Page 9 - The Alp McNamara Downturn Survival Kit

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10. Review your Marketing Strategy
Most businesses are now suffering a downturn in revenue. Loyal customers are probably still there, it’s just that they are not buying.
Luckily, your competitors are in the same boat. Everybody’s market share may not have changed, it just that the pie is a whole lot smaller.
One of the costs most business owners reduce in tough times is the spend on marketing. Very sensible. No point spending a fortune for minimal result.
However, that does not mean that marketing needs to stop altogether. In fact now is the time to be smart about your strategy. If your competitors are not talking to their customers and clients, maybe you should?
Marketing is all about conveying your proposition to your existing and prospective customers. That communication is a business challenge that utilises marketing specialists to help make it happen.
And right now, marketing is probably all about a low-cost, effective communication of your proposition. Less about fancy campaigns and big budgets.
The challenge for the business owner is ... how can you build a structured marketing program that seeks to maintain and build contact with your most valuable clients and prospects.
Where are those targets now? Are they at home? Do they read emails? Do they use social media? What do they have in common? Are their other channels that would work to reach them?
Do you have people working from home who might have the capacity to help write articles, brochures, templates or precedents that you could use? Would any of them help you do a webinar? Are your people talking to their clients and prospects? How do you know that they are doing it?
Get this right and you might find a small improvement in revenue. It may not be the pie getting bigger ... it might be your share of the pie.
And as conditions improve, you should adapt your strategy to meet the needs of growing demand. Remember that loyalty for many customers is to the person that last bothered to call them.
Be that person.