Served with Spaghetti or fed to the birds?

You've made it.

You´ve survived the economic crisis unscathed. Business is good, customers are up and revenue is getting back to pre-recession levels. Overall you are feeling good about how you are doing. That´s great. What got you here? If you are like any business, it was constantly reaching out to your customer in new and innovative ways. It was being cost-conscious about how you spent your marketing dollar to keep your foot in the door on prospects and existing customers coming back for more. It was getting creative on products and services that differentiated you, and keeping your audience informed, up-to-date, and engaged. AAHHH Yes. There is hope. Now complacency sets in…

The time and energy dedicated to getting the customer back in the door during tough times seems like such an overwhelming burden when the cash register is full. All the work and effort put into keeping your doors swinging and your website turning has a short shelf life and if you don´t maintain the momentum you risk becoming a stale loaf of bread fed to the birds at the end of the day rather than being served with a fresh bowl of spaghetti. Now is not the time to back off. Keeping your brand and overall existence at the forefront of your target market is never seasonal.

Case and point, I called one of my customers the other day. She hadn´t sent out any direct marketing campaigns in a couple of months so I wanted to make sure everything was ok. Assuming the worst that she was shut down, I was actually pleasantly surprised. She said she had been busier than ever. Business was really good. In fact, business was so good she let me know that she didn´t plan on doing any more direct marketing campaigns. After all, her store was packed full of customers. I knew that no less than six month prior she was struggling to keep the doors open. MediaDyme worked with her on a direct marketing strategy and assisted in executing a series of email marketing campaigns and text message offers. Return rates were good and business started to pick up for her. What a great success story, right? Wrong!

The good times have allowed the proverbial immune system to weaken because of the absence of no longer feeling attacked. Complacency sets in. All of the survival practices that drove the customers back to your door no longer leveraged. It´s like adopting a rigorous diet and exercise routine to get healthy only to halt the very regime that got you there once achieved. What happens? You get unhealthy again.

Key message here is to keep it coming. Don´t back off just because you think business is good enough that you don´t need constant marketing anymore. You could not be more wrong. In fact, good times are times to turn up the heat. Try different approaches. Use different medias or direct marketing channels to talk with your customers and prospects. Apply even more focus on personalization and relevance than ever before by getting very selective in marketing plans and messages. By doing so raises the bar for you and potentially springboards your business into another playing field.

www.MediaDyme.com