How economic bad news can be good news for your marketing

Your mom always used to tell you, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” And these days, the economic news is sour indeed.

But for the creative marketer, sweetening the bad news into great marketing lemonade just takes a little thought. Here are some ideas:

Do you see changes in customer behavior? If you’ve noticed some recession-related trends in how people are responding to your offerings, that’s news that’s fit to print. A sew-and-vacuum store, for example, may notice an uptick in people signing up for sewing classes. If your customers are changing the way they do business with you, a press release about that observation could give your business some much-needed exposure in local media.

Are customers overlooking savings opportunities? On the flip side, you may notice that your customers are failing to take advantage of things that might save them money. You need to be careful here, though — this can’t be just a generic “buy our product/service and save money” pitch. To be effective, your pitch has to be truly newsworthy. Obvious examples may be financial planners talking about increasing portfolio liquidity. Not so obvious examples work even better. For instance, if you’re a human resources consultant, your press release can list several ways companies are rewarding employees inexpensively.

Are colleagues seeing similar opportunities? Smart networkers stay in touch with colleagues in related fields, and nowhere is that synergy more important than marketing. If you’re all seeing similar trends, try telling your respective stories in the same press release. That way, you’re giving an overworked reporter or editor a virtually ready-made story, complete with multiple sources.

Are you repurposing marketing materials intelligently? If you’ve got a great customer success story, don’t just post it on your website. Make a trade publication article out of it. Send it to customers and prospects. Turn it into a speaking topic. Use it as bait for lead generation. Lots of people want to hear about your customers’ successes. Find them via every medium.

Trumpet primary benefits. It’s always been true, but never more so than now: People are looking to save money, make money, and/or save time . Find one or more primary benefits that apply to your business, and take another opportunity to remind potential customers that you’re still around.

Times like these require creativity – put on your thinking cap and find new ways to market your business!