Tight Budget? Doing More Can Help
If you're feeling the pinch, you're not alone. After a year of financial turmoil and dark skies people are still finding that the cost of living (and of running a business) is troublesome and that budgets can't be stretched any further. Many of us will have already made as many cuts as we can, so the thought of doing more with less, for another twelve months, is a frightening prospect. Frightening though it may be, a tight budget always means you need to do more.
When you look at where budget can be trimmed, marketing is often one of the first things in the firing line but it's not really something you should be cutting back on when the economy bites. If you want to get a fuller sales pipeline and more money in the bank you won't achieve anything by stopping marketing.
This is something big, established brands know all too well. Coca Cola still advertises, as does Kellogg's, Andrex and Heinz. These are all household names with brand-loyal customers, so why do they still need to advertise? Because when you stop advertising, and rest on your laurels, is the time when your competitors will swoop in and take the attention.
If Heinz stopped advertising tomorrow sure, they would still have customers, but they'd lose some of their market share because people tend to be forgetful, and easily swayed by the advertising they see more regularly. Do you want to be the Heinz in this scenario, or the underdog Branston Beans who might take Heinz's advertising slots, then their customers to boot?
Advertising keeps your name out there, but it's also a way of creating a presence that people feel they can rely on. If you are visible and vocal even during an economic downturn you're the company people will remember, and turn to, when their wallets are full once more. If you seem to have gone off the radar, people won't think to contact you when they want your product or service.
If you can create content and provide solutions to the problems your customers are facing they will perceive this value, remember it, and be sure to spend their money with you when they are in a position to do so. Look at old content that can be refreshed, consider spending slower business days researching and writing blogs or collating information for a case study – you'd be surprised how much great content a writer can produce with information that's second nature to you.
Being a visible presence with useful content, timely promotions and the ability to solve the very real problems your customers are facing is what marketing during economic downturns is all about. You might not be launching brand new products or services into a market that's struggling, but that doesn't mean you ought to cut back on the core of your marketing efforts – that's the things that keep you visible, relevant, and positioned as an industry leader.
At Parua we can keep your marketing steady, focusing on the core activities that you should keep going with even when it seems like tightening your belts is the only option. While your competitors may choose to do that, we'll work with you on a solid strategy that will put your name ahead of theirs, and keep your sales pipeline flowing.
