So what do you do in a recession?

The best thing to do is to take action. Why?

Because action cures fear.

So here’s a few ideas that you can put into action so as to project your business forward.

MINE YOUR DATABASE

In a recession, there is an ever increasing pressure to seek out new ways to generate more and more business. It causes many businesses to look outside for more business, which is not a bad thing, but may I suggest that during a recession it may be a good time to look inside – to look at the valuable database that you have developed during the good times and dig deep into that database in the not so good times.

Of course we need to continue to be on the look out for new customers, but there may have been a whole group of people that you have been talking to, emailing eNewsletters to, providing valuable information to, talked to and even developed a relationship with over time that you should be talking to yet again. Solve their problems and I can guarantee that they would rather deal with someone that they have spent some time developing trust with than someone who walks in cold off the street.

USE ONLINE MARKETING

In the online world marketing is being approached from a totally different angle to the traditional methods of offline marketing. Television advertisements are being answered by Viral Youtube videos , print media by rss feeds and cold calling by better Google rankings. Blogs, social media and search engine optimisation are providing a more effective and measurable way of creating more traffic, more leads and more sales.

For example , if you’re a chocolate manufacture, you can create a blog that explains the different types of chocolates, the range of special chocolate events organised around key celebratory days throughout the year such as Easter, Christmas, Father’s Day etc., include some videos of the processes involved in making certain types of chocolates etc. If the information is written interestingly enough, traffic will flow to your Blog. Being search engine optimised will drive it to page one on Google. This will in turn drive more customers to your site. And to drive even more traffic you can use the resources of Twitter and Facebook that allow people to share more about your website, and thus in turn create even more traffic.

FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF WHAT GOOD RETAILERS ARE DOING

Mr Scott Silverman executive director of shop.org has recently stated that through ‘developing social media marketing….many merchants see big opportunities to spread a positive message about their brand for relatively low cost.’

Some large retailers are encouraging bloggers to test their products and write about them on their sites. He also adds that ‘they’re like ambassadors, and that businesses active online remain optimistic – and it’s safe to say that it continues to be a bright spot in the economy.’

So get to action…..online action!