New Year....New Business

2010 has been an incredibly difficult year for businesses across all sectors, with many simply glad to have survived until December. We are truly beginning to the see the knock-on effects of the public spending cuts, and consumer confidence is noticeably low.

If you’re still in business at the end of 2010, well done! There are many who haven’t found a way to keep their business focused and competitive enough to survive, and moving into 2011 will means things only get tougher for us all.

Looking forward to a prosperous 2011?

In another 12 months we will all sit back once more and reflect on the year that has just been, but what situation will you find yourself in by then? We now know that the government cuts are only going to be deeper in the coming months, and combined with stagnant house prices and low consumer confidence, we can expect an even more challenging 12 months to come.

So where your business finds itself next December is very much down to how you approach business this new year. Some businesses will see no choice but to batten down the hatches and try to ride out the storm. This will involve some harsh decisions, maybe some redundancies and the staff Christmas party being cancelled. There will be no budget for investment in this scenario, and there is a huge reliance on existing customers to keep the business afloat.

This kind of approach also leaves any business very vulnerable to being outperformed by more ambitious existing competitors, and also to being squeezed out by new start-up businesses or businesses from other market sectors that are diversifying in an attempt to secure their existence.

One of the things that any small business can do is to focus on their messaging and marketing, and make sure that existing and potential customers are kept up-to-date with any developments surrounding their company and their industry. Communication is vital to ensure that if there is any opportunity of doing business, either now or in the coming months, the customer knows that they can come to you to fulfill their need.

Passive business promotion

The methods of communication used to keep in touch with your customer base don’t need to be overly aggressive. We are all being subjected to hard selling tactics at the moment, but the chances are your customers are in no position to spend money straight away. Sending regular marketing emails is a great way to keep in touch with your customers, and also a great way to reach out to new customers.

You can use email marketing to highlight promotions or industry news, and if you include helpful advice or money saving offers with each email, you can be sure that your customers won’t view the emails as being overly aggressive or intrusive.

If you would like to talk to us about starting an email marketing campaign in 2011, we would be happy to hear from you. It can be a highly effective and cost-efficient means of communication, and could help to ease your business through the coming 12 months.

In summary, we all know that 2011 will be another tough year for business. It can either be approached with a view that things will get better next year, or with the view that things can be made better this year through hard work and a little bit of investment.

We wish all of our customers a very happy new year and a prosperous 2011.