Why Your Business Needs to Market Now, More Than Ever Before
Here at The Little Marketing Company we strongly believe that marketing should be seen as an investment. However, many businesses out there see it as an expense. Marketing is always the first thing to be cut when sales drop or are expected to drop. However, we believe that small business owners should rethink this.
In this blog post we have put together some quick tips to help you market your business now to help you and your business survive the recession. However, it is important to remember one of our favourite quotes “nobody built a successful business on left over time and money”. You need to make time for your marketing to give you the best possible chances of success.
So, this is how your business can market now, at a time when you need to market your business more than ever before;
Invest in Existing Customers
Take the time to invest in your existing customers. There are loads of stats out there that show it’s more expensive to get new customers than keep your existing ones. In fact, some research shows that it costs around 7 times more to get new customers than to retain your existing customers.
Think of ways you can invest your time in them. Why not drop them a call to see how they are. Alternatively, you could send them a little treat in the post. Just something that shows your customers that you value them.
Review Your Prices and Offerings
Use your time to review your business offerings. Look at your more popular products and see if there are ways to increase the pricing or change the offering. Check out your less popular products and services too. Think about how these can be made more attractive to your audience. Maybe look at new ways of marketing these offerings too.
Especially at times like this you need to look at your income streams. Are there ways you can introduce new income streams into your business. Can you create a monthly income stream where a set smaller amount is paid monthly instead of a larger amount? This could really help your cash-flow but be better for your customers too.
Who Is Your Ideal Client?
Look at your ideal client and look at the clients you are working with. We sometimes ignore that gut-feeling and work with ‘any’ clients because they are paying. However, working with the wrong sort of client can be damaging to you and your business. Not only could they damage your mindset and your business, but they could result in attracting more ‘wrong’ customers too.
Think about who your target audience are and set a plan of action for reaching the right customers for you and your business.
Your Message
When you set up your business what was your message? How did you promote this to your target audience? Do your existing customers fully understand your business and your messaging? Does your target audience know what your business is all about?
Think about your messaging. If you have been around a few years it is likely your message has changed, but do your audience know you have changed? Be clear on your messaging, and how you communicate your messaging too.
Know Your Numbers
One part of a successful marketing strategy is ensuring you know your numbers. It is important that you are clear on your numbers. You need to be clear on what is coming in as well as what is going out. This way you know what you need to cut back on if you need too. However, it also means that you know your budget and how you can continue marketing, even through a recession. By knowing what products and services work for your audience, you know where to spend your marketing budget and when to plan your marketing campaigns.
We would recommend you book onto the “Know Your Numbers” workshop. It has been written and is delivered by a professional accountant in Peterborough called Aimee. Aimee runs Cedar House Accounting. Having attended her workshop, we would highly recommend it to other small business owners – www.cedarhouseaccounting.co.uk/workshops/
These are just some ways that you can market your business through a recession. However, the most important thing to do is to have a marketing strategy and a marketing plan. Here at The Little Marketing Company we can be your own personal marketing expert. We will come alongside you to offer advice and show you ways you can get through the recession.
Why not give me a call? I’ll go through how holding your hand as your marketing expert during this recession will benefit you and your business.
