It is no secret that the economy is in bad shape. Not just in the United States, but throughout most of the world. And, to make things worse, experts are in agreement that there is no relief in sight.
So, the question of the day is, do you have a marketing strategy ready to get you through the tough times? If not, you need to develop one quickly or prepare to suffer the consequences.
The best way to begin building a comprehensive marketing plan start is by asking and answering a few essential questions. What are your challenges? What are your opportunities? Who have been your best customers? Who are your best potential customers now and in the future? What do you have to do attract and retain customers in the current economic climate? Do you need to expand, contract, or adjust your product mix? The answers to these and related questions will point you in the right direction.
You may conclude that you can benefit from increasing your marketing efforts in a troubled economy. But, with that increased marketing, a change in your primary message may be necessary.
If you are selling a home-based business franchise, a struggling economy and the anxiety it produces may bring you more potential customers than you have in normal economic times. However, instead of emphasizing the possibility of people earning enough to support a luxurious lifestyle, as may be the norm in your messages during good times, messages about economic security might be far more powerful today and in the near future.
If you are selling high priced products, you will have a separate set of questions and concerns than do those of us with more mundane products and services. Your market may become even smaller and more targeted than ever as you seek to reach the shrinking number of the economically privileged; people who can afford luxuries even in difficult times. And, as your market shrinks, your frequency of contact may have to be greater, as might the average purchase size. Or, because very few people are entirely immune to anxiety about our current economic crisis, you might want to highlight your $100 bottles of wine, as opposed to your $300 choices.
It is axiomatic that the poorer the economy, the greater the importance of price. But, for lots of reasons, lowering prices may not be desirable or possible for you. You will need to ask yourself whether dropping your prices will devalue your product in the eyes of customers, what it will do for your volume, and whether you will be able to move your price back to current levels in the future without angering your customer base.
If you do not know who your most successful competitors are, find out immediately. Discover what they are doing to market themselves and see if similar media, messages, and activities make sense for you. Take advantage of the fact that competitive research is easier now than it has ever been. Far easier, in fact, because there are an amazing number of tools that can help you determine exactly how and where your competitors are spending their marketing dollars. What works for them, perhaps with some adjustments, should work for you.
Ask yourself the right questions, get the help or do the research necessary to get answers in which you have confidence, and your marketing plan will almost build itself.
Just remember one thing. If your product or service was viable a year ago, it probably still is. Therefore, reducing your marketing budget and/or your marketing efforts is almost never a good idea. The question is not should you market, it is how you should market.
