By Kamea Zelisko
With the stock markets plunging up and down like a yo-yo, protests on Wall Street and the risk of Greece defaulting on its debt, it seems the world’s economy is hanging by a thread these days.
This economic uncertainty is enough to have even the biggest corporations on edge, wondering how to best spend their most valued resource – their money.
So it’s no wonder small- and medium-sized businesses are cautious about how to spend their hard-earned cash.
While many companies’ first instinct is to cut marketing to save cash, is that the right decision?
After all, marketing is an integral aspect of your business. It helps attract new customers, brands your business and helps build trust between you and new and current clients on a day-to-day basis – regardless of what the Dow Jones is at this very second. So cutting marketing dollars out of your budget altogether will hinder any chance of you attracting new clients and can negatively affect the client base you’ve created so far.
What’s the key to marketing in an uncertain economy? The answer is to choose your marketing techniques carefully.
Here are some great tips to help you market in a cheap yet effective way:
1. Consider cutting back on some of you most expensive marketing efforts.
Are you running TV, radio, print or billboard ads? If so, this may want to be the place to look for first when cutting down on your marketing budget.
These ads are by far the most expensive to run and although effective, there are many other cheaper and effective options to choose from.
2. Get online. Now.
If you don’t have a website, create one ASAP, even if it’s just a blog site like www.blogger.com. Unlike when websites first came on the scene, today there are many free website template companies to choose from (one of our faves is www.weebly.com).
And remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect right away – when it comes to online presence, something is better than nothing!
Next up, get going on online marketing. This is not a phase – the truth is, if you haven’t boarded the online search marketing train you’re falling waaaay behind.
Online search marketing is the most effective way to market your company today, and while some options still cost money (i.e. Paid Search Marketing), there are free ways to promote your business online (i.e. Search Engine Optimization, or Organic Search Marketing).
Here are some sites to help get you up to speed and marketing online right away:
• www.searchengineland.com
• www.metrikmarketing.com
• www.sphinn.com
• www.tech-junkie.net
3. Get networking.
Personal relationships never go out of style. The more people you meet, the better chance you have of growing your client base, so join industry and business networks such as BNI (www.bnicanada.ca).
For more information on networking, see our How to Network blog posting.
4. Use the mass media to market for you.
Public Relations (PR) is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to get your company’s name and brand out there. By doing things like writing effective and newsworthy press releases, you can get mass media attention.
For more information on press releases, see our How to Write a Press Release blog posting.
