Recession-proof your business: clever marketing

by Rebecca Burn-Callander - Wednesday, 3rd September 2008 - (1) comment

The second instalment in a series of tips on managing a downturn.

Marketing is a fundamental part of getting your business noticed and ramping up sales.

The lovely people at Shield Corporate Finance have put together a series of tips on how to recession-proof your business and save cash.

Here's a quick run-down.

- Keep tabs on the cost of customer acquisition.
There are plenty of analytical tools and consultants that can help you work out how much it costs your firm to attract each new customer. Make sure you know your spend.

- Don't haemorrage cash on useless campaigns
What's more valuable to your business? SEO? Adwords? Old-fashioned press-advertsing. Make sure that your marketing budget is divvied up accordingly. Don't blow your load on campaigns that don't fly.

- Pick the right campaign
For most of you, this probably means brushing up on your e-marketing and sorting out your SEO. There are plenty of online guides to help you through the process. RB's own Guy Levine has shared his top SEO tips, so there's no excuse to ignore the basics.

- Incentivise Incentivise Incentivise
Make sure you reward the people who visit your website, buy from you and recommend you to their friends. Whether this comes in the form of money-off vouchers, exclusive invitations, or even a free lunch, make your existing fans work for you.

- Sing your praises
An easy way to raise customer confidence is to publish testimonials. And if you offer a no-quibble returns policy, your customers will automatically assume that you have faith in your product, and that items are rarely sent back.

For more hot tips on recession-proofing your business, contact Shield Corporate Finance, the financial advisory firm that specialises in growing and selling businesses.

Plus: want to learn more? Sign up for our "Business on a budget" workshop.

Picture source

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1 Comments

October 07, 2008 2:36pm
Sean McPheat Says:

Great article. Another very useful approach is to ask your current clients for referrals. If done in the right way you will get a stream of new leads which are easy to approach due to the connection with the company who gave them - it's a nice little "in". Very low cost too! Sean http://www.seanmcpheat.com