Taking market share in a downed economy

Economical times can force businesses to make decision they would rather avoid. Typically, though exceptions are rare, companies thrive on sales of good and/or services to get through daily operations. But in challenging economic times companies need to think of avenues to pull in a fresh source of business.

It boils down to advertising and brand/name awareness. Companies that do not posses the leverage to gain and defend market share have a more difficult time drawing in consumers. It’s not because smaller companies provide inferior products or service. But quite the contrary. Small companies typically do not have a war chest to pull from to sustain long stretches of a downed market.

So what is the option? How does a smaller company fighting to stay alive gain market share while the pool of consumers continues to decrease?

Here is how. Get a marketing program together that does not take a continual influx of cash to maintain, a marketing program that takes into account available free time of a downed market and one that, as a business owner, has ownership and expertise.

Outsourcing marketing campaigns to print advertisers is inefficient, high cost and delivers minimal return. Switching to an internet driven marketing strategy will yield long term dividends. An internet marketing strategy works 24/7/365 with no interruptions, well save the intermitted server errors.

Building a Web 2.0 business blogsite is one of the most inexpensive marketing strategies a small business can have. Mapping a plan to dominate hyper local keywords and phrases makes the small business owner and instant expert authority within their realm. Consumers are driven to the website that has the most relevant and comprehensive data regarding a topic via search engines.

This idea may seem new but rest assured it’s not. Online brand building is captivating a large audience across the world and that is why on my Snohomish County real estate website the work continues to solidify the site as the authority. One strategy a site can incorporate, in which I have done (after building a SEO friendly site with quality content), is to get on local authority sites.

CitizenRain is a website built by one of the largest news companies in Washington, King5. They have a real estate page which syndicates local real estate blogs and if you look underneath the advertisement on the left you’ll find a list of those blogs. Number 5 on the list is mine. So every time I publish something it automatically gets the exposure from a trusted website, increasing exposure and decreases search engine index time. This results in a superior website when compared to other local competitors.

Strategies like this take very little time compared to the amount of market life they generate. Invest in great technology, get it exposed and it will work for you.