Ten Golden Rules for Marketing in Times of Recession

http://www.crmmanager.net/magazine/article_2108_rules_marketing_times_of_recession.html

How to become more effective with the optimal marketing strategy and technology

  1. Consider the crisis as an opportunity: Everybody talks about this, but who actually does it? Difficult times are an opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition. Grab this chance and get ahead of your competitors by using innovative marketing strategies and the right technology.


  2. Achieve more outcome with less input: As a general rule, the marketing department will have less money at their disposal; at the same time they will be asked to fulfil even more ambitious targets than at “normal times”. To be able to attain more by investing less, marketers need to increase their efficiency. The prerequisites are the right mind-set and the optimal technology.


  3. Focus on existing clients: Since winning new customers is very expensive (on average between €150 and €500), this shouldn’t be your focus in times of recession. The more appropriate strategy is to try and keep your existing customers. To increase their loyalty, make sure your marketing offers feel like a service and offer them added value.


  4. Rethink & be innovative: Avoid repeating what you have always done. If you used to send out mass mailings to a great number of customers, try to leave old habits behind and avoid this type of indiscriminate “shouting” in the future. Clients don’t appreciate marketing offers that are not tailored to their specific needs, but rather feel spammed by them. Instead, incorporate new, interactive channels and establish a real dialogue and targeted with your clients.


  5. Listen & talk to the customer: Make best use of the dialogue you’ve set up. Find out what the client is really saying – explicitly and implicitly and use this information to find the optimal offering for him. Does he prefer to make his transactions online or offline, does he visit the company website after receiving an offering via email? Use this information and everything else you know about him to address him with the optimal offering and make him feel understood and valued.


  6. Profit from best practice: You don’t need to invent everything from scratch – just watch out for best practice. A well-known Belgian online dealer, for example, has profited from integrating inbound- and outbound- as well as online- and offline-communications. After realizing that many customers break off their online purchase shortly before paying - which meant a loss of more than €100 million - they started to contact those customers systematically within the following two days, asking them why they had abandoned their “shopping cart” and offering to finalize the purchase together. 10 percent of the customers agreed to this proposition, which lead to additional turnover of about €10 million.


  7. Combine online & offline channels: Don’t waste money on isolated structures, but cross-link both sales channels (online, catalogue and in-store) and marketing channels (direct mail, e-mail, mobile, website, kiosk and phone. Include emerging social media platforms like YouTube or MySpace). Everybody in the company should be able to profit from the customer data you have collected from all these channels.


  8. Prepare for the time after the crisis: Invest in modular technology that can be extended whenever a budget rise is in sight. With new marketing and sales channels emerging all the time, you should be prepared to integrate them into a flexible infrastructure.


  9. Keep track of the digital revolution: Consider working with Twitter and the wide array of emerging social networks. Address your customers over their favourite channel and it is highly probable that they will be ready to listen and respond to you.


  10. Relax & and remember: Every cloud has a silver lining and the recession will be over one day. In the meantime these tips will definitely help you get through the rough times more easily. And most importantly, don’t forget to have fun - because that’s what working in marketing should feel like!


Published: 06/2009
Author: Marcel Holsheimer


Marcel Holsheimer, vice president of marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is responsible for Unica’s marketing strategy and execution across the region.

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