We have all read the papers and listened to the news and lately all we seem to hear is all doom and gloom. Whichever way you look at it, true or not, the bad media is beginning to scare people into holding back their spending which is affecting everyone.
Our view on the so called ‘Credit Crunch’ is that your product or service will still be in demand, although people will be less cautious on how much they spend and who they spent it with.
So whether your business is online or offline here are a few tips to help beat the credit crunch.
1. Build & Develop Trust – As people are becoming more wary about using new businesses, try to introduce trust to your business. A key way of doing this is to make your business more approachable, being more open with prospects about your business. Also try adding testimonials to any marketing. People trust other client’s opinions; this will go a long way.
2. Keep Communicating! – You need to keep your brand under your client’s noses at all times, if your competitor is thinking like you, they will be doing the same, keeping on top of your marketing and email communications is vital. Try sending out regular updates on your products and services via email or direct marketing.
3. Build Customer Loyalty – If your business has a large client base, or even a small client base; why not reward their loyalty. Provide discount vouchers and promotional codes for just being a customer, surely this will build loyalty and it is always better to receive something rather than nothing.
4. Special Offers – If possible try to introduce special offers to entice in new customers. Everyone loves a deal. Keep these deals fresh and rotate them to keep interest. If people are looking for the best deal, you are sure to be able to provide it.
5. Fantastic Customer Service – In these so called hard times, aim to offer your customers with the best advice and service. Sometimes you might have to go out your way to win that client. But it will worth the while in the end.
6. Don’t follow your competition – If your competition begins holding back on their marketing spend – this is your opportunity to take their enquiries.
7. Be Consistent – Do not begin pulling advertisements and marketing spend, if you withdraw your marketing how is anyone going to notice your business? And on the other hand your competitors might begin stealing the enquiries you should have received.
8. Don’t Be Static – Try not to be complacent, keep your marketing fresh and rotate adverts to entice your prospects.
This should assist in killing some of those bad vibes, however nobody knows your business like you do, and I’m sure with your knowledge of your market, you should be able to battle through the hype, like you didn’t even notice there was a little economic slowdown!