Down in the Slumps

Written by Karen E. Hipp


Down inrepparttar Slumps

(Karen E. Hipp, Author, Do-It-Yourself Marketing)

Every business experiences times of heavy sales volume and slow sales volume. Most people call slow sales as being in a business "slump."

Some business slumps are easy to recognize. A downturn inrepparttar 121359 economy, seasonable business, weather conditions. For most businesses, a slump happens without warning and for no reason apparent.

Sometimes you're inrepparttar 121360 slumps when you're spendingrepparttar 121361 most time, money and effort on selling strategies. This is usually when I get a phone call from prospective clients. Owners start to panic. They cut their advertising budget, advertise in unknown territories, add or delete services, develop new price structures. This is what I call "crises marketing" and must be avoided at all costs. Particularly for a small business that is struggling to grow.

You can avoid your own "panic attack" by developing simple procedures that can be implemented quickly.

The first thing to do is to accept it as part of a normal business pattern. It shouldn't be signalingrepparttar 121362 end of your business. Don’t go offrepparttar 121363 deep end, but don't sit there waiting for your sales to come back either. Try takingrepparttar 121364 following steps:

What Do You Think Is Causing The Slump?

Look for something specific like:

A change in your advertising or promotional activity. Are you spending less on advertising? Trying not yet proven media advertising? Changedrepparttar 121365 way your ads look? Put out a new campaign? Changed your ad copy? Have you raised prices? Has new competition opened or rolled out their own new advertising campaign? Has your competitor lowered its price points? Has a major news event had a negative impact on your industry?

Marketing in the Good Ole' Summertime

Written by Karen E. Hipp


Marketing inrepparttar Good Ole' Summertime

Ah, summertime. It can berepparttar 121358 most creative time to plan and implement marketing promotions. Living in Florida as I do however, summertime can be one ofrepparttar 121359 most frustrating times ofrepparttar 121360 year too! Everything "shuts down" from May-September. All becauserepparttar 121361 "snowbirds" have gone back up north! I see advertising in various media plummet inrepparttar 121362 summer. Excuse me. But there are still millions of us here year round that would buy your product (if you paid a little attention to us).

But this challenge isn't just in Florida. I also hear "well, everyone's gone on vacation" (all summer?). And what about allrepparttar 121363 places that allrepparttar 121364 northern folk go back to inrepparttar 121365 summer? I know many Marketing Directors who basically ignore summer or give it little attention, thereby fulfilling their own thought. OK. So realistically, those of us who are smart enough to have figured this out can really make an impact because "the coast is clear", so to speak.

Let's take a peak at allrepparttar 121366 great things about business inrepparttar 121367 summer!

First, you can get cheaper advertising rates and take advantage of many promotions being offered to you from other businesses. Let's make a deal isrepparttar 121368 name ofrepparttar 121369 game. Do you have a media outlet you've wanted to try but feltrepparttar 121370 cost too prohibitive? Give them a call and see what their "blue plate special" is. Plus, you'll haverepparttar 121371 advantage of advertising in uncluttered publications. Fewer ads will help you stand out.

Secondly, I always found that asrepparttar 121372 person responsible for marketing in a company, I simply had more time on my hands to look at, test, clean up allrepparttar 121373 stuff I had been meaning to get torepparttar 121374 rest ofrepparttar 121375 year. I clipped out ideas, ads and promotions that I liked and kept them in my "idea file", which is actually a 3-ring binder I keep when I need new creative ideas or inspiration. This would be a great time to implement some of those ideas, but never had time to get to.

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