Blog entries and articles about how to market in this recession seem ubiquitous. Everywhere you go, someone has an opinion on this. Here’s mine.
1. Focus your marketing messages on cost savings and revenue generation. If you can’t help your customers save money or make money, they don’t want to hear from you during times like this. It’s all about the bottom line right now: no fluff, low sizzle, just steak, steak, steak.
2. Make sure your eggs are in many baskets. If more than 20% of your revenue comes from any one customer, look at diversification strategies. How can you get more leads for more customers in the industries you already serve? Are there any other industries that your product or service applies to?
3. Don’t become everything to everyone to survive. If you panic and lose sight of your core competencies and target markets, you will lose your competitive edge both in the short term and in the long term. In the short term your marketing message loses its punch, and you’ll begin to lose sales. In the long term, your investment in branding and targeting will be lost, and it will take you a long time to regain lost market- and mindshare.
4. Add value in all of your marketing. Use your marketing to educate and inform your customers. They need help right now, and if you are adding value for them, they will remember you, become more loyal to you, and like you even more than they do now.
5. Track return on marketing investment (ROMI). This is where I get on my soap box. Too many companies do what they do in marketing ”because they’ve always done it that way,” and very few track return on their investments in marketing. It takes just a little time and effort and provides tremendous benefit. When you see which tactics bring you the most revenue, you can make better decisions the next time around. Marketing should be an iterative process of planning, implementation and tracking.
