How to Maintain your Market Presence in a Downturn

by Chaun Soh

The first and most important thing is to keep your cool and adopt an attitude of 'business as usual but more so.'

This is not a time to stop promoting — but to keep doing it more intelligently and more strategically than ever. You also need to think outside the square and do away with limitations to your thinking that could hold you back.

Your visual communications program will continue to play a strong part in this; in fact it will become more important than ever with your increased need to maintain the strength of your presence in your industry.

It’s essential for you to be seen as very much in business and more visible to your customers and prospects than ever. Here some effective and affordable ways to do just that:

1. Find every way to talk to your customers

Keep in touch by phone, e-mail, promotional mailings and visits.

Stay close to your customers so you understand their situation. Keep abreast of market conditions in their industry and find out how the world has changed for them. Relate to their problems and provide ideas and solutions.

Send them useful information you think may be of interest, such as relevant news clippings and links to online news reports.

You could even send the reports themselves as PDF files with accompanying notes showing your interest in how they are getting along — demonstrating you are there to help.

By showing genuine care, you earn a top-of-mind position that will see you considered while less astute competitors become invisible and fall by the wayside.

There is no need to sell with every communication. Just make it clear you are there for them. Reach out to your colleagues too and get them involved so they increase their networking and make it more effective.

Relationships count more than anything in tough times.

2. Send regular e-mail newsletters

E-mails, used properly, are a very powerful marketing tool.

The best are those which repay the reader for their time by offering useful information and insights (as, for instance, this newsletter does.)

Keep them crisp and easy to read quickly. Consider a condensed format in bullet points that can be taken in at a glance.

Or you might announce special, exclusive promotional offers in an eye-catching e-mail that offers real value and savings to motivate response and purchase.

To maintain top-of-mind awareness you need to keep in constant touch with customers including lapsed ones. It's easier and more cost-effective to activate these than to find new ones.

There is virtually no limit to what you achieve with e-mail newsletters — even with, say, a humorous industry-related article or some startling point of view. You could also send the occasional industry-related joke or cartoon to customers you know really well.

These are a friendly non-threatening way to keep in touch without 'asking for the order.'

Above all, send your newsletters only to people who have opted in or signed up; always offer an option for them to unsubscribe or opt out.

3. Keep advertising but make it more strategic and cost-effective

During difficult times, it's essential to put the right ads in front of the right people.

Accurate targeting is crucial; you need to minimise waste circulation (the percentage of readers or viewers who will never, ever need your product or service).

It's also vital to accurately review and measure results. There's an old marketing saying to the effect that half your advertising is wasted; the trick is to figure out which half.

Review your advertising spend, both online and offline. Unless you have a huge budget, it's more cost-effective to run an ad in a trade magazine (with its industry focused readership) then a mainstream newspaper where the percentage of likely targets is obviously smaller.

If you don't know which publications your customers read or the websites they visit, conduct a survey.

This doesn't need to be an expensive exercise; it can be as simple as a face-to-face conversation or phone call — especially if you do it in a keep-in-touch 'we're here to help' kind of way.

4. Increase the impact of your signage

This is crucial if you are a retailer. Is your signage visible? Is it up-to-date or showing its age? Is it downright old-fashioned and in need of a revamp? Are the colours fresh or faded?

What does it say about your overall branding? Don't under-estimate the messages sent out by poor signage — especially during an economic downturn.

It's all too easy for anxious customers and prospects to interpret simple poor housekeeping as a sign of your business no longer being effective.

5. Use well thought-out promotional items

There are endless options and they needn't be expensive. The most important thing is to keep them relevant to your business, effectively reflecting your identity and strong presence.

Usefulness is important. Items like coffee mugs, caps and pens with your logo are generally appreciated well enough. But to truly stand out, you need to be creative or thoughtful in what you offer.

For example, a printer might send a specially printed notepad to ad agencies or graphic designers.

The logo and contact details are obvious inclusions but the item can be made more engaging by including something more: for example, a meaningful quote, an illustration that highlights your USP or something else that ties back to the sender.

Obviously what can be done is determined by what you select. But rather than settle for a standard item like a pen or cap, it pays to take a strategic approach and make your promotional item work in a way that makes your client glad to receive it.

6. Send out letters

This is a simple and proven idea that seems to have fallen through the cracks with the internet and e-mails grabbing top of mind.

Keep your letter down to a single page, cross-refer your reader to your website for more info, possibly a free item or report — or best of all an attractive, specific, time-limited offer.

You could also add a flyer, a promotional piece and other information in a DL envelope, all for standard letter postage.

This method is often more effective than advertising in trade magazines where you may get some response but its value would be diluted by calls from tyre-kickers and other non-serious respondents.

Letter batches don’t have to be huge. A hundred is a good start using just industry directories and the Yellow Pages website for names and addresses. The Yellow Pages are not updated as often as they should be but the wastage is surprisingly low.

When you have a feel for it, you might start buying highly targeted lists. These are seen as the ideal, but many businesses find that targeting prospects by job title is very close in effectiveness at a fraction of the cost.

Your letter must be well written

It needs to talk to the reader, not at them and must address the key things they want to know:

•    What’s in it for me: what's my reward for reading this?
•    Why should I buy from you and not your competition?
•    How much will it cost and am I getting value?

Your letter must be simple, direct and clear — respecting the reader’s time. It is usually a task best left to a specialist copywriter who has the experience and skill to get the most message into the least space.

Try it and see! If your letters are correctly targeted and properly written, they are a very cost-effective way to go.