Wholesalers, importers and resellers of apparel, licensed clothing or toys, footwear, accessories, jewelry and general merchandise have specialized marketing needs, online and offline. If you don’t have budget to hire a digital marketing agency — but can no longer self-manage online ad accounts — it’s time to find a search marketing / ad services provider who understands the needs of wholesalers. There is a growing, competitive pool of wholesale publishing, advertising and auction or product sourcing sites that want your business. This checklist will help you find the right partner.

>>> Look for trade/vertical search sites. Online advertising and search marketing developed from retail consumer-focused, direct marketing systems. (Building site traffic and click-throughs; directing visitors from general, consumer search engines to online purchase or shopping cart pages.) But wholesalers and resellers have different buyer decision-making paths; and they measure conversions differently than the retail consumer world.

Wholesalers get the best knowledge-based ad services from a vertical (business, industry, interest group) search engine or publisher site. Look for search marketing partners who have a deep knowledge of your industry, product lines and B2B marketing methods. Seek out specialized networks that offer online auctions, keyword-accessed product databases, paid-inclusion directories, and paid advertising, both display and pay-per-click.

>>> Do due diligence. Anyone can present a professional looking web site and promise ad opportunities. Wholesalers in competitive product categories — apparel and accessories and in off-price merchandise lots – have sprouted copycat sites that display content duplicated from established wholesale sites (dupe content can get search engine penalties), that offer free directory listings (of limited ad reach) and pay-for-placement options that border on link farms, which are removed from organic search engine results for irrelevancy.

Search on the site’s business name and principals; conduct a domain name search on the web site; check dates of content/news archives. You need to know how long the wholesaler network has been in operation; when the web site domain was registered, how much industry expertise the owners have, and whether or not it is a trusted wholesaler site — Does it publish rate cards and media kits? Has the company or its managers received awards, industry accolades? Is this site referenced or linked to by others in the industry?

>>> Demand proof. A key benefit of online advertising/search marketing, over traditional ad campaigns, is that online campaigns are so measurable for response rates, targeting, behaviors and measuring successful conversions. With this level of technology transparency, not only can a wholesaler track return on ad spending and develop/test new campaigns cost effectively, but accountability extends to your search marketing vendor’s performance, as well.

The wholesalers, resellers, importers and auctioneers who contract with TopTenWholesale for ad distribution, search marketing, organic search results listings and affiliate promotions get the following services: (1) Large search arbitraged ad inventory; (2) Quality paid traffic; (3) High organic search rankings on page one results; (4) Promotion through wholesale trade show partner/sponsorships (ASD, Off-Price Show); (5) Visitor IP addresses to track traffic driven to client site; (6) Promotion through select marketing affiliates (with ability to opt-out); (7) Published rate cards; (8) Fair-trade, no-special-discounts policy that keeps all advertisers on the same playing field; (9) 3^rd-party references from current customers.