New Years Resolution

The New Year brings with it new challenges for businesses and the recent economic uncertainty has seen many people running scared but in business, it’s only the strongest that will survive.

New Years Resolution

So whilst you are settling down with a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie, spare a thought for what you are planning you’re your business in 2009 and how you’re going to beat the blues.
 
The turn of the year should be the time to push your business on, improve your marketing to generate new business or to sharpen up your image, whatever it is – here are a few things to consider:

1) Your company logo and corporate stationery - does your it really represent your business in the best possible light? Is it working as hard as it should be to get your brand message across?

2) How are you going to get new business and keep the customers you already have? Marketing plans - are your objectives sent and are your methods of achieving those goals clear for the rest of the year?

3) What about your website? – is it performing as well as it should? Does it look right, are you losing customers before you even get them simply because your website is letting you down?

4) Are customers seeing your marketing communications? Should you be advertising in magazines or introducing sales materials like leaflets, flyers, brochures and direct mail letters? Think about the different ways to get your message across to your potential customers.

5) What about promotional products? Have you thought about different ways to get your name in front of potential customers?

To learn more about our services and how we can help your business face up to the challenges the New Year brings, please visit the services section of our website. Please contact  us for more information.

By being prepared and ready to face the challenges ahead with clear marketing objectives, a strong business identity and of course a website that helps you reach your goals, you’ll be in a position to take advantage into the New Year.

5 Tips for Marketing in an Economic Downturn

We’re all tired of hearing how terrible the economy is right now and what a devastating effect the credit crunch is having on UK businesses. So, here’s a handful of useful tips to consider to make sure your business comes out the other side smiling:

 

Credit Crunch Tips

Tip One: Look After Your Marketing Budget
To the uneducated, the first thing to cut in times of a recession is the marketing budget or your advertising. These are often perceived as unnecessary expenditures when you should be watching the pennies. But this isn’t the case and those that market and promote their way out of the credit crunch will be the ones that survive. How can you encourage people to buy from you or use your services if you don’t tell them about it. Now more than ever you should be carrying out marketing activities.

You can however, make it easier for yourself by showing how you intend to spend more carefully and you will make it easier to win the investment you need to promote your business. With a clear justification for spending and a strong business case for each piece of activity you undertake, your established business reasoning will see you through.

Spend wisely with an emphasis on strong marketing tactics that bring results – which is just what the boss wants to see in times of a recession.

Tip Two: Are You Making The Most of Your Current Customers?
When things get tight, our first thought is often to chase new customers or clients but it’s much easier (and less expensive for you) to provide more value and a better service to your current customers. After all, doing so will ensure you get more in return.

We find that when customers make decisions in a period of economic uncertainty, they’re more likely to go with a source they trust.

You want to make sure that the decision they make involves you and you must therefore, make it easier and more natural for to them to go with you.

Talk to your customers and make sure your sales avenues are as effective as they can be. Why not ask your customers what they need from you – if you take care of them and look out for them, they will be more likely to stay loyal to you when the going gets tough.

Tip Three: Be One Step Ahead of the Competition
In a recession (or a time of financial instability) there is always an opportunity to gain market share from your competition. All the things that we have mentioned here are very helpful but if you aren’t doing them, somebody else will be.

You must therefore, think how this could work to your advantage. Look closely at your target market and how customers are behaving as a result of belt-tightening, can you act quickly with changes to your product or service, or your price or even the market you sell to with a view to increasing sales and profitability?

Tip Four: Invest in Growing Market Segments
It’s a fact of life that in a downturn there are some segments that grow at a faster rate than others. And, as a marketer or a business owner, it’s crucial that you make sure that the company sees and understand these market segments. You must work hard to determine if you can win business in these fast-growing markets.

These may be segments you’re already selling to, but not particularly focused on, or they may be completely new ones – whatever they are, they represent new opportunities for your business.

Think of new avenues – can you sell different things to existing customers or can you sell new products or services to new markets. Can you think of different uses for your product or users for your service?

If so, now is the time to exploit these opportunities.

Tip Five: Your Own Marketing
Finally and perhaps most importantly, you have to be prepared for a scrap. If times are hard and customers or clients are in short supply, you have to work extra hard to gain new customers and to keep the ones you already have.

So how do you do this? Well, you can start by taking a long hard look at yourself and consider the impact your brand and your marketing is having?

Is your brand looking tired, old and uninspiring? What about your company stationery? Do you look old fashioned and out of date? If you think it is, you can be sure your customers are too and they are most likely to head towards somebody else who’s got it all sorted. If you look faded and past your best, then guess what? They’ll go straight for somebody who’s on the ball.

So, do your marketing brochures sell you and the products or services you offer in the best possible light? Do you look good or is there room for improvement? Are you advertising in the right places and do you adverts look the best they possibly can?

Now is not the time for an out of date website or a poor web presence in general. Does you site work quickly, with all the relevant information placed attractively in front of your site visitors?

These quick suggestions should make you realise that you have to be prepared to work at your brand at all times but it is even more important now as we hit dangerous waters.

More About Our Services
To learn more about our services and how we can help your business face up to the challenges the credit crunch brings, please visit the services section of our site or contact us for more information.

Sparkling All Year Round

We wish all our clients, website visitors and friends a happy and peaceful Christmas with very best wishes for the New Year – from all the team at Touch Marketing & Design.

Sparkling All Year Round

Please note that our offices will be closed from Wednesday 24th December 2008 and will reopen on Monday 5th January 2009.

We will be providing our standard email and mobile support to our existing clients and will respond accordingly to any issues you may have over the festive period.

All other enquiries will be dealt with when we reopen in the New Year.

Please contact us for more information.