One way for a Web start-up to distinguish itself in the cluttered e-commerce arena is to attract established direct marketers that own lists of proven buyers. That’s the thinking behind btb.com, a site going live next month which will link a number of business-to-business catalogers, effectively giving each access to the others’ customers at all times.
Since August the site has been lining up traditional BTB catalogers, many with small, specialized customer lists. Btb.com’s been working to persuade these catalogers that it’s worth their while to pay affiliation fees (determined on the basis of how much they mail) to tap into this potentially expanding source of new customers, says president Larry Trink. The Cranbury, NJ-based company is a partnership of card pack marketer Simon Direct and online communications agency Princeton Interactive.
Through its network of business list owners, btb.com will try to generate Web site traffic and quality leads for its members through exposure to millions of advertising messages created by affiliates.
In the first year, btb.com expects to pull in about $1.5 million and some 500 customers, says Trink, who believes revenue will blossom from then on.
The site is looking to sign up firms that accept credit card orders. Later in the year, btb.com will design its own e-commerce systems and build a business-oriented search engine. The latter will be available only to members and affiliates.
So far, the site has recruited 20 BTB DMers, including National Audio Visual, Siegel Display Products, Creative Direct and Visual Horizons. Btb.com is promoting itself by printing its Web address (www.btb.com) on all mailing pieces. Trink says the site won’t be advertiser supported, at least in the beginning.
Btb.com is not the only such Web site to do direct mail promotion. Industrial online marketer E-Chemicals has also gotten itself known this way (“Chemical Haste,” DIRECT, Nov. 15).
Trink says Princeton Interactive and Simon Direct were motivated to start btb.com partly in reaction to the proliferation of small BTB sites with names like looseleaf.com, which by themselves don’t present a threat to traditional BTB catalogers but do when considered collectively.
“Four years ago everybody said the Internet sounded interesting, but nobody really saw how it could help their business,” Trink says. “Now we’re in a situation where even the local pizza place will have its own Web site.”
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