1. Don’t be caught off guard if the slowdown hits your company. Prepare a worst-case, 12-month cash flow scenario and identify what changes you would make the when. Improve your management reporting to identify the leading indicators for your business.

2. Set and measure inventory targets and keep in daily communication with your sales and operations staffs. Contrary to what you would think, this is now the time to weed out unprofitable customers. Every company has them… they cost more than they add to your bottom line. Either evaluate how to make them more profitable or politely refer them to your competition.

3. To prevent attrition, keep in close touch with your customers. Show them that you care about them. Think about how their business is being affected because lasting relationships are built in hard times. Recognize that when the business climate changes, customer needs will change as well. That means that new markets may open up for you.

4. Develop strategies to land more customers. That means spending MORE on marketing… not slashing it to pieces. The successful small business is going to have to win a bigger share of the shrinking pie. The way to do that, especially for retailers, is to create a positive experience. Another strategy is to reach out to new residents in your community. They’re going to choose someplace to buy their pizza, gym membership, and shoes. You want an active campaign that greets them and bonds with them.

5. Spend on hiring. Again, contrary to first glance, most economic downturns are short-lived and it’s easier to invest in training time for new hires during slower growth periods. Employees that are fired during recession will have to be re-hired… which costs companies a lot more in the long run. Another strategy is to look around for people who have been laid off from competitors and pick up some valuable talent. This is a great time to find top performers (possibly for less!) who will help bring your company to the next level.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” says Dr. Seuss in Oh, the Places You’ll Go! An effective marketing road map will help your company find it’s way and stand out in the crowd.

1. Helps You Sell: An effective map accomplishes the sole purpose of marketing… to generate leads and assist the salesforce in closing a deal faster and more accurately.

2. Keeps Your Prospect Pipeline at a Consistent Level: Unless you market continuously, leads can vanish forcing you to scramble at cyclical times of the year. When an effective road map is an integral part of your business, you’ll always know the status of your marketing efforts and you will always be pushed to be proactive and consistently.

3. Uses the Power of Focus: Great road maps aim squarely at targeted clients. Targeting your potentials with frequent and compelling content grabs their attention, and if your message is on point, you will get through.

4. Creates Confidence: Using an assortment of marketing tactics in a continuous pattern helps prospects develop confidence that your business is successful, profitable, has a compelling brand, and can meet their wants and needs.

5. Builds Your Brand: Although the first objective of marketing is to use your activities to generate leads, building your corporate reputation and image will also draw new customers to your business. Outstanding client service, effective marketing strategies, consistent identity, and compelling messages will elevate your brand recognition several levels.

Enjoy the journey… and drop me a line and let me know how the trail looks!

Lots of people have jumped on the blogging bandwagon, and although there is a danger of your new blog getting lost in the masses, this tactic can be a key factor in marketing and business success. The following includes some basic tips aimed squarely at people who know there is value to be found in having a strong web presence, but need to cut through all the buzzwords and hype to get the straight info on the what, why and how of business blogging.

1. Blogging takes commitment and time: You’ll be dedicating time to providing customers and prospects with new information and/or commentary about your company’s purpose and industry. This doesn’t mean you have to type forever… some of the best blogs are short, pithy entries that the reader can view and understand easily.

2. The content must be relevant: Blogs can help to position you as an expert in your field if they’re written the right way. They also enable you to promote your products and services with a personal touch as you can link to appropriate news articles, pictures, and web sites to support your positioning.

3. Links are important: It’s easy to forget the business behind the blog and get lost in the content itself. Build links to the site from other web sites related to your business and expertise. More links generally mean more traffic and a better search engine position.

4. Blogs are interactive: Readers can normally post their own comments to your entries. This allows existing and potential customers to comment on your product or service. Install Google analytics to check the statisics on how many people are viewing your blog… and other pages of your web site.

5. Is there a call to action?: Does the blog link through to a special offer or service you’re currently running? Or, even an invitation for an initial consultation? Calls to action will help you win new customers or encourage existing ones to try out new products or services.

It all began last summer. The trailer for a mysterious new film took audiences by surprise when it played before screenings of Transformers. A party scene, shot in camcorder style, gives way to complete chaos when a massive explosion is witnessed by partygoers from the rooftop of their building in Manhattan. Crowds flood the streets as debris, including the disembodied head of the Statue of Liberty, rains down on them. “It’s alive! It’s huge,” someone screams, and soon the screen goes black. There’s no hint of a title. Just a release date of 1-18-08. And the mania was born.

