- Compete on value, on what makes you different and better. In the world of marketing, this goes by the name positioning. It’s critical. You need to discover or create your unique value proposition. Never compete on price. If you do, you will have accidentally found yourself in a race to the bottom, and that’s one race you don’t want to win! The insidious thing about competing on price is that once you start, it’s almost impossible to stop.
- Treat your best customers like royalty. This doesn’t mean give them discounts—this is a reflexive action, but resist it—there are plenty of other ways to reward your best customers. Give them more than they ask for, extra touches. Send them cards. Give them first pick of the new stuff before anyone else gets it. Put them on a separate “elite” email list and sell them the really high-end stuff.
- Expand your online presence with blogging and social media. I can’t think of a single business that wouldn’t benefit from this. If you’re bricks-and-mortar, this will bring people into your shop. It will increase tourist, holiday, and local traffic. How? Among all the other benefits of blogging and social media, use these channels to send out notices about specials. Send out information about recent arrivals and channel-only discounts (send out a discount code to be mentioned at the register during purchase). Retailers who blog get sales.
- Start selling your product or service online. Start a Yahoo store and get moving. Use Ebay. Get 1Shopping Cart. Heck, just use PayPal and your WordPress blog site, but for crying out loud, start selling online. Do not rely on only on locals for your business if you can help it—the whole rest of the world is out there! Take advantage of your existing systems or get new ones that facilitate both on- and off-line inventory, ordering, fulfillment, and POS. And don’t forget to have a blog with your ecommerce site, too.
- Package and bundle your services up and “productize” them into things anyone can purchase in advance through PayPal (forget accounts receivable–paid in advance is the only way to roll in my book).
- Take your knowledge and turn it into information products: If what you do is consulting or coaching, start creating home training courses or learning sites. Instead of coaching one person at time,coach groups of people: it’s more profitable for you and a value-rich investment for your clients. You can repurpose material from coaching calls into other information products. The possibilities (and the profits) are endless.
- Start an affiliate program for your online sales. Imagine having an army of people out there selling your stuff for you. They get their cut, you get yours. You never would’ve had these sales otherwise, so do not begrudge a high commission of 30% – 50%. Treat your best affiliates in the same royal manner as you treat your best customers and help them sell (the more they make, the more you make). E-junkie makes it easy to do information product and physical product fulfillment and affiliate programs.
- Get into email marketing… HARD. Actively grow and regularly put offers out to an email list. I am stunned speechless at how many businesses fail in this. Do you want sales, or not? Do you want to make money, or just “play” at running a business? WORK YOUR LIST OR YOU ARE LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE. There is tons of information online about email marketing. Start reading, start implementing. Even businesses who have a list don’t email it enough. The more offers you make, the more bites you’ll get. You can’t sell if you’re not selling.
- Productize your processes. If you figured out a great system for how to run a software training center, turn it into a product and sell it to other software training centers. Amazon has become a master at this. Every system they use internally, they will gladly sell to you to use for your business. Tom Peters calls this “managed asset reflation.” Many successful businesspeople find that after they’ve achieved success in their original business, they can achieve ten times that success by helping others do what they did.
- Forget about the economy: I don’t know if you figured this out, yet, but the things on this list have Jack Shit to do with how “bad” the economy is. If you had been doing these things all along, your business would be killing it while everyone else blames the economy for their own lack of imagination and action. Whatever your first instinct is as a response to bad economic news, it’s probably dead wrong. For example, don’t cut back on marketing, increase it and steal the customers away from others who foolishly cut back. While other businesses freeze investing in themselves, you go all out and leave them far behind. Don’t treat investments as if they were costs. They’re not. They’re weapons against your competitors.
Ten Things to Rock Your Business in a Tough Economy (and Make Your Competition Cry)
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Great post. You are spot on with “If you have been doing these things all along you are killing it”.
My company hasn’t once had to look at the economy and worry…and it’s down to smart business.
Thanks for the post, spot on
Brian, that’s so great to hear that you have no worries in this regard! Cheers!
Great points here, I especially like the economy point – its being used as a scapegoat for so much these days.
We tell our clients to keep on marketing and promoting as now is the time more than ever to be doing it, and not cutting back!
No time to be meek, get on up and at em!
Duncan, yes, absolutely! I think it may have been Warren Buffet who said to be greedy when others are fearful, and that’s the climate we’re in now. He also said to be fearful when others are greedy (think back to the tech bubble or the more recent real estate/subprime bubble).
