Marketing in a Downturn Economy: Simple Practices to Try Today

In this economy, there continues to be talk about whether marketing should be the first place to cut — or an opportunity to capitalize with less noise in your space. Regardless of what your next move is, there’s no question that 2009 is a time to get much smarter and more qualitative about your efforts. With that in mind, e-mail continues to be a tactic that makes sense financially, however in many cases, there seems to be decline in response, whether it’s publisher rentals or ongoing communications. Well you’re in luck because we’ve found some great ways to be more effective with your e-mail communications.

A recent MarketingSherpa report shared some great insights that we’re happy to share with you.

For example, 67 percent of technology decision makers said they read e-mail newsletters at least monthly, according to MarketingSherpa’s 2008 Business Technology Benchmark Guide. That’s a larger percentage than that of people who say they read traditional newspapers, print trade publications or general business magazines monthly. With the changing times, format is becoming critical to successful delivery and readership as well. 64 percent of key decision-makers view your carefully crafted e-mails on their Blackberrys and other mobile devices, making formatting extremely important if you want to get your content read.

Another great tip: We’re finding that co-registration can be a nice substitute for list rental. Renting lists from third-party advertisers has been a good source of prospects in your target market — however, over time these can risk the publisher’s relationship with subscribers, ultimately causing a decline in readership and less return for you. Instead, consider co-registration deals with your favorite publications. The technique allows a publisher to select offers that are relevant to their subscriber base and promote them as a value-added service during the newsletter sign-up process. You can then position yourself with a bit of context and get subscribers that want to hear from you.