In the face of certain events, like major inflation and war overseas, it’s a fairly natural reaction for a business owner to want to hunker down and cut back on spending for their business.
But one thing you should NOT cut back on at times like these, is PROMOTION. Cutting back on promotion, especially at times where your target public may be doing their own hunkering down, is suicide for a business.
In today’s marketing environment, it is vital to 1) find effective marketing avenues for your business that work for you, and 2) be consistent in sending out a high volume of your promotion. You have to keep a high volume of promotion going out, and you don’t want to drop it out.
One of the most important concepts in marketing is: you need to promote your business on as many different channels and media as you can, as broadly as you can, on an ongoing basis.
In other words, you can’t just do one promotion, like one direct mailing, and then stop. Or, you can’t just do one type of promotion, even on an ongoing basis, and that’s all you do. You have to promote using as many channels as possible, as many as you can afford, and do it continually. In other words, a multimedia approach.
The trick is to find media and types of promotion that will work for you (they won’t all work for you, unfortunately). And to try out media that you can afford, at a pace that you can afford. Realize that you are going to have to try things out and see how they work. But don’t be too discouraged if you get leads from other sources than where you promoted. It works that way sometimes.
It’s a little tricky. You might think that one promotion isn’t working and isn’t contributing to your higher leads and sales. But then you drop it out and they fall.
But even if you find one type of promotion didn’t work at all, drop it but replace it with something else. Keep the volume high.
If you do continue promoting during strange times like these, when other businesses in your industry are cutting back, you could find that after we pull out of whatever situation is going on – inflation, recession, whatever – that YOU will have taken over the dominant position in your marketplace. Other businesses were snoozing, and they will end up losing.
Sincerely,
John Eberhard
VP Marketing, UNS
Free eBook: More Personal Income from Your Practice
By John Eberhard
Here is an eBook I wrote that has useful information about increasing the income coming into your practice. Download it free of charge.
