I think it's high time for a wake up call for many business owners. You cannot wait for this economic downturn to blow over. It's not a 6-month variance. It is, at least for now, the new normal.
Sure…maybe in 2010 or 2011 the pendulum will begin to swing in the other direction.
But even then…it's not going to be what it was.
Our world is experiencing change like we've never known before. It's not just the economy…it's technology, it's communication, it's the proliferation of consumer driven media, it's about the new reality of life expectancy and how that is impacting our views on retirement, pensions and medicine. Just about everything has changed.
The world as we knew it in 2007 no longer exists and it isn't coming back.
Which gets me back to my question — what are you waiting for?
You'd better figure out how to market your business in this brave new world, or you might as well close up shop. Your marketing budget (both dollars and time resources) should be more robust than ever before. Because the stakes are higher.
Will you market differently? I sure hope so. We've talked before about how you can market wisely during a recession….but please don't think you can wait this one out.
If you don't figure out how to be of value in 2009, odds are you won't be around to answer that question once the recession recedes.
Let's help each other….my readers are about as smart as it gets. Jump into the comments section and tell us what's working for you.
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Good advice Drew. With my own business I was in the mindset of trying to position myself right for when the economy does recover. I do have to face the reality that it may take a long time to get there. So I have to change the way I do things to make decent money now too.
-Jeremy
Drew,
I think one of the best elements of this post is the fact that you don’t try to force social media as the “solution” to all of these obstacles. Although I’m seeing a trend in people returning to a focus on traditional marketing AND social/online media, I think the “Social media is THE way to succeed” discussion is still a dominant one on the marketing/advertising scene. Posts like these show that smart marketers such as yourself truly understand what it takes to help companies be successful, not just tell them what buzzwords and concepts are popular at the moment.
Hello Drew,
The buzz on social media has been going on for some time now and many have been jumping to the social media bandwagon. As for me, the best marketing strategy is to utilize both offline and online strategies. Contrary to popular belief offline strategies are here to stay. This time more than ever is the best time to utilize time tested technologies such as telephone and fax because they are cheaper and more time-efficient if you think of ways of using it creatively.
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Drew, thanks for your post. Businesses that are waiting for times to improve before they change the marketing tactics most likely won’t be around later when times do get better. If you can build a strong marketing campaign and better business practices now, imagine how rock solid and more profitable it will be in good times.
Thanks Drew.
Agree with the commenting gang here that blending traditional marketing practices like direct mail with more experimental social media tactics is the way to go. There’s no sense in altogether abandoning practices with proven track-records. But improving their performance with new technologies makes a lot of sense.
For example, traditional direct mail often gets about a 2% response rate. Dukky’s combining traditional mailers with online technologies and seeing a response rate that’s closer to 8%.
i think its new reality (the Instability epoch) where we must work recent 10-20 years (maybe more)…
its like thransition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. just in financial world.
so, lets start to live further
Great post about the 5 musts! Loved it. Very inspiing. I just RTed it via @wrike, we have a lot of marketers among our customers, I’m sure they’ll love your tips. Thanks!
Aside from being involved in the email direct marketing world, I’m also involved with a small independent brick and mortar garden store.
Like many businesses we’ve found that people are incredibly price sensitive at the moment. On the other hand, they aren’t limiting themselves to buying only the essentials of life. As we like to say in our store, we don’t sell anything that anybody needs. They come to us because they like gardening, not because they need to garden.
What we’ve found is that looking hard for promotional items you can offer at a good price will build a lot of traffic. And paradoxically the economy has created some opportunities to buy such merchandise at really good prices. One of our growers is offering plants to us at really steep discounts right now because their sales have dried up, and we’ve turn around and used these to offer steeply discounted promotions to our customers. I’m talking about half price discounts or better.
By promoting these offers with email we’ve managed to boost daily sales by as much as 30% on some days. The conclusion I draw is that people can still be persuaded to spend money, they’re just being careful so you have to find the right offer and the right way to promote it.
thanks for your post
Businesses going threough a tough time in this deviating economic phase need to understand that the actions taken now will reap the benefits in the future, merely waiting would not suffice. Just planned action that uplifts from the current collapse and raises future business and oppurtunities would bring rock solid difference!!
Agree with the commenting gang here that blending traditional marketing practices like direct mail with more experimental social media tactics is the way to go. There’s no sense in altogether abandoning practices with proven track-records. But improving their performance with new technologies makes a lot of sense.