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THIS WEEK
Marketing Tip: Marketing During a Downturn
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
| Marketing Tip: Marketing During a Downturn |
Originally this week we were going to look at a more general article relating to marketing to the generations – but given the world woes of the week and the feedback from lots of my clients we will look specifically at marketing during a downturn.
I will start with two stories from this week – these are two different service based businesses. Both are clients of mine.
"The second the stock market crashed all my clients stopped. I haven't had any new clients all this week. Business is a shocker – if it keeps up I don't know what I will do. I will have to stop my marketing as I need to cut costs".
"The stock market crash has been the best thing for my business ever. I have so many new opportunities – people need me more than ever to help them find their business edge. I will have to tweak all of my marketing to help people feel confident again – can we revamp the lot and get it out there yesterday?"
 Similar industries – same world issue – totally different outlooks.
In a downturn the worst thing you can do is to reduce your marketing efforts. This tells people you are giving up and you don't think your product or service is really worth the price you are asking for it.
If you are confident in the value you offer, the downturn can be where the seeds of prosperity and success are sown. Most of the world's biggest companies started their success from the Depression.
So, precisely what should you be doing with your marketing during a downturn?
- Dust off your database. Your previous clients all know your services and offerings. Make sure you go back and touch base with all previous clients (even the ones you haven't spoken with in some time). These people are more willing to buy from you than new customers – so treat them like gold and with great respect.
- Become more personally visible. In a downturn people want more than ever to know and trust the person they will work with. Get out there, meet people and form strong business relationships with them. Don't hide away in your office. Allow people to see the real you - you will attract a better match of clients that way.
- Boost your credibility. This is the time to go back and get all of those testimonials you have been meaning to get. Include testimonials on your website and your marketing material to ensure people know you have a proven successful track record.
- Revisit your guarantee. You need strong guarantees for your goods or services. In a downturn you may want to strengthen your guarantee – instead of 30 day money back guarantee make it 90 days.
- Show leadership & confidence. If you trust the doom and gloom merchants you will curl into a ball in a remote cave. Be out there, show your confidence in your product and the economy and show strong leadership within your industry. People value strong leaders.
- Watch your statistics. You do need to monitor your statistics for each campaign – if a brochure, flyer or ad isn't getting you the results you were looking for then adjust it. You still should be getting a strong return on investment for each campaign.
- Don't scrimp on design and printing. It's very tempting to DIY using Vistaprint or running your own brochures up. Professional design is just that – professional! It looks great and gives you a professional brand and image. Don't cut corners with your design and printing – this is false economy.
- Stay positive. If you think the sky will fall – it will. If you think you will be successful – you will be. Find positive, empowered people and hang out with them. Don't stay too long with naysayers as they will drag you down into their depression. This also means don't cut your prices in a vain attempt to stay afloat. You are sending the message that you are desperate. Correctly value your goods and services.
- Boost your communication. This is the time to increase your communication to customers – not reduce it. Keep it informative, credible and up-beat. Don't get tempted to fall into doom and gloom for your headlines or marketing messages.
- Adjust your website. People will spend more time researching in this market before investing or buying. Make sure your website is information rich, has been optimised for search engines and is easy to navigate.
For most businesses, the downturn will be just a storm in a tea-cup. Yes, you may have the odd spilt drop of tea, but as a whole there is no reason your business can't survive and thrive no matter the economy.
In the words of Warren Buffet "be brave when people are fearful and afraid when people are brave" ... that is the secret to business success.
| HR Tip - Maintaining motivation during tough economic times |
The media has been full of the impact the economic challenges will have on people. The thing they have been really beating up is the threat of massive retrenchments and redundancies for workers.
 With all of this negativity it can be hard to keep your employees motivated. So what should you be doing?
- Have the CEO regularly talk with employees. This is the time for the CEO to be highly visible. They need to be reinforcing the message that it is business as usual, that you are leading through the situation and there are no planned reductions in staff.
- Reinforce the messages with your management team. Managers are in a tricky situation - often they are fearful about their own jobs so can make less than helpful comments to employees just from their own personal fears. Continuously reinforce with your managers the messages of stability, job security and the need to calm their team members.
- Don't retrench permanent employees! There is massive competition for great employees. If you lose people now you will find it very hard to replace them when the inevitable increase occurs. Find every other way top cut back on costs, with employees the very last to be effected.
- Be honest. Being a manager and leader doesn't mean that you have all of the answers. If you don't know something admit it - and tell people you will find out. By being honest and not putting spin on your messages you will find your employees will trust you more.
- Manage your communication. Make sure you sit down with your management team at least weekly to discuss what and how you will be communicating to your employees (and your shareholders).
- Watch the rumour mill. Rumours spread like wildfire at times like these. Find ways to make sure every employee gets regular and credible communication from you. Listen and respond to the rumours. Also remind your managers to watch their water cooler conversations as small snippets of overheard information get blown out of proportion at this time.
- Manage emotions. People can get very stressed about world events - so take the time to listen and support your team members. Tap into external counselling if needed within your team.
Most of my readers know that I LOVE technology - my computers are my favourite toys and I love things that make it easier for me.
If you are like me you have piles of computer discs sitting in boxes, and when you are looking to find a particular disc you have to scrabble through the pile.These of course get mixed up with my computer game discs and every other disc in the house, so trying to find the reinstall disc can be a challenge at times.
This week I was given a brilliant gadget that stores, catalogues, manages and protects your software.
Disc Manager 100 can store up to 100 CD's, DVD's, computer game discs, photo discs - it's an automated carousel where you put all of your discs. Connect it to your computer via the USB cable and then you can search all of your discs and their contents using simple web-like searching. You can find your disc in seconds not hours - and they don't get scratched kicking around your drawer.
For businesses you can connect up to 500 discs from the one USB hub and through a powered hub you can connect up to 500 units (50,000 discs). You can password protect the access and even track who has been allocated the disc and when it is due back.
If your business has more than a few computers you need to make sure you have the right licenses for each piece of software you have loaded - and it is very easy for discs to go home with employees by mistake. This is a great solution for ensuring your software compliance.
Check out www.discmanager100.com
I have been reading this brilliant book which looks at the people behind the best sellers - what made them tick, the situations they grew up in and why they wrote the books they wrote.
Not one of them had an easy ride! Check out what inspired Stephen King, Jackie Collins and Dostoevsky to create the most popular books ever written.
Marketing to the Generations
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's Small Business Tips blog also included posts about Computer Error Messages, Its all done with mirrors, Does Sex Sell?
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