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5 Ways to Make Marketing a Success in a Recession

Ideally, marketing should be a self supporting activity which pays back the cost of investment and reaches potential buyers at the right time. However, businesses need to market their services to their consumers with much effort today. During a recession, it’s tempting to get in a “holding pattern” of waiting for things to get better. Cutting costs and staff is not the solution. While it’s important to run a lean business, remember that it is impossible to make money by saving money. The old saying, “a penny saved is a penny earned” is not hold weight in the business world.

If marketing during a recession is the main cause of worry, here are a host of solutions:

  1. Social marketing, with authentic messages, is one of the most important marketing tools any company can use. There are a number of social networking and bookmarking sites you can use to market your products and services. It’s not easy - it requires a change in the way you think about communications, your customers, requires a fair amount of your time, and the very core of your business model. Encourage your readers to redistribute the message with a constant application of authentic, easy-to-spread information.
  2. Reward your best customers: Don’t forget your existing customers as you prepare to follow up on old leads. You will need to take special care of them, since they are likely to move onto availing services of your competitors who might try to woo them with special offers and incentives. Keep in mind, they are also facing rough economic times as well.

  3. Follow-up on old leads: It’s time to bring out old business cards, brochures and other business leads that you did not follow-up with, earlier. You need to be persistent, because you might not get the job your first few tries. Don’t expect them to avail your services instantly. You will need to follow those leads, since you don’t have anything to lose - and lots to gain if you can seal a deal.

  4. Put your best face forward: Pay attention to the quality of your advertising and marketing material. Understand the technical requirements pertaining to each medium in which you are advertising and marketing. You don’t need to be an expert in computer graphics, you need to know that each medium has different requirements and ensure that your marketing materials are subject to some sort of quality control. If this is something that you feel you need help with, there are many web designers that will help to create an overall package.

  5. Try new things: it always helps try something new which your customer has not been exposed to before. You can try enewsletters, buy ebooks, read online articles - anything that you can learn that will help you to better understand the different types of services or businesses that will help you or your client.

Once you have implemented the above marketing strategies, you will realize that they are not costly to implement and you will quickly figure that they can be a great return on investment, especially in trying times.