Recovery Marketing – Hop on and Take a Ride

A little over a year ago and probably before, articles started
popping up all over the place about, "Selling in Tough Times," , "How
To Market in a Down Economy," and the like. Now that we have seen a
few, more positive headlines starting to sprinkle
throughout, "Turning the Economical Corner,", "Have We Hit Bottom,",
what now?

For the sake of prognostication, let me review. No I am not driving
the car by only looking in the rear view mirror.

When times got tough, managers all over the place looked for places
to cut costs. Marketers looked for newer places to sell and to sell
more. Some business managers cut marketing and sales expenses. Let
me state here, once and very clearly, that is the WRONG thing to do.

Jay Conrad Levinson of guerrilla marketing fame says
that "recessionary marketing" is a real opportunity. Bear with me on
this review as we approach some new thoughts on "recovery
marketing." During tough times, customers are looking for real
value. Effective marketing points out that real value to customers
with the ensuing result of increased sales and increased share of
market.

What Jay Levinson state for "recessionary marketing" applies
to "turning –the-corner-and-coming-back" marketing, or "recovery
marketing" as well; maybe even more. During recovery, lots of
positioning is occurring, while at the same time skeptics are still
about. During recovery some people choose as their favorite form of
transportation to be hopping on to a bandwagon. Once the bandwagon
fills up, companies look around at each other and start to feel that
it is almost too late to start up aggressive marketing once again.
The same old adage applies to marketing much like it does to
work… "It's easier to keep it up than catch it up."

Borrowing from "recessionary marketing" and applying the same mind
set, thought processes and applications to recovery marketing, will
further separate the marginal companies from the successful ones.

Recovery marketing boils down to investing in the three things that
should have been invested in when times got tough.

1.)increase the size of orders
2.)increase the frequency of orders
3.)The third item, but more costly is to increase the number of
customers you sell to.

Enhanced marketing programs and increased investment in marketing
accomplishes the above items. Free samples, seminars, consulting,
and speeches, are incentives for the customer to buy more and to do
it more often. Now is the time to put that marketing line item
expense back into the budget. Prioritize 3 recovery marketing
initiatives now, don't deviate and certainly don't cut the expense or
investment that is made. We'll leave the concepts of consistency,
persistency and long term thinking to other marketing articles.

Here are a few recovery tactics that will help your positioning as
customers and prospects decide where to spend their growing dollars
earned from a recovering economy.

Publicity – If you don't already have a PR program in place, start
one now. There are a multitude of reasons to write a press release.
Focus on one editor and get something published. This is free
marketing and an effective technique that shows up in all
the "marketing in tough times" articles.

Current Customer Attention – The best prospect is a current customer.
This is true whether we are marketing in a recession or in a recovery
or in a boom. Pay them the proper amount of attention. Prioritize
them and see how far into their account you can gain share. Share of
customer is always a priority and will help focus marketing efforts
in a recovery.

Increase Networking – Referral programs and word of mouth marketing
are still low cost associated with a high success rates. There are
ways to enhance this but you have to put yourself in front of the
potential buyer in some fashion or another or have someone else do it
for you.

Repackage your products and services as bundles or higher ticket
items. This certainly attains that goal of selling more per order.
Customers that have stuck with you through thick and thin will
probably spend more also in times of recovery.

Spend some money – invest in that direct mail program that you've
been putting off. Send that new brochure to customers and prospects.
Sometimes positive talk about "preparing for the recovery" is very
contagious. You'd be surprised what kind of mindset you can create in
your own market.

These are a few things to get you back on track if you cut that
marketing expense (and want to beat the bandwagon hoppers) and want
to ride the recovery wave. I can't wait to write the next article in
this series about "Marketing In Boom Times!"

Alfred J. Lautenslager is an award winning marketing/PR consultant,
direct mail promotion specialist and entrepreneur. His businesses
have helped hundreds succeed in their own businesses. Armed with an
MBA, Al has successfully progressed through all facets of business.
He has an impressive record that includes effective financial and
sales planning, market development, a consistent growth in sales and
profits above industry standards, resource management, product
development, marketing management and overall general management. He
is a professional speaker on marketing and related topics, the
principal of Market For Profits, a marketing consulting firm in
Chicago, and also the president and owner of The Ink Well, a
commercial printing and mailing company in Wheaton, IL. He is a
featured marketing and PR expert on numerous website publications
including the online version of Entrepreneur Magazine and is on the
Small Business Panel for USA Today. His leadership has extended to
his involvement into the community, is on the board of directors of
five non-profit organizations including the DuPage County Workforce
Investment Board and The Community Career Center in Naperville ,
IL. . Al is also a business partner with two area school districts. .
Al can be reached through the websites at www.market-for-profits.com
and www.1-800-inkwell.com or at al@market-for-profits.com.
Al invites everyone to Sign up for his FREE REPORT:
50 PEOPLE TO INSTANTLY ADD TO YOUR NETWORK, and receive a free value-
packed online newsletter entitled MARKET FOR PROFITS Just click here:
http://www.market-for-profits.com/free_report.htm or Click here for
the Market For Profits Home Page: http://www.market-for-profits.com