Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tightening your business belt in a weak economy - Introduction

All indications are this will be a deep and long recession. A down economy is typically a time for many businesses to be more introspective, looking at ways to be more efficient with resources and budgets - Operations. It is also a time for guarding the base business and aggressively looking for low-cost new business - Marketing and Sales. The healthier your business is during this dip, the higher you come out on the upswing when the economy begins to improve.

On the bright side, the current economic conditions may present your business with new opportunities. An existing product or service may be more desirable in a budget-conscious economy. A new product or service may present a golden opportunity for clients to meet new, shrinking budgets. Your competitive set is showing signs of attrition, creating a window of opportunity to capture more market share. These opportunities require some level of marketing and sales to be successful.

A Marketing Plan should be a part of your strategic business planning process, which for many, is going on right now. It will help identify opportunities and strategies to get your products and services to market. Tactics, such as branding, collateral, direct mail, advertising, website, and email deliver on the overall marketing strategy. Whatever the tactic, an informed, focused, consistent, coordinated approach will yield the highest results.

Over the next few weeks, a series of posts will be updated with ideas to make your marketing dollars work harder, at the very least more measurable. Topics on the table include Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Email Marketing, Blogs, iBrochures (mini-sites), and Sales Presentations. Topics will include real world experiences and solutions for common business questions and problems. 

If you have a topic you're considering in your plan outside of the ones mentioned and would like our input, please contact Southbank Interactive.

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