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In the current climate of recession and all the worries associated with the credit crunch, one of the first things that many companies see as an “expense they could do without” is their marketing budget, and more over their “online-marketing-budget.”

Worried by the supplier bills, salaries and all the other expenses that go with running a business, many are looking at ways to curb expenditure in order to weather the economic storm – and all too often the first casualty is all things ‘online’.

“Why should we be investing in Pay-Per-Click, updating our site or sending out emails when things are so tight at the moment?”

The answer to that question is simple, “because your competition still are”

Your competitors will have asked themselves the same questions you are. It’s worth while looking at the answers to all your questions, because your competition may very well be picking up on an answer that you may have at first overlooked.

In addition, you should consider that it doesn’t necessarily take a big investment into your website or online marketing campaigns to bring results. The cost of developing and expanding your online business can be very small in comparison to offline or traditional marketing costs of print, radio or TV advertising and yet still yield great returns.

(example: is it going to cost more to take out those ads in the local newspaper that will only run for a week, or improve the usability of your website and get more ad banners on a selection of your affiliate partner websites?)

A lot of companies often fail to realise the potential of their online commitment to their business when their perception of their results leads them to feel that a particular process wasn’t successful. This “marketing campaign didn’t work”, or “that banner ad didn’t work”-is what they’ll say. Why didn’t it work? What factors where present that could be effecting other areas of our business? Is the image of the puppy dog killing your message? Have we targeted the right people?” Even bad results have value.

Commitment means taking results and converting them into something tangible. “OK that didn’t work for us, …why? …Then let’s try this…” This kind of attitude will, in the long term, achieve more results because of the knowledge building nature of the problem/solution response.

examples of how developing change can cut costs

• Transferring traditional marketing to online digital versions (PDFs and so forth) can dramatically cut costs. By simply making company information such as catalogues, brochures, white papers available as downloads which can then be distributed via the internet  can eliminate printing and postage expenses which frees up budget for other departments.
• By using analytics tools you can discover whether your PPC campaigns are actually cost effective (something that some companies will hide from their clients.) Sometimes more revenue could be gained from attracting repeat customer business through email marketing as opposed to trying to attract new, unique custom through search engine marketing.
• Testing and adapting your website content can achieve massive results. From simply changing the wording of a headline or title, removing an image or changing something that was confusing your customers. It’s outstanding how small differences can have big results. But only by commitment and not being afraid to face some home truths can positive change develop.

Commitment and effort to any online activity should be sustained and energetic. Whether it’s an ecommerce website or an email marketing campaign designed to drive traffic to your website or solicit some other kind of interest or response, as a company you should believe in your goals, what you are doing, what you are saying. Dropping off with momentum will be seen by your customers and interpreted as you just don’t care that much. It’s understandable why so many companies are doing just that in this current time, but now is really the time to be focusing more effort on these areas of your business, as opposed to cutting them off. Your competitors may see this and use it to accelerate past you, using these uncertain times to their benefit.

Most web-based businesses see increased drop off in return when their websites stagnate. If you’re not committed to updating your site, bringing your users latest products, information or customer care, or making your website better to use, then they won’t be loyal.

By committing to your online goals you can achieve results. Adapting, changing tact and developing your methods for delivering your message may be called for, but this is to be expected as part of any realistic world view of marketing your business.

Through analysis we can see what’s working and what’s not and then adapt and change to fit the surrounding landscape, or even stand out further as maybe the case. But commitment to the fight is what makes successful companies stand out from those companies that fail to see the relevance in staying committed to online marketing.

If you would like to know more about why you should be considering more commitment to your online business then give us a call on 0870 41 777 41.