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Most of us are feeling the effects of economic downturn right now. The result is that individuals are spending less and companies are trying to maintain. Spending habits are changing so recession advertising will need to change to keep pace with what’s happening in the market. I believe that today search marketing and social marketing will be more effective than more traditional advertising methods, for a number of reasons.
Changing attitudes about money and spending mean that interruption or awareness ads have less traction. People have less discretionary money which means that they aren’t interested in learning about new products or services. Companies will need to work at grabbing the attention of people much later in the sales cycle, in other words those who are considering a purchase. Internet marketing makes this possible.
Think about how often YOU use search engines. Google has become the source for product research. It doesn’t matter if the product is running shoes or guitar strings or great airfares, people want to know what has worked and what hasn’t for others that have already made the purchase. We research online to ensure that we’ll get value for our money.
If your product or service appears in Google or Yahoo you have a much better chance of catching a potential buyer at the moment they’re considering a purchase. Search engine marketing can make that happen. A recent poll shows that SEO is the top marketing choice of more than 400 marketers, closely followed by blogging and pay per click marketing. This shows that SEO is maturing as a marketing medium, and that marketers recognize the value of being present in search results. And, search marketing has two advantages over other types of advertising; its cost effective and measurable. Now more than ever, SEO and PPC are a smart choice for marketers.
When compared with print, radio or television campaigns, search marketing is considerably more affordable. And, while no reputable SEO firm will guarantee rankings (see why), it is common for clients to see increasing traffic quantity and quality for months after the SEO work is completed. Most traditional advertising campaigns stop producing leads as soon as your checkbook closes.
Search marketing is also measurable. With quality traffic monitoring it’s possible to see exactly what you’re getting for your money. If your strategy is working you’ll know it, and if it isn’t you’ll have enough information to be able to see why. Did you pick the wrong keywords? Are landing pages under performing? No other form of advertising gives this level of accountability.
The recession is affecting everyone and every business, so it’s just silly to think that old marketing methods will continue to produce. Savvy business owners will be looking for alternative ways to capture the attention of potential clients. Search engine marketing could definitely help.
45 Comments
It’s definitely time for small business owners to get creative with their marketing efforts. Even in down times consumers are still buying, they’re just being more selective with their dollars, which means marketing efforts that stand out and provide real value will get the sales.
Matt
Great post.
Now that resources are scarce, we will start enjoying a lot of creativity and SEM is one field where small businesses can increase their sales. As far as organic search marketing it maybe time consuming but any small business that operates on and off-line should invest in increasing their search engine visibility. I think the best way to do this on a budget is to blog and become active online. This will get others to either pick up your content and also link to your website.
Times are kicking in hard for new web start-ups who before were replying heavily on PPC and bank loans to get them through the initial start-up phase. With no organic rankings in the search engines there is little option but to use PPC for new start-ups however it can be an expensive route to go down if this is your #1 source of traffic. In my industry I have seen around ten promising looking companies drop out in the last 6 months, 1 of which was backed by Microsoft. Good news for me of course but not so for them
However! This is where putting all your eggs in one basket is only going to lead to ruin. Relying only on PPC in the beginning and looking to start making a decent turnover in the first year should not be the objective. The initial year should be about onsite development and content and not about heavy spending. I spent the first 1.5 years of my business concentrating only on new site features and content and the end result is I have outlived everyone who started up at the same time as well as overtaking many of my competitors. Where did they all go? Well at £2.50 per click and 300 clicks per day you need a hefty bank loan/investment/rack of credit cards to pay for it all.
There is nothing wrong with a little PPC but it should never be any sites main source of traffic and the people who are going to cut the mustard in these difficult times are those that have a little creativity about them
I think you hit on a very crucial point. SEO is simply cheaper, effective and more reliable in the long term. You say that SEO is maturing as a marketing medium. I believe that when SEO fully matures, and is adopted by SMEs and blue chips alike, it will become a less attractive medium due to increased competition, but it will still be the first choice none the less.
With the recession taking a turn for the worst, I can almost gurantee that people, especially small websites, will turn to the “free” option. (Even though time and labour never come for free).
I think this is so true, people don’t understand that things need to change. You need to stop spending to help get out of debt – government needs the same idea put into action but that is not going to happen.
Excellent stuff…. i truly agree with the post above… i feel the economic downtrend has put strain on both the consumers and the manufacturers as both have less money to spend. so its wise to use other channels to reach out the target audience in this troubled waters.
Thanks for sharing. this would be helpful to me in my marketing efforts.
Hi Chris,
It’s not just search marketing that’s become important, online branding has also become more vital from a professional’s point of view, with jobs drying up and the need to ensure that you have a positive presence on the web.
But I would agree with Matt, there is still a buying market out there, but the focus now lies in creative means of marketing and promoting, and that is ultimately what will separate the great from the good.
Yeah! Recession proved his values in front of the world and there is no second option stuck upon some good marketing strategies which stated herewith.
I think today the most important thing is to optimize your website for google. The first thing everybody does, if you want something it to look it up on google.
Nice and interesting piece… SEO and PPC really is the future of internet marketing… Thanks for the read
Some of the stimulus money intended for government use has been directed to local and municipal governments and public schools. It would be a good idea to research this for the verticals you are covering to see if there are opportunities to target your marketing toward those new sources of funding, that is, to the services where the government and schools would be buying in with the stimulus money.
