During these tough economic times, it’s a good idea to look at the way you run your business and see if there are ways that you can ensure you survive and even thrive until things improve. Here are 6 survival tips you could apply to your business.
Rethink your websiteThere are a lot of badly designed websites out there. Review your website and look at it critically. Is it easy to move around and informative? If you see problems, consider employing a copywriter to rewrite the more important pages. Look at your images to see if they could be improved. Every website needs new content regularly so have a look and see what changes you can make.
Use website statisticsIf you have a website, you need to track who is visiting it so that you know how to best use it to your advantage. To do this, use an analytics tool such as Google Analytics to track and measure your traffic. As well as being a powerful analytics tool, Google provides free tools to help you understand where your traffic comes from, what search terms they use to find you, what pages they spend most time reading and what you could do to make them stay and turn visitors into leads
Increase your Marketing Budget
Do the opposite to your competitors – don’t cut back on marketing. Marketing takes a consistent effort over a prolonged period of time and is often viewed as an expense that can be cut. This is a dangerous way of thinking. Choosing activities that are cost efficient and effective will prove that marketing is an essential component of any business in any financial climate. Periodically stopping and starting your marketing practices will waste your time and money. Keep visible and build loyal relationships with customers for a successful marketing plan. Assess your current advertising campaigns by analysing how many ads you run and where they are placed. There is opportunity for success in advertising in a down economy. In down times, fewer businesses will advertise, thinking it is an easy place to save money and this in turns makes your ads more visible.
Keep Existing Clients
Gaining additional business from existing clients costs far less than developing business from new sources. While it's still important to develop new clients, it's also important to keep the clients you have and make sure they are happy with the work you provide to them. Look for new ways to help your customers. See if you can offer a new service that would make running their business easier in these tough times. Be aware of how your clients are doing and if their business needs have changed. Help your customers weather the economy and they will remain loyal. This is a solid business practice regardless of how the economy is.
Look for Partners
Identify other industries or professional sectors that want to attract the same client profile as you, but who aren’t in competition with your services. By combining efforts to market towards the same audience you cut your investment in half. When selecting your partners, make sure any potential partners share similar business development practices, goals and budgets. You want to be sure that you are working together to produce a desirable outcome for both organisations.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is essential if people are going to find your website. Research shows that over 80% of customers surfing the web for information on services and products use search engines like Google. SEO helps people find you through the keywords used in search engines. With a small investment in keyword research, you can identify the key words searchers are using to locate the services you offer. Once you know the words to use, optimise your site with those search terms in your content. Read more about SEO here.
Nothing lasts forever, and tough economic times are not the exception. History has shown that recessions come about in cycles so remember - good times are on their way again so hang on in there!
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