Smart marketing strategy in a bad economy
Today’s economic downturn offers opportunities to recharge your marketing strategy, if you are willing to refocus, work smart and develop a platform that enables you to retool your approach and focus on what is most important. What’s not an option, is pretending that by doing nothing, your business will automatically blossom with the resurgence of spending. Your competitors know this too, and the result of inaction is opportunity for someone else.
One of the fundamental problems is that, with surprising frequency, companies rarely understand the winning formula of their own success when times are good and buyers are abundant. If you have a record quarter. Stop and uncover what’s working, so that you can continue to invest in the right areas and build a recession-proof business.
- Stop spending and start making investments: Have a clear understanding of the requirements to make your marketing investment practical and necessary. What’s the value of acquiring a new customer or the profit on selling another unit? Prioritize the strategies that drive not only the best, but most sustainable results.
- Pick the right customers: Align your offering to industries that demonstrate improving trends and best understand your value. Utilize an end-to-end marketing process that nurtures prospects and creates an ongoing dialogue long after the sale. These interactions will shorten your sales funnel, lower your cost of sales, and protect your margins.
- Be a broker of solutions and opportunities: Ask your customers about their challenges, even if it involves solutions that your company doesn’t provide. Find out where they are struggling and use your network to connect people that have needs and those that can solve problems. Your stock will skyrocket.
- Good, satisfied customers are great marketers: Don’t assume that all of your customers are happy, they aren’t. Make sure you regularly take their pulse. Use negative feedback as an opportunity to fix a relationship that might be headed for the competition. Ask satisfied customers for referrals and give them a way to promote you. Profile your customers in your newsletter, your website and your social media interactions. Create a portfolio of customer stories and promote them on your website.