In a bad economy, people tend to buy only the things they need - not the things they want. This means your marketing probably needs to change. Most likely, you’re a “nice to have”. You’ve got to become a “need to have”. Seth Godin calls for changing your perception so you can change your story.
Marketing in a Recession [via Seth Godin's Blog].
As more and more marketers are discovering, press releases are a good way to increase your website traffic without much in the way of out-of-pocket costs. But with an average of more than 2000 press releases issued every business day, you’ve got to do more than just write a release. Sarah Evans has some good suggestions for steps to help make sure your release gets a good ranking on the search engines.
Ten Ways ot Make Press Releases More SEO Friendly [via Mashable].
Consumers are telling researchers that free shipping is a critical buying factor these days. In a recent comScore study, 72% of consumers said that if an e-commerce site eliminated free shipping, they would switch to a site that offers free shipping. The LA Times found that nearly 80% of consumers are more likely to shop with an online merchant who offers free shipping than one who doesn’t.
Is Free Shipping a Must in this Economy? [via FutureNow].
When the economy is soaring, some businesses can get by without too much marketing. Such is not the case in bad times. Take the housing market for example. When things were hot, house and trade suppliers had all the business they could handle. Now they’re scrambling and web marketing looks good. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to get your marketing going.
More Businesses Using Web Marketing in Poor Economy [via Wall Street Journal Digital Network].
It’s hard to keep an Aussie down, and a November surge in consumer confidence among Australians could be good news for companies selling to this market.
Aussie Consumer Confidence Up Despite Economic Meltdown [via The National Business Review].
Sounds counterintuitive to even think about increasing prices at a time when people are cutting back on buying, but sometimes you have no choice. Rising costs, for example, will make you choose between a price increase or a profit decrease. Will a price increase cause people to stop buying from you? Not if they see the value of your product or service. The alternative is to leave your prices the same and lower the cost of what you’re selling. Paul B Brown provides input from a half dozen experts.
Not a Bad Time for Small Businesses to Raise Prices [via NYTimes.com]
A new report from Google takes some of the mystery out of search engine optimization. This is not a tool for SEO professionals - or anyone charged with getting good positions on Google. It’s way too basic for that. But it is a handy way for the uninitiated to get a quick overview of the fundamentals. Good for company owners, web marketing newbies or anyone who is investing money in SEO without doing the work themselves.
According to Dr. Gary Lilien, who co-wrote a 2005 report titled “… Does Proactive Marketing during a Recession Pay Off?”, companies must have three characteristics to succeed by increasing marketing in a financial crisis:
Should You Up Your Marketing During a Recession? [via BNET Intercom].
Bryan Eisenburg, writing for ClickZ, tells us that innovation and doing more with less are the keys to surviving the financial crisis. Not a surprise, but he’s right. We must find ways to offer our customers greater value at less cost to them and to ourselves.
Online Marketers Can Weather the Financial Crisis [via ClickZ].
From oDesk comes a great list of ten ways to do more with less. Not all of them are marketing related, but what the heck? We have to run our businesses too.
Budget Salvation! 10 Ways That Less Does More [via oDesk Blog]
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