False economies and running marathons

This weekend my girlfriend and I decided it was a while since we'd been into Manchester for a mindless shopping spree, so that's what we did, stopping off for a delicious lunch at the always excellent Chaophraya. We're off to Madrid to visit some friends in a couple of weeks and I need a new suitcase so we were in Kendals (still can't get used to calling it House of Fraser) and I was quite shocked at how expensive they were. I was considering down-sizing my brand expectations and getting something cheaper elsewhere when at that very moment a friend called and we got round to where I was and what I was doing and he - an experience traveller - counselled against my plan. "It's a false economy", he said. "It will just break sooner and then you'll have to buy a new one." Which triggered a painful memory of a previous luggage economy and I knew he was right. So what did I do? Did I fork out the £200+ they were asking for the one I wanted? NO! I went home and won a barely-used second hand version of the same on eBay for £25.

The point being, in a recession, customers are looking to spend less. They're looking to shop smarter. What's the answer to this? The answer is to market smarter.

Countless research supports the idea that increasing, or at least maintaining market spend during a recession is the way to go. This is for several reasons: if your competitors reduce their marketing spend, there's less "noise" for you to compete with, meaning your "share of voice" is relatively increased; all sales are harder to win in, so you need to work harder at them; finally, customers will forget you if you don't engage with them. Marketing is a marathon not a sprint and those who keep on running will open up a gap in the long term.

Okay, so here's the bit where I turn this on-topic and try and persuade you you need a new/better website!

Customers are looking for bargains. One of the main places they're looking for bargains is the internet. They're looking for half price this, special offer that, buy-one-get-one-free-the-other. Offers like our free £100 Google Adwords web marketing offer of the month.

With prices typically starting from around £400 for a small static website, combined with £100 worth of free marketing spend on Google, a Dreamberry website offers the potential for outstanding ROI in an age of uncertainty. And because we're members of the Guild of Accessible Web Designers, we can design your website to have maximum customer reach.

It's a lot easier than running a marathon.