CRM: The Key to Online Growth in a Downturn Economy

by David Snyder

In the midst of every recession there are a handful of people that actually see growth.

These individuals and companies learn how to adapt to the economic environment, and through ingenuity they make strides.

In the online world, many have already begun to make changes based on the current instability of world markets.

One way that you can begin to make changes to benefit your online campaign is by focusing more on CRM in the downturn.

For those of you that are not acronym savvy, CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.

It costs 5 to 7 times more to induce a new customer to buy than it does an existing customer. This is a sound reality.

This means that instead of increasing pay per click budget in a downturn, you should think about increasing your email marketing efforts. It means instead of offering discounts to new customers for signing up or purchasing, offer your existing client base a rewards system for an increase in purchases.

This doesn’t apply across the board, for example if you are involved in debt consolidation products right now, the key is new customer production, but in general this concept is sound.

I figured I would add some examples of CRM concepts you can build off of, and I am hoping that those who read this post will add their own ideas in the comments:

1) If you only deal with one product, lets say an ebook for examples sake, then think about adding a supplementary product to your offerings. So for an ebook on golf techniques, lets offer a guide to golf courses of the Southeast, or an affiliate offering for Cobra drivers. Utilize the existing database to create new sales.

2) Up the ante on your email marketing campaign. DON’T SPAM. However, do segment your existing list and begin to create themed emails that will target different groups. If you sell shoes, segment your customer mailing list into brands i.e. customers who bought Nike go in one list, customers who bought Reebok go in another. Create themed emailers based on your segmentations, shoe brands in our example, and target these customers with a special offering.

3) Perhaps you have a service based business and CRM is the life blood of your business. In a downturn economy, customers will be looking to save money wherever possible, and a lapse in quality customer relations could make this decision easy.

Think about adding a live chat function to your site (as we have with Search & Social). It doesn’t have to be cheesy, like a picture of a sales rep with a headset on , it can be a tasteful chat button that simply pipes into your existing IM service.

GTalk gives you this option for free.

The people that will come out of this economic situation are those that learn how to meld little into much. That means turning shallow customer pools into sales and growth. It means matching a cut in marketing with a growth in revenue.

Share your CRM concepts below…