ROW (Return on Web Site) Marketing in a slow economy. 
By Mael Hernandez, April 2008

You cannot turn on the TV, radio or go on the Internet without hearing about how our economy has slowed.  Or that we are on the brink of a recession.   The stock market seems to be going down more than it goes up.  The subprime mortgage crisis continues to top the news and the predictions are of things getting worse before they get better.

How do companies react to a slowing economy?  Many look to cut budgets and expenses and the marketing budgets are the first to go.  Despite that, historically it has been proven that companies that cut marketing budgets during rough times end up hurting themselves.   In fact, if you can maintain or increase your marketing budgets during a slow economy you can actually increase market share - especially if your competitors are cutting back.  Think about it, all consumers whether B-C or B-B are looking for the best deals.  This creates a  huge opportunity.

Increasing the marketing budget may not be feasible for every company so what options are available?  As I have stated in a previous newsletter, I believe "Traditional Marketing is Dead."  In order to improve our marketing effectiveness we need to use as many means as possible to test, measure and track all of our marketing efforts.  No other medium allows us to track our marketing efforts more than our web sites. In fact, I advise clients to rethink their marketing strategy to use their web sites as the focal point of all their marketing. 

Regardless of the state of the economy, as marketers we should focus on increasing the overall effectiveness of our efforts.  A slowing economy gives us a reason to review what we are doing, what is and isn't working.  What is providing the greatest ROI and what can we do to improve our overall marketing effectiveness and increase sales? 

The following are some things you can do to help improve your marketing effectiveness, ROI and most importantly increase sales.

• Grab attention. Adjust your marketing message with more of a focus on value and cost savings.  This includes the content on your web site.  Be specific about what your clients can expect when they invest in your product or service.
• Let your customers explain who you are. Highlight customer testimonials with an emphasis on benefits realized.
• More facts, less guess work.  Test your marketing messages online on your web site before you implement them offline.  This is one of the most powerful marketing features your web site provides.  Conduct real-time A/B testing of different headlines, offers and/or promotions.  Track which messages your target market responds to the most favorably.  Take those messages and implement them throughout all your marketing.  This is a very cost-effective method to increase your marketing effectiveness and overall ROI.  Testing messages is made even easier with a web content management system that lets you create the tests quickly and track results. 
• Educate your target market.  Develop an email or newsletter program if you don't currently have one.  According to the Direct Marketing Association email marketing provides $45.65 ROI for every dollar invested.  Again, focus the messages on value, cost savings, promotions, discounts or any other benefit-oriented information to help your customers.  The sales cycle traditionally increases during a slow economy and email marketing is a very cost-effective way to keep your message in front of current and potential customers.
• If you have it, use it.  Add video that shows off your product or services to your web site.  Video can help increase your conversion rate by 20% or more.  If storage and bandwidth are concerns post your videos on YouTube or Google video and then embed them on your site.  This has the added benefits of helping with search engine rankings.
• Increase search engine rankings. Optimize your web site for higher search rankings.  Do everything you can to increase your natural search engines rankings.  It's hard to sell someone on your product or service if they can't find you on the internet.  Start out small by optimizing one or two pages for specific keywords and track results. 

These are just a few things we can do to help us market during a slow economy.  These are also things we should be doing on a regular basis.  Review your marketing strategy and make sure it includes a strong interactive marketing plan that maximizes your web site and other cost effective interactive tools.  Remember that measuring the ROI from marketing campaigns is essential regardless of the state of the economy. 

I believe one of the most important, if not the most important thing every company should do is to study the numbers.  How are you measuring the return on your efforts?  If you would like to learn more about the interactive options available to help you increase your marketing effectiveness and ROI , drop me an email at maelh@penpublishing.com. 

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