There’s never been a better time to have a website
It’s impossible to turn on the TV or radio without hearing about the financial crisis, “market downturns”, or the implosion of the worldwide economy in general. With so much fear in the minds of business owners on decreasing customer spending (with no end in sight), you would be forgiven for running a fine-toothed comb over your marketing budget.
The budget for creating, maintaining or promoting your online presence, however, should definitely not be given the chop. If anything, you should be looking to increase the online budget, and heres three reasons why:
1. It’s cost effective
Past economic downturns have taught us that during tough times marketing dollars invested wisely reap big rewards. Depending on your business and target market, it can be much cheaper to find a new customer online than through traditional means such as print (newspaper ads, flyers, brochures) or television.
Gerry McGovern makes the argument that the web is 14 times cheaper to have a customer complete a task online (such as buying a product or updating billing information) than via the phone, and a startling 35 times cheaper than face-to-face interaction.
2. It gets ahead of the competition
Warren Buffet advised stock market investors to “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful”, which is why he is now buying up stock during this shaky economic situation. You can apply the same principle to your marketing budget. For example, there is now a great opportunity to advertise your website with Google AdWords as big companies trim their online advertising budgets and ad prices begin to drop.
3. It creates opportunity for clever marketing
Those with small online advertising budgets are not left out in the cold during this economic winter. You have at your disposal a wide variety of online services that can bring new customers with little to no cost. Social networking websites are great for this, as well as social media such as YouTube. The smarter you can be when using these mediums, the better your chances at success. These are easy to get started with but difficult to master, and not a silver-bullet for all your marketing needs. In my opinion, using these mediums along with traditional advertising is a winning combination.
