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Marketing Trends and Recommendations for 2009

By Jacqueline Drew
START Marketing Inc.
www.startmarketing.com

Well it’s another new year, and we’re all a little nervous about the state of the economy and how it’s going to impact our businesses.  So, what can you do to ensure your business remains competitive?  START Marketing and our talented team of industry associates recently discussed trends, and how businesses can take advantage of them, and we are pleased to offer you the following helpful advice!

• Content-rich websites: Now, just about anyone can create a beautiful website on the cheap.  In fact, web templates are so numerous, you can get a great little template almost nothing (if not free) just by downloading it.  So if everyone can look pretty on a dime, how do you stand out? Lot of well-written, fresh content – good photos, good explanations.  People are growing accustomed to lots of fancy “frosting” on websites (and certainly people are preferring less time-consuming flash to more of it)– you must show them you have the “cake” to go with it!  Provide the specs on your products/service, the details, even personal accounts of why it is the way it is – this information will really help the consumers’ info-hungry brain to make a decision and save time.  Save your flash for good technical animations – or at least, ensure it doesn’t waste the users’ time.
  
  
• Traditional media piggybacking on the web:  More and more traditional newspapers, radio and television stations are creating interactive experiences with their listener bases to give a multi-pronged media approach.  Newspaper and radio advertisers are combining on- and offline sales packages, and television stations are offering online versions of their news and entertainment programming.   This means it may be a good time to buy traditional ads at discounted rates – and get web traffic boosts to your web site as well.  On- and offline combination packages like this are also far more trackable than simple traditional packages of the past. That means you can run ads, and see great boost to your web traffic statistics to prove/disprove whether its working for you.
  
  
• Enhancing personalization:  Since the web can lead to a real sense of anonymity (companies can certainly be “false fronts” or scams) – it is very important to put some human content on your web site.  Show who your staff is – use photos, and shots of your “bricks and mortar” operation wherever possible.  Get those photos updated – and get them on your website.
  
  
• More Frequent updating of websites:  It is becoming more and more vital to keep your website fresh.  Many web developers are providing “content management” systems to allow you to update your website on your own.  In fact – it is becoming vital to have in-house capability to do so. There are lots of slick little programs you can download online (some of them are even free of charge) – and that’ll mean that you can really keep on top of your web page.
  
  
• Economic “decline” of luxury products: If your business is in a luxury category, what can you do to stop the economic decline from decimating your business? Sell the “practical aspects” of your product, or sell it in a “practical way.” Here’s what I mean: Even luxury cars can be sold as “fuel efficient” or a “classic that holds its value.”  Truly people will still buy on emotion, but giving them the practical reasons will surely help them provide logical justify their purchase.  Or, if you can’t sell the whole luxury car – let it be leased for a weekend getaway.  It’s a taste of the luxury, at a fraction of the cost.
  
  
• Online market research surveys:  Wondering how you can hang on to your customers? Now might be a good time to conduct that satisfaction survey.  There are lots of inexpensive online survey instruments (such as Survey Monkey).  Just beware to test the survey before you run it:  sometimes “skip questions” are faulty – meaning for example “If you have tried the product, please skip to question 3” but then, the survey fails to skip to question 3.  You can also use a professional market researcher to analyze the results – or even check the survey before it’s run. 
  
  
• Search Rankings replacing Yellow Pages:   Thanks to Bill Bergh of Corus Radio for this story:  Apparently, the new phone books arrived at his office tower in a huge palette….and sat there for weeks while no one bothered to pick them up!  (He has a photo of the near-full palette a month after delivery to prove it!)   Why? Searching on the ‘net has become so easy – no one needs to bother with yellow pages anymore.  Many companies still think that their rankings on search engines are “pure luck” when actually it is an exact science – based factors such as the quality of content in the site, content freshness, how long it’s been around, and how many other site are linking to it as a hub.  It also requires constant “babysitting” to keep ahead of your competitors, especially if you fall in a competitive industry category!  Now’s the time to shift your budget, people – get those rankings up – give us a call at START Marketing to find out how! The good news is, it’s still comparatively cheaper than yellow pages advertising (especially if you’re one of those full-page business categories!)
  
  
• Print Material Shift:  It’s true, a good business card is important.  But it seems most people are using “folders” to use as tailored proposal holders, instead of putting a lot of generic information into a brochure.  Brochures can never keep up with the fresh content on a website – so a simple business card with a website address can be far more effective.  If you present a proposal, all the key information can go into the custom-written proposal – and it simply needs a folder to look professional.  Even letterhead is often self-made.