With spending decreasing and doom and gloom reported in the news every day, it is human nature to prepare for the worst by cutting business expenditures, including marketing, in case you’ll need that money to assure your business survival.
I can tell you with great certainty that if you do not continue supporting your business with marketing of some kind, you won’t survive. Think of marketing expenditures as an investment in the future growth of your company, not as an expense.
The definition of insanity has been said to be: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This can be used to describe choosing to do the same old marketing in what is clearly a changed market. Continuing marketing expenditures does not mean that you continue marketing the way you always have. Instead, use this changed market climate to reevaluate your marketing and decide what you should be doing differently:
1. Evaluate your product. Is the traditional use of your product not appropriate for today’s market conditions. Can you modify your product, produce a new complementary product or emphasize an ancillary product you always offered but now would have greater appeal as an enhancement to your customers who are not currently buying new?
2. Evaluate your market. Has your target audience changed? For instance if you are in the travel business, at one time your visitor might have been someone who flew in from out of town or traveled long distances, now your audience might be the family traveler who is visiting from closer by.
3. Evaluate your message. Make certain your marketing message reflects the current climate and appeals to what is important to your target audience. On-demand printing makes it possible to produce short runs of materials, with unique messages that you can use until the economy turns around. Who knows, you might even find your new approach works so well you may keep the strategy long-term.
4. Take advantage. Decreased marketing by your competitor can give you an advantage. The less advertising your message competes with, the louder your message is heard.
5. Non-traditional advertising. If appropriate, utilize non-traditional forms of advertising that might be less expensive such as e-mail, linked-in, facebook, or twitter.
6. Evaluate your marketing. Evaluate your current marketing materials and make certain they accurately describe your business and services. Did you develop these materials before you added other services to your offering, have you started describing your services differently or are you still listing services you don’t offer anymore? This is especially true of on-line listings, directories, membership services, BBB listings, or other sources of information you may produce only once a year and may not have looked at in some time. You have already paid for these listings, make certain they are working for you as effectively as possible. When was the last time you looked at your website to make certain it is current, to evaluate the search engine optimization or to be certain referral sources are being maximized?
6. Negotiate. Decreased advertising can be a financial advantage for you as you negotiate the cost of printing or ad space. Now more than ever, the provider of these services would rather make less money than none so you can benefit from this competitive marketplace.
7. Promote. Make your marketing measurable through the use of special offers, response devices, coupons or other mechanisms that make it possible to determine where your dollars are best spent.
If you stop marketing altogether, you will be forgotten and when your customer has more discretionary income to spend, you will have to work much harder to reintroduce yourself.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Summer is coming … I can’t think of a better time for some lemonade!
Leigh Williams
Amaranth Designs, LLC.
615.822.7344
Does your company or office utilize social networking sites? No? Ever heard of Twitter? Why on earth would a respectable business allow their employees to use a tool like Twitter, or Facebook? Well, the truth is that many businesses are now taking advantage of the power of social networking sites. If you are not familiar with Twitter here is an overview:
later responded with a ‘thanks’ to everyone that helped, and he had some great new contacts. This is an example of the power of a ‘micro-blog’. You can connect to hundreds of people in an instant, with a question, request or a unique piece of information.
