Every day we hear about more bail outs and unemployed Wall St whiz kids. Companies are looking for ways to tighten their belts and many are faced with shrinking budgets and dwindling resources.
Crazy as it may seem, in a tough climate marketing and PR budgets are often the first to get the axe, Now is not the time to communicate less - it's more important than ever to connect with and speak to your customers and stakeholders. Maintain and nurture the relationships you've built.
"Maintain marketing spending. it is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times."
Harvard Business School "Working Knowledge," Marketing Your Way through a Recession. March 2008
10 Strategies for Boosting ROI Despite Shrinking Budgets and Dwindling Resources, a whitepaper out today from Marketwire, offers best practices on how to use Web 2.0 tools to achieve more with less.
The paper covers:
- Why PR, not advertising, is the strategy of choice
- How to maintain your brand through a better web presence
- The right mix of Web 2.0 tools
- Integrating internal resources
- Lower paid search by improving organic search visibility
- How communities can help spread the word
- Setting goals and measuring results
- Creative ways to keep customers happy and coming back
- Appeal to the news media with new tools and ready-to-go content
- Monitor the competition
Smart agencies are already gearing up to help their clients implement these ideas and are maximizing their own resources by putting their staff through social media training sessions.
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