How to Market & Promote Your Business During a Recession A presentation for First Bank, San Francisco February 26, 2009 By:
How to GENERATE DEMAND During a Recession A presentation for First Bank, San Francisco February 26, 2009 By:
Why INCREASE Marketing in a Downturn? From the Harvard Business Review: The rationale that a company can afford a cutback in advertising because everybody else is cutting back [is fallacious]. Rather than wait for business to return to normal, top executives should cash in on the opportunity that the rival companies are creating for them. The company courageous enough to stay in the fight when everyone else is playing safe can bring about a dramatic change in market position. Advertising should be regarded not as a drain on profits but as a contributor to profits, not as an unavoidable expense but as a means of achieving objectives. Ad budgets should be related to the company s goals instead of to last year s sales or to next year s promises.
Survey: How are you Marketing Your Business? Who has a logo? Who has a website? Who writes a newsletter? Who runs ads in local papers? Who sends emails? Who sends cards? Who makes speeches? Why blogs? Who networks?
Our Two Cents: Essential Items in Your Marketing Arsenal Professionally designed & printed business card 30-second elevator pitch Professionally designed website (even if it s simple); SEO LinkedIn.com profile One pager PDF Success stories or whitepapers Unique value proposition CRM system for lead tracking Signature on email Three power partners One network group Give at least one referral per week
Use Your Website To Achieve End-to-End Synergy Your demand generation success requires the synergy of all marcom modalities... with the web as nexus Newsletters Case Studies Print Ads The Web Radio/TV Events & Appearances Press Releases Brochures HTML-Based E-mail Direct Mail
Live & Online Networking Choices LIVE Word-of-Mouth Referrals Visit Business Network International (BNI) Visit B2BPowerExchange.com Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce WomenInConsulting.com (WIC) ONLINE Yelp.com Facebook.com LinkedIn.com YahooGroups.com B2BPowerExchange.com YourMarketingLab.com a great resource!
Advertising Ideas Run ads in your local Chamber newsletter Create small space newspaper ads Send HTML/Text emails; like small ads Mail postcards or SendOutCards.com Your business card should be an ad Your Website can be a constantly evolving source of advertising and attract visitors Your infomercial/elevator speech is an ad FREE ADVICE: MarketingSherpa.com, ConstantContact.com
Promotional Ideas Become a shameless self-promoter Put a sandwich board outside your store Slap a sign on your car Mail postcards with a promotional offer: Buy This/Get That Use your Website to promote something with a deadline: For the next 30 days only Use your infomercial/elevator speech as a promotional device Create a promotional memory hook ( During March, I ll be offering a 15% savings )
Direct Response Ideas It is far more cost-effective to market to your current customer base than to prospects Contact all customers over the past 3-5 years ask them if they re still interested in your product or service. If not, why? Mail 3 5 postcards with a promotional offer and a limited timeframe Use your Website to promote something with a deadline: For the next 30 days only Send emails with a promotional offer Be specific in your offer
Sidebar: Create a Blog What is a blog? Wikipedia Why have over 133 million of them been published online? Technorati Who writes them? Who reads them? How can you use the power of a blog to expand your digital footprint, to add daily or weekly updates about your business, to brandyourself, and to sell more of your product or service than you ever imagined? It s easy
Now what? How to Find Customers Look thru your Rolodex; include OLD leads LinkedIn to everyone even if you don t have current info LinkedIn profile should be very specific Givers Gain Promote specific products Google Adwords Freshen materials Do pro-bono work
Now what? How to Find Customers Existing customers are best customers Court your existing customers; send info, buy lunch etc. Contact them as often as possible Create events Read the Business Times Develop partnerships & meet with partners weekly Optimize brand Speak Become indispensable Become a subject matter expert Create and deliver webinars
Words to Live By FOLLOW UP ON ALL LEADS; You never know! Close the LOOP!!!
Q&A Any questions about marketing, getting new clients, or creating your Website? Contact Gil Zeimer gil@zeimer.com 415-491-1058 www.zeimer.com Sharon Schanzer Schanzer@yahoo.com 415.282.2060 www.rldgroup.com