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Hello.
Cutting back on your marketing during a recession is the worst thing you can do. But for some reasons, businesses don't seem to believe that. We have the facts. Let's get going.
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Creatively yours,
Harry Hoover
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| Marketing Spending Pays Off |
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By Harry Hoover
Well, here's a big surprise: small businesses which spend more during a downturn actually do better financially. Marketing professionals have been giving this advice to businesses of all sizes since the first recession. But too many business leaders make marketing their first, instead of their last, cut. It's nice to have some empirical data to prove our assertion.
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"According to the "Small Business Marketing Health Check" report from Hurwitz & Associates, there is a correlation between small businesses that are doing well and greater marketing spending. Almost two-thirds of small businesses that expected increased revenues had raised or planned to raise marketing spending, compared with just 32% to 36% of businesses with flat or declining revenues."
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During previous recessions, American Business Press has sponsored two studies on marketing expenditures, and the group found that:
• cutting spending on marketing and advertising during a recession produces negative short and long-term results in relation to sales and profits
• additionally, during the 1974 - 75 recession years, the study found that companies not cutting marketing had higher sales and net income during those years and the two following years compared to companies which cut in either or both recession years.
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| Social Media Confuses Businesses |
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By Harry Hoover
It seems businesses of all sizes are conflicted about how to use social media effectively. In a recent CitiBank/GfK Roper study, about 75 percent of small businesses said that social networks are not working for them. On the other side of the equation, Gartner says that most Fortune 1000 companies will delve into social media by 2010 but more than half of them will fail.
First of all, small businesses may not clearly understand how social media can help them. Nor, do they know how to measure the impact of social networks. For instance, friending a brand may not always result in immediate sales. So, the small business reporting that social media doesn't work is probably not giving the program sufficient time to develop.
Additionally, like businesses of all sizes, small businesses have trouble focusing their efforts. They want to jump into Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter all at once. Now, I believe in utilizing all three of these networks, as does Paul Chaney.
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