-Flip
I think that in some ways a recession is good as it encourages business owners to tink outside of the box and do different things. Before the recession I was doing ok without any websites. I now have 6 sites up and running, I’m struggling but I know that as time goes on things will get better and those sites will bring in the money
Web – is a good advertising field, for interaction with customers. Futhermore, context adverts a much cheaper, than luxury advertising on TVs etc.
Future is in Internet technologies…
But can you predict what will be further??? If todays recession is not a bottom??
P.S. Lostinsearch, you have 2008 copy in footer
Now is 2009 =)
Good luck!
i also believe that next few years, searching marketing is getting affordable for any products.. it’s easy, simple and connecting many different kind of people who need stuff not just in our own country but also around the world..
i can say that, we only a single click to find what we need.. and pay directly not need to wait a long time…
great post
iI’m no expert in seo, but I have got some great info and advice from various forums and websites. This has helped me get my buisness site to the top of the rankings. it still suprises that my competitors are not using the same ideas to get more traffic to their websites
I think at times like these its always good to fall back on the age old free marketing methods. The ones we’ve too easily forgotten during the good times.
Talking to people face-to-face and on the phone. Networking is by far one of the greatest ways to boost business and it doesn’t have to cost a penny.
The beauty is I haven’t even found much of a downturn in my SEO campaigns DESPITE the recession. This is amazing compared to other forms of business. People are still going to do Google searches no matter how bad it gets. While traditional businesses are in the red, online business is as strong as ever!
Hi
Very interesting post. I agree that the spend on internet marketing/advertising will hold up much better than traditional media.
Neil
Everybody needs some business ideas in this time of recession…
I agree with so many of those who have already commented. To make money in todays economy you have to be willing to be flexible, creative and to actively think outside the box. Those who are just sticking and thinking what has always worked in the past could seriously find themselves in big trouble financially, even worse than the rest of us.
There is no time like the present to start paying attention to what works for others and using the internet is a cheap and effective way to make more money no matter what your business is. Well, almost no matter what kind of business you have anyway.
I love that line–traditional advertising stops when the checkbook closes–so true.
SEO and the way it has been traditionally done, is changing and in these tough times, it is evident that ’social proof’ will play a HUGE role in getting people to buy WHAT THEY WANT. Thus, we need to understand that search as a medium will grow, and if you get top rankings on SEs, things are going to get better.
However, from a search engines perpective, this means that a lot many more dependents on them and recession is affecting them as well. They may well try to push down some of the commercial sites from ranking on informational queries. This will help them channel more traffic to their PPC models. So be careful and invest in building a long term brand. It definitely will have a great effect on your SEO.
I agree. A small business needs to spend time creating a blog and writing good articles and learn some SEO. It will be less expensive and pay off in the long run.
it takes more creative thinking and ideas nowdays to market in this downward economy.
Excellent! Thanks.
great post! now is time for creative marketing plans….
yeah true it’s time for small business owners to get creative with their marketing. Even in downtimes consumers still buy, they just become more selective, which means marketing efforts that stand out and provide real value will get the sales.
I think businesses need to really think about all of the marketing channels. They can’t just try things out as freely as they can when the money is there. Now they have to calculate the gains and see if it’s even worth testing before shelling out the money for it.
I agree – Article content and quality is everything.
SEO is simply cheaper, effective and more reliable in the long term. I think that when SEO fully matures, and is adopted by SMEs, it will become a less attractive medium due to increased competition, but it will still be the first choice none the less.
In many ways i think recession has helped the online marketing space, it seems to have weeded out the weaker less creative elements and made way for allot more innovation and unique ideas!
Also, SME business have tones of traffic pulling potential, as most are within a unique niche…an article a day keeps recession at bay!
I love that line–traditional advertising stops when the checkbook closes–so true.
I think that people have to stop to ask for loans and try to save some money because the end of this crisis is not near
Thanks for your contribution, this post could not come at a better time than now when the world is feeling the recession. I believe search engine marketing is an affordable channel to get more business leads. Through search marketing you can drive lots of targeted traffic to your site.
Thanks for your insight, however I have found it difficult to make clients used to media marketing put more emphasis on their SEO for their websites.
Great Post…It’s definitely time for creative marketing.
A suggestion:
Please change the color of the links given between the post as they are difficult to identify for further readings or reference.
Thanks,
It’s great! Thanks!
traditional advertising stops when the checkbook closes–so true. yeah right! i agree
I think the situation is more difficult for big companies that have been investing more in useless resources the recent years. It’s time for small and more flexible companies. Online marketing and SEO is a must if you don’t want to spend big amounts of money in being known
It should sure happen in economic crisis, the real thing is people have no money to spent and some times the money value gone down, but the companies can maintain this by giving discounts, attractive schemes, loans etc etc….
I think that people who focus on the negative will draw more negativity into their lives. Stop worrying about the economy, you cant do anything about it. Work hard, work smart and live each day like it could be your last on earth. If you do those things you will be way ahead of the masses (who are dumb asses).
There is now better way to expand your market than doing SEO this is surely the best and cheapest way to get clients around. However you must do this with the knowledge in hand (in short study and learn how to do SEO properly).
i truly agree with the post above economic downturn thing.small business owners to get creative with their marketing efforts. .thanks for tips
Search engines are the great equalizer though… How else can a smaller business compete with national brands? By being creative, the internet gives us a shot. And with jobs being so tough to come by, at least there is a place to try and compete for business.
I think they could potentially be a good match. A lot of marketing has to do with the study of consumer behavior, as well as in the in depth understanding of specific groups within society in order to market products to them.