Navigating Business Growth Amidst Economic Downturns

Maximizing Advertising Returns

During economic downturns, the return on your advertising investment may dwindle unless you take proactive measures. Here are some strategies to maintain or even increase your sales volume without inflating your advertising budget:

Negotiate Advertising Costs

In times of economic downturns, advertisers are often hit hard. Many are open to negotiating special discounts to retain your business or to outdo their competitors. Be proactive when placing an ad and ask for a discount or a larger discount if one is already offered.

Optimize Your Ads

Consider reducing the size of your ads to run more without increasing your total cost. You might be surprised to find that some of your shorter ads generate a larger response than your longer ones. For instance, the most effective ad I ever used was only 11 words long.

Leverage Free Publicity

Initiate or expand a publicity program for your business. Publicity can generate sales at a much lower cost than advertising. For instance, find something newsworthy about your business, write about it in a press release, and distribute it to publishers.

Leveraging Existing Customers

Your existing customers already know and trust you. It's easier and less expensive to get more business from them than to attract new prospects. Here are two ways to leverage your relationship with customers to generate additional business:

• Offer Related Products or Services

Identify or develop additional products and services that you can offer to existing customers (and to new prospects). These new offerings should be closely related to those your customers originally purchased from you.

• Encourage Referrals

Ask your customers for referrals and reward them for each referral that becomes a customer. Your reward could be a discount on their next order or a special bonus item. Announce your referral program to customers using low-cost communication tools like email, postcards, or personal phone calls.

Introducing High-Value Offerings

Some of your potential customers may not be affected by a poor economy, or they may even benefit from it. Others may place a higher value on your products or services during economic downturns. These prospects are willing to spend much more with you than your average customer. Don't miss out on this income. Identify or develop additional products or services similar to those you currently offer, but with a much higher price tag.

For instance, an online marketer recently bundled her latest "how-to" book with several eBooks and a "members-only" website. She priced this special package about eight times more than the average order size placed by her customers. Although her number of sales declined during the economic slowdown, her sales volume and net profit continued to grow. The revenue generated by a small number of these high-value sales more than compensated for the dollars she lost due to fewer average-sized sales.

Your business can thrive and grow during an economic slowdown if you make it recession-proof. Use these three proven marketing strategies to start making your business resilient to economic downturns.