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Four Ways to Maintain Your Revenues through Recessionary Times
By Administration | June 26, 2008
As the economic walls in the United States crumble from the force of a recessionary disaster, many business owners and webmasters are scrambling to keep their revenues afloat. In May and June, American consumer confidence hit a 16-year low, according to the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index – meaning that consumers are tightening their buckles, wallets, and even piggy banks.
Considering that consumer spending constitutes 75% of the American economy, business owners are feeling the pinch from wallets snapping shut. Surveyed professionals who claimed that business conditions are “bad” rose from 29.7% in May to 32.5% in June, while those who argued that business conditions have been “good” fell from 13% in May to 11.5% in June.
Whether you operate a brick-and-mortar business in America, or are an international webmaster, the clinch in American spending impacts every business owner around the world. However, with intelligent marketing and savvy strategic positioning, you can maintain your revenues – or potentially grow your profits.
Strategy #1: Market Intelligently Beyond the Big Ad Spenders
As financial advisors are cautioning their clients, the key to overcoming a recession lies in diversification. Diversifying your client base is an important element of weathering the recessionary storm. The internet allows you to reach out to clients who were previously inaccessible, giving you an unprecedented ability to diversify your customer base.
Whereas paying for PPC becomes extremely prohibitive, especially when your budget is tight, search engine optimization becomes your best friend during a recession. Start a blog, which will infuse keywords that boost your SEO, as well as connect you with existing and potential clients. Or, you could hire a freelance blog writer, allowing you to focus on the operations of your business. Visit other popular, relevant blogs and comment on their posts, which also creates a backlink to your site. Write articles for publication in the article directories, or hire a freelance article writer (such as Communicate Better) to ghostwrite on your behalf. Find other websites and businesses that have a synergistic component, create a strategic alliance, and publish articles on their sites that will send a valuable backlink to your website.
Too many business owners limit their budget when a recession is on the horizon, yet this is one of the worst strategies you can implement in your business. Remember, marketing dollars are a wise investment, spent to generate business. Nonetheless, you can be smart with your invested marketing dollars, which goes furthest in achieving SEO and better rankings. Using intelligent keywords, publishing articles, and updating the content on your website will optimize your search engine results, giving you natural, free, and targeted traffic that easily converts into customers.
Strategy #2: Demonstrate Your Love for Existing Clients
Indeed, keeping an existing customer costs significantly less than attracting a new one – and this adage certainly holds true in a recession. Look to your existing clients, as these will be the revenue stream that will keep your business floating through the recession. As your competitors would like to increasingly attract your clients away, you must take precautions and extra steps to cement their customer loyalty. Stay in touch with your clients, and make sure that they know you are receptive to their needs and suggestions. You could even create a rewards program for existing clients, or offer them special discounts. By helping them when times are tough, their loyalty will repay you threefold.
Strategy #3: Keep the Pulse on Your Competitors
During slower economic times, your competitors will make changes to their pricing structure and product offerings. When you constantly keep your finger on the pulse of their activities, you can ensure that you are appropriately positioned in the marketplace. If your competition is offering major sales, make sure that you provide discounts to keep your clients and remain a viable player in the market. In addition, you may also gleam important marketing knowledge from their activities. For example, if you run a website selling herbal pills, and your competitor begins to branch out to reach the gym-crowd, then you may want to incorporate that target audience into your marketing efforts.
Strategy #4: Show Your Humorous, Fun Side
While economic times are tough, spirits are down and consumers are understandably melancholy by the lack of digits in their bank accounts. However, if you can keep the mood light and humorous, both existing and new clients will appreciate your fun side. In fact, according to Tom Peters, who is one of America’s top marketing gurus, 70% of all customers would instantly change brands if they find one that has more fun. This is why Virgin Airlines and Southwest beat out the “serious” airlines, Google wins over Yahoo and MSN, and Trader Joe’s wins greater fans than Whole Foods.
How does this translate to your business? In your marketing efforts, blog, newsletters, website content, and even your email correspondence, show off the personality of your company. Hire a freelance writer and explain to them the importance of being fun and humorous in your web copy. Feel free to include personal stories, client stories, fun adages…anything goes when it comes to relating with your clients and making them feel happier about being a part of your company’s family.
A recession does not have to force your company to suffer. In fact, with intelligent, creative, and fun strategies that cement your client base – and expose you to new customers – you can maintain your revenues through any type of economic turbulence.
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