How To Maintain Your Market Share In Recession Times

by: Lynne Saarte

During times of economic crisis, what do most businesses cut back on to save on costs? If you are a business owner, you have probably answered marketing. True. Most companies look at marketing as more of an expense rather than a means to get back investments; hence, it can very well be taken off the list if you need to cut back on your budget. Printed posters – not this time. Color posters – cross it out. Brochure printing – another one off the list.

But this is where you are wrong. Especially during these trying times, there is a need for more marketing campaigns than ever. In order for you to gain profits, you need to spend first. And the only way you can get clients for your business is to market constantly.

What will happen if you lessen your marketing costs? What if you stopped producing printed posters or color posters altogether? You are just going to lose your customer, that is what; and your competition might just steal them from under your nose. Is that what you need right now? Right now, what you need is more clients; more clients to buy your products and services. Do well to remember that marketing can generate for you your client so you might as well give a large chunk of your budget to advertising.

Now is exactly the right time to allot a budget for your marketing activities. This is the appropriate time because if your competition thinks like you, they might also be of the idea to put on hold their marketing campaigns to save their money. You can then get their market share if you continue to promote your business while they are abandoning their marketing strategies for a while. With even smaller amount of marketing expenses, you might just end up with the whole lot.

Bear in mind that the marketplace is an area of competition. Even your most loyal customers are fair game for your competitors. By providing your clients and prospects with carefully planned marketing efforts, your business can very well get the most of the market share without your competition having any say about it.

The idea is this: while your competition is taking a rest from marketing their business, you can grab their market share from under their noses by pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy. Not only that, you are also positioning yourself at this time so that when things are well again economically, you have the most prominent place in the industry.