I understand the lure of just hunkering down and waiting out the economic lull. And I know you’re probably tired of hearing this….but if you are smart — this is a huge opportunity for you to capture market share and solidify your position in the marketplace.
Please do not sit this one out. And I’m not even going to tell you not to cut prices or cut your budget, because we’ve beat that horse to death!
110% consistency: The buyers are already jumpy. Don’t give them any reason to mistrust or doubt you. Live and breathe your brand integrity. Don’t do or say anything that contradicts your brand.
Tactics:
- Review your brand values with each and every employee
- Refresh your website to put your brand promise front and center
- Ask your employees for ideas on how to bring your brand to life. Pay $50 for every idea used. Make that very public knowledge.
Love on your current customers: They’re the most likely to buy again and they are also most likely the audience you’ve ignored. Now is the time to appreciate them, remind them why they trusted you in the first place and over service them.
Tactics:
- Do a customer only mailing, spotlighting some of your best offerings at their best prices
- Hold a customer appreciation party and say "thank you" repeatedly
- Offer a pre-payment discount (you get cash up front and their commitment to follow through)
Give it away: Demonstrate to the world that you believe in abundance by giving away some of your product or services to a worthy non-profit. But don’t do a drive by. Partner with them for the long haul and work your PR magic.
Tactics:
- Give your employees a voice in which charity you partner with
- Be smart – choose a charity that has an influential board of directors and make a point of being at those meetings to share your expertise
- Trade your products or services for an event sponsorship so you get publicity for your efforts
Listen, respond, repeat: Now is not the time to be ignoring the marketplace. You need to be listening to your customers, your competitor’s customers and anyone else who is out there talking about your industry.
Tactics:
- Do a customer survey (while you are at it, do a past customer survey)
- Set up Google alerts
- Jump into conversations about your industry and offer value
Use content marketing: You’re good at what you do. You want your prospects and customers to be successful. Why not position yourself as the expert by sharing your expertise?
Tactics:
- Create an e-newsletter (don’t start it if you aren’t going to consistently create/deliver it)
- Build a robust How To series for your website
- Launch a business blog (again…don’t start it if you aren’t serious about keeping at it)
What do you think? Most of these tactics will not cost you an arm or even a leg. And I’ll let you in on a little secret — they’re pretty effective, even when we’re not facing snug times.
What can you add to the list? What’s working for you that you can share with the rest of us?
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I am too much of a contrarian to agree wholeheartedly with anyone, but I will make an exception this time
Good work, Drew.
Drew:
You’re right, you’re right, you’re right. As marketing consultants — that is, as providers of advice and counsel — we have to keep hammering away at this key theme: Downturns are opportunities to gain share, gain customers, gain loyalty! Can you imagine where Toyota would be today if they had “hunkered down” and avoided the U. S. market during the downturns of the ’70′s and ’80′s? They would be the Japanese division of General Motors!
John
P. S. I’m happy to see you have time to blog while giving birth to The Age of Conversation.
Drew,
Great advice here, it’s human nature to hunker down during economic downturns but it is good to be reminded that this is the time get out there and perform.
In your listen respond repeat section I would suggest using Filtrbox to monitor your brand and track your customers and prospects.
Filtrbox monitors mainstream news, blogs, Twitter and FriendFeed for mentions. You can add your own RSS sources as well. What makes Filtrbox better than Google Alerts is the noise control, coverage options, and the fact that we don’t send duplicate hits.
If any of your readers would like to use Filtrbox Pro ($20/month) just use “15off” as a promo code to get a 15% discount on the first year of service! Signup @ https://www.filtrbox.com/signup.php and select the “Pro” version.
Best,
Patrick
Dennis,
Hey…I’ll take that lofty praise, thank you!
Feel free to add in any additional ideas you might have.
Drew
John,
The Toyota example is an excellent one. It’s so difficult to push past the fear but the companies that do see the opportunity will soon be looking at their competitors from their rear view mirror.
Even staying the course and not adding anything new will win you new customers while everyone else cuts back.
In terms of Age of Conversation, we’re almost there — and I think both Gavin and I are ready for a respite!
Drew
Right! Variety should give you both a paid vacation!
John,
It’s plenty of work but well worth it. It makes the community smarter and stronger and we do some good too.
That’s a fantastic combination.
Drew
Patrick,
Thanks for telling us a little more about Filtrbox and sharing the discount code!
Drew
Very strong information. Let’s hope the economy does not get too bad. Or else it does not matter what you do, nothing will work.
Bill,
Bite your tongue. Or knock on some wood. Or throw salt over your shoulder.
2009 needs to be our upswing year!
Drew
Drew:
Throwing salt is great….but personally aside from your 5, I like to be persistent in the sense that I do “personal promotion” by writing personal emails to people I think might find my offers of interest. Great info here . . .
I agree with you that marketers must “love on” current customers. We all know that hanging onto a current customer is much cheaper than acquiring a new one, but we often lose that focus. Some extra hard work now can help you come out on top when the market turns around (and it will!).
Thanks for the great advice,
Marie
I couldn’t agree more. The reality is that while the current climate may make things “harder” for a time, businesses still have the same needs today as they did a year ago. In fact, for them to survive, they need our expertise more than ever.
Thanks for the insights!
Drew – great suggestions. Customers also appreciate it when you’re able to give them some free PR too. It not only increases their awareness but also provides you with third party validation of your products and services.
One more marketing must is LOVE your sales folks. Provide them with the tools and information they need to do their jobs. And then show them how much you appreciate their work with gifts and praise. In the end, marketing can drive the leads but sales can close them!
