Have You Reduced Your Advertising In This Economy?

Because of the sluggish economic today, local businesses not only in Tucson, but everywhere are slashing their budgets to make ends meet. A typical (but disturbing) business trend is that they think they can make it through these hard economic times by drastically reducing their advertising or worse yet,  not advertise at all. Personally this mentality leaves me scratching my head and leaves me wondering what business school taught that way of thinking.

Savvy business owners don’t run & hide when the economy slows, they see opportunity. They do not think of decreasing their advertising, in fact many see the value in increasing advertising budgets. When the economy is good, people spend openly. When the economy takes a turn for the worse, people’s buying habits change. Experienced business owners search for the new trends in consumer spending. A sluggish economy means consumers will look for ways to save money, while maintaining the same level of product quality. Therefore, brand loyalty is not as relevant anymore. What’s most important is finding a brand that caters to consumer wants, while satisfying needs.

If anything, marketing is more important now than it ever was. People are willing to try different products. If they are satisfied with these new products, there won’t be a reason to switch back once the economy gets better. Aggressive advertising and marketing will put your products in front of the consumer when they are looking to find that great new product.

How can you find these consumers? Get them online! With every dollar being more important than before, consumers are researching almost every purchase they make. In fact recent survey’s have shown that over 70% of consumer search online for local businesses, products or services prior to making any purchase decisions. Serious thought is now put into everything from what toilet paper brand to buy to where to eat dinner to what model of car to drive.

Online advertising can be done most economically through search engine optimization. It does not involve a lot of money toward advertising, and the people it drives to your website are better qualified leads if keyword research is done properly. Now is the time for your business website to be thinking about Search Engine Optimization. Local businesses such as TucsonMerchant.com are here to help implement and handle your SEO for you. Good internet marketing firms will get to know your company and products, and work with you to determine the best strategy to implement and monitor your SEO campaign. Taking this route will free your time up to work on other things, and you’ll get regular reports and advice on the progress and direction of your site.

More customers, better results, less cost….just what any local business experiencing this sluggish economy needs.

Other ways to reduce costs in today’s economy:

• Increasing your "marketable customer database" but implementing a "customer capture campaign" with proven permission based email marketing. "The money is in the list", as your marketable database list grows, so does your business. Recent survey’s show local small business reporting an average return of $43.08 on every dollar spent on an effective email marketing campaign.
• Fixing your broken or ineffective business website. Build new, or Re-Design, either way your business websites need to meet the demands of this Internet crazed society we live in today. Can new & existing customers easily find your business on the Internet? A well designed, easy to navigate, information packed business website turns visitors into paying customers.
• Get your business and your advertising out in front of "targeted customers" by Geo-Targeting your advertising per zip code….yes, per zip code! No more wasted advertising dollars spent on un-targeted marketing. Link to your website, add photo’s, menu’s, logo’s & maps with directions to your front door. All for less Value-Pak Mailers" or any other local form of advertising. Up to 50% less in most cases.

Now, take your newly designed business website, stuffed full of information, marketing features & SEO techniques…..Add the power of an effective permission based email / newsletter campaign, capturing all those new visitors to your website, adding them to your marketable database….with an effective, efficient Geo-Targeted Advertising Campaign.

That makes for an extremely powerful marketing campaign, one that produces better results & saves you money!

Contact TucsonMerchant.com today and bring better results to your local small business marketing plans. Call 520-797-0572, ask for Ken.

Or visit our website at www.tucsonmerchant.com, fill out the contact form & we will set up a 100% risk free appointment to discuss your business needs.

If you wish, you may email me for more information: kenperry@tucsonmerchant.com 

I look forward to hearing from you. Congratulations on making a smart business decision.