7 Questions to Help You Market in a Meltdown

This is an updated version of an article that originally appeared in December 2007 on the Tatum Marketing blog.

Back in December 2007, “rough economic waters” was more a predication than a reality and preparation was key. Now that those predictions have turned out to be unfortunately true, it’s time to act.

In tough economic times, one of the first “expenses” to get cut is the marketing budget. This is a rookie mistake - even though it’s often made by companies who should know better.

When sales get tight, the last thing you want to do is make it even harder to sell.

When fewer companies are buying - or those that are buying are buying less - you need

• more prospects in your pipeline or
• an even greater effort to develop the prospects you already have or
• both.

Here’s the good part. It actually gets easier to do this because the marketers who aren’t as clever as you are have cut back on their marketing efforts. You’ve got less visible competition.

It’s not a no-brainer though. In tight economic times, it’s more important than ever to make sure your marketing process is as efficient and effective as it can possibly be. To be sure you’re prepared, ask yourself or your marketing people these questions:

1. Is our messaging on target? Are we addressing our prospect’s business needs? Is there anything more we can do to help them sell our product or services internally?
2. Do we know who we want to do business with? Are all of our demand generation tactics aimed at reaching our ideal prospects - and only our ideal prospects - as efficiently as possible?
3. Are we testing all elements of our campaigns to increase conversion rates?
4. Do we hand off good leads to the right sales people immediately?
5. Is our marketing process continuing to develop prospects who aren’t ready to buy yet? Are we helping move them through their buying process?
6. Are we grabbing any non-sales-ready leads from the sales force and putting them into our marketing system?
7. Do we have loose ends - stand-alone marketing efforts that aren’t going anywhere?

Bad economy brings good opportunities

For the smart marketer, an economic downturn can actually provide real opportunities. You’ll find you can negotiate better media rates or get better positioning or otherwise make your dollars go farther.

You may find that your messaging needs to change. That prospects need more hand-holding. That some efforts can be cut without reducing results.

I’m not suggesting that you ignore a downturn in the economy. I’m suggesting that, now that it’s here, the worst thing you can do is shut off your marketing and go into hiding. A smart marketer can turn an economic downturn into a real advantage.