subject: B2b Marketing A Survival Strategy To Beat The Recession! [print this page] The recent economic collapse has taken a heavy toll on businesses around the world and caused many to re-evaluate their customer base. . Recent news has been filled with layoffs, bankruptcies and foreclosures. However, the situation is slowly improving, particularly with the government putting billions of dollars of stimulus funding into the economy with the goal of normalizing the market and and bringing back its lost luster. Against this economic background and with the huge potential of government customers, if you own a business that needs to suvive, you should focus on extracting maximum benefit from B2B marketing in areas most likely to benefit from government stimulus packages.
Are you extracting the maximum benefits?
The current economic recession has proven very difficult for most businesses in fact, many businesses and consumers have became increasingly worried about their expenditures and adopted a wait-and-see attitude to discretionary spending. While many consumers have slowed their personal expenditure and are increasing their savings, many businesses have fixed expenses as well as discretionary expenses that they cannot forego without detrimentally affecting their profits. Many businesses may not be recession-proof, but they can certainly be recession-resistant if they use the right survival strategy. Especially those businesses that have a potential customer base of government agencies or institutions.
The Survival Strategy
As opposed to 20 years ago, businesses now have an entire World Wide Web through which they can market their business capabilities. In order to sustain themselves in the recession hit environment, businesses should use the Web to their maximum advantage and focus on B2B marketing and online marketing measures. In fact, during a recession like the current one, this may well be the best time for businesses to re-evaluate their product and service capabilities and see whether their products and services can be easily adapted to cross into new markets and/or regions, particularly to government or institutional customers. This is especially important for businesses that can benefit from the current government stimulus funding.
Here are a few good tips to help you position your business most affectively in this environment:
First, you should keep a close eye on the stimulus package and be proactive by positioning your business appropriately in order to benefit from stimulus funds and grants.
In addition, you should not expect purchasing to resume until the stimulus plans are clear and governments are releasing stimulus funds. Remember that normal seasonal spending patterns of your customers may be disrupted since many consumers and businesses are still in a wait and see spending mode. Purchasing wont resume until the details of the stimulus funding packages and grants are released and clear and funds start flowing from Washington.
Another key thing to remember is the government expenditure patterns. You should take advantage of the key use it or lose it budget cycles of government agencies and the golden revenue opportunity they present. Unlike commercial businesses, government agencies are required to spend their allotted budget prior to the end of the fiscal year, or they risk not receiving the same amount of funding in the following year. Therefore, the three-month period prior to a fiscal year end is a great time for you to profit from clean-up spending as government departments empty their coffers.
If you are a broad B2B marketer, you need to segment your current customer base to accurately identify government agencies so that you can track the results of sales and marketing efforts to government agencies. Dont reduce your marketing effort to your existing government customers. Keep an eye on regional funding and shift some of your efforts in the hardest hit regions or industries to those regions and industries with strong stimulus funding potential.
Here are a few trends for various vertical markets:
The construction industry is one of the biggest winners of stimulus funds. You only need to look around to see the increasing number of construction projects. Fortunately, the construction industry requires a very wide variety of products and services in order for it to run.
The healthcare sector also is strong and will likely stay strong throughout the next decade or more. This is a growing market segment and you should consider whether you can position your business in the healthcare sector.
In the education vertical, you can expect a burst of spending by governments as soon as administrators feel more secure about their funding. Education departments will have a lot of use it or lose it money that will expire prior to year-end. The stimulus package includes substantial amounts of funding for special education, as well as grants for technology and facility improvements.
Local governments should receive windfalls of stimulus money to spend on public works, safety, and security programs. The fiscal year-end is also an important time where clean-up spending will occur.
In the religious segment, even with donations down, large churches in wealthier areas are likely to be least affected. Target your marketing efforts based on the area, wealth and the size of congregations. Marketers who specialize in religious products and services may want to take a close look to see if their offers can be adjusted for other markets, especially those likely to receive stimulus funding.
Disclaimer : Sabra Easterday is the owner and founder of MatchB2B (matchb2b.net). Sabra is also a lawyer with a special interest in business issues and e-marketplaces. Notwithstanding that Sabra Easterday is a lawyer, nothing in this article and no services of MatchB2B or its website are legal services and no attorney-client relationship exists between any reader of this article or user, customer or potential customer of MatchB2B, and MatchB2B, its website or Sabra Easterday.
by: Sabra Easterday
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