It only takes a passing knowledge of what’s going on in the media to know that the outlook for the economy is less than rosy. But for many business owners, this news is real for them because they live and breathe the fact that the economy is slower every day. When the economy hits on harder times, as business owners, we seek out new ways to tighten our belts, cut costs and try to increase revenue. And one of first ways we think to cut costs is to cut those expenditures that do not generate revenue, like marketing. Depending on how much you dedicate to marketing, it’s true that cutting the marketing budget can significantly improve the bottom line. All of a sudden, you can save thousands of dollars that were spent on proactively marketing your company. But this is a short-sighted undertaking and here’s why.
When economic times get rough, it’s all the more reason to keep on marketing your business. Continuing to market yourself and your business during tougher economic times can help you gain market share from your competitors who have cut down or eliminated the amount of money spent on marketing. Don’t misunderstand me, all caution should not be thrown to the wind when marketing your business in tougher economic times. You still need to be cognizant of the bottom line. It’s not about marketing more necessarily, it’s about marketing smartly.
As such, the focus should be on cost-effective marketing mix tactics. One of the more inexpensive marketing tactics you can take in this market is to embark on a public relations campaign. In comparison to other components of the marketing mix, public relations can be a relatively inexpensive way to keep your name in front of your target consumers. The cost of public relations can be significantly diminished by conducting the campaign internally rather than paying an agency or public relations practitioner. That having been said, agencies are often worth the money because of the expertise they can bring to your outreach.
Direct mail can also be an effective way to reach out to consumers with one caveat: your campaign is only going to be as good as your mailing list. Regardless of the place where the list has been obtained, most marketers estimate that the expected response rate from a direct mail campaign is between 1 and 5 percent. In other words, if a 1000-piece mailing is sent to consumers, you should only expect to have between 10 and 50 people take the requested action. Depending on what it is you want the consumer to do, this response rate may be great and really have an impact on sales, but if it doesn’t, it may be something that you want to wait to test or pursue when economic times are a bit easier. If you have developed a list based on contacts you’ve made at trade shows or with whom you have done business in the past, your response rate may be higher rather than if you are “cold mailing” that has been purchased based on a set of criteria.
The bottom line is that even when the economy is tough, you need to continue to be visible to your target consumers via effective marketing so that when the economy gets better, you emerge stronger in the hearts and minds of your customers.
