Stand and fight!

Is it me or has the whole world decided to retreat into its shell, lick its wounds and wait for an early death? I can’t help but notice that I haven’t received a mailshot in weeks, the phone doesn’t ring with any sales calls (pleased about that) and other than Amazon & Boden even email seems a bit quiet. For goodness sake, ok it’s depressing, yes – business is difficult, but come on, let’s rise to the challenge fellow business folk! If marketing’s the first thing to go, then you can join the death march now. If you’re ready to fight for your business, here’s a few ideas to try out.

1/ Buddy up
It’s hard enough out there on your own. There’s so many complimentary services, make the most of partnering up. If you’re a repairs garage, partner with a tyres company, offer incentives to each other’s customer base and set up kick backs between you. Likewise, a cleaning company with plant hire, stationery supplier with telecom services, carpets with curtain shops, theatre with comedy store... you get the idea.

2/ Think positive, humorous, refreshing
Take a leaf out of ‘Compare the Meerkat’s’ book. They could have easily talked about getting the best deal to save money in ‘this economic climate’.. yawn. But they didn’t and the result is something a little left field and thank god something humorous. When it’s doom and gloom all round, we all breathe a sigh of relief to see something a little light hearted and can’t help but engage with it. So when you’re designing your flyer, online listing, new web page, email campaign – try something different and think upbeat.

And if you’re ready to go a step further, think ‘guerilla’, how can I take something different to the streets at lunchtime when footfall is busiest?

3/ Up the social media ante
It’s free, it’s easy and it’s really effective. If you haven’t already joined Twitter and Linked In and set a blog, now’s a good time to do so. It works wonders to improve your Google rankings and enables you to put your message in front of literally thousands of people. Look for the groups that match your target audience and offer something of value not just a sales pitch. Keep participating and add lots of links to your site with complimentary info / material. With Twitter, use a Twitter feed. Econsultancy is currently running an experiment to feature all Tweeters that mention its name on its home page. They’ll be releasing a feed soon. Add it to your website.

4/ Avoid the discount downward spiral
We’ve seen the shops go from 10% off to 25, 50 and now 75% discount, but still the stock isn’t shifting. Discounts are old news. There’s no incentive to buy NOW, because the discount will be there tomorrow. My advice is to look at alternative ways to really ADD VALUE. Think differentiation – I need the customer to buy from me not my competitor. What can I offer that will make them do that. I got a spare but basic mobile phone free with a pay as you go SIM on top of the smart phone I got when I took my mobile phone contract out – handy if I lose/break mine, useful for a small business who may need an extra phone quickly. Good and different selling point that wouldn’t cost the reseller much (old stock for example).

5/ Get personal
Knowing exactly what your customers are thinking is absolutely vital. So make sure you don’t miss a trick. Be your customer’s best friend (phone, lunch, event etc). Find out what’s going on, how they feel and how that’s impacting their buying decisions. That way you’ll stay one step ahead of the competition.

Be prepared to adapt your product/package/service. Don't keep flogging a dead horse. If it's not selling, change it, repackage it, reposition it. Listen to your customers / prospects and test it out on them. Look for general patterns and trends among your customers.

Don't give in even if it looks dire. If your client takes its service in-house, develop something to suit that model... what can you offer to support an in-house strategy – training, on call support, a quarterly audit, support materials?

I could go on for years here, but it’s already long! Over and out for now.