffic to us, quote them, and then hope they don't go and shop around (and find our suppliers). And although our website is highly visible on google, its actually quite crap looks and ease of use-wise. I believe that I could improve on the copy and overall design significantly, given the right design partner.
So basically, my idea was to make a website advertising the gear, but not actually doing any order fulfillment. It would basically be a lead generation site for the suppliers. If my company (and several others) have been successful by selling gear that they don't actually have, why not make a site that advertises the same, but totally cut out the drop-shipping and logistics piece of the equation? If the site becomes visible enough, I could sell the incoming leads to the actual brokers, or create some margin split arrangement on any closed deals.
Thoughts? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I work for a small company selling a specialized kind of IT hardware, as well as maintenance and professional services for the gear. 99% of the gear we sell is used, and the margins can be really high. There are probably less than 10 companies in the country exclusively focused on the used market like we are, and we are definitely one of the leaders as far as web presence. In fact, we may be the only one with a dedicated marketing team putting out blogs, newsletters, and email campaigns.
But despite our highly google-ranked web site, in truth we mostly drop-ship hardware from bigger suppliers and tack on a 50% markup. We rely on our web presence to steer traffic to us, quote them, and then hope they don't go and shop around (and find our suppliers). And although our website is highly visible on google, its actually quite crap looks and ease of use-wise. I believe that I could improve on the copy and overall design significantly, given the right design partner.
So basically, my idea was to make a website advertising the gear, but not actually doing any order fulfillment. It would basically be a lead generation site for the suppliers. If my company (and several others) have been successful by selling gear that they don't actually have, why not make a site that advertises the same, but totally cut out the drop-shipping and logistics piece of the equation? If the site becomes visible enough, I could sell the incoming leads to the actual brokers, or create some margin split arrangement on any closed deals.
Thoughts? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
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