Marketing Planning when times are tough - Top Tip No17

Here are ten tips to help you through tough times:

1. Follow the money. Act fast to focus on the profitable customers. Find more of them, through targeted business development actions. What is their profile? Where are they? How do you target them?

2. Lock customers into longer contracts. Use concessions to encourage them. Reward (renewed) loyalty.

3. Maintain market share. The businesses that came out strongest from the last recession were the ones which increased their marketing. More than 20 studies, dating as far back as the 1920s, show that brands with sustained promotional expenditure through recessions have a competitive advantage by stealing share from brands which reduce their budgets. It also demonstrates that the sales impact of budget cuts is long-lasting. A brand that stops promoting for one year will take three to four years to return to a level of sales had its budget been maintained. And even halving budgets for one year requires two further years to recover fully.

4. Insist on measuring ROI from marketing. Examine every aspect of your marketing and make sure it is achieving SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Time-bound).

5. Understand customers. There could not be a more vital issue. Find that edge through constant research and discussion with your customers.

6. Offer guarantees and fixed-price deals. Do everything you can to make buying from you a safer decision than your competitor.

7. Be prepared. Every business owner we have spoken to who experienced the downturn of the early 90’s said they are already looking at cost base, credit terms and cash position.

8. But only cut back on the right things – not the easy things. It is all too easy to hold back on expenditure such as technology upgrades or marketing. But your operational efficiency and new business pipeline are mission-critical – especially in a downturn. Don’t put off the hard decisions on head count and accommodation costs.

9. Gift-Horses can be dangerous. Firms in financial difficulty often switch supplier – so be cautious of easily-won big orders from new customers. Run credit checks!

10. Acquire the struggling. Tough times always offer opportunities to cheaply grab customers and grow market share through acquisition of a competitor.

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