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In a Slow Economy Don't Waste Your Money on Marketing
 
Patti NorisBet you never thought you’d hear those words coming from a marketer, but it’s true. When business is tight and you’re doing everything possible just to keep your business afloat, it is not the time to be wasting your money on the same tired communications program that you’re still not sure is producing results. Nor is it time to crawl into your shell and stop marketing altogether. It is time to rethink your marketing communications efforts and to be more strategic. The world is changing. It’s time to evaluate the shifting audiences, focusing your efforts on reaching a well-defined target market that is ready and able to take advantage of the new business environment and what you have to offer. A well-crafted message, delivered to the right people, is much more likely to generate immediate results than continuing to hammer on a message reflective of times past, and is guaranteed to achieve more than doing nothing.
Getting the Word out—Public Relations
Get out some positive news about your business. Your industry may be suffering, but it’s newsworthy to show what your business is doing to combat it. In the midst of gloom was there at least one bright light, one big win, that can be developed into a case study highlighting the capabilities of your company and/or product? A well-crafted press release or case study placed with local news media and trade press will help your marketing dollars go further by:
  • Reminding potential customers that you are out there and still in business.
  • Having potential customers see your message as being more credible because of the perceived endorsement from the newspaper, magazine, TV or radio station that runs it.
  • Giving your potential customers ideas about how they can use your products or services to help them through trying times.
  • Giving you a little (sometimes a lot) more time or print space to support your message convincingly.
  • Making you the local “go to” source for information on your industry. Building a relationship with the reporters for various media will increase the likelihood of more coverage in the future.
Making Your Pitch—Advertising
If traditional print, radio, or television advertising is a truly effective way to reach your most targeted prospects, your ads must be more powerful than ever and your message may need to change to reflect the changing focus of your customers. But, the downturn in the economy has also created some real opportunities for you. You may have noticed that your favorite magazines and newspapers are getting MUCH thinner. Why? Because ads are WAY down. That’s good news for those who advertise now because:
  • There is a lot less “noise” competing for attention. With fewer ads, just being there counts.
  • Your competitors may have stopped advertising for the time being and customers may start worrying about their viability.
  • Media reps are scrambling and willing to deal even though published advertising rate cards may not change, meaning you can get a lot more for your advertising dollar, IF YOU ASK.
Refreshing or Expanding Your Web Presence
The importance of the web as a marketing vehicle has been growing significantly over the years, both for businesses selling to consumers and other businesses. Given that, this may be an ideal time for you and your staff to think about how to better leverage your website’s capabilities by:
  • Refreshing existing content pages and developing new ones, perhaps even a blog, to increase your search engine positioning and ability to target new markets and new audiences while reinvigorating declining sales leads coming through your website.
  • Adding a number of features (order forms, product information, online ordering or frequently asked questions, etc.) to allow visitors to accomplish more during visits to your site, reducing the load on your already-burdened staff.
  • Developing strategic targeted links pointing to your site. Having other websites link to yours will help send qualified traffic to your site and increase your search engine presence. You can acquire links by asking partnering websites to link to you, searching the web for industry-related websites which offer listing opportunities, and making sure you are in local web directories (Google Maps, Yahoo Local, YellowPages, SuperPages, YellowBook, etc).
  • Gaining wider Internet exposure by creating business pages on Facebook and Twitter, posting promotional videos to YouTube and Revver, promoting your business through social bookmarking and news channels like Delicious, Furl, Digg, reddit, and Newsvine. 
Taking Care of Your Customers
It is easier to keep a customer than it is to get a new one and often your current customers can be your best source for new customers. Making an effort to reach out to your current customer base with thank yous, newsletters, and special offers can go a long way toward building a long term relationship with them that will not only increase the likelihood that they’ll do business with you again, but also increase referrals. If you have email addresses, a nice, professional-looking message can be sent out periodically for very little cost. What can you do to reward your long-time customers for sticking with you?
Reaching out to New Markets
Are your primary customers hurting because their industry has been particularly hard hit? Now is the time to look at what you have to offer and explore whether there’s another market out there that you’ve been overlooking. A good strategic marketing plan can help you identify those opportunities and find the best ways to reach out to those new customers.
The Bottom Line
When times are tough, there’s often a desire to pull up into your business shell, try to ride it out, and hope things get better soon. In fact, with a little creativity and a commitment to investing your marketing dollars wisely, this can be a great time to re-evaluate your priorities and unleash your creativity. Taking advantage of current opportunities, building your credibility, enhancing customer relationships, and exploring a broader-based business can not only help you weather the current storm, but position your business for maximum growth in the future.