Internet marketing Archives - Page 18 of 18 by Mark Murnahan

Recession Marketing: Choosing Logic Over Emotion

Asserting marketing assets properly in an economic recession can be the making or breaking of a company. When everything on the news and everything you hear around the office sounds gloomy about the economy, you must question whether you are using more logic or emotion in your marketing decisions.

Regardless of the industry, we are all in the people business. When people are involved, it is easy to let emotion cloud logic, and this is very commonly seen in marketing during an economic recession.

Growing Market Share in Recession

Economic recession often provides the clearest path to expanding your market share. When the economy is strong, competitors are strong, too. Being persistent in your marketing is key to making it through a recession and growing your market share while competition is weakened. It is important to remember that you are not alone. You hear all of the miserable failures around you, but do not forget that all of the gloom and doom also includes your competition. Think of it like a staring contest. It is a test of will, and if they blink first, you win.

When people lose their wits to the point of cutting their marketing efforts, it serves only to worsen their market position. Looking back to the Great Depression, there are many lessons to be learned from companies who achieved success by continuing and even expanding their marketing efforts. As an example, Amana Appliances saw huge success coming out of the recession, because they appealed to the American housewife, and gave her something to feel good about even during the worst of times. There is always success in a recession, if you seek it, and if you continue to invite prospective customers to do business with you.

A recession offers much opportunity if you are persistent. You can cut costs in many ways, but if you eliminate your marketing, you eliminate your market. Remember what pays you, and remember why you spend money on marketing in the first place.

Redistribute Your Marketing Efforts

Evaluate your marketing, and redistribute it if needed. Tough times call for smarter marketing. Successful companies are moving their marketing away from television, radio, and print and focusing their efforts on the Internet. Cost per exposure and available customer reach of Internet marketing is far superior to any other marketing. According to widely accepted statistical reports by Nielsen NetRatings, Zenith Optimedia, and others, the Internet accounts for nearly half of the media intake of the average consumer. This quickly growing trend can be seen in many ways, and not the least of which is the 15.2% increase in Internet ad spend in the first half of 2008 while television, radio, and print marketing each took double-digit losses industry-wide.

Cutting Your Marketing Budget

Cutting the marketing budget is a common knee jerk response to economic recession. This reaction to the economy defies logic. After all, if you did not need the marketing, why were you buying it in the first place? Were you spending money on marketing because you had so much business that you just needed an extra tax deduction? Of course not. You invest in marketing because you want more business. For most companies, marketing is the single most important investment they will ever make. Only when the desire for more business subsides should you cut your marketing.

Author Mark Murnahan is the Chairman and CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. and provides SEO consulting services to companies and non-profit organizations. Mark Murnahan may be reached toll free at 866-A-Web-Guy (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) for consultation.

Increase Business Online in 60 Seconds?

Perhaps you have seen ads with headlines like “Increase Business Online in 60 Seconds” and you know in an instant that it is another scam (at least I do). That sounds silly, right? They are usually pushing some miracle cure for your business, but those of us participating in the real world know that nothing comes from nothing.

I belong to a face-to-face business networking group in my hometown of Topeka, Kansas. I will attend our weekly meeting in about three hours, and visit with 25 area business people and their guests. The group is a chapter of BNI, and it is based on sharing a mutual business ideology that what comes around goes around. It is a good place to build business relationships and receive qualified referral business from fellow members.

Within this group, there is only allowed one person from each profession, and I am the Internet guy. Each week, we have a 90 minute meeting, and as a portion of the meeting, each member is given the floor for a 60 second brief on their business and any target audience they are seeking. Each week, I am tasked with creating 60 seconds worth of valuable information to market my business to the group and their potential referral base.

When you are forced to condense your business to just 60 seconds, it can really help you to be creative. However, a marketing fact that many people never grasp or act upon is that brief moment in time where you actually have a person’s full attention. it only lasts a moment, and average Internet users will offer you less time if you do not grab their attention quickly.

I am still not sure what I will say in my 60 seconds this morning, but I am pretty certain that it will make the points as follows:

We are all aware of the Internet, and its broad reach.
Most of us know that the Internet is the best marketing method available.
I am here to help them and their peers with custom Website development, Internet marketing, ecommerce, etcetera.

I will wing it. I am a man of words, and I have been a member (and the current Vice President) of the group long enough that I can always recycle some good material from the past.

The point I want to make here is that you only have a short time to deliver your message. Internet users will not give you much time to make a quick point. Be sure that you deliver it to them right, and right now. This actually makes it possible to Increase business online in 60 seconds. If there was fine print, it would have to mention that, although you are actually increasing your business online in 60 seconds, it will take you some time to prepare for that minute. It should also say that this is best implemented with the help of an Internet marketing professional, like me. 🙂

Relationships and Internet Marketing

Relationships come in many types. The relationship we are sharing as author and reader may seem to be very casual and even a bit superficial. I want to explain how and why it matters.

Since statistical data tells me that it would be nearly impossible in my lifetime to even shake hands with all of my readers, I always find it important to try and reach out in my, can I say, “authorly” way. We will probably never do business together, and for now I am just another guy on the Internet. Of course, I welcome your business, so don’t get me wrong. I just want you to know that I am not selling you anything more than some thoughts right now. So just relax and hear me out about relationships and the Internet, and how it all ties together to make you more successful and happy.

I have noticed for some time that each time my wife is pregnant I see a dramatic increase in new business. It has puzzled me for years exactly why this happens. I have always had my ideas on this. Of course, there is a lot that probably comes down to instinct. Doing all the right things just somehow sinks in and I find myself making better judgments, thinking more clearly, and most importantly developing better relationships. I know that having a new baby may be a little too extreme for increasing your business, but there are substitutes to help you emphasize building better relationships.

I find the relationships I build on the Internet to be absolutely crucial to my success. Just consider our new relationship as an example, you and me. Perhaps if I give you valuable information that helps you, and if I help you to feel good about me and my knowledge, you may become a regular reader. Eventually, if you grow comfortable with our relationship, you may call on me for advice or to hire my services. Notice how this is a process. By the time you call me, you will have many opportunities to know me on your terms. You can read hundreds of articles that I have authored, learn of my background, and know just who you are dealing with. It all comes back to the same reasons why social networking Websites have had such amazing success. People are there to actually interact with other people, and not just some corporate giant or sketchy small business. They are building relationships, right here on the Internet.

I hope that I do not insult you if I group you with “most people”, but in many respects, we are all “most people”. What I know about most people is that they want to feel good about the people in their lives. We can say that this does not apply to “those people on the Internet”, but let’s face it … it matters. In case you have not heard, Facebook has over 120,000,000 users in under five years of business. It has been built on relationships. Social networking sites are some of the most successful Internet businesses ever created, and that should teach us all some lessons. “Those Internet people” are you and me. The Internet is where I communicate with many friends, and it is even where I met my wife about eight years and two-going-on-three three kids ago, so you cannot convince me that what I am telling you is false.

People want to know real people. To set a picture for you, it is 6:00am and I am sitting in my kitchen where I just happened to plop down my laptop to make this entry. I have been working since early yesterday morning, and I have a meeting with a new client in just a few hours. As I thought about my morning meeting, it really hit me why this meeting feels different than so many others, and it inspired me to write you this blog entry.

In a short time, I will meet with somebody with whom I have already laid the groundwork of a personal relationship. He is a fellow member of a business networking group where we have both been members for some time. I see him every Thursday morning, and we have a mutual friendship and respect. You may be thinking that it would be great if every meeting could be so relaxed as this. The good news is that they can. It all starts with a relationship, because behind every business person is the person. Be certain that you express this in your business.