Three good reasons to market like crazy in this economy
Ok, the Olympics are over and it's back to real life for us Americans, many of whom forgot our economic woes for a couple of weeks and lived vicariously through our medal-grabbing champions like Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Now it's back to the real world and the economic downturn, which might or might not be a recession. And it's back to business, where we have to decide just how marketing and communications should fit into this questionable economy.
While marketing projects and budgets are sometimes the first to go in an economic downturn, those organizations that keep marketing aggressively throughout a downturn are the ones that will come out on top. Need convincing that spending precious dollars on marketing this year will be worth it? Here are three good reasons to do so:
1. Good deals. The current state of the economy affects everybody, and vendors are hungry. For that reason, you can often get printing, mail services, web services and other products at better rates than normal. For instance, Focus recently submitted a bid to produce in 2009 a bi-monthly print newsletter that we've produced for several years. While vendor prices have steadily risen each year for this project, this year was an exception. And the prices didn't just remain flat; they actually went down. So we're able to pass the savings along to our client, producing the same great product in 2009 at a price that's lower than it was in 2008 or 2007.
2. A quiet front. During a downturn, fewer companies are marketing aggressively -- so your messages aren't competing with as much noise to be heard. When you maintain or increase marketing during a soft economy, you may be the only one speaking to your audience -- so they'll be much more likely to listen to you.
3. Ripe for relationships. Like everyone else in the United States, chances are your target audience is holding onto its pocketbook a little tighter these days. Rather than pounding them with traditional marketing techniques such as direct mail postcards, television ads or magazine ads, now is the perfect time to focus on building a deeper, more long-term relationship with your audience through relationship marketing. You might accomplish that by starting a blog, a newsletter, magazine, online publication, or podcasts -- anything that gets your brand in front of your audience on a regular basis and provides them with valuable information they can use.
Don't bow out during a downturn; stay focused and increase market share. You'll come out on top when the economy swings back the other way.
While marketing projects and budgets are sometimes the first to go in an economic downturn, those organizations that keep marketing aggressively throughout a downturn are the ones that will come out on top. Need convincing that spending precious dollars on marketing this year will be worth it? Here are three good reasons to do so:
1. Good deals. The current state of the economy affects everybody, and vendors are hungry. For that reason, you can often get printing, mail services, web services and other products at better rates than normal. For instance, Focus recently submitted a bid to produce in 2009 a bi-monthly print newsletter that we've produced for several years. While vendor prices have steadily risen each year for this project, this year was an exception. And the prices didn't just remain flat; they actually went down. So we're able to pass the savings along to our client, producing the same great product in 2009 at a price that's lower than it was in 2008 or 2007.
2. A quiet front. During a downturn, fewer companies are marketing aggressively -- so your messages aren't competing with as much noise to be heard. When you maintain or increase marketing during a soft economy, you may be the only one speaking to your audience -- so they'll be much more likely to listen to you.
3. Ripe for relationships. Like everyone else in the United States, chances are your target audience is holding onto its pocketbook a little tighter these days. Rather than pounding them with traditional marketing techniques such as direct mail postcards, television ads or magazine ads, now is the perfect time to focus on building a deeper, more long-term relationship with your audience through relationship marketing. You might accomplish that by starting a blog, a newsletter, magazine, online publication, or podcasts -- anything that gets your brand in front of your audience on a regular basis and provides them with valuable information they can use.
Don't bow out during a downturn; stay focused and increase market share. You'll come out on top when the economy swings back the other way.
posted by Nancy Jackson at
3:42 PM
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