November 7, 2008
Small Business Marketing - How To Do Your Marketing Successfully in the Coming Recession
If you own a brick and mortar small business, you're probably frustrated because you're making too little profit and you're getting too few customers purchasing happily from you. Or you're simply struggling to increase your profits to enable you to live the life of your dreams.
The trap I see almost all small business owners fall into, is that they stop marketing like crazy. They seem to get comfortable and "hope" they'll magically make more money.
It ain't gonna happen without constant marketing, and creating several ways to pull in customers!
Take these Four Action Steps to Generate a Constant Stream of Customers For Your Small Business
1. Market Constantly to Get New Prospects and Customers
If you market to local customers in your immediate area, advertise with flyers, create promotional events, and have permanent ads running in your local press or radio station. You simply have to keep these ads running and stage promotional fun events to be present in front of your prospects on a consistent basis.
If you market nationally, make sure you also market consistenly in front of your target market, via adwords, magazines, TV or radio ads, direct mail and Press Releases etc. Test what medium is profitable to you, but make sure you have a constant stream of prospects becoming aware of your products or services too.
2. Market Your Website With Both Search Engine Optimization Strategies and Google Adwords
Get prospects to your website with Search Engine Optimization strategies and Google Adwords. All Google Adwords clicks should lead to a squeeze page where you get them to sign up for your special report or newsletter. This is the most efficient way to justify the cost of the adwords campaigns. If you simply send these adwords visitors to your homepage, most of them will browse your site and leave… so make sure you send these visitors to a squeeze page and capture their name and email!
3. Introduce Your Customers Into Your "Continuation Program"
If at all possible, get your customers into some kind of continuation program that pays you month by month. No matter what you sell, think of a way to engage your prospects into a monthly payment program (give them a discount for doing this), so you can build your profits exponentially as you manage to get more customers. You don't want to sell them once and then they're gone….
4. Create A Back-End Product or Service For Your Best Customers
Think of a Back-End product or service which you can sell the raving fans of your business. Almost all business have raving fans… those 10% who love your product or service. Create a higher priced product or service these fans will love, which will enable you to generate sales without having to find additional customers.
If you follow these four steps, keep marketing for new customers, and keep developing good products and services for your customers, you'll always be able to make a profit and stay in business. You have to be active and market like crazy though. That's your insurance policy to stay in business and succeed.
What are your strategies for making a small business thrive?
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Responses to Small Business Marketing - How To Do Your Marketing Successfully in the Coming Recession »
consistency really is key, especially when times are hard, because that's when it's harder to be patient. i don't yet own a small business. but i see similar patterns in the blogosphere.
some bloggers, when they experience some difficulty in relation to, for example, their seo campaigns, give up much too easily. as in the real world, results don't arrive immediately, so there's a need to be able to soldier on in the face of little or no feedback. but the work does pay off later, and the small things do accumulate. but again, consistency and perseverance are key.
Hi Riggie
I recently read an article called "Info products are dead" - the point was that thousands are looking for physical products and although commissions are not as high it should be wise to concentrate on physical products instead of info product. Now in your article I cannot read a preference for one or the other - what is your opinion? What is more "recession-proof"?
Mike
Michaels last blog post..Recurring traffic is in the list
I couldn't agree more. No one ever makes money by sitting still. Even lottery winners have to go and buy the ticket. So keep marketing and the money will keep coming, stop and it will follow suit.
daniels last blog post..Tread Climber
Great post - I am sure with people not buying as much as they used to we all have been worrying about this - I noticed too adsense click prices have dropped also - great for marketers, not so great for us with websites relying on it for income!
Chelles last blog post..Neve 1272
I work as an up and coming retailer and even though we are making great strides, I have one question that as plaqued me since i started with Furniture.
As of now, i only market the good selling items,
but should I market those that don't sell well just to give them exposure? Other than that, mostly great tips, keep it going.
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I agree with you so much. You need to be consistent and persistent in marketing. The second you let up the second your profits will go down.
It's really important to play a good marketing in these times. Everybody is getting into trouble so you should think about your every step. I did cut some marketing expenses in my firm.
I also agree with you. In such times, we should get innovative to how we are doing marketing. We should also continually do it and not give up!
Roger Hamiltons last blog post..XL Exclusive: Drew Barrymore
My business is actually trying everything you listed. Contacting good customers for warm leads has worked really well for us. Of course everyone they send us also gets them some small token of appreciation; a discount on their next bill, some free service, etc.
aarons last blog post..Buying Discount Glasses Online
Good advice. So many businesses cut their marketing efforts to tighten the belt during tough times but surely it should be the opposite way round. Otherwise you just get stuck in a downward spiral.
It is important that you stay active in marketing your business despite how you are doing financially. There are many great online marketing tools that can be done for free and get your paged ranked well in Google.
Nice article. I totally agree with you on this issue. It's not so great for us with websites relying on it for income. Thanks…
Prues last blog post..Foreclosed Properties: Inspection is a Must
Excellent post indeed. Marketing efforts in these tough times generally need to be bolsered. I like to revisit the basics - the USPs, the facets that differentiate a business. And, like you, try to leverage an existing customer base with offers, freebies, competitions etc.
Treys last blog post..Heathrow Parking - 1 week - £49.00
I agree most on what Daniel said. It is true that earning money is hard. You have to give your time effort and etc and not just by sitting all day long.
it's very hard to continue with your success in this period…but your advice is useful
I like the continuation idea . . . or to expand on it, maybe a reward, sort of like how grocery stores offer discount rewards for the more you shop at their stores. Or another example getting a tenth haircut free. This can work in real shops, and internet sites.
Great post overall on things you should be doing.
I'm certainly a bit better at SEO than SEM overall, but I could have sworn I recently read somewhere that squeeze pages can reduce your page's quality score and drive up your keyword prices. I'm not saying this is true, I'm saying I recall reading it somewhere.
Davids last blog post..ifbyphone Raises $4.6 Million in New Round of Venture Capital Funding
You have nowhere to go but up and forward. Small businesses should be able to do better because the owners would be able to give hands-on services. As a customer, I find service given from the business owners warmer and more accommodating. I'll send the link to this page to my sister just opened a bake shop a few months before. It was small and still a little unsteady on its feet but I was trying to help with my constant blogging about Lou's Homemade Bakeshop. Thanks for sharing.
I used to own a web design company that did a lot of IM. They have really struggled with the economic situation, but I have found a lot of freelance work come my way, which I guess means you just need to make things more economical.
Pauls last blog post..23 Naturally Great Pool Design Ideas
Very nice article and I really agree with you in this issue. Thank you for those advices.
Those are some really good tips. Especially the last one on creating a high end product for your raving fans! . . . something that I probably never would have thought about. I can however advocate the high importance of having a good landing page for your adwords. If you can get your customers to a good, as you call it, "squeeze" page, you will see a dramatic difference in your conversions.
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I believe that with a combination of SEO and other aspects, one can market his own products successfully. However, consistency is also one of the keys of success.
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Continuity programs seem to be all the rage right now. They definitely make good business sense, and provide a much more steady stream of income.
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Hi David… you comment would be true if your website only consisted of one or two web pages.
If you have a solid website with good content and links to and from the squeeze page, you should do well with adwords.