We’re all constantly hearing about the financial gloom. The media is full of credit crunch, job losses, closures and cutbacks. So is this an impossible economic situation or is there a way for businesses to survive the credit crunch? Rather than reduce your aspirations, could you thrive in the recession, and emerge stronger than before?
Our first instinct is to cut costs to the bare minimum in a bid to weather the credit crunch, but is this the right approach? While avoiding unnecessary costs and finding smarter ways of working are vital, cutting back on your marketing budget is not one area where you should reduce spending.
Increasing Marketing Improves Your Chances of Surviving Recession
Research shows that companies that maintain or increase their marketing budget during a recession are more likely to survive their competition and gain a larger market share.
Any economic contraction can be a good opportunity – providing you have a good website, professional advice and clear marketing strategies. A cleverly-targeted marketing campaign can be a very effective and powerful sales driver.
Also, advertising will become cheaper as demand drops off, meaning you can get more for your money.
Free Marketing Opportunities
There are several ways that you can market your company for free. Using blogging and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, Plurk and Identi.ca you can keep up to date with existing customers and reach new audiences. All of which will bring more traffic to your website and increase awareness of your company.
Signing up to and using social networking tools like Facebook, LinkedIn and FriendFeed can also have the same effect.
Every piece of correspondence you send to clients or prospects can also carry a message to help promote your company. Email footers are a great place to carry messages about your products or services, special offers or links to interesting things on your website.
Not the End of the World
It’s worth remembering that a recession is a period of negative growth – a difficult period to do business in – but it does not mean that life stops. People continue to work, play and shop. The world continues to turn and businesses can either adapt to the new economic climate or gradually burn out.
Article By Kate Watson