Marketing that succeeds in a recession
Written on March 20, 2008
This weeks news of the collapse of a US bank and the ‘trash and cash’ scare on HBOS have brought on renewed fears of a recession. Whether you take the view or not that we can talk ourselves into one, there is one trueism – marketing budgets get tight when the economy is unsettled.
So more than ever the money that you spend on marketing needs to be highly targeted.
So where should you spend your money? Well according to a recent report by Forrester Research – social media is the place to spend it read more about it here .
What do we mean when we say social media?
- Social networking
- Blogging
- Word-of-mouth
Not sure what Social Networking is – then please spend a couple of minutes watching this simple video – it’s great. As you’ll see from the video it’s great – and social networking is not just about Facebook, there are now many business networking sites that are great including www.linkedin.com and www.ecademy.com.
As with any networking marketing it requires time but also some planning as to how to get the best out of it so be prepared to look around, decide which sites are best for your business and then get going. You might decide that joining forums may be the best thing for you – they are a great way to get your brand across and also your expertise in a given subject. Here’s a brand new one if you haven’t already seen it - www.forum.launchlab.co.uk it’s worth going on and registering – it’s in its infancy so keep an eye on it!
If you haven’t started blogging yet (other than reading ours!) then now is a great time to get going. It’s relatively cheap to start and very easy to do and to be honest once you get going with it it’s a little addictive! Make sure you include good links back to your site, but also ensure that your content is within an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) to really get the benefit from it. (and come back soon as we are writing some good stuff on ‘blogging for business’ shortly).
Word of mouth – it’s what businesses have been doing for ever but now with internet technologies it’s getting even easier to track and measure. You could try an online recommend a friend scheme, email marketing member-get-member offers as well as having ‘email to friend’ on every page – and they are just some very basic things to get you thinking.
So are you ready to forge a direct relationship between your brand and your consumers? Using social media allows you to leverage measureable online tools at an affordable cost.
Want to know more? Get in touch we’re always happy to help. www.prodo.com
Written by Pippa Adams [Managing Director] Prodo Ltd