Just accept the recession, and grow from it! - Small Business Marketing

Because when it comes to marketing. It all starts with a plan, not just any plan.

...A SMART PLAN.


Online marketing success really depends on several factors all working together collectively in a relatively seamless fashion. Besides having a plan, you’re going to need an effective arsenal of marketing tools to work with.

These marketing strategies below have proven to give the biggest bang for your buck - both include link building and promotion.

Search Engine Optimization (seo) and PR Campaigns (public relations)
These marketing tools are your center ground for ensuring increased visibility and more traffic throughout all of your promotional endeavors. While other areas of marketing (and advertising) are taking a bit of a nose dive right now, it is only logical that small and large businesses are funneling their monies into both SEO and PR marketing strategies.

It's important to incorporate SEO and Public Relations, and it is such a smart move to put SEO and public relations campaigns together. On their own they are powerful tools but when integrated they can accomplish so much more, and in times like these thats exactly what you need.

I anticipate that, as the economy worsens and belts tighten, smart businesses will turn towards these marketing campaigns and practices full throttle leaving the expensive advertising costs behind.

Lets take a closer look at these:

-Search Engine Optimization(seo)-Whether you're located in Florida, New York, Europe or anywhere in the world, customers are searching for you online everyday. Have you done anything to help them find you?

Everyone of those potential customers are doing this, they go to their favorite search engine such as Google, Yahoo! or MSN and type in a search term to find some information that they need to know. It is also a fact that when we do search on search engines our natural inclination is to believe that the top page results are also the best results or companies available for our search. Think about it - we all know how advanced search engines have gotten and how important it is to them to provide its 'searchers' the best results --- both quickly and accurately. Focusing on SEO is key to increasing your traffic as well as sales.

-PR Campaigns- Businesses need to be proactive in managing their online presence and a vital component of this is an online PR campaign (press release distribution). A successful PR campaign can boost credibility and buzz for your brand. If anything, the free publicity alone is a great incentive to having a PR campaign. No longer is this marketing strategy used solely by large corporations. Today new and small businesses, home based business owners, and kitchen table entrepreneurs are using this method to help build their company.

In business, online or off, it’s all about communication. You have to be able to reach your targeted audiences and communicate your message to them in an efficient and effective manner ,and you have to be able to do this consistently. That’s exactly why having the proper Marketing tools is so vital to your marketing success.

Remember that the failure rates for online marketing is very high. One of the largest reasons for these failure rates is that many online business owners do not attack marketing with the proper tools - like a car mechanic trying to work with a carpenter’s belt.


Toning it down during a Recession? Big mistake!

During financial crunches, most businesses typically cut back on their marketing budget, and while at first blush this seems like a logical step, the reality is that continued marketing during a recession can mean the difference between long term success and failure. Small businesses have a lot to learn about promoting itself, particularly during a recession.

Small business owners know their business, their products and hopefully their customers, but many do not know enough about marketing. Many small business owners don't understand how to strategically spend their money when it comes to marketing which is why they often waste marketing dollars because they are not reaching their target audience.

While no one is "immune" during a recession, often it is the smaller business owners that tend to suffer the most mainly because of their "lack" of marketing, or not knowing which marketing strategies to use in the current market. Faced with the current economy, many smaller businesses are adopting the "wait and see" approach.... yet, from a marketing perspective (based on historical data) this is a mistake.

When the economy is good and sales are plentiful, losing a few sales is something that can usually be tolerated affordably. It is during an economic downturn when one simply cannot afford to lose sales that as a business, you have the greatest opportunity for online marketing success. And, since many of your competitors are cutting their marketing budgets during a recession, your opportunities for marketing successfully are compounded. Because of marketing (or the lack of marketing) the gap between a successful business and an unsuccessful one widens considerably during a recession.

This is not the time to cut down on marketing. It is a fact that businesses that increase marketing during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.


Branding with PR is Better Than Advertising

If you want to brand yourself (and really if your a business selling products/offering services you should want to create a recognized Brand name) you need to understand that it is much more effective when other people talk about you in a positive fashion compared to self-promotion.

Branding is something many owners don't think pertains to them (especially small business owners), but you'd be wrong. To stop marketing in order to save money during an economic downturn is just asking for trouble. You will have to work twice as hard, and spend twice as much when things turn around. Because as you took a step back on marketing, your competitors continued onward and are now ahead of the game. To catch up, you are now forced to work twice as hard.

History has shown that people do not stop spending during a recession, they just spend more time looking for a better deal. If you're not visible to the customers, then your competitor will make the sale. A sale you cannot afford to lose. While the rules stay the same for marketing during a recession today, the actual strategies have changed significantly.

When people research for better deals, they tend to research online nowadays (hence the importance of SEO and PR), since it’s much easier than reading junk mail flyers or browsing through phonebooks, catalogs, newspapers or magazines. In a time when your competitors have already started cutting their marketing budget don’t miss your greatest opportunity to now get ahead.

If you're planning on delaying search engine marketing, PR , or on cutting back on your marketing budget altogether, take note of such names as Disney, Microsoft and Kellogs. All were once underdogs and small businesses who previously took advantage of their Recession opportunity, and they remain on top to this day!

Market wisely, but market you must. Now is the opportunity to step up and be seen. Now is your opportunity to take sales away from your competitor and solidify your business as a leader in your industry for the future.

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Nic Soto is a principal at PRDepotChicago.com, a firm specializing in SEO, PR, Social and Online Marketing, as well as Website Design Consultation.

Offering inexpensive marketing solutions for small and new businesses. Contact Nic Soto today to find out how she can help you drive more visitors and sales to your website, and help create a buzz for your business. No budget too small, or too big.