Advantages of Marketing in a Recession
In my business I meet all type businesses on a daily basis across a wide cross section of the Kerry business community. Advertising and marketing your business in a recession is a key element of survival in this economic climate.
There might not be alot of positives about doing business in a recession because business is down in most cases, money is tight, and you may be doing business with suppliers and customers who are going out of business. But because alot of your competition choose to or are forced to greatly reduce their marketing spend, it gives you, if you are brave enough, a great opportunity to get ahead of your competition. Why???? Their are still customers out there spending money, ok less spending less for sure but spending all the same. You have to let these potential customers your business exists and your open for business.
So what can you do?
Print advertising, Radio advertising, Media advertising, direct marketing, internet marketing and anything in between are all things that you should be seriously considering right now and if you are doing some level of marketing then think of increasing your spend to reach more people more frequently.
Putting an ad in the newspaper once every six months will do little except if you have a great sale or the likes, but a constant marketing campaign is essential to survival. I am talking here about a "campaign" whereby you advertise or market your business regularly and your target audience sees your ad multiple times in a reasonable period of time.
The amount of people Ive met recently without the basic business card is staggering and unbelievable, company vans without vehicle graphic which is such a cost effective way of advertising a business, the list goes on.
Word of mouth is a very valuable part of marketing for any business as is reviews and testimonials, just check out the amount of reviews some of our featured businesses have, this is critical when a potential customer is deciding between which business is going to get their custom, the business with alot of positive reviews is really in the driving seat here!!
So all in all it is critical for any business to market themselves in a recession and reap the benefits when the good times reappear sometime soon.