Bear Marketing: Smarter Marketing Strategies in a Tough Economy

Yes, yes, we know: "Times are tough." The U.S. has entered a bear market which may or may not drag on, the world continues to cope with pandemic-related issues, and global conflict has made its own mark on an already ugly picture. But if you've been in business for decades, you've seen several pretty grim patches come and go. So how do you keep your head above water, or even thrive, during a tough economy? How do you market your brand to consumers and businesses reluctant to open their wallets? Let's look at some smart ways to make your marketing dollar work harder for you.

Maintain (or Boost) Your Marketing Investment

It may sound counterintuitive, but sometimes you need to increase your marketing investment to get more bang for your marketing buck. Sure, you can cobble together something resembling a DIY marketing campaign, but if that bailing-wire-and-string approach doesn't bring in more business, how have you helped your financial picture? (In reality, you've probably damaged your business further by taking yourself away from other vital tasks to focus on those unsuccessful tactics.) Now's the time to bite the bullet, consult a marketing strategist, and take whatever steps that marketing strategist advises to turn your marketing budget into an income generator instead of a boondoggle.

Resist the urge to cut back on your marketing -- unless you want to see your customer base shrink to microscopic levels. During the big economic crunch of 2008, the businesses that curtailed their marketing saw some short-term benefits. But once the recession ended, those businesses found themselves way behind their competitors who had continued to market themselves consistently and aggressively.

Emphasize Digital Marketing

Traditional marketing methods haven't gone the way of the dodo by any means. Print marketing still matters for reaching certain chunks of your target market that digital marketing might not impact. However, those chunks are getting smaller and smaller as more and more shoppers rely on their computers and mobile phones to find the products and services they need. It only makes sense, then, to shift your marketing focus toward the digital world if you want to grab new buyers' attention and maintain current buyers' loyalty.

Digital marketing holds another money-saving advantage over print marketing: the lack of material costs. When you think about how much money you might have to sink into printing and mailing on a traditional print marketing campaign, you can see how digital marketing allows you to tighten your belt without pinching your marketing power.

Seek Discounted Media Buys

Do you market your company through TV, radio, and billboards? These media options can work well, but they can also cost a ton of money. Your first instinct might be to drop these options from your overall marketing plan -- but before you do, consider the possibilities of getting some amazing deals in the current environment. Billboard and media providers are likely hurting as some of their clients pull away from these channels, so try pushing for special deals and discounts. You might be amazed at how much more media time and space you can buy for what you've paid in the past (or even less).

Make Your Content More Compelling

Remember the point about investing in smarter marketing strategies to get better value from your efforts? Well, the same goes for the content that drives your marketing. If your marketing content doesn't attract new eyeballs, inspire confidence, and compel sales, you might as well not do any marketing at all (and you can imagine how well that would work out for you). Instead of hacking away at your content writing attempts or allowing your current so-so content to keep doing nothing for you, you need to invest in professional marketing content creation. 

Fortunately, copywriting counts as one of the cheaper parts of an effective marketing plan even as it helps you persuade your audience to part with their own money. Best of all, you can hire a freelance copywriter on an as-needed basis instead of adding a new employee to your payroll. Contact me today so I can help your company bear up under this bear market!

Make These Marketing Resolutions for a Happier, More Profitable New Year

Are you ready for 2022? If you weren't entirely satisfied with certain aspects of your life this year, you may be cooking up some New Year's resolutions to straighten them out in the coming 12 months -- from those extra few pounds that somehow snuck up on you to certain personal limitations you'd like to transcend. If you run a business, you may feel like making some adjustments that could boost your revenue, client loyalty, or brand reach. In that case, take a look at four marketing resolutions you should consider adding to your list.

"Resolved: I Will Network."

Yes, the world of networking received a major blow when COVID drove business leaders indoors for months at a time. Even now, many networking organizations and networkers have felt leery about diving back into the world of face-to-face conversations (not to mention all those handshakes). But at the same time they hate to give up on it entirely, since networking has proven itself an invaluable means of self-promotion in the past for countless organizations.

Fortunately, you can still network in 2022, even if you're just doing it from your computer. Online, Zoom-based networking events have taken up the slack during the pandemic, and it looks like many of those events and platforms are here to stay. Do a search for options in your area (or nationwide, if your business can benefit from that scope), sign up for the events that look good to you, and spend a healthy chunk of next year building new connections with the businesspeople you need to know.

"Resolved: I Will Re-Examine My Target Audience."

Has your target audience changed recently? As businesses change and evolve, they sometimes find themselves serving different industry verticals, niche markets, and customer demographics. If you haven't examined your buyer personas in a while, go over them with a fine-toothed comb and decide whether you need to shift your marketing strategies toward a different section of the population. 

If you never created a buyer persona in the first place (or you have no idea what I'm talking about), it's time to get acquainted with this important marketing tool. Collect and sort all your customer data until you have a clear fictionalized picture of the individuals most likely to respond to your products or services. Now you can tweak your marketing for optimal success with these future buyers.

"Resolved: I Will Update My Brand Content."

Even if your target audience won't change much in 2022, your current brand may no longer resonate with that audience as it once did, or it may not communicate your organization's current vision, mission, and values effectively. Examine your website, social media channels, blog feed, print marketing pieces, sales letters, email articles, and other marketing content with an objective eye. Does it all still look and sound like it should? Is the information still accurate and relevant in light of your business's ongoing growth and product/service offerings? Have you added entire new "wings" to your organization without adjusting your marketing efforts accordingly?

