Guest post by Alexis Bonari

The Fed says we’re in recovery, but there’s no doubt in my mind that there continues to be a great amount of uncertainty about the economy. Looking at various economic indicators like gold futures, gun sales, and home security systems definitely supports this theory. People feel threatened and insecure, and that fear shows up in their spending habits. These are serious considerations marketers need to take into account in order to prosper under these dire circumstances.

We’ve all seen advertising campaigns based in fear, and as much as we may dislike these techniques, they do tend to work. Given the length of time that our current economic troubles have been going on, an increase in consumer awareness, target demographics, and media fatigue this base strategy will not be profitable for every market. A good marketer knows how to make the best of every situation, and what follows is some advice for how to successfully approach these stagnant markets.

1. Think about how your product fulfills your clients’ needs in this type of economy

For us Internet types, this is pretty obvious. Large numbers of unemployed people have taken to the Internet to try and make some cash. For bloggers, this means an increased opportunity for guest posts, for SEOs it means a larger potential client base. This group of people is not necessarily going to be the most Internet savvy crowd, but they need an income; by focusing your marketing strategy on how you can fulfill this need you are sure to win.

2. Think of how you can add value to your brand for this new demographic

With times being as tight as they are, most people, especially unemployed ones are reluctant to spend money on anything that isn’t clear in its returns. An investment of several thousand dollars, which for example, is quite reasonable for professional SEO services, may be out of their reach. If you are a well established SEO you may not want to split your services and lower your perceived value, but there are other avenues you can take to pick up that business without devaluing yourself. Be a little creative in addressing the needs of this demographic in order to convert their visits into sales. For example, stress your past successes in marketing start-ups and small businesses.

3. Learn to effectively manage fear instead of blindly playing into it

Start-ups inherently have a lot of uncertainty, especially for people that haven’t done them before. Successfully mitigating this fear is essential to prospering in this type of economy. While there is no sure fire way to do this, you’re marketing strategy should have it in mind. Prove to your customer base that an investment in your services will result in returns, and be honest with them what kinds of returns they can expect. Remember that this demographic is taking a gamble, and while you might not be able to guarantee their success, since that is dependent on the quality of their own work, you can guarantee the quality of the service you provide.

About the author
Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and researcher for College Scholarships, where recently she’s been researching environmental scholarships as well as political science scholarships. Whenever she gets some free time, she enjoys watching a funny movie or curling up with a good book.

The Businessmagnet.co.uk solution

In troubled economic times when companies assassinate their marketing and advertising budgets, you’d expect companies in this industry to talk about how there’s no business and loss is lurking along their way. Yet in this very time and day, Businssmagnet.co.uk, online business directory from the UK, reported steady growth, a solid influx of new customers and a great, strengthened relationship with companies already working with them. I wanted to know more about their approach to business, as it is driving them up, right through the rough economic clutter. Lee Cheesman (see photo), Businessmagnet.co.uk Director was kind enough to answer a few questions.

While advertising budgets are being grossly cut down, Businessmagnet keeps growing. What’s your secret recipe?

Whilst we have seen a different trend throughout the advertising industry, we have been surprised by the number of businesses that have taken a proactive approach with the current economic situation, many businesses actually increasing their advertising spend, especially within the online sector. We too have taken a proactive approach to ensuring that our Directory is as streamlined and effective as ever. We have increased our web prominence and introduced a better system to keep our contact frequent with our customers.

Why is a directory listing a better option than other forms of online advertising?

A directory is quite a broad term that encapsulates many types of online advertising, there are so many things to look out for when advertising on the internet, some directories ticking all the plus points some completely missing the point. If a directory starts out by thinking they are going to be the next big search engine or is naïve enough to believe they will be used over some of the big names, Google, Yahoo etc… then they are starting out with the wrong attitude. The core focus has to be around the current aforementioned big names. How can we harness that traffic, those customers…those searchers. When a directory starts to realise the potential for tapping into this resource, it is then the directory becomes a viable advertising platform.

What should a company expect after starting to work with Businessmagnet in terms of results?

Results vary depending on spend, but on the whole, valid, qualified leads are a cert. We record all activity on our directory and are one of only a few who are registered with ABCE, a website statistics auditing body. We supply the tools to collaborate enquiries via Businessmagnet and are always able to reconcile our statistics with customer log files. A result doesn’t always necessarily mean money, sometimes we talk about results in the search engines we achieve for customers. We only utilize the organic or natural results in the search engines as they are proven to be more widely used than the CPC (cost per click) advertisements….Google actually said this themselves.

Is Businessmagnet a better fit for certain types of companies? Or do your services work regardless of industry segment?

The highly qualified leads we generate can be tailored to specific industries, however, manufacturing and industrial related companies seem to reap the benefits to the extreme, gaining those all important orders which can lead to hundreds of thousands in revenues. We have many different types of business advertising on our Business Directory, all are happy with our service which proves we can deliver the goods to any type of business.

What’s next for Businessmagnet? Any new features or expansions coming soon?

We are always implementing new features on the Directory, its almost a daily occurrence. We are always expanding and have been since 2004, taking on new staff, increasing the directories content. We feel we have the infrastructure just right now, but watch out for a new site freshen up late summer.

Disclosure: While Businessmagnet.co.uk is not one of my clients, they do advertise on WoBM. When researching who they were before starting our collaboration, I ran accross their press release announcing steady growth and wanted to find out how exactly they managed to achieve it. Hence the interview, hope you’ve enjoyed it

A couple of weeks ago, I went to an interview with one of my clients. We were meeting an IT journalist who was working for a local business magazine. We met, the interview went great, the story was supposed to be included in a future edition of the magazine.

We even sent some photos after the interview, as there was no photographer available for that interview. And then we waited. It was a 2-week wait. But after just one week, we heard that he magazine had been shut down. Most employees had been fired, a few of them had been transferred to a different business magazine of the same group.

This is the third magazine that’s closed down since last autumn. Will more follow? Should we get used to not have our clients’ stories published not because they’re not good enough, but because there’s no newspaper/magazine to publish it in?

Crisis, depression, downturn – no matter how you put it, the feelings the current situation generates are the same: fear, panic, pessimism. Stories of layoffs and closed doors hit us on every channel: TV, newspapers, blogs, email lists at work, water cooler stories of what’s happening in other companies. I won’t link to any of these stories, I don’t want to help the general depression feeling grow.

The best advice anyone can give you is not to panic and not to give in to feeling depressed. You might have heard this particular piece of advice before, but you should repeat it to yourself daily, use it as some sort of personal mantra. Why? Because panic makes you stop thinking and because depression keeps you from seeing the opportunities lying right in front of you. As we all know, fortunes do not evaporate, they merely get redistributed. No matter how dire it all looks, we are far from having no options at all.

I am not trying to say you’ll wake up tomorrow and it will all be gone, but there’s nothing the right attitude and positive thinking can’t solve. It will definitely be harder, everything is shaky and most of what you have planned will be postponed, but as long as we’re still breathing, there is a way out.

So tell yourself you’re going to have a good year in 2009, that whatever comes your way, you’re more than able to handle it and you’re off to a great start. For everything else, business strategy, marketing, PR, effective sales schemes, all adapted to an economic downturn, there’s always a search engine to help! Focus on the right blogs, and you’ll find the food for thought you need.