Marketing Mindset When Times Are Tough
by: Karen Scharf, Small Business Marketing
ShareWhen the economy gets tough, an ironic thing happens… people stop marketing their business and services. I call it ironic because now is the best time to ramp up your marketing, not cut back on it.
As an entrepreneur, I’ll bet that you, too, are tempted to scale back on your marketing activities. When you’re in unchartered waters, it’s a natural reaction to do what everyone is doing. If you’re new to business, and you see all your competitors cutting back on marketing, you automatically assume that’s the right thing to do.
And marketing when times are tough can feel just plain ol’ “icky”. You see people around you struggling, you hear about job layoffs and house foreclosures and constant doom and gloom, and it feels a little weird to ask people to do business with you.
But that’s because you’re looking at marketing wrong. Instead of a “you give me money” attitude, you need to adopt an “I give you value” attitude.
I’m sure you’ve heard it before – and you’ve probably noticed it yourself – even in these “tough times” people are still spending money. And they’re spending on more than just the essentials. In fact, a few weeks ago when I took a trip to the Indianapolis Zoo, it was absolutely jam packed. There were so many people there, we couldn’t even find a place to sit down at lunch time. We had to get to the dolphin show 30 minutes early just to make sure we could get in. And you can hardly call a trip to the zoo a necessary purchase. In fact, by the time you add up parking, entrance tickets, overpriced lunch, show tickets, souvenirs… it can almost qualify as a luxury purchase.
So why was the zoo so crowded? Well, it was early spring, the weather was starting to get nice, people were looking for an excuse to get out of the house, and the zoo had recently run an amazing advertising campaign. Every other attraction in town had cut back on advertising, so when it came time to choose an activity, the Zoo was forefront on everyone’s mind.
You see, when everyone else around you is reducing their marketing for “budgetary” reasons, increasing your marketing by a mere 10% will make you rise so far above the crowd, there will be no competition. When a prospect needs your services, you will be the only option she considers, since you will be the only option in front of her.
During tough times, you might be tempted to lower your price to make your marketing feel less invasive. But don’t do it! There are so many reasons not to lower your price, I could turn that discussion into an entire book (If you want to work through your pricing situation, become a member of Entrepreneur’s Accountability Club; we’ll be discussing and determining price in a future meeting.) Rather than focusing on price, focus on value.
The majority of shoppers do not buy based on price alone. Remember, there are many more stores out there that are *not* Walmart. What your customer is really looking for is value.
I heard a great explanation of value given by Don Taylor of Minding Your Own Business. As he explains it, value is like a seesaw. Price is one side and quality and quantity are on the other. As long as you can balance the seesaw, or tip it toward the quality end, your customers will buy.
Your job as an entrepreneur is to create value. And then promote that value. And then promote that value just a little bit more, especially as your competitors are cutting back. You’ll soon rise above the crowd and your business will flourish.
Now, go find some more clients!
I’m looking forward to watching your business grow !
Karen Scharf
