sell online:how to acquire members?

[Birdqueen]

I built a website selling bulk raw materials online.
I want to give my target customer(approximately 500 manufacturers,This year we don't have budget for expos)the IDs and passwords directly to have access to their accounts though which he may check member prices,trace his order,etc.
Any good ideas about the first round membership acquisition? Does it make sense to make membership card and send to customers via direct mail?Or how should i combine any other approaches?
Thanks.

[fisicx]

What incentive is there for a poterntial customer to visit the site?

Sending ID and password through the post is a bad idea - it's not very secure.

Why not just make the website public, let any of your visitors see the materials and prices, your shipping conditions and so on. I know that I wouldn't buy online, I'd want to talk to you before placing an order so the login is pretty much worthless to potential customers.

The other problem is that these 500 manufacturers already have supppliers so you are going to have to do a lot more to win their contracts than sending a membership card through the post.

[Birdqueen]

Thanks.
I think i have to elaborate on this idea.Price is acturally sensitive in this industry...At least we need to keep the competitors from seeing it at the beginning...I have a list of manufacturers as target customers.Membership is a approach to concentrate these customers effectively and,that is,to sell the idea directly rather than just attracting untargeted ones to our site.That's why i'm looking for direct "push" ideas..the incentive ,yes,as you say, low price,fast delivery...

We give members some priviledges,discounts and gifts,Also we need to calculate their orders,analyse the clicks and so on.

Any one can check the products and the webpages before seeing the price and proceed to cart...Maybe it looks weird to need to log in to check the price...

I'd like to hear your suggestion about how to attract customer to sign contract.

[in2town]

Originally Posted by fisicx

What incentive is there for a poterntial customer to visit the site?

Sending ID and password through the post is a bad idea - it's not very secure.

Why not just make the website public, let any of your visitors see the materials and prices, your shipping conditions and so on. I know that I wouldn't buy online, I'd want to talk to you before placing an order so the login is pretty much worthless to potential customers.

The other problem is that these 500 manufacturers already have supppliers so you are going to have to do a lot more to win their contracts than sending a membership card through the post.

What you need to do is to get exposure in the press, think of something that the press would be interested in, why is your business different and then sort out a very interesting press release and send it to the right people