3B Private Label Portal (3B PLP), a German tech startup in the private label industry, recently announced changes to its business model. The company, whose aim is to be “the global matchmaker for private label”, is differentiating itself in two major ways: highly filtered, qualified sales leads, and online marketing campaigns with a focus on search engine marketing.
Qualifying leads is greatly aided by 3B PLP’s onboarding specialists. By gathering information about a manufacturer’s certificates held, capacity, regions of operation, sand other specifications, the 3B PLP onboarding crew helps establish a foundation for efficient matchmaking. “With us, you won’t get any mass spamming.”, explained Founder and CEO, Marc Buchholz, “If we get a request from the customer side, we gather the data which is important for the manufacturer”.
Manufacturers may also find that existing leads are promoted to the company’s social medias. These posts often include a link to the 3B PLP website’s Marketplace, which hosts those leads which are currently active and need to be filled. As of now, further means of lead promotion are still under discussion, and set to roll out in the near future.
Expanding upon the marketing side of the business model, 3B PLP boasts a global network that allows them to gain stronger tracking within search engines. When speaking to their marketing leadership, they clarified that 3B PLP could achieve “up to 70% of the click share within certain product categories”. Click share, the estimated share of achievable clicks received, are especially advantageous to manufacturers in achieving future leads.
In 2019, ThomasNet conducted a survey which found 80% or more B2B buyers used search engines to source new suppliers. Despite that, out of the 325 manufacturers interviewed at PLMA’s World of Private Label international tradeshow this year, only 29% admitted to utilizing digital marketing (which includes search engine marketing, or “SEM”), in addition to hosting their webpages.
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In a more recent release by Gartner, the research company predicted that by 2025, “80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels”. In addition, “33% of all buyers desire a seller-free sales experience,” to which Gartner added, “climbs to 44% for millennials”. And, according to Harvard Business Review, around 73% of B2B buyers participating in final decisions are millennials.
Because of this, 3B PLP anticipates that the digital marketing aspect of their business model will provide manufacturers with a competitive edge. Those customers who jumped on the SEM services of 3B PLP early on, will have built familiarity with their online prospects before the competition. “In anticipation of future trends,” 3B’s marketing authority explained, “we want to help our clients participate in campaigns that will establish them within customers’ search results.”
As a closing statement, Buchholz had this to say: “sourcing potential partners will be digitalized, with much less human interaction than in the past”, and that for those with a strong online presence, “the competitive edge will go to manufacturers who can fill leads in the shortest amount of time”.