New Year, New Start. Beat the Recession!
Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past year or two, you’ll have realised we’re in an economic downturn. Whether or not it’s over now depends on who you listen to, but there’s no denying times are still hard, and it’s all being hyped up beyond all sanity by the Daily Mail and the BBC.
So now more than ever is a time when you need to make every penny count and look at the most cost effective and creative ways to keep your business moving. Yet when the going gets tough, many businesses choose to cut back on the one thing that can keep them ahead of the game: Marketing. Similarly, some business owners may get complacent when the media tells them we’re coming out of recession, preferring to rely on market forces rather than proactively pushing their business forward.
It’s easy to see why. In the middle of a recession, when a business is looking to cut costs, immediate tangible savings can be made by cutting your advertising budget or cancelling that new corporate brochure you promised yourself. Or just by letting the company web site stagnate for a while longer. Towards the end of a recession, things may be getting a little easier, but the business owner is mindful of the fact that they need to be careful in case of the dreaded ‘double dip’ some economists have theorised about.
But is it really worth making a few short term savings if your business is going to suffer in the long run? What about maintaining your brand awareness and your company image? Cutting back may pay the bills this month, but what if you don’t have any new business coming in to pay them next month? Most of all, why miss out on the opportunity to push yourself to the forefront while all the others are shrinking into the background?
The truth is, it’s easier to raise awareness of your offering at a time like this, because your competitors will be cutting back and spending less on promoting themselves. Why not take advantage of your competitors’ hesitance and trepidation and make yourself the leader of the pack. The best news of all is that it’s nowhere near as expensive as you think. Here are a few low cost ideas:
- Business cards have long been recognised as one of the most effective marketing tools, and yet they are extremely cheap to design and produce. Refresh yours today.
- Give your web site a makeover. Sometimes it only takes a few hours for someone like me to give it a fresh look and revitalise your online presence.
- Mailshots are still as effective as ever. Ask me about the mailshots I regularly send out to hundreds of names at a time, consisting of a simple letter and business card, for not much more than the cost of the stamps.
So if you’re feeling the fear, don’t let it get the better of you. Let your customers and prospects know you’re a business that’s here to stay. Talk to me about the most cost effective ways to promote your business.
The more astute among you may have noticed that this is a shameless plug for the services of the author. I expect to see similar from my fellow members at BSNC, in fact I’ll be disappointed if I don’t!
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2 Responses to “New Year, New Start. Beat the Recession!”
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A shameless plug but why not!! Yes I’ve seen suggestions that the worst of the recession is over – maybe for the RBS bankers about to get a bonus albeit the “minimum we can get away with!!!” but I think most of us are aware that times are still hard.
I am being bombarded with requests to take a trade stand at shows both regionally and nationally. Interestingly as soon as I state my reasons for why not ( customers not buying so freely, customers wanting discounts/bargains, poor attendance figures compared to previous years, further outside factors contributing to attendance eg weather, astronomical cost of a stand) the salespeople soon backtrack. Maybe they just don’t want me but that is just foolish – Garden Divas puts the fun back into gardening and my internet customers seem to love me!!!
It is useful to try everything in practice anyway and I like that here it’s always possible to find something new.