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Slide 1: How Two Simple Changes to Your Marketing Can Increase Profits Even in Hard Times It's the number one topic on an entrepreneur's mind at some point: what will happen to my business during hard times? Should we panic? How long do recessions last, anyway? Wish I had the answer to that one, but I have no clue. Dude, I'm a website promotion specialist. How would I know? :-D What I do know is that I'm not participating in the recession - I'm too busy and I haven't got a *thing* to wear! I say that with tongue in cheek, but due to an expensive health problem I've had since 1992, I really didn't know what it was like to have this mystical thing called "extra money". My spare cash always went to treating my illness, so for me, there was Always a recession. But who has time to whine? I believe you can turn just about any circumstance into a positive. And sure enough, my past experiences of being a penny-pinching small business woman put me in a unique position to tell you how to get your business to prosper in hard times. The answer is simple: market smarter, and market better. How? There are basically two steps. First, don't stop advertising, and if you're not advertising, start. It's often the fastest, most direct route to getting customers your message. However, spend your advertising money as wisely as you can. Track closely to determine what is working best to bring you business, and focus your money there. Reduce or eliminate everything else. You can always return to your original plans when profits rise if you were in the midst of testing some expensive new technique. The second step would be to append that advertising with more cost-effective marketing, especially in whatever area you're not doing now. Can you get your marketing done with a $3000 budget instead of a $5000 budget with a little extra elbow grease? If it's worth the increase in labor, then do it. Did submitting one article a week get you good results before? Nowadays you may need to do two. It sounds obvious - but are you doing it? If you're not - and most business owners aren't - don't beat yourself up. Just get to work while there's still time to have a successful quarter.
Slide 2: You say you're doing article marketing by posting to hundreds of directory-style sites already? Awesome. Now get those same articles distributed directly to ezine publishers that have better reach, and are more exclusive about who they accept. Need to test them out first? Run a classified or top sponsor ad. If you're already doing that, think of what changes you can make to get more people to read more of the articles you're already submitting? Do some topics get you more exposure? Focus on those. If you don't know the answer to these questions, find out. Sometimes the smallest creative change can turn your entire business around. There's all kinds of creative marketing you can do that you can start with quickly, from blogging, article marketing or social media to organic search strategies. And of course ther are also all kinds of twists you can put on whatever you're already doing. How do you find them? For at least 30 minutes today, sit down and write marketing ideas. I learned a tip from a brilliant man named Allen says that after your mind has been working on something for 30 minutes, it just keeps coming up with more ideas on autopilot. I've found that the longer I go, the better my ideas get. So even if you have to stop after 30 minutes, take that pad and paper with you. And no matter how silly any idea seems, write it down. It may inspire something else later. When you're done, pick the best one and go do it, or assign it to your marketing team if you have one. Research who does something similar, and follow their successes. It's the ultimate recipe for getting a business through hard times - market harder, market smarter, market more creatively, and do it in addition to, not instead of, advertising. Some marketing tactics may take a little time to work, but that time lag is usually worth it. In the mean time, if you keep advertising, you can get a quick boost. The people are still out there. Your business still helps people. A recession or hard times just means you have to work a little smarter for the same amount of money. You can do it. Don't abandon hope just yet. How I kept a #1 search ranking out of 89 million on Google & Yahoo for 7 years - learn how you can do the same at http://trafficreality.com/evergreen today.