Poor websites costing resellers customers

One of the main presumptions about the channel is that people who sell technology and services for a living must be at the cutting edge of all things tech.

That is often not the case and it turns out to be a problem in terms of digital marketing with more than half of the top UK resellers yet to implement digital marketing best practices.

The consequences of failing to provide secure websites, options for users to subscribe or for good customer experiences was potentially going to cost a channel business revenues.

Research from  digital marketing players Sharp Ahead found that plenty of resellers were failing to deliver on what was seen in the industry as essential digital features. That started even before users hit the site with a bad search experience before compounding that with poor quaity web sites.

"Resellers have been slow to adopt digital marketing best practice but now risk allowing more savvy competitors to reach their customers and prospects first. There are some immediate best practice organisations can follow, as well as longer term more strategic approaches they should consider," said Jennifer Esty, director of Sharp Ahead and former digital marketing manager for Microsoft UK.

The flipside was that for those channel players that had made the effort to use the web as way of reaching out to customers there had been real benefits.

“Daisy has embraced digital marketing as a means not only to connect with our existing customers online but also as an integral part of our sales strategy," said Melissa Roberts, Daisy's marketing manager at one of those firms identified in the research as doing things right.

"We firmly believe that the importance of digital marketing will continue to grow in the channel and are committed to providing a best practice experience for customers and prospects," she added.