Recession Marketing: Four Tactics for Drumming Up Business During a Recession
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Four Tactics for Drumming Up Business During a Recession
by Marcia Yudkin
Recession? Hah!
That's the attitude you'll have when you know how to bring new customers in, despite all your competitors wailing about being dead in the water. People and companies have not completely stopped spending. They're just much more selective and risk-averse in what they buy.
If you use these four smart recession-fighting strategies, you'll emerge from the recession just fine.
Four Recession-Be-Darned Marketing Tactics
1. Have a risk-free introductory offer. For example, 1AutomationWiz.com, the online shopping cart I use, offers a free 30-day trial. You sign up, set up the cart and can use it for real transactions without having to pay until the 30th day. (By then, you're hooked!) As a variation on this theme, Changing Course initially charges just $13.55 shipping on its $297 Fast Track Your Dream program. They ship the materials, then begin charging the program fee on day 30. The buyer can ship everything back before day 30, then not be charged. For a non-monthly service, you can get the customer's credit card information or check up front, but promise not to charge the card or to return the check if the customer isn't happy.
2. Develop and sell information products. Information products offer a low-risk, low-commitment way for new customers to get to know, then trust a vendor company. You can sell them to do-it-yourselfers who might not spring for full service as well as to regular customers who want to learn about a new topic area. Not only do the information products provide an additional stream of revenue during the recession, they will continue to do so after the economy picks up again (as it inevitably will) with no additional work. To get products ready for sale within weeks, start small, as with short downloadable reports or audio recordings of expert interviews.
3. Catch their pulse. What do your customers need most right now? Put your ear to the ground. Listen in on your target market's complaints, questions and wishes where they hang out on email discussion lists and web-based forums. Based on what you hear, add a new product or service or twist an existing one so it clearly connects with their concerns. Let's say that on the financial forums you see more questions than usual from couples nearing retirement or parents with more than one child in college. You could quickly create seminars, reports or telephone hotline hours specifically for those groups.
4. Pursue publicity. Getting media coverage can be as quick as picking up the phone and calling the news desk of your metropolitan newspaper or TV station to explain why you're the local angle to today's big story. Invest a little time to understand what constitutes newsworthiness in the eyes of the media, and pitch your company or yourself in pitch letters and press releases. During a recession, you may have a better shot at earning 15 priceless minutes of fame because competitors may have scaled back on the retainer for their PR firm. Find a cost-effective compromise between writing your own releases and hiring someone to do it for you by Googling "press release makeover service."
Close your ears to those running around complaining that the sky is falling, and instead get to work implementing these recession-smart strategies. You'll look back on the era of gloom and doom with a smile on your face and a nice fat bankroll in your pocket.
Master marketer Marcia Yudkin, author of Meatier Marketing Copy and 14 other books, has been selling information in one form or another since 1981. This article is excerpted from her report, "33 Keys to Thriving During a Recession," which is available as a free download from Recession-Proof Marketing | A Free Report from Creative Marketing Expert Marcia Yudkin .
by Marcia Yudkin
Recession? Hah!
That's the attitude you'll have when you know how to bring new customers in, despite all your competitors wailing about being dead in the water. People and companies have not completely stopped spending. They're just much more selective and risk-averse in what they buy.
If you use these four smart recession-fighting strategies, you'll emerge from the recession just fine.
Four Recession-Be-Darned Marketing Tactics
1. Have a risk-free introductory offer. For example, 1AutomationWiz.com, the online shopping cart I use, offers a free 30-day trial. You sign up, set up the cart and can use it for real transactions without having to pay until the 30th day. (By then, you're hooked!) As a variation on this theme, Changing Course initially charges just $13.55 shipping on its $297 Fast Track Your Dream program. They ship the materials, then begin charging the program fee on day 30. The buyer can ship everything back before day 30, then not be charged. For a non-monthly service, you can get the customer's credit card information or check up front, but promise not to charge the card or to return the check if the customer isn't happy.
2. Develop and sell information products. Information products offer a low-risk, low-commitment way for new customers to get to know, then trust a vendor company. You can sell them to do-it-yourselfers who might not spring for full service as well as to regular customers who want to learn about a new topic area. Not only do the information products provide an additional stream of revenue during the recession, they will continue to do so after the economy picks up again (as it inevitably will) with no additional work. To get products ready for sale within weeks, start small, as with short downloadable reports or audio recordings of expert interviews.
3. Catch their pulse. What do your customers need most right now? Put your ear to the ground. Listen in on your target market's complaints, questions and wishes where they hang out on email discussion lists and web-based forums. Based on what you hear, add a new product or service or twist an existing one so it clearly connects with their concerns. Let's say that on the financial forums you see more questions than usual from couples nearing retirement or parents with more than one child in college. You could quickly create seminars, reports or telephone hotline hours specifically for those groups.
4. Pursue publicity. Getting media coverage can be as quick as picking up the phone and calling the news desk of your metropolitan newspaper or TV station to explain why you're the local angle to today's big story. Invest a little time to understand what constitutes newsworthiness in the eyes of the media, and pitch your company or yourself in pitch letters and press releases. During a recession, you may have a better shot at earning 15 priceless minutes of fame because competitors may have scaled back on the retainer for their PR firm. Find a cost-effective compromise between writing your own releases and hiring someone to do it for you by Googling "press release makeover service."
Close your ears to those running around complaining that the sky is falling, and instead get to work implementing these recession-smart strategies. You'll look back on the era of gloom and doom with a smile on your face and a nice fat bankroll in your pocket.
Master marketer Marcia Yudkin, author of Meatier Marketing Copy and 14 other books, has been selling information in one form or another since 1981. This article is excerpted from her report, "33 Keys to Thriving During a Recession," which is available as a free download from Recession-Proof Marketing | A Free Report from Creative Marketing Expert Marcia Yudkin .