How to use marketing to survive the recession

There’s no getting away from the fact that we are all now feeling the impact of the recession and tackling it is no easy matter. One thing is for sure though; reducing focus on marketing is not the answer.

Tough economic times demand a tough stance, particularly on keeping your business as buoyant as possible. It’s good to remember that old saying ‘if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got’, which recently, I’m willing to bet, is a reduction in new business.

The only clear way to boost business is to go back to marketing basics, Marketing 101, golden rules if you like, they are:

• Be very clear on who your customers are, it’s not as straight forward as you think.
• Find out what channels meet their needs most effectively. It sounds obvious but if your target market are largely retired then email, text and online viral campaigns are probably not going to be the best choice.
• Maximise your budget, you don’t have to have a huge budget to achieve your objectives, you just have to know how to use it.
• Work out what your proposition is – why should your target market choose you? Are you competing on cost, service, product quality, added value?
• Present you business clearly, concisely and consistently. It can take up to 7 exposures to a brand (through whatever channel) for a consumer to make the decision to investigate further.

Great marketing isn’t complex, but it requires thought, planning, implementation and follow-up. It’s also what we’re here for…