Hello everyone!

My name is Rob Jones. I represent BuildDirect and I’d like to share my background, thoughts and experience with you. I’ll be setting some thoughts in writing here at eBizine. Thanks eBrand Media and everyone for the invitation to write for eBizine!

I’ve been working as an online marketer for over 3 years at BuildDirect, www.builddirect.com, an online building materials company. Just to give you some background, BuildDirect sells flooring and other premium building materials entirely online, including an online logistics management application which delivers online shipping quotes. We don’t have stores – it’s all about the Internet for us, selling in large quantities directly from manufacturing centers, instead of through traditional distribution.

Now, I don’t want to kick off my introduction here by shameless self-promotion. I mention our model because we’re in an industry which is pretty traditional in approach; human beings have dealt in building materials since civilization began, maybe before that. So, it’s a pretty old and very well-established industry that in many ways stands as a polar opposite to the very young Internet.

Our challenge is using technology to speak to an audience who may have certain apprehensions about buying these types of products online. But, I think we’ve had success because we ultimately know that despite our use of online technology and proprietary algorithmic applications, we still need to be good at the basics – speaking to and meeting the needs of our customers by talking to them in language that makes the most sense to them. I think this is true of anyone who is in marketing.

Even if we at BuildDirect have challenges specific to our own circumstances, I think the root principles of speaking to customers are the same no matter what. Even with our unique business model, we still need to speak clearly about how our products meet the needs of our customers, about our expertise in being able to deliver what we’re promising to our customers, and to generally build up credibility and trust. For me, the tension between great strategies that utilize technology and the need to speak to an audience while being both respectful and responsive to their pain points, is a key balance to strike in what I do. I hope to be able to share some ideas, and maybe start a conversation or two with everyone here along the way.

To learn more about BuildDirect visit - http://newsroom.builddirect.com/about/

Cheers!
Rob