COMMENTS
The economy is still sound, its the financial sector, housing and lending & auto's that is hurting (22% of GDP) which is hurting. Most areas of the economy will do ok, but being ahead of the curve for driving more qualified buyers is always a good investment
Great insight, Rick. I agree 100%. What we're seeing across the board with our client base is a shift away from traditional advertising towards more measurable and effective strategies, such as SEO, PPC, blogging and content marketing. They're not cutting the overall marketing budget, just looking for smarter ways to invest their resources.
Marketing activities with measurable ROI makes sense. But, don't change based on logic. They change when they need to. I think the doubts about the economy will get lazy marketers to start doing what they should've been doing the last few years: measurable ROI driven marketing.
Great advice and post. We're doing the same and just making weekly goals of getting more and more traffic to our site. This economy is forcing us to do things we should have done awhile back, such as focus even more on implementing SEO and driving traffic to our site.
One of our strategies will be to create useful and engaging tools/microsites that gain recognition for our brand and eventually push people to our site. Very similar to your strategy with Website Grader
Rick, the Sequoia data looks about the same, but it also shows that the growth in the online ad spend is slowing. In other words that 17.4% is declining.
If outbound marketing is about the thickness of your wallet, inbound marketing is about the thickness of your brain. In hard economic times when you get your budget slashed, you should shift your resources from linear, expensive outbound marketing to non-linear, inexpensive inbound marketing.
Good post - enjoyed it. More
than ever...
You know, we all drink the kool-aid & it is easy to agree and praise but the real challenge is to take this up the ladder to the "old dogs/new tricks" group.
Untill they start reading, listening to us on the lower rungs and toasting the good toast our SM/NM value and skills can be the baby thats thrown out with the bathwater.
I have learned two things in Corporate America this past year: start from w/in the org & take baby steps.
Rick, This is the time when the savvy on-line producer prepares for the turnaround. Getting your product or service in front of the eyes of the demographic you are targeting is critical. As yo usaid, the weak company will fade, while the agile, forward-planning companies will thrive in the next growth spurt. Look how quickly the stock market turned around. Savvy investors bought low-priced stocks, and the very next day the market improved 900+ points. The emotional roller-coaster-ride most people decide to attach themselves to with investments and on-line marketing strategies, are quick to bail-out during a market slide. We need to get to the essential part of our businesses, and line-out the game plan looking for the brass ring consistently. I don't even watch the news media anymore, never enough good news for me to waste my time with the bad. Respectfully, Nicholas Chase
Economy is not sound. Banks, home builders started the mess but it is spreading to other parts of the economy. That being said only the fittest will survive and the economy hopefully can recover again. I have cut back on all advertising and focus strictly on organic searches and creating content.
Learn how the economy is effecting your customers and create a marketing message around that.
I definitely agree with you Rick. The only thing I would add is to have an eye towards targeted marketing. Some may argue that only certain segments of the economy are in crisis but Americans collectively are worried and businesses are definitely tightening budgets. To me, targeted inbound marketing means publishing specific, keyword rich, relevant content (through your blog, press/media releases, etc.). Long tail keyword optimization also definitely plays a part in this.
I know I might get heckled for saying this, but outbound marketing has its place too in times like these. Use the data you already own in our in-house database. You have to be sure you are segmenting your in-house database and sending extremely relevant messages to each segment. Keep in mind that if this is an opt-in list, you are not interrupting them and offering compelling content will only strengthen your relationship.
If your business has up-selling and cross-selling opportunities, now is the best time to start a current customer marketing program. These people you should know very well (your customer is a person not a company), making it easy to find and deliver relevant content to them.
In the end, it is not about reaching buyers; it is about reaching the right buyers. I think it takes a mix of targeted inbound and outbound strategies to drive revenue, at least that is how 80% of new ReachForce (my company) customers come from marketing.
I would like to know more on your quote: "We're in the process of starting a new effort to optimize lower-level site and blog pages for long-tail keywords related to our business." thanks
Rick Excellent review, people has made a fuss out of current economic crisis and instead of trying to get out of this, they are selling their stories ...