The Cloverfield viral campaign has taken the fake-media “Blair Witch Project” techniques to huge, new levels. To make it all more encompassing, now there are foreign news bites to check out. You can check out Spanish, Italian, and German news clips about the collapse of Chaui Station — a drilling behemoth* in the Atlantic Ocean owned by the company who also owns Slusho. Each news clip has the same recorded video, with different news spins on the piece.

The movie’s nondescript teaser site at http://www.1-18-08.com/ was the first to be discovered by fans. Initially, the site displayed a single still image of two young women staring up in shock at something unknown… the monster, or its path of destruction, perhaps. The image was timestamped “01/18/2008 12:36A.” New photos have been added to the site over time with more captured moments from the party and post-attack events in the city. The most recent pics, however, appear to depict an air-sea battle of some kind and its fiery aftermath. How does this relate to the Cloverfield monster? Did the military know about its existence before the attack? Answer unknown.

The next viral website to emerge from the ether was http://www.slusho.jp/, the off-the-wall “official” site for a fictional Japanese drink that has a strange link to the events of the film. The first hint: Mike Vogel’s character can be seen wearing a Slusho t-shirt in the movie’s trailer. So, what’s the connection? It seems that Rob Hawkins, the guy who’s going away party is featured in the trailer, has been hired by Slusho for a marketing job — more on how we know this later. Rob presumably scored the t-shirt and gave it to his brother, Hawk, played by Mike Vogel.

In the history section of the Slusho website, you can read the outlandish story of renown beverage-maker Noriko “Smallest Whale” Yoshida, who perished on a deep-sea search for a secret drink ingredient. Noriko’s beverage-making enterprise was later revived by her son, Ganu, a scientist who was inspired to return to the family business after discovering an incredible “deep sea ingredient” that is the key to Slusho’s flavor and lauded health benefits. Might this secret ingredient, as silly as it sounds, have some connection to the origins of the Cloverfield monster? After all, we learn that it was “discovered on the deep ocean floor, under amazing pressure and in the most extreme cold.” Hmmm.

We don’t expect the movie to answer any of these “expanded universe” questions about vast corporate conspiracies, eco-terror plots, or yummy frozen beverages. You’ll have to look online for those answers. Cloverfield, instead, will tell the more human story of a small group of people caught up in the monster’s attack. Want to get to know more about the movie’s main characters? The film’s intricate viral website also includes “official” MySpace pages for Rob and his crew.

A recent blog entry on Rob Hawkins‘ page reveals that he’s just been offered a job with Slusho. You’ll also find links to pages for Rob’s brother Jason “Hawk” Hawkins, and his possible love interest Beth McIntyre. Then there’s the rest of the gang: Hud, Lily, Marlena, and Jamie. The pages don’t contain any juicy secrets, but it’s an interesting way to see how the movie’s characters are connected. One of the characters does have a secret, however. And it’s one that may link her to the story’s deeper mysteries.

The director explained, “It’s almost like tentacles that grow out of the film and lead, also, to the ideas in the film. And there’s this weird way where you can go see the movie and it’s one experience… But there’s also this other place where you can get engaged where there’s this other sort of aspect for all those people who are into that… All the stories kind of bounce off one another and inform each other. But, at the end of the day, this movie stands on its own to be a movie. The Internet stories and connections and clues are, in a way, a prism and they’re another way of looking at the same thing. To us, it’s just another exciting aspect of the storytelling.”

Brilliance…

On to…

6. Get Social– Involve your company in some form of social marketing whether it’s on forums, social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace or even bookmarking destinations such as http://www.digg.com/, http://www.travelbookmarking.com/, and http://www.de.li.cious/
(MORE ON MONDAY about how the movie Cloverfield implemented the most amazing viral, social marketing campaign to date!)

7. Start Making Movies– In two years time, experts predict that 80% of the U.S. online community will be viewing online videos… that’s around 157 million people. Optimize your video files with keywords and ensure they are submitted to video search engines.

8. Smarten Up Your Email Marketing– With the huge amount of spam floating around it has never been more important for marketers to get the message, the timing and the relevancy on track. Clean up your lists, segment and target your campaigns, keep rich media files small, track your ROI, and keep your content and subject headers targeted and personalized.

9. Article Marketing– As a part of your SEO, distribute articles to relevant directories. Remember to maximize the article for search engines and place the same article on your corporate web site.

And, lastly…
10. Go Viral– Again, more on this on Monday, but for now, the huge success of viral marketing, including the most recent “Elf Yourself” program and Cadbury’s drumming Gorilla video, has show just how consumer action can promote your brand.