Marketing in Tough Times

Pete — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:40:46 +0000

In a difficult economy, it’s tough to know whether you’re spending your marketing dollars wisely. Should you scale back your budget, or should you fight for an increase? Should you pursue new guerilla marketing techniques, or fall back on the old standbys like direct mail?

This month I’d like to offer some insight that will help you sort out these questions and come out on top.

1. Try to preserve your budget
Research shows that companies that maintain their advertising budgets through economic downturns perform better over the long run. A McGraw-Hill study of 600 companies found that businesses that maintained or increased their advertising during the 1982 recession had sales 256% higher than those that stopped advertising. Clearly, not everyone can increase their marketing budget—but if you can maintain your marketing spend through the downturn, you’ll be way ahead of the game.

2. Maintain traditional advertising
Maintaining your presence in traditional broad-reach media like print and TV shows confidence and intent—both highly desirable traits in uncertain times. As competitive advertising spending thins out, you’ll stand out. You’ll also be in a position to negotiate highly favorable media rates and aggressive packages. Sustaining general brand awareness, which can take years to establish, is critical. If you diminish your share of voice in a down market, the cost to regain awareness will be much more expensive than maintaining what you currently have.

3. Increase your online presence
In a downturn, it’s even more important that every advertising dollar work its hardest. It’s hard to find a medium that works harder than the Internet. Why? For one thing, the results are often quantifiable, so you can quickly determine what’s working and what isn’t. And since the costs are so controllable, it’s easy to calculate your return on investment. Finally, the Internet is often the first point of contact by anyone researching your product or service. By having a strategy that includes search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO), you can ensure that you’re high on the list for any new prospects.

4. Be smart about high-cost, high-touch campaigns
Used sparingly, high-touch campaigns like direct mail can be effective in reaching decision makers and landing new business. But most successful campaigns come at a significant cost. For that reason, you should make sure the campaign goals are clearly established at the outset. Furthermore, before considering such a campaign, you should make sure you have something unique to offer. What is the call to action? Is it compelling? If it’s not a showstopper, you may want to consider a less-costly course of action.

5. Beef up your strategy
Stay busy through any downtime by refining your marketing strategy and brainstorming new approaches. Take advantage of free research (the Stackpole Report on Banking is a great place to start), and preempt questions by having the facts close at hand.

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Marketing in Tough Times