The Economy is on the Rebound…Should You Be Too?

So far this year there has been a lot of buzz in the news about how the economy is looking up – the real estate market is picking up, the DOW has been rising, jobs are being created and people seem to be shopping. Well, if you are a business owner, you may be wondering if now is the time to increase (or maybe start) some marketing efforts.  If you held back during the recession like a lot of businesses did, perhaps you are wondering if you should join in on the fun.

Well, as marketers, we have been watching the economy and also paying attention to advertising spend. There are a lot of reports out there about how online advertising is going up dramatically and people are plunking down some cash on social media ads. Some reports claim that some companies are going back to more traditional media – print ads, etc. because they trust those to work. And then there are other reports that say that things are still slow. Well, in our opinion, things are looking up and businesses shouldn’t be afraid to spend some money on advertising this year.

Now, we said “don’t be afraid” but we certainly want you to be smart about it. It is important to evaluate what type of marketing and advertising you have done in the past and determine if those are still cost effective ways for you to get more business. Make sure that you are doing some online efforts. (Which means: please, please, please at least do Google Adwords.) There is absolutely nothing wrong with slowly testing some things out and seeing what works. You don’t have to put down a lot of dough to see results.

Our biggest recommendation to you if you are looking to bulk up your marketing efforts is that you have to be prepared for when it works! If you are putting your business out there in the hopes that you will get more clients, you need to be ready to pick up the phone when new customers call! Make sure that you are properly staffed to handle more business. Ensure that you are going to be able to deliver on anything that you promise. It will be tough to fix your company’s image if you have a string of unhappy customers. Trust us. Marketing works.