For decades Digi-Key Corp. sold electronic components to engineers, tradesmen, and hobbyists via its encyclopedic print catalog exclusively, eschewing an outside sales force. The advent of ecommerce changed that, of course, as did the hiring of chief marketing officer Tony Harris.
“I joined Digi-Key four years ago with the intention of converting us from a catalog model to a company with a strong ecommerce component,” Harris says, and he certainly has succeeded. More than 85% of Digi-Key’s U.S. revenue and 99% of its overseas sales are Internet driven, largely because of its emphasis on improving the online experience for its audience. The company is projecting worldwide sales of nearly $1.5 billion for 2010.
The Lighting and System Design virtual symposium it held in August 2010 is a case in point. Like an in-person trade show, the seven-hour online event included a keynote speaker, multiple tracks of sessions, and an exhibit floor featuring a number of the 450-plus companies whose products are distributed by Digi-Key. The symposium strengthened Digi-Key’s relationships with its vendors as well as solidified its reputation among customers as a knowledgeable industry source. And of course, it raised Digi-Key’s profile among prospective customers as well.
“Virtual outreach is critical to the brand because you’re not going to meet a salesperson from Digi-Key,” Harris says. “The virtual nature of that show works well for someone that’s virtual.” The event was successful enough to encourage Digi-Key to cosponsor another virtual event, Microchip’s Embedded Designers Forum, earlier this month.
Other digital initiatives include the creation of sector-specific Tech Zones on www.digikey.com. These five microsites include not just products but also articles, videos, white papers, and other resources for each particular market sector (lighting, microcontroller, power, sensor, and wireless).
“The Tech Zones allow a user to traverse our site in an expedient fashion in a way that is very lucid,” Harris explains. “It immediately reduces your amount of search time and allows you to spend more time shopping.” Given that Digi-Key sells close to 2 million SKUs, this sort of simplification is critical. “I try to reduce visual exhaustion,” Harris says.
Many of Digi-Key’s online efforts—including its introduction of mobile and iPad apps, a YouTube channel, and downloadable widgets—are cutting edge not only for the components industry but for direct marketers as a whole. Its iPhone app, for instance, enables customers to download and save as well as to view high-resolution data sheets for some 1.8 million products, which they can later add to their virtual shopping cart directly from the data sheet. The app also supports currencies for every market Digi-Key sells to. Another digital initiative, a downloadable toolbar, is customizable for each of Digi-Key’s 25 country-specific Websites and provides personalized search capabilities and other functions.
And while b-to-b marketers tend to shun social media, aside from LinkedIn perhaps, Digi-Key has a Facebook page with more than 2,000 “friends” and a Twitter feed. On the latter, the company not only shares information about new products with its more than 3,200 followers but also runs contests with prizes every Monday and Thursday—a great way to encourage retention among followers. The contests, the Facebook page, and the videos also help to give a personality to Digi-Key, further distinguishing it from other components distributors.
Although Harris is pleased to note that Digi-Key was the first of its peers to offer Android and iPhone apps, among other tools, he doesn’t look to Digi-Key’s direct competitors for inspiration. “I look outward to companies like eBay or Amazon or L.L. Bean or Netflix to see what they do,” he says. “Sites like Netflix are what I call measuring sticks for what Digi-Key is accomplishing and trying to do on a global scale.”
Numerous b-to-b marketers still contend that because their customers are making purchases for their companies rather than for themselves, they should be marketed to differently. But Digi-Key appears to follow the philosophy that as the division between “professional” and “personal” lives continues to blur and fade, so should differences in how you market and sell business and consumer products and services.
“It doesn’t matter if someone is an engineer or the president of a company; they have a general expectation of how they go about and source something online, whether it’s a refrigerator or a camera or b-to-b products,” Harris says. “Everyone’s a consumer; you just have to figure out how to reach them.”