Dan,
Good to have you here – welcome. Personal contact is always a strong marketing tactic.
The question for you might be…once you’ve made a personal contact and either been ignored or gotten a no, what’s next?
Drew
Marie,
This is one of those universal lessons that for some reason we need to be reminded of, over and over.
It makes perfect sense and we’ve all seen the value of it. And yet…we always need the nudge!
So all of you should consider yourself nudged!
Drew
Pizza dreamer!
Discipline becomes key in times like these. It’s really about consistency, as you wrote about last week. It’s just that being consistent sounds a whole lot easier than it really is.
Drew
Cece,
An excellent addition. Now is also a great time to be an absolutely golden to your internal audiences. The loyalty you will earn will pay off for both you and the customers.
If we’re smart — this is a perfect time to gain loyalty and marketshare, inside and out.
Drew
I don’t know how I missed this piece when you posted it, but it made me smile because it’s almost point by point the strategy plan I just put together for the next 5 months at my company.
I feel much better now. Anytime anyone doubts one of my action items, I’ll just point them here. You just saved me at least 30 emails and a random ‘come to jesus’ meeting.
Dan,
There’s nothing that beats a personal touch. I totally agree. I wonder if you would have even more success if you hand wrote a note…and maybe included a little cartoon?
Drew
‘Chelle,
Congrats on actually having a plan, first off. Second — always happy to save you some time and a Come to Jesus!
If you do these things and just stay the course…your business will not only survive the next 5 months, but I predict a growth spurt.
Let me know if I’m right!
Drew
Thanks for your insights. I totally agree. While it is human nature to withdraw, cast doubt and use extra caution I don’t think most businesses need to feel threatened by the recession. Sure success may take a bit longer and you make need to work a little harder but when all is said it done the same needs still exist today as they existed last year and will continue to exist moving forward. Now more than ever is the time to rise to the occasion.
Content marketing on the net is great, i like it. I also agree people do not need much money to go ahead while there are websites like http://www.adwido.com is available.
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The recession is really causing everyone a headache. Could we have avoided this? Most people are having a hard time making ends meet even before this. Anyway, this is great article.
I feel much better now. Anytime anyone doubts one of my action items, I’ll just point them here. You just saved me at least 30 emails and a random ‘come to jesus’ meeting.
During a recession, marketing budgets might scale down significantly. You must get creative and learn how to market without spending money as a pre-requisite. The best way to market of course is word of mouth. If you develop a hot product or service that is very user friendly and solves an annoying problem or makes like easier, this will stimulate word of mouth marketing. Social media is also a very inexpensive way to market something. You need a dedicated person or team that has a good understanding of blogs, social networks, social bookmarking, and search engine optimization
People hate recession. People hate to bring out any incentive or spend money during recession because recession does not bring immediate business. But there is a second school of thought here. There are people who are ready to open their business during off seasons. Like that recession is a time to build your brand value and trust. The point is very simple. Build the trust in you and your products you customers will come back to you.
Well you are right. It is very easy to build the reputation of our business during recession. we can patiently build it because of the reduced competition etc.
There are people who believe off season is the best time to build a business. I second that thought. If your customers stay loyal to you at these trying times they will stay with you when the market improves. So do whatever is required to keep your customers happy
Incredibly intriguing post. I think that of what you mentioned, listening to your customers is the most important. I’ve been trying to implement customer surveys on my site, with some complications– I found out I had outgrown Surveymonkey, but was lucky enough to find Zoomerang, which has more features. So if you’re looking for a survey site, that’s what I’d recommend.
Sorry! Forgot the link– Zoomerang can be found here http://snurl.com/monkeyzoom
When budgets are being cut, it is time to look at new, inexpensive ways to get the word out about your business. TWitter is a great tool to use because it will allow you to directly engage with your customers. Social networking and social media in general is not just a good fallback plan, they should be mainstays in your marketing plan.
Great marketing tips for the recession economy time. These marketing tips aren’t just useful for company and business but also for those who do Internet marketing to make money, there were good ideas to pick up in this post.
The Toyota example is an excellent one. It’s so difficult to push past the fear but the companies that do see the opportunity will soon be looking at their competitors from their rear view mirror.
Fear gets in the way of many a company’s success. But you are right. The ones who can look past it will soon be zooming by their competition!
Drew
Great post here! Thanks!
Well you are right. It is very easy to build the reputation of our business during recession. we can patiently build it because of the reduced competition etc.
There are people who believe off season is the best time to build a business. I second that thought. If your customers stay loyal to you at these trying times they will stay with you when the market improves. So do whatever is required to keep your customers happy
The Tactics work for real?
Pretty amazing Drew. Great marketing tips for the recession economy time.
-Nate
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Content sites that promote affiliate programs and/or make money from advertising systems like Google Adsense, Chitika, etc. This the type of websites I currently make the most money from.
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I think if you develop a hot product or service that is very user friendly and solves an annoying problem or makes like easier, this will stimulate word of mouth marketing. Social media is also a very inexpensive way to market something.
The information you have shared are really helpful for the marketers who are affected by the recession period very badly.
I’ve surfed the net more than three hours today, however, I haven’t found such useful information
I love the content marketing aspect. I think this is a great way for real estate agents to advertise their brand. Newsletters, blogs, and article submission is a great way for agents to add value to the public by sharing their knowledge.
The ones who can look past it will soon be zooming by their competition!
It is one good idea taking the feedback of customer about our products so that we can come to know the good and bad things of our products.
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