Some inexpensive ways for Small Business to get through a tough economy.

In times of a slow economy, small business owners are faced with some difficult decisions. One of which is what to do with the advertising budget. The natural desire is to slash the budget. But the fact is that it’s times like these that a small business, when managed properly can be set up for greater growth when the economy thrives once again.

We need to also consider that many of our competitors may be doing. Are they trying to save a few bucks in the advertising department? It’s very possible that this could be a great time to reach out to your customers with little competition. But marketing doesn’t need to mean spending a bunch of money.

In 2008 there aren’t many people who are unfamiliar with the internet. Even up to 40% of seniors in Canada frequent activities online. Yes, your customers are on the internet on a regular basis.

Most small business owners however, are not!
Sure, they may have a website, or be listed in an online directory along with all of the competitors in their city, but there are a number of opportunities to improve business that are being sadly missed by most small business owners.

Here are just a few ideas that a small business owner could easily implement to not only survive, but thrive in a poor economy. The cost is ridiculously low when compared to traditional advertising, and the impact can be much larger than higher priced traditional advertising.

Develop an online presence;

Get a Website;
Your customers are on the internet. And they’re searching for products and services that you sell. You need to establish a presence on the internet so that you can reap the benefits. A presence, however, doesn’t just mean getting a website, although that is a good start. It’s important that you make sure that your website gets prominent listings in the search engines. A good web design company can do this for you. And the result of their work can easily be monitored and should be web traffic and customers.
Just check Google for the products and services you sell. If you can’t find your company on the first two pages of a search, that means your site isn’t optimized well, and wasn’t promoted, properly. A web design company should be able to to do these things for you and get you a good ranking in Google which will bring web traffic and business.

Start a Blog;
This is a terrific way to communicate with your customers in a casual fashion. You can provide lots of useful information in your blog related to your products and services. Help your customer and potential customer with good quality content that they’re searching for. If you do this right, you will build a following of readers, many of whom may become customers. Oh, by the way…blogs can be set to “ping”, or send a signal to several search engines, etc. every time you put something new on your blog. What that means is that you write something new on your blog, and it automatically tells the rest of the internet to come and look at your site! The cost of starting a blog is free.

Email Marketing;
Online marketers have understood this strategy for years. If you give your customer, or potential customer a good reason to opt into your newsletter, etc. by providing good content and other incentives, they will allow you to solicit them by email. How good could it be for your business in slow times if you could simply send out an email campaign to 2 or 3,000 people to announce a special sale, etc. Do you think the chance of them reading the email might be better than reading your newspaper advertisement? Aside from ridiculously inexpensive email and newsletter management programs, this marketing strategy is free.

Social Networks;
There was a time when the internet was controlled by only those who had a website. That time has long since passed. Today, people socialize online. They do activities together, discuss issues, hobbies, etc., and they do it in groups of like-minded people, or “tribes” as they are sometimes referred to. The power of the people has never been more evident than it is today on the internet. Can you imagine the impact if a group of hundreds in your market area are talking about how great your company is? Can you imagine if they don’t like your company?
The two largest social networks are Facebook and MySpace. In my area of Canada, (Niagara), alone, there are over 90,000 members of Facebook. The entire population of the Niagara Region is only sighly over 300,000! And that number includes babies, the elderly, and children. The impact of being involved in a social network in a positive way, (not direct selling), can have a huge impact on your buisness regardless of the economy.

In addition, there are several other online opportunities for small business such as; article marketing, podcasting, online t.v., press releases, and several other methods of advertising and communication. Most of it, free, or very inexpensive.

Taking advantage of some, or all of these ideas can raise your online presence, even to a position of recognized expert in your field. Do these things now. Your web traffic will grow, and so will your business. Let your competitors worry about economic conditions. You won’t need to.