Making The Most Of The Recession

NOTE: WORK IN PROGRESS - SET TO PUBLISH WEEK OF FEB 16TH

Over the past year or so the economy has been less than spectacular. Over this time, I’ve read countless articles and attended webinars on “recession-proofing” everything from your PPC strategy, to email marketing to lead generation. All from smart marketers who aren’t slowing down or perseverating on the recession, but instead thinking how they can make money from it while educating others along the way!

The primary lesson I’ve taken away from these informational pieces is to be smart about your money, resources, strategy and the frugal will prevail – reaping the benefits of getting more for less. The emphasis has gone from quantity to quality, here folks. We can’t afford to do it the old way anymore. It’s wasteful.

Here are some ways to get smart now with your SEO & SEM strategy:

1. Create a highly targeted ad campaign and pay less per-click, thus getting more out of your budget. Check out this article on cutting the fat from your PPC campaign for specific techniques on maximizing your budget and results.

2. Be consistent and honest in all you do, from business practices and sales tactics to branding and networking. Make it easy for people to trust and respect you, and chances are you’ll be the final choice over your competitors.

3. Get social; engage in popular networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. This is the future of the web and it’s not slowing down any time soon. So, get on board or fall by the wayside. Move from container to object based content models. Provide visitors with multiple ways to access your content from podcasts and streaming video to blogs and social media outlets.

4. Base your SEM/SEO strategy on cold hard facts. Gather and interpret data and reports, then make your move. Now is not the time to hold your breath, make a wish and choose a strategy based on instinct or gut reaction.

5. Get smart with your incentives, give people a good reason to engage with your business. Drive your call to action with a great incentive that your audience just can’t resist.

6. Track and measure your marketing. Find out what’s working and what isn’t. Dump what’s not working and move forward with what is. Continually create, track and interpret new and fresh campaigns, dump what’s not working. Repeat.

Remember, a smarter, more refined, resourceful, and well thought out SEO & SEM strategy is likely to generate more quality site visits, leads, conversions – steps toward your call to action and end goals.