Is Marketing a Mistake at the moment?

Many small businesses I have networked with recently have said that they have considered reducing their marketing budgets over the next years. My own personal opinion is that this would be a mistake!

During this “recession” we need to make the most out of every single penny, but we also need to remember that our profiles need to be seen. If our potential customers cannot “see” us then they will not use our services or buy our products! So how do we go about marketing during a recession?

We need to be more selective about where and when we market ourselves; we need to read ALL the small print to ensure we can end contracts when they are not working for us; to monitor them and to be realistic about the time they will take to have an impact on business – for example a radio advert may cost upwards of £500 per month (as an off the top of my head figure) and may take 6 months before the phone begins to ring, so it is worth bearing that investment in mind. Whereas networking campaign may cost £500 membership for 1 year plus £10 per week for mileage and 1 hour of your time to attend thereby making it more cost effective to network as opposed to advertise. However, depending on your business – it may be that networking is not appropriate for your business – all things to consider.

Research has in previous tough times shown that those that continue to market themselves have gained market share from those that have ceased marketing…

Remember – speculate to accumulate! also walk away if it doesn’t work.

Any thoughts anyone?

Sarah