Hollowpoint Web & Marketing Blog

I had an inquiry recently from a business who was so close to bankruptcy, they wouldn’t survive another two months of trading. They had been in business for decades, but the crisis had hit them hard, and their rationale was that they were failing because no-one wanted the types of services they offer (this was a Plumber!) and that most people were holding off on spending until the crisis was over… Absolute Rubbish!

They were failing because they were so scared of spending anything at all, they had tightened their belts to such a degree that they were not being found ANYWHERE! No Yellow Pages, no TV, no radio, no magazines or newspapers and no online presence of any kind. What makes it worse is that they had such a negative attitude (and probably rightly so, considering the circumstances) that any customers who DID want to do business with them were put off by the negativity.

This is not a rare event… I hear from many businesses every month who have no marketing strategy at all, simply because they have NO BUDGET to work with. So, what can they do, when it would seem on the face of it that, if they spent thousands on marketing, they would hit the wall that much faster and so much harder than if they did nothing? Could they recover in the 11th hour and survive the financial crisis?

Here’s the solution. It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense.

‘When there’s blood in the streets, buy real estate’.

So what has this got to do with marketing? Simple. In a crisis, many businesses panic and react by reigning in their spend, instead of finding the most effective advertising mediums and exploiting them to their maximum potential. They tighten their belts to such a degree that ANY chance they had of generating the revenue that would otherwise keep them afloat is lost to the businesses that snatch up those valuable parcels of marketing ‘real estate’. What is true in the real estate industry is true in online marketing – when everyone else panics and dumps their exposure to the outside world, that’s when you need to step in and become ‘Front of Mind’.

I often regale such panicky businesses with the story of a long-term client of mine who, when he heard about the panic in the US, started putting money aside for a rainy day. He took money out of various activities that were not generating much of a return and sat back and waited.

When the crisis hit Australia, instead of using those funds to provide minimal shelter for his company’s financial future, he invested it in an aggressive marketing strategy, saturating the market with his company branding.

That company became the ‘Front of Mind’ choice for prospective customers, because they were one of the only businesses in their industry to be found every single time someone searched for the products or services they offer. Their competitors had backed off, leaving the company to advertise to prospects in almost a monopoly environment.

Needless to say, in the toughest months that Australia has seen for decades, they had a 40% growth in revenue.

For those businesses that use the logic that they would only hit the wall harder and faster, here’s some food for thought – if you are going to hit the wall, it’s better to go out fighting than to just fade away. Fight for your market position… don’t give your competitors any quarter! Do not go gentle in to that good night (to quote Dylan Thomas)… rage, rage, against the dying of the light!

This post was written as general advice only, and does not take into account your unique circumstances. It is highly recommended that you seek independent, professional advice before acting on anything in this article.

Possibly not, but it is certainly gasping for breath and flapping around like a fish out of water.

In the ‘old days’, Yellow Pages was the leading advertising resource for small to medium enterprises, enjoying the lion’s share of the market. Then came Google… within the space of a couple of years, Google started having a massive impact on the effectiveness of YP when 1) the number of internet users increased exponentially, and 2) they discovered it was far easier to search online than to flick through a book which only contained businesses that could afford the hefty upfront advertising costs.

As Google’s popularity increased, advertisers started to realise that the internet was no longer a fad, and drifted towards search engines as a cost-effective and targetted way to advertise.

Yellow Pages started spinning into a downward spiral, despite their best attempts at convincing advertisers that it just ain’t so. Using a highly respected market researcher and some clever statistical manipulation, YP has been trying to convince advertisers that it is still a force to be reckoned with, relying heavily on the popularity of Ninemsn - which has less than 10% of the Australian search engine market-share - to make up a large percentage of their data. Advertisers, however, are a cunning lot and saw through the smokescreen. Yellow Pages announced growth of around 8% last financial year, but this growth is directly proportional to the increase in up front advertising costs to business (minus the advertisers they have already lost). So, is Yellow Pages in such bad shape?

According to Alexa, a company that monitors global internet trends, absolutely. Yellow Pages Online has seen an incredible decline in the last few years, enough that if it were happening to you or me, we would be abandoning ship. The charts on the left, from Alexa, show the decrease over a 3 year timeframe. Meanwhile, the last chart shows the growth of Google, and Google’s market share compared to Yellow Pages.

Admittedly, advertising in Yellow Pages is useful for some businesses types, such as tradespeople and those who deal with an older generation of customers. But, as with any form of advertising, if it doesn’t work then vote with your dollars and try other mediums.