How will you survive or thrive in the recession?

The latest blog comes from another member of The Marketing Eye team, Sharon Wilding.

It seems that everyone, including the Prime Minister, now agrees that the UK is in recession, so we can stop saying ‘what if’. The question now is how much it will affect you and your business.

There’s no denying that some people will have a really tough time, but remember it is not inevitable that you should be one of them. This was the message that came out strongly from a telephone seminar I attended this week.

Chris Cardell describes himself as ‘a world leader in advanced thinking’ and the seminar was entitled ‘Seven Essential Strategies to Survive and Thrive During a Recession’. Chris offers marketing advice and guidance using a style with a strong American influence. This can get a bit grating, but basically he seems to make his money by talking a lot of common sense about marketing.

His number one message for surviving a recession was ‘Beware the scarcity mindset’. This means that you should not get carried away by all the talk of doom and gloom, because belief changes actions. If you think negatively, you become similarly negative in your approach. This is not merely advocating a ‘Pollyanna’ view, suggesting that positive thinking alone will make things work out right, but realising that 80% of people/businesses are NOT going to lose their jobs or fail. There are still markets out there made up of people who need things and who can be persuaded to spend their money with you.

You may not be surprised to hear that in his remaining 6 points his advice was, in various ways, to ‘become great at marketing’: not by spending large amounts on media necessarily, but by having a great strategy for attracting people who are interested in what you have to offer., A useful statistic quoted by Cardell was that it takes 7 contacts to turn interest into a sale. This means making sure you use all available means to generate those interactions: build a database, communicate regularly online and via email, and give information freely.

And finally, you must ‘wow them’ with how you deliver, making sure everything you do, you do to the best of your ability. And that you are delighting your customers in the process. That is the way to survive and thrive in the recession.

So, now is not the time to hold back. Work out what being ‘great at marketing’ means for your business!