08: How E-Commerce Helps Manufacturers Attract More of Their Dream Customers - with Curt Anderson

Meet Curt:Kurt Anderson founded an e-commerce company in 1995 that was ranked three times on the Internet Retailer Magazine's Top 1000 E-Commerce Companies. Since selling that company, Kurt has served as an e-commerce consultant serving manufacturers. He is the author of Stop Being The Best Kept Secret, and the founder of b2btail.com an e-commerce resource guide for manufacturers.Lori: Let’s dive right into it! I know one of the things you're a really big fan of is niching down, so why is niching down such a critical step when it comes to e-commerce and digital marketing for manufacturers?Curt: When it comes to niching, no one wants to niche down, but what do we say when it comes to niching, Kris? I would like to niche down till it hurts! Who wants a niche down? Who wants to tell that customer, no, I'm not a good fit? I've had two clients this week where I'm just not a good fit for them and it's not going to work out. You have to niche down, and you have to understand your limitations which you're not always great at. So a couple of years ago, I started doing all these webinars and what I preach is E-commerce to manufacturers, and boy, this COVID thing really kind of lifted this topic to the rise. We are all in this manufacturing space, and all three of you probably will attest to this, they tried to be a little bit of everything to everybody so my answer to your question, is we want to laser focus on that ideal client, focus on what your absolute best at, stay in your strike zone and just crush it for that client.&nbsp;Kris: How can manufacturers get into that E-commerce party that we're all talking about?Curt: So I put out a post on LinkedIn which asked, "How big is the b2b e-commerce market going to be in 2028?" The answer is 25 trillion dollars which forecasts for 18% growth year after year! What I found when I had my E-commerce business years ago, I didn't have to be the smartest guy in the room, just being in E-commerce I was almost guaranteed 20% growth year over year just by being in E-commerce and some of those years were 40-50%, it was just part of it.&nbsp;Erin: One of the things that I've heard you speak about is the fear of the unknown and I know you're a big fan of configurators, and I think they are interesting because they kind of help mitigate that unknown. To some degree, they help the buyer understand and visualize what it is that they're trying to get accomplished with this product that is available online that maybe they're not physically touching. So tell us why you like those configurators.Curt: If you are a manufacturer, and you're wondering what this configurator thing that she's talking about, it's just this little tool to put on your website, for your ideal buyer, that soulmate to engage with you as quickly as humanly possible. The configurator, what it does is Lori, you remember we'd love to preach at our little DWI workshops, "How can I help that ideal buyer, that soulmate make a buying decision on a Friday night without having to wait for us to open up our doors on a Monday morning?" That's exactly what that configurator does, and if you reach out to GenAlpha or Earthling Interactive, both of them will be more than able to help set up a powerful configurator on your site that connects you with more of your ideal customers!&nbsp;And so much more…&nbsp;Connect with CurtVisit b2btail.com!Connect on LinkedIn!Connect with the broads!Connect with Erin on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erincourtenay/"...