Tough Times Call for Smart Marketing

No matter what you call it – economic slow down, one-state recession, troubled economy – you’ve probably noticed that business is a little sluggish for many companies today. No doubt times are tough, especially here in Michigan, and that has prompted lots of small businesses to tighten up their spending and budgets to compensate for the change in revenue. It makes perfect sense, of course, but the challenge for many companies comes when deciding which expenses to cut back on, and by how much.

When business slows down, it’s tempting to cut back on marketing and advertising activities since these are often considered to be non-essential expenses. But if your sales have slowed down, that’s precisely the time when you should turn up the marketing on your business to help bring in new customers and jump start your sales again!

So before you make any drastic cuts to your marketing spending, consider implementing some marketing activities that have a low cost but have a high ROI. Specifically, I’m talking about good ‘ol email marketing!

Ready, Aim, Send
Email marketing is a reliable, proven marketing strategy that’s inexpensive to implement, especially compared with more traditional activities like print ads and direct mail. It is also a more targeted strategy than other conventional methods, enabling you to deliver a specifically focused message directly to the customers and prospects that you want to reach. For instance, if you were to segment your e-mail recipient list into categories, you could then tailor your email message to fit the needs of the recipients in each category. So unlike a print ad that is published for a broad audience, an email campaign can be aimed directly at your target audience.

Tracking Results
Email campaigns are also highly measurable, making it easy to track the effectiveness of each campaign. After sending out an e-campaign, the campaign stats can reveal all sorts of useful information, such as the number of recipients who opened the email, how many emails “bounced” or were not delivered (and why), which links the recipients clicked on, the number of opt-ins/opt-outs, how many times the email was forwarded to a friend, etc. By analyzing this data, you can tell if your message prompted a response (such as clicking on a link or visiting a web site), or if your message was even delivered in the first place!

Weathering the Storm
When times are tough, it pays to be smart about your marketing choices. Cutting back on pricey marketing activities is fine, as long as you don’t give up on your overall marketing goals. Marketing’s purpose is to help generate sales and boost your bottom line, which may be even more important if your revenue has slowed down. To help ride it out, try implementing marketing activities that will get the job done, but will do it for less money – like email marketing.