You still have time to update your web pages, redesign your logo or the overall look of your brand, and create all-new sales pieces that get the word out about the new and improved you. This facelift may not only bring new customers to you in 2022 but also infuse your team with fresh energy and enthusiasm.

"Resolved: I Will Blog Regularly."

Many of the New Year's resolutions people make represent activities that they've been meaning to do (or do better) for years. For lots of businesses, blogging falls into that self-improvement category. you know you should be blogging. You know blogging can boost your business in multiple ways. But blogging takes thought, planning, and good old-fashioned hard work, taking you away from the many other marketing plates you must keep spinning.

Put those objections aside this year by hiring a professional copywriter to help you decide on blog topics and create a steady stream of blog articles all ready for posting on your preferred schedule. Whether you want to establish your authority in your field, promote the latest and greatest your business has to offer, or increase your Internet footprint, blogging can help you make 2022 your best year ever -- at least until 2023 tops it!

Take a "Back to School" Approach to Your Marketing Strategies

Normally, this time of year is dominated by the mad rush to get back to school, from parents buying up cartfuls of school supplies to kids reacquainting themselves with an early-morning wakeup time. This August obviously feels a little different, but education will resume in one form or another. Maybe it's time you also took yourself back to school, in the sense of re-examining your marketing strategies and techniques -- or maybe you need to educate your target market on certain aspects of your business. Here are some suggestions to help you get your third quarter off to its usual bustling start.

Adjust Your Content for Changing Attitudes

Your current and prospective buyers have gone through a lot in the past year. What shifts in your target market's spending habits, needs, fears, concerns, and goals might require you to alter the tone or direction of your marketing content? You can't necessarily keep charging forward with your usual message as if nothing has changed. Give serious thought to creating fresh blog posts that directly address your target market's current mindset. Add content to your website that answers specific questions about your ongoing availability and services.

Update Yourself on the Latest Technologies

Have you allowed your marketing technologies to fall behind the times? Especially over the past several months, individuals are embracing social media and other interactive platforms more deeply than ever -- and you can reach them through these avenues. For instance, have you thought about incorporating Zoom into your marketing arsenal? You can use this video conferencing platform for marketing pitches, webinars, and other presentations that promote your products, services, and brand. You can even record those presentations and then figure out ways to repurpose the content for blog posts and other marketing pieces.

Take Another Look at Networking

Speaking of online platforms, business networking has taken to the Web in a big way lately. Weekly or monthly networking meetings that once met in person have shifted to a safer online-only environment -- and these networkers are still passing referrals and generating income for each other. Better yet, these (frequently Zoom-based) meetings don't have to limit themselves to one physical location, meaning that business owners and representatives can hob-nob with each other from anywhere. If you've avoided networking activities because you simply couldn't tear yourself away from your desk, guess what? You can now promote your business and learn about other business to your heart's content without leaving your computer.

Mark the return of the school year (more or less) by turning your business focus toward some timely marketing self-education. After all, you can always profit from learning!

Marketing Technologies May Change, but the Message Remains the Same

I feel betrayed. Here we are in 2020, and I still don't have my flying car.

Years of Jetsons reruns somehow gave me an overblown expectation of what "future" transportation might offer. But even as I write this, self-driving cars continue to undergo thousands of miles of controlled driving tests, with computer brains that can learn how to cope with countless real-life traffic predicaments. Driverless cars have been a staple of science fiction stories for decades, so there's one example of a prediction that may actually come true when/if all the bugs are worked out.

Even when the futurists get it right, they may have wait a long time for their dreams to come true. For instance, you might understandably assume that some genius recently dreamed up the whole remote home automation thing. But just the other day I saw a clip from a Bell Laboratories promotional film about technologies for operating your oven or air conditioner via telephone. The date of the film? 1962.

Think about how today's technology has altered the marketing landscape in ways few businesses might have predicted. 20 years ago, YouTube and Twitter didn't exist. When Facebook first launched, it was just a way for Harvard students to interact online. Go back to the late 1990s, and you'd be hard pressed to find any blogs online, or anyone who knew what the word meant. Dial it back a few more years, and you've arrived at a world without a Word Wide Web. How did companies market themselves without these channels? The same way they always have, and always will -- by creating and distributing compelling content.

I sometimes wonder what kinds of writing services I'll be offering a few years from now. Will I still be writing blog articles and web page content for businesses, or will new developments make these strategies obsolete? Will I be writing content that gets beamed directly into people's brains? Will I be creating billboards that appear magically in the sky to anyone wearing the appropriate technology? Will I be putting scripted words into the mouths of holographic spokespeople who approach potential customers in the street? I can't possibly say -- and frankly, it doesn't matter.

There will always be a great new marketing method on the horizon, but we can't plan our marketing approaches around something that doesn't exist yet. All we can do is make intelligent use of the tools we have right now. Many business owners say, "We need to be on Facebook," or "We need to be on Twitter," but being is not doing. What matters is the message you deliver, not the delivery method.

Yes, you need to get your message out there via the tools your target audience relies on every day. But even as those tools change and evolve, the objective remains the same -- to motivate your audience to buy. That's why I'll always have work as marketing content writer, no matter what the future of marketing holds.

Let's face it -- even the flying car dealers of the future will need to get the word out!