MarketProMBA

In our last segment, Marketing in a Tough Economy – Revisited, we talked about an important business success factor, Customer Retention.  As a recap, we know your current customers are one of your most valuable assets.  Small business owners need to focus energies and resources on keeping these customers happy. Over time, not only do these customers support your business, but inevitably, the hope is they help you gain more customers through their referrals and testimonials. So, besides your current customers referring business to you, how else do you get your name out to the world?  How are you going to get new customers and build your brand?

Many businesses think that getting new customers is a costly venture. When times get tough, businesses will too many times cut their marketing budget when in fact they should be expanding it or at least refining where their marketing money is going.  During tough economic times, your competitors are doing one of three things:

1. They are closing their doors
2. They are scaling back operations or standing still
3. They are increasing their marketing budget & growing market share

There is no doubt that t the economy is going to drive some of your competitors out of business. In my town, I can drive down the road and I see one out of every three businesses that have closed their doors.  It may be more or less where you live, but the reality is they were there one day and gone the next. Yet, there are some businesses that are holding their own.  I have talked to some of these owners and they give me all kinds of stories about how they are cutting budgets, laying off people or taking loans (if they can get them) to stay afloat. Still, there are other businesses that seem to be growing and thriving no matter what the economy looks like.  Are they harboring some sort of a secret about marketing that other businesses don’t know about? 

The truth is the businesses that are thriving in a downturned economy do know a secret.  The secret is simple. Don’t cut your marketing budget. During downturns, some of your competitors could go out of business. Who is going to pick up their market share? If the economy is affecting your business, then isn’t it most likely affecting consumers as well? Current, new and your competitor’s customers could be price shopping or looking for alternatives to your product or service.  How are you attracting these switching customers? It is easy to see why cutting your marketing budget or standing still could hurt your business.  You could be limiting your opportunity to gain new market share.

So, what can a small business owner do to increase their market share during a down economy? Marketing your business doesn’t have to expensive or cost prohibitive. You can actually market your business on less money than you think.  When most people think of marketing, they assume we are talking about advertising.  Well, you are partially right.  Advertising is part of marketing but it isn’t the only thing. I am a firm believer in low budget / no budget marketing for small businesses.  You have probably heard it referred to as Grass Roots marketing or the most familiar term made popular by marketer Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerrilla Marketing. 

The definition of guerrilla marketing is loosely defined as; “unconventional methods of marketing that require a relatively low budget or no money at all”. There are hundreds of ideas you can use to market your business and when we are dealing with a downturned economy and budgets are cut, guerrilla marketing may be your saving grace!

Over the next several weeks, we are going to dive into some guerrilla marketing tactics and ideas. As you are reading some of these ideas, jot down your own thoughts and share them with the readers.  Who knows, you may be harboring the next great marketing secret and you didn’t even know it!  By no means will I be able to teach you all there is to know about guerrilla marketing. As a matter of fact, I highly recommend getting your hands on some of Levinson’s books or do further research on the internet. There are so many great ideas that it will seem a little overwhelming at first, but in time you will find the right marketing tools that work for your business. So let’s look at some tools and get started marketing your business!

Related posts:

1. Keeping Customers in a Tough Economy
2. Marketing In Tough Economy
3. Marketing in a Tough Economy – Revisited
4. Low Cost Marketing Ideas: Bartering
5. Low Cost Marketing Ideas