For example, I most industry leaders that I talk to speak of the number of rivals that have gone into liquidation. Company losses have been huge and because of the bloated over-spending of some industries, many companies have been in an extremely poor position to weather the storm. The result is, they lose out and they actually go bust.
It's a sad fact and I really hate to use the term here, but it really is survival of the fittest. But what happens when the markets turn around and people begin spending again? Well, those who have survived find themselves in an extremely beneficial situation because suddenly the pond is larger and there are less fish about.
There are some companies who will take this as an opportunity and aggressively market themselves as survivors, take over the pond and win more business than they ever had. But still more will hold on to their budgets and lose out. It's a mirror of the 'dot com' boom and bust in many respects because these companies are the 'behemoths' who think they know better and are run by massive accounting departments who try to rule by numbers. The companies that survived and thrived during the worst of the downturn were those who went out and grabbed customers with compelling and engaging content, effective marketing and aggressive promotion. Marketing is the key to any company's survival - without it, people don't know you're there and so you may as well not exist.
With this in mind, all companies should now be considering how they are going to make the most of the upturn that will inevitably happen - but those plans need to be made right now. Holding back and not spending anything on marketing is dangerous. This doesn't mean you should invest in any scheme that turns up that attempts to relieve you of your money in return for riches, but it does mean you should look at your company's strategy and how you can leverage the Internet and the amazingly rich applications available to emerge from the recession a stronger and more active player in whatever market you are in.
Andy Calloway is the director of SEO Training at Calloway Green Ltd, a web development and SEO consultancy in the West Midlands, UK. We provide a wide range of SEO services and search engine optimisation to businesses of all sizes.
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