Marketing Advice on How to Maintain Pricing Strategies in an Economic Downturn

These days, thanks to the economic recession, it can be tough to continually think of marketing tactics to maintain your market share and avoid losing sales. There is the temptation to slash prices or even contemplate the action in order to compete with others in the same niche as you. While cutting prices may seem to be a simple thing to do, particularly in the short term, it does not always make sense to do so because it could become a habit. What if the recession stretches further than you thought? You cannot keep cutting prices because you could soon be selling at a loss rather than a profit. Offering the Best Value for the Price Having a strong, recognisable brand is important if you want to maintain your pricing strategy as high as possible without losing customers to the competition. How you define the value of what you offer is important when communicating with your customers. The stronger the communication you have with them, the more control you can exercise over your pricing strategy. Of course, you should have a few marketing tactics available to you so that any issues a customer might have will not be about price. One smart move to try is bundling some of your products together which will accomplish several things. First, bundling effectively creates the illusion that you have broadened your product base. And second, bundling offers you a way to establish a broad spectrum of low to medium to high value offerings, so you can create a pricing strategy accordingly, without a straight price cut, thus maintain your profitability. Long Range Planning Lowering your pricing in order to make more sales and stay competitive in the market may work in the immediate short term, but it will not do much for the long term. However, you can alleviate cutting tactics and the effect on your profits by controlling operating costs in your company and look for ways to eliminate any redundancies and inefficiencies. Streamlining your operations to reduce costs and increase efficiency makes good business sense anyway. Unfortunately, when business is good, you don't always look for ways to streamline. Rather, it takes a recession and reduction in sales to prompt action. To maintain your competitive edge, even in a recession, look for ways to offer something innovative or unique to your customers. Can you easily change the packaging for some of your products to create a new look to attract attention? Can you offer any sales incentives or coupons for future purchases? Perhaps partnering with a complementary business (one that does not necessarily directly compete with you) can drum up new business. Marketing new products during the recession can be a good move but don't expect an overnight boost in business. The same principle applies when cutting prices. If you do this too often, just to stay in business, then that is what customers will expect once the economy improves. Instead, try the product bundling or offer sales incentives so that you can present the illusion of offering a deal without negatively impacting your business financial bottom line.

Using a Business Consultant When Promoting Your Services Business

A business consultant does more than just advise you on how to best run your business. They can also work with you on promoting your business and making sure that it remains profitable. Some business consultants can help you launch full-scope marketing programmes as well. If you own a direct services business, a consultant can help you figure out how to market it to the public, improve the service by tweaking certain areas, and help you research your competitors to make sure that your service business has a unique angle to offer customers. Tweaking the Business Before you launch your first (or next) campaign to market your business to masses, you may need to tweak a few areas. Your business consultant will research your current methods or ideas and observe the company at work. He or she will let you know which areas of your current business practices should be improved before you start an aggressive marketing campaign. Researching Competitors When researching your competition, you're looking to see what services they offer that are similar to yours and which are different. If you run a call center service business that takes calls for business professionals such as doctors or lawyers, you need to find out what other similar businesses offer their clients. Then you need to see if your business offerings are the same, and if you have any angle that makes your business unique. A small business consultant is a great advisor because they're not going to tell you that any aspect of your business is unique if it isn't. If you find that your business is just like all the others, your consultant can work with you on creating a unique angle. Maybe very few of the local services offer online options; that's one area you can explore to see if you want to expand your business to the web, for instance. A consultant can help you define your unique selling proposition so that you appeal to potential customers and existing customers of the competition, too. Promoting the Business The next step is to start promoting your direct services business, focusing on the unique angle of your company. You can start by creating print ads for the newspaper or local publications, and then move onto an online advertising campaign.

How to Avoid Spamming People When Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is the act of marketing your business using different techniques online. There is a variety of ways to market your business to potential customers through email, message forums, and instant messaging; however, you need to avoid sending unsolicited marketing messages to avoid losing customers and being reported for spamming. Spamming is the act of sending multiple marketing messages to people who didn't request them, don't want them, and won't be impressed just because you send them over and over. You need to target your Internet marketing campaign and learn how to get people to subscribe to the information provided about your business. Email Marketing Spam It's perfectly acceptable to send email messages to potential clients, but you need to make sure they want them. If you start sending unsolicited emails it's considered spam. If you purchase an email list and start sending out automated emails to everyone on that list, it's considered spam. In order to send out Internet marketing email messages, create a website or newsletter and let people subscribe to your emails. This way, you're only sending out information to people who are interested, and they can recommend your business to other people. If you want to protect yourself from being reported for spam, make sure your marketing emails have a disclaimer on the bottom that allows people to unsubscribe and apologizes for sending unsolicited emails. This way, if a person accidentally signed up for your messages, they can easily unsubscribe. Message Board Spam If you're not familiar with Internet marketing methods, you may think that signing up for numerous message boards and posting about your business is a great way to advertise. In fact, many business owners did use this method a few years ago, aggravating forum users and getting themselves banned from the site. Most business-oriented sites have a forum dedicated to advertising a business. You should stick with this forum and follow the rules and guidelines that govern how often you can post, which types of links you can provide, and what sort of information is allowed in an ad. Instant Messaging Spam When some shady business owners started getting reported and banned for forum and email spam they moved onto instant messaging systems. Users would get an instant message with a link from someone they didn't know, with the link redirecting a website. If you want to use this sort of marketing, make sure that the instant message names you have are people who have agreed to receive information from you. To avoid spam and insure that your Internet marketing campaign is a success, set up a form on your website that allows users to select which types of correspondence they're willing to accept.

Tips on Being a Great Internet Marketing Consultant

Standing apart from the pack is good when it comes to being an internet marketing consultant. If you're hiring a consultant to help you with your internet marketing, you'll want someone who stands head and shoulders above the competition. If you're a marketer yourself, you know this will bode well for you in terms of finding clients, getting great results, and gaining word of mouth referrals. Here are some ways you can be a great internet marketing advisor and if you're searching for an advisor, here are some signs you can watch for to help you be a discerning buyer: Business Expertise Knowing about the internet is good. It's essential. But knowing about business as well is an integral part of being able to consult to others on the growth and operations of their business. Combining extensive marketing, business, and internet knowledge can help a consultant provide excellent advice to clients based on real world experience. Most effective consultants have a rich history in their field and people want to know about that history. Many skills are transferable across industries. A former business owner who's aware of various attributes of a successful business could do better than a consultant fresh out of university, for instance. Practical experience is quite often desirable as a trait for a business consultant. People Skills Great sales people can make great consultants. They can also make lousy consultants it their personality tends to be pushy. A consultant works with a client rather than try to simply "pitch" them. Networking can be an important part of an advisor's job and someone with great skills could have a wide network that provides value to clients. Think consult rather than sell and that's the first step in developing a productive relationship. Ongoing Skills Development There are a lot of different areas that relate to successful internet marketing. A consultant needs to know more than just how to get a website published, for instance. He or she should be well versed in the latest news and trends related to the world of online marketing and should be staying up to date on current marketing techniques and trends. Ongoing personal development is a good sign of a professional that takes their role as a consultant seriously. Whether you're a consultant or are looking for someone to help your business, do look at the level of expertise, the people skills, the industry knowledge, and the approach to determine whether someone can stand head and shoulders above the competition. If you're trying to develop your consultancy business, continually work at deepening your knowledge and finding ways to create productive relationships with your clients. And if you're looking at hiring someone to serve as an internet marketing consultant for your company, shopping around can reveal many things that help you make a smart decision.