Many business owners I have spoken to recently are worried about how they will survive the next 12 months. Understandably so, for anyone watching the news coverage of our current economic climate would think the whole world was about to end.

Yes, there are undoubtedly problems – and the banks do have a lot to answer for – but I’ve only hear one “specialist” say anything which makes any true sense of the situation…

“This situation WILL NOT LAST…”

Now it might take a year or two to correct itself, but it WILL correct itself. According to Reuters the FTSE was up 8% at close of trading yesterday.

So why won’t anyone say how it really is?

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This was the headline of an article about rheumatoid arthritis I came across in a recent copy of the Daily Telegraph.

Fortunately I don’t suffer from this disabling disease, but my mother does, which I guess is why it caught my eye.

The article explains how cells are taken from the body, altered and injected back into the affected joint to prevent the body’s immune system attacking the joints.

Rheumatoid arthritis is difficult to treat because it is caused by a malfunctioning immune system, causing inflammation in the wrong places, and affects some 350,000 people in the UK each year.

But if we look at this from a marketing perspective, there is a lot going on here that we can learn from…

This illustrates the power of a targeted headline.

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Doom and gloom, doom and gloom…

Yes, we are in an economic crisis, but when are business owners going to realise that their fate is in their own hands? You can either bury your head in the sand and blame the economy, or politicians, or anyone else you can find to blame, or you can focus on optimising your business to create growth, even in an economy like we have today.

Now is NOT the time to cut back on your marketing and stop hiring the right people.

Now is NOT the time to stop spending money.

But now IS the time to look at spending your money in the right areas.

How do you do this? It will take some planning.

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Just last week I was having a conversation with a colleague of one of my clients about the use of adverts in his marketing… He was convinced that adverts didn’t work for his business.

He told me he was trying to sell IT Support services to local businesses, but it didn’t matter what he tried, he wasn’t even getting one call.

When I delved a bit deeper, it did appear that he was targeting publications which got him in front of the right sort of business he was looking for, but he was not managing to attract any attention.

When I looked at some examples of his ads, it was clear that the problem was that he was using the wrong TYPE of ad.

You see, there are actually four ‘purposes’ of an advert – each one needs to be approached in a slightly different way – and it all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

According to direct response copywriting expert Bob Bly, the four “missions” of an ad are: Read More »

So nothing has changed since I went away on my holidays…

… the media still preaching doom and gloom… in an “end-of-the-world-is-nigh” sort of way.

But as business owners we have a choice NOT to participate in the recession. But how ready are you to reject the effects of a recession to your business?

If you look back at the late 80’s early 90’s, when we had the last major economic downturn, there were plenty of cases where businesses prospered – even grew – while their competitors went to the wall.

Even in this current climate, I see examples of businesses who are actually increasing their business – even in the “hardest hit” industries (such as Estate Agents, Restaurants and Retail).

Yes it’s true that spending is down…

It’s also true that people are being more careful where and how they spend their money…

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