Do’s and Don’ts of Recession Marketing

By MaryEllen Tribby
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It’s one of the cruel ironies of business that when the economy is bad, you need to pull out all the stops to reel in new clients and get more sales from current ones. Unfortunately, just at the time your brain is telling you to rev up your marketing, your fear-driven gut is telling you to conserve money.

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend a lot to ensure that your marketing message is heard loud and clear. There are plenty of inexpensive, yet effective, ways to attract clients and network with other real estate professionals. Here are a few critical do’s and don’ts.

The Do’s

Do send out an e-newsletter. Even if you have a small bricks-and-mortar business, you should be collecting the e-mail addresses of all customers who walk through your door and send them regular e-mails with news from your local market, recent home sales, staging tips and more.

Do try your hand at online public relations. Submit relevant news items to online press release sites, such as PRWeb.com or Free-press-release.com. Write informative press releases with plenty of contact info that leads back to your Web site or business. Because not too many people will be interested in reading only about your business, be sure to link any company-specific news with a hot topic of the day. It could be something that’s been in the news or that is controversial in your industry.

Do hold teleseminars. Anybody can pick up a telephone and start talking. And that’s the key to using teleconferences to promote your business. It works like this. You find an expert in your industry to interview over the phone, you arrange a number for your customers to call in and you record the call to post to your Web site. During the call, be sure to plug your real estate business, so you are providing valuable information to your clients while getting your marketing message out there.

Do participate in joint ventures. Leverage your relationships with other likeminded businesses in your niche or in related industries through joint ventures. Each joint venture is different, but it basically involves working together to promote each other’s services. It’s a great way to accelerate the growth of your business without spending much money.

When joint venturing, look for strong partners, businesses that have skills or resources you lack. Make sure each side’s contribution is equal and decided in advance. Make agreements simple, but put them in writing. The idea is to create joint ventures that are easy to maintain, financially lucrative and long-lasting.

Do use pay-per-click ads. Services, such as Google AdWords, offer a great low-cost way to advertise online. The best part is that your ads are targeted to Web surfers who are looking for products or services just like yours. You can even target your ads to specific geographic areas—great for real estate professionals.

In PPC advertising you pay only when someone clicks on your ad on the results page of Google. And your ads, which are three lines with a headline and your URL, show up only when someone is searching for keywords you have designated for your ad. You bid on these keywords, which should be terms that you think your target market is searching for. Because you bid and control how much you spend, you can limit your investment to as much or as little as you’d like.

The key to success with PPC is testing. You have to change your headlines, copy and offer until you find the combination that brings in sales.

The Don’ts

Don’t overplan. The worst thing you can do in business is overplan—endlessly tweaking until everything is “just right.” Just do something to get your marketing effort out there. There is plenty of time to improve after you’ve seen what the market wants.

Don’t overspend. You don’t need to exceed your budget. You don’t need to hire an expensive consultant to craft a marketing plan. You don’t need to spend thousands to build your Web site. Cheap freelancers are easy to find. Or you educate yourself on how to create a lot of tools yourself.

Don’t fall in love with your ideas. Be ready to start over with new marketing copy or even a new business model if the market tells you to (i.e., if nobody buys).

At my own company, one of our top selling programs of the past year, a product that made us a lot of money, hasn’t been selling that much in the New Year. It is tempting to give it more chances, to let this program prove it can sell again. But the truth is that it no longer works, and we have to find something else to take its place.

The bottom line? Marketing your business is not rocket science. It’s a simple matter of following proven formulas and executing methodically. In recessions, people tend to panic and make bad business decisions. They choose expensive or ill-suited marketing vehicles (which is bad), or they stop marketing altogether (which is worse). Stay calm and focused and keep sending your message out relentlessly. When the recession ends, you’ll be glad you kept a cool head.

MaryEllen Tribby has led the Early to Rise team since May 2006 as publisher and CEO. She has more than 20 years of publishing and business experience, most notably in direct marketing. Tribby is co-author with Michael Masterson of Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business (Wiley Publishing, Inc.).