Barcode and POS companies can accomplish quite a bit with a well-designed and thought out marketing campaign.  However, effective marketing campaigns can be difficult to create, and mistakes can cause businesses to end up losing out on potential customers.  In order to connect with the correct audience and build a reputation for specific products or services, businesses should avoid doing the following things:

1. Not knowing about/using MDF

Value added resellers (VARs), channel partners, resellers, and other affiliates use market development funds (MDF) in order to raise awareness for a brand or to sell a specific product.  MDFs are offered by manufacturers and, depending on the relationship and company in question, can be structured in a variety of ways.

Failing to use market development funds is a costly mistake that can stunt the growth of a business.  If your business isn’t using MDFs, inquire about them immediately and put a plan in place if any are available.

2. Forgetting to establish ROI for MDF

Using market development funds is definitely better than ignoring them, but businesses shouldn’t stop there.  A return on investment (ROI) measures the success of an investment.  Once you begin using market development funds, examine how many leads are generated, the projected vendor sales, impressions/click through rates, and other marketing metrics.  Once you begin to understand how successful your campaign is, you can begin to make adjustments and improvements – thus increasing the ROI.

To read our full blog post, visit our partner BlueStar at VARTECH Nation