3 Ways to Sail Through a Recession or Downturn
A winning entrepreneur is always looking for ways to pivot her business. She believes in her organisation’s purpose and trusts that clients and followers will be loyal. In fact, she may realise that a financial crunch offers advantages that aren’t around during better economic times. We’re not saying Australia is bound for recession (i.e. a sustained period of weak or no GDP growth), but with the rising costs of living, it might be heading close to an ‘economic crunch’.
Sail through a recession with these simple business marketing tips.
1. Take Your Advertising Dollar Further
When the economy tanks, it makes sense that your marketing and advertising will give less of a return than during good times. Sure, people are more frugal with some things, but you don’t have to have to watch your business profits plummet.
Publishers of digital or print magazines are feeling the economic pain just as much as you are, and some are desperate. It’s the perfect time to negotiate a lower cost on prominent ad space. Every advertising dollar you can save becomes more profit you’ll earn on the products sold.
Although you can’t negotiate with Google Ads, when others stop being prepared to pay high click prices, your average ad cost will come down.
Have you considered attracting some free publicity? Local magazines are always looking for something unique or a local person of interest. Make the news! Publicity can be free, and a wonderful way to get your business in front of more potential clients.
Do your ads all need a full page and a logo? If using the right appeal to ideal customers, short ads may even generate a higher response than large ads with the works. Think about what words convinced you to download your last report or check out a pet store. Try shorter ads, lower cost keywords on CPC, and trim down that advertising bill. Alternatively, go digital with sales pages and use all the words and obstacle fighting you want.
2. Use the Power of Big-Ticket Sales
Not all your customers suffer during a downward time. Remember, there will always be people who thrive, so don’t be afraid to plan some bigger ticket sales offers. I was on a webinar training and the speaker made a membership academy offer of $8,998 – and he made it seem like an absolute steal!
Additionally, when money is tight, people who endorse your product usually will still value it. It’s the value, not the price, that matters.
Think about ways to create groupings of products similar to yours, but with much higher prices. Online marketers often create membership sites and sell their ebook products or training at higher prices than they could get at Amazon. They’ll obviously make fewer sales than a $10 product, but the people who really value the product will buy. For courses or annual memberships, each sale will make a much higher profit, contributing to a much higher bottom line than pre-recession or contraction.
3. Maximise the Clientele You Have
Your clients likely already know you have solid products and provide exemplary service, but they won’t stick around if you forget to keep in touch. Remember, it’s much easier to make sales to clients with whom you already have a working relationship.
A wise man once said, “No matter how many customers you have, each is an individual. The day you start thinking of them as this amorphous ‘collection’ and stop thinking of them as people is the day you start going out of business.” -Dharmesh Shah
What about up-selling? Do you have a service that goes with the product they are purchasing? Offer it to them on the phone call or the checkout. Upselling is an easy way to increase sales revenue. (This is the whole theme behind the online product called Samcart). In a downturn, the additional revenue you can generate from those already buying from you can save your business.
If you’d like to sail through a recession or downturn with a copywriter on board, just speak to Jennifer Lancaster at Power of Words.
