There is a good post on seobook.com (always worth a read) about how to respond to the never ending doom and gloom that prevails in the news today.
There is no doubt that times are (very) tough and that many companies will inevitably fail due to a lack of funding over the coming months, but “history tells us that where there is chaos, there is opportunity“.
Google, along with many other companies, rose out of the ashes of the dot com crash by focusing on producing a fantastic product and by spending money wisely.
Numerous studies have proven over time that companies that continue to market aggressively in dark economic times are often the ones that become more successful when things improve.
Search engine marketing is the perfect answer to the requirement to market your business without spending too much. We are, of course, biased but are there any other forms of marketing where you can guarantee to spend money ONLY on attracting an audience that is actively looking for your products or services?
This is the beauty of search. If demand falls, so will your spend. As long as there are people looking for your services, you should be doing everything that you can to ensure that you are getting in front of them to show how you can meet their requirements.
The choice is simple – hide from the grim reality of the current economic climate and cut all marketing expenditure (but suffer the inevitable reduction in market visibility and turnover) or batten down the hatches and ride out the storm but continue to invest in marketing that you know works.
Everything goes in cycles and the current situation was arguably long overdue. There will be an upturn though and it will be the companies that have continued to develop a strong range of products / services and continued to market these products / services to the world that will come out of the other side smelling of roses.
