The recession is affecting all local business in different ways but one definite problem is how to advertise your business in a cost effective way and still pull in the orders you need to stay afloat.
Marketing costs can be a huge part of your business expenses and if you do not monitor this in detail you can easily see these costs spiraling out of control and severely affecting your cash flow.
It is a difficult decision to cut your marketing costs and advertising spend though because without any promotion your business will tread water or worse you will lose revenue and your competitors will gain ground on you or even overtake you in the marketplace.
So one activity you can perform is to evaluate your current advertising and marketing plan and work out which activities bring in the customers and which ones are just not working effectively for you.
One good way of doing this is to ask every new customer or contact where they have found your details prior to their communication with you. You will be surprised at the answers I am sure and you may discover that some of your more expensive marketing and advertising activities bring in the least reward.
Most companies nowadays have an internet presence, be it a company website, a blog, twitter or facebook accounts and much more. If you do not have these in place rest assured that your competitors will and before you know it you will be left behind and lose market share.
One effective way of getting your website viewed by prospective customers is article marketing. This consists of having an article written which describes your company and its activities which will include links back to your website. This article is then sent out to hundreds of article networks who have categories for most businesses and you article is then published on their network. As these networks have thousands or even millions of readers you can rest assured that your article will be read and interested people will click the link to your website.
This is what you call cost effective targeted traffic, much cheaper than direct mailshots and faster than any other type of marketing you could use. Within a few hours of your article being published you will have hundreds of people visiting your website each day and then it is up to you to convert these readers into buyers using your usual strategies.
If you haven't tried this type of marketing yet then you are missing out and it could be the difference between you just surviving this year or making a healthy profit and staying in business.