Michael – what a GREAT post! Love the concept of keeping price static and building in lots of WOW factor. There is always someone who will do it cheaper but if you make sure you do it better then you can thrive in this economy! Am sharing this on my Facebook page – ALL my readers need to hear this from someone besides me…:)
Tara Jacobsen
Tara, thanks so much for sharing this with your friends! I really appreciate it a lot.
Michael, this post is right on time for me. Kept me from sending you an e-mail. I recently launched an e-commerce site that sells products for caregivers. As you know, I’ve been blogging about caregiving for the past year but I’m confused about how to blog about products.
Any comments from you or your readers is appreciated.
Valerie, glad my timing is still good.
Blogging about products is mostly about reviews and lifestyle/tips/pointers/hacks. Take a look at any blog about products (like cameras or baby stuff) for inspiration.
OK, I know I need to manage my email marketing better but it seems so complicated. Is there such a thing as a service like aweber being TOO helpful?
George
George, email marketing doesn’t have to be complicated: just write emails that connect with your readers in a different, more personal way than you do on the blog. Include offers you know they’ll find valuable along with providing great info for free and you’ll be the “good guy.” The thing is to just start doing it. You’ll learn as you go. Don’t fear failure, fear lack of action, because a lack of action means a lack of revenue.
Our “new” answer to #1 just released – moving away from hourly billing, fixed rate model; competing on value http://bit.ly/1yd5Rq Great Article Michael.
Glad to hear it, Greg, thanks for commenting!
Such good ol’ fashioned, common sense marketing stuff here – but you’ve managed to breathe some new life into it all.
Stay top of the mind. Ask for the sale. Repurpose and repackage. Sell benefits (value) not features (price). These are not difficult things to implement but the doom and gloom has made a lot of people roll over, no?
(Very nice usage of the term “Jack Sh*t” btw. Strategic. Not gratuitous. Punchy.)
Karri
Thanks, Karri! I like your astute encapsulation of the post (and swearing is an art, yes?).
Swearing is absolutely an art form! One I work hard to master
It’s kind a annoying how people react negatively over a bad economy. They are looking for something to blame, too bad they put all their grudges with the economy. Most of the time, instead of taking multiple steps forwards they tend to procrastinate- leaving them as victims of their own negative thoughts and beliefs. Too much focus on the issue won’t do any good at all, recognizing obstacles are nice though.
It’s great to read posts like this which encourage people to try to overcome issues productively. Take action now and don’t leave yourself preoccupied with these issues.
I don’t know if you figured this out, yet, but the things on this list have Jack Shit to do with how “bad” the economy is.
I love all the practical strategies you offered here, but my favorite sentence hands down is the one above. Now is the time to get our ducks in a row and our game on. Those of us who keep our head down and our momentum moving forward while everyone else is running around like Chicken Little yelling “The sky is falling!” will be the ones to catch.
Excellent post.
Thanks, Sarah. In another time, I could easily have left out the “in a Tough Economy” part.
Great post and ever so timely. I’m a bit shy in the promotion department (which is not a good trait to have when starting a business!) but this post has got me thinking. Thanks again!
Thanks, YumchaGirl. I apologize for not responding to your comment sooner! What you say is so true: you can’t run a successful business and be shy in the promotion department! Just remember that promotion doesn’t mean selling out or stomping all over your principles and values. You are meeting people’s needs with your business. That’s a very good thing!
[...] Ten Things to Rock Your Business in a Tough Economy (and Make Your Competition Cry): "In the world of marketing, this goes by the name positioning. It’s critical. You need to discover or create your unique value proposition. Never compete on price. If you do, you will have accidentally found yourself in a race to the bottom, and that’s one race you don’t want to win! The insidious thing about competing on price is that once you start, it’s almost impossible to stop." (Social Media B2B) [...]
This really should be read by many of my fellow photographers since many of them are lowering their prices that they are making minimum amount of money. #1 rule really prove them wrong and I believe it.
I know the 9 things that you mentioned but I need to read up on your article about email marketing #8 since I have not done that one yet since I think it is spamming the clients butttttt I need to read your article to find our how not to make it look like a spam.
Thanks for the information.
Benipayo, thanks for your comment. Lowering prices is a panic reaction, not a business strategy. As far as email marketing goes, think about what you can do that would be the most helpful to your clients as far as photography goes. When you are helping them instead of yourself, your emails will never be viewed as spam.
Great post.. It's so true! Number 4 gives the most back for the buck. When I started to offer career interviewing coaching online, I really saw my ROI increase!
Great post.. It's so true! Number 4 gives the most back for the buck. When I started to offer career interviewing coaching online, I really saw my ROI increase!