I started by web business in February of this year. The silver lining to a recession is that if you can survive it, you are in great shape when the economy recovers.
We worked hard on creating a permission based email database, while the economy was in better shape. We have changed our monthly newsletter, to semi-monthly and now to weekly.
I also agree fully with the other comments you have made. I don't have a huge marketing budget so from the start we have had to focus on content, social marketing and our organic rankings.
We've reached out to past customers, since most people return to the known and familiar during tough times. That requires consistent contact and meaningful content. Newsletter are a great means for staying in touch, as well as adding former clients to your social network sites such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, etc.
Another strategy is to re-examine pricing to make sure there are multiple options for purchasing products and services. Is there an alternative payment plan you can offer? Can you self finance? If time is your inventory, then working for future cash flow is better than working for none. Is it possible to work for part cash/part equity?
Another great time investment is article writing for sites such as EzineArticles.com and IdeaMarketers.com. Your expertise will get you exposure on web sites, newsletters and publications in exchange for an author's bio link at the end of the article. This increases both inbound traffic and Google page rank. And the article readers view you as an expert in your field (vs. another online advertiser)
In short, if it's not time to harvest, then plant. If you've planted all you can, then water. If you're done watering, then have faith in your efforts and wait.
i'm newbie in bloging, i will try your advise, it seem great.. thank.
Regretfully my company is following the classic strategy of making their marketing role redundant, i.e. me.... They actually do not understand marketing and therefore think that it is a waste of money.
I have told them that this is the biggest mistake they make at this time and instead of cutting back on marketing concentrate on more cost effective ways of marketing. Again I have outlined alot of what is in this post to increase our profile on the web, but again they just do not 'GET IT'
and yes the website is terrible.... need I say more
I sure wish more people would understand this.
I have been intrigued for over a year now with the knowledge base of Hubspot. Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed (Proverbs 15:22).
Blogging is a great idea but I'm still confused about blogging, is it better to blog on the same site I use for business, or should I just get a blog from blogger, wordpress or alike?
We need to double our efforts now that the economic pain is starting to bite our pockets.
Great info, insight. In b2B IT sector, I feel budget cuts will force Collective collaboration with ecosystem alliance partners & other b2b companies who sell to same target markets. Non-linear 'referral marketing" in person or web, + traditional outbound that complements the "social" relationshsips that "in-bound" identifies. Marketingsherpa survey reportsed that 52% IT buyers put a vendor on a short list as a result of a "telephone cold call". And in person events still rank No1 in the leadgen area- however focussed collaboration betweenn alliance partners can really increase the ROI and content value of a "mini-trade show/seminar".
Whether the economy is good or bad, you can't stop marketing and advertising your business.
Rick - agree with your analysis but not your solution to point 1. I don't think it is enough to create better, relevant content. Relevance occurs after the fact - something is relevant when you know you want it. There is a need to create desire. There are huge economic benefits from the residual effect of "irrelevant" content.
I often use Vice magazine as an example - some sports brands (and American Apparel) need that type of media to exist as much as Vice needs advertisers to fund it. Imagine if Nike put it's entire press budget into publishing? How much more vibrant would the media be?
Rick--Appreciated your comment on our
post about the accelerating ad spending depression. And I also appreciate your suggested solutions. We have a saying at Story Worldwide that the goal of the advertising age was 2% conversion, but the key to the post-advertising age is 98% engagement. Telling compelling stories that attract attention and get you found is always a far more efficient and effective strategy than spraying a shallow message across TV and praying for the best (since you can't measure the result even if it were to work by some miracle). This will continue to be true, of course, whether there is a depression in progress or times are booming.
Great article! Social media has become such a huge thing and it continues to expand. Those who really learn how to use it, as well as social bookmarketing, will really be able to leverage its potential. When done right, social media can create a viral effect on marketing.
really great information...example wise as well as information wise..
keep blogging...
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