It is proven that in times of hardship successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies they adapt them. This is especially true with your service industry marketing campaigns. Here is a quick guide to the things you can implement to make sure your business survives the recession. 1. The potential that lies in existing customers
Your best immediate sources of additional profits and increased business are your existing customers. These are the people who you’ve already invested time, energy and money with you to create a relationship. It usually between five to ten times easier to get an existing customer to buy from you again, than it is to get someone to buy from you for the first time.
2. Developing your service industry marketing strategy
Growth has nothing to do with the size of your business. It’s about how many customers and prospects you can market to. This is not the time to cut marketing spend. It is well documented that businesses who increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share at lower cost than during good economic times. You need to be aware that marketing efforts require careful planning and, in order to you assess your return on investment and effectively plan future marketing, you must keep a record of the sales generated as a result of your campaigns.
3. Data Capture
Build a mailing list. This will enable you to target your campaigns more effectively. Collecting the names is the hard part, so give your prospects a reason for them to provide you with their name and address – competitions, discounts, maybe even a loyalty card. Work at keeping your list accurate and up to date. Try to get hold of email addresses as well as email is cheaper and more versatile than postage.
4. The power of Email
Many businesses still do not collect the email addresses of everyone who contacts them. Every time a business fails to capture someone’s email address they’re turning down the opportunity to contact them for FREE, for weeks, months and years ahead. Once you have Email Addresses – use them!
5. The Web
Technology helps to simplify working life, yet many businesses are reluctant to adopt new forms of communication. Consider the impact of a website showing photos of all your best work, compared to a simple price list or leaflet.
6. Advertising
It is essential that you measure the response to all of your advertising in order to evaluate whether or not it represented a viable investment and to shape your future investment decisions. It is worth asking how many people responded to your ad, how many of those were converted to a sale, what’s that worth to you? People don’t buy your product or service. They buy the benefits that your product or service offers them. So spend some time getting clear on what exactly your benefits are – and then make sure that you articulate them precisely in all of your communications.
7. Promotions
Customers will be shopping around for the best deals. You do not necessarily have to cut list prices but you may need to offer more temporary price promotions. Targeted and personalized promotions are more cost efficient than just sending out one generic campaign.
8. Rewarding loyalty
Start a loyalty program. The customer gets a good deal, you get a keen customer. Invite your regulars to trial new products and treatments at a reduced cost, you could target this promotion based on client’s purchase history. TIP: Customers are naturally dubious of sales offers so frame the offer as a “thank you” for their loyalty.
