When a recession rocks the economy and profits start to decline, businesses look for ways to decrease spending. One area most often affected by such cost cutting is marketing.

This post outlines some methods that companies can use to adapt their strategies of marketing in a recession to meet their consumers’ needs and ensure their own survival during economic hard times.

Spend More Money

This may sound counter-intuitive, but the truth is that the trick to making money under recessionary conditions is to keep investing!

Companies that maintain or increase their marketing and advertising efforts during a recession while their competitors cut back often see a dramatic return on their investment.

On the other hand, those companies that decrease marketing in a recession often see parallel decreases in sales as well.

Instead of limiting funds, companies should re-evaluate their current marketing strategies to figure out what is and is not working. Redesign advertising campaigns and reforecast product demand wherever necessary to generate new consumer interest.

Embrace the Customer

When marketing in a recession, companies also need to know how their customers are defining value.

It’s out with the caviar and in with the fish sticks as recession customers become increasingly cognizant of certain products’ pricing.

Respond to the new needs of their customers by downplaying, or even eliminating, marketing for products that are not selling as well as they did in the past.

Adjusting marketing strategies to not only attract new customers, but also to promote consumer loyalty by featuring temporary price promotions or credit extensions can also prove beneficial to almost any business.

Locate New Marketing Outlets

A recession can also provide the perfect time to explore new areas of marketing. One new area that is rapidly gaining popularity is social media marketing through web sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Once companies develop Facebook pages and begin to accumulate “fans,” friends of those fans will also receive a notification prompting them to check out the company.

This feature helps generate interest in those companies and exposes them to an entirely new audience that otherwise might not have known they existed.

Twitter feeds not only allow companies to post updates for their products and promote special sales, but they can also act as a form of customer service. Consumers post questions to the company’s status and receive an immediate response.

Oh, did we mention these services are absolutely FREE!

Against the Odds

Just because the economy is in a recession does not mean your company’s marketing and profits have to suffer.

To be successful and pull your company through a recession, maintain your marketing budget, but consider re-evaluating old marketing strategies.

Learn your customers’ needs and how to effectively market to them while exploring new media outlets to reach to new audiences and continue boosting sales.

Jacoby Grows Companies

Here at Jacoby Consulting, we have worked with hundreds of small to medium sized businesses for a common purpose: to grow sales and earnings.

Our consultants have an unmatched track-record of success, helping more than 95% of our clients pump up their bottom line significantly.

If you’re looking for marketing ideas to implement during the recession, or are simply looking to increase your company’s earning and profitability, call us at 410-744-3900 to set-up a free consultation.

You can also contact Art Jacoby via this form on our website.

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4 Simple Ways To Grow A Business In A Recession

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However, according to a recent survey by Intuit (Quickbooks, TurboTax) 90% of small business owners see growth opportunities for their own companies over the next year. That’s quite surprising, isn’t it?

Many of these companies are in for a rude awakening unless they take the proper steps to weather the storm and come out of the recession ahead of the game.

Following are a few strategies to grow your company during a recession

Ways to Keep Growing a Business in a Recession

1. Continue advertising & marketing. It may be tempting to cut your marketing budget during tough times, but firms that stay visible in a recession tend to come out stronger in the end. You want to stay in front of  the market so that your presence is felt.

Firms that come out of recessions the best are often the ones that actually increase marketing and advertising during the recession.

Think about it, your competitors are facing the same conditions.

And they’re tempted to cut their budgets. And many of them will, potentially losing valuable market share to you and other smart companies that invest during recessions.

See the Sales and Marketing Category for more ideas

2. Show established customers loyalty. Showing your customers that you appreciate their business is a sure way to keep their business. Though you’d think this is common sense, the number of companies I see that don’t act on this golden rule of business is astounding.

Did you know that it’s roughly 6x easier to get more business from an existing customer than from a new one?

Your customers know you and they trust you. Do good work for them and show them that you appreciate their business regularly.

Smart growth is about building a well diversified portfolio of expanded business with current clients and new clients. In almost any business, repeat, long-term customers are the lifeblood of success.

You can expand your current client business in many different ways, i.e. instituting a loyalty program which includes rewards and discounts to reoccurring customers, offering new services and serving new areas or departments of the client’s business.

3. Delight your Customers. Complementing a strategy of showing customers that you appreciate them is the idea of delighting. That is, promising modestly and producing fantastically.

When you produce beyond expectations, clients feel great about you and your Company. They feel that they really are getting a good deal and working with a knowledgeable and very competitively priced professional.

And this leads to spreading the word about you. When business people make smart decisions, they like their network to know about it for two reasons. They like to celebrate their good decision-making with others whose opinions they value. And, they like to help those who help them. Performance beyond expectations brings out the best behavior in your customers – they spread the good word.

4. Re-think your staff. There’s a lot of talent on the streets. Many are getting pink slips or taking early retirement as large corporations cut back. You’ll be able to attract employees with a wealth of experience – and potentially with their own established clients.

I’m not saying to let anyone go.. But take a fresh look at your needs.

Nobody likes to think about firing their employees, so this can be a touchy subject. But having the proper staffing is imperative to the growth of your business – especially in a recessionary environment where talent abounds.

There are affordable and productive channels at your disposal that you can use to attract your ideal hires. From the local college and university system, to Craigslist and other job posting sites, to word-of-mouth, there is a lot you can do to enhance your workforce.

This is another area, like marketing, where you can capture a competitive advantage once the recession is over.

Time For Action

Sure, these are good “ideas,” but this is where the rubber meets the road.

Of those 4 Simple Ways To Grow Your Business In A Recession, at least one of them can probably be applied at your company right now. And it would almost undoubtedly have a positive impact if implemented properly.

If you think these sound like good ideas (they should b/c they are!) but you’re not quite sure how to start or implement them…

If you’d like to learn about affordable ways to market during a recession..

Or if you’d like to think about some customer appreciation tactics, or get some fresh eyes on how you may be able to over-deliver to customers at a low cost…

Or if you think you’d like to start interviewing and hiring quality people.

RIGHT NOW is the best time to take action and we can show you what to do.

Click here and fill out the form and we will contact you to talk about your business. Otherwise, please call us at 410-744-3900 to talk.

When you call, we’ll ask some questions to gain an understanding of your business and your perspective on what it needs. Working together, we can create a smart plan of action and even guide you so that you implement the plan effectively.

What’s important is that you take action now. Your business deserves it.

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