When the Going Gets Tough….

The tough get digital…

or how to develop your revenue streams in the credit crunch…..

We hate to bring up those two dreaded words at this time – but we’ve spent some time trying to rationalise the world financial situation and what this means for our clients and the world of digital business in general.

Money is tight for everyone right now, and “Business as Usual” is going to become a thing of the past for lots of companies, particularly the SME’s that form a large percentage of our clients. The banking crisis is only the beginning with unemployment rates set to rise, reduced disposable income, and well you know the rest….

But that doesn’t mean it’s time to pack up shop.

In fact we think making the most of digital in this evolving new world order can not only give your business an edge but in turn a fantastic opportunity for growth.

Here are some ideas we’ve come up with…..

1. Pimp your shopping site. Rising fuel costs, bargain hunting and the lack of product selection available in the high street has meant that online shopping is growing exponentially; however traditional online stores so far have been fairly one dimensional: text, a few product images and a basket, essentially a digital catalogue. The days of these stores are numbered – consumers now want to communicate with one another, get reviews and re-assurance and a sense of community with other shoppers. Online stores must be slicker with rich media content and a whole slew of offerings around their store, with blogs, videos and forums all enhancing the experience. Look at the brand we’ve built around Sugarrays.co.uk the UK’s biggest and best online supplier of boxing equipment as an example. These guys just don’t sit still and have been great proponents of all the open source tools, sites and applications that are available and we’ve worked with them to grow their brand around these platforms so that they now run a blog, TV Channel, Forum and Club directory and have a whole bunch of new branded sites coming online soon.

But these tools aren’t limited to e-commerce sites, Thremhall Park a unique commercial office space development in Stansted recently added a blog to their site in order to boost their traffic and now a search for one of their stories “Serviced offices boost British economy” brings up a top listing on Google, all down to the clever behind the scenes software that we built the blog on.

2. So Get Blogging. According to Wired Magazine :

” A bad economy will probably lead to an overall uptick in blogging, Alden (of sixapart.com)says. “When you don’t know where else to invest,” he explains, “you invest in yourself.”

Which is kind of a slick way of saying that when you get laid off or your company goes under, it’s a good time to build your personal brand by blogging. Or, for that matter, if you suddenly find yourself with a lot of time on your hands, you might blog to fill the empty spaces. “You look for a way to reassert control,” Alden points out. “That’s a reason blogging surges in down times.”

3. If you’re a content owner or online publisher then you need to diversify your revenue streams – a successful blog can sell premium memberships with SMS or Instant Messaging alerts for market moving news. You can syndicate content and media via RSS, stream online events or build targeted micro sites with key sponsors. Content is still king you just need to get more people to buy into your monarchy.

4. You don’t need to ditch your marketing spend, you just need to focus it and with the likes of email newsletter tracking and Google adwords it’s about getting the best “bang for your buck” and digital is the only platform out there that can not only deliver on this but provide you with backup analytics to show your MD exactly how far their money is going.

5. Social networking tools are huge, you all know Facebook but how many of you are on Linked In ? This business Social Networking tool is designed to encourage online business related networking, grow the perception of your company and broaden your audience. It’s not only useful for widening your reach amongst your current clients but it’s a useful tool for finding new employees, generating new leads, new business and keeping your finger on the pulse of the worlds business environment. Boasting over 25 million professional users can you afford not to be on here?

6. Use the cloud ! We’ve tightened our ship here and are using a plethora of online software tools (many free) for project management, time and expense tracking, DNS infrastructure management, server and site
monitoring and have finally ditched Microsoft Office completely in favour of Open Office a free open source MS Office replacement. Taking this approach can save you a small fortune in software licenses and project management time and if you’re looking to cut back these solutions can provide you with an extra helping hand without expensive overheads.

7. Use Plug-ins as a resource. On that note If you are cutting your marketing department or team and need a hand for a few hours a week to tide you over the tough times we’re more than able to assist with your needs either inhouse or from our watertower. We’re already doing this for a number of Public Sector clients and there’s no reason we can’t do this for you.

Change is Inevitable

The downturn will mean change for everyone; and in many cases redundancy can often act as a spur to business startup which means it’s a great time to launch innovative businesses – we have one client who has done just that and we’re responsible for all of their digital. It means that there will be a flight to quailty where having the right online presence will become increasingly important as companies and individuals seek re-assurance about whom they are doing business with.

We have ourselves just launched a new CIC (Community Interest Company) venture called Agency East, essentially a not-for-profit enterprise concerned with re-investing in the communites that we all work amongst and are looking at innovative and creative development of digital ideas for these communities and charitable institutions.

At Pixelwork we’ve worked with scores of companies and have noticed in the past year how some of the more forward thinking ones are leveraging new ideas and techniques to monetise their sites, and what’s really interesting is how a number of new concepts and strategies are being applied in varying ways to different industries with the same level of success (see the Sugarrays and Thremhall Park points above). Although we can’t know for sure how a company will perform, with our experience we can quickly gauge if an innovative digital approach has a strong enough “hook” to help a business to succeed, after which it is all down to how that digital is executed.

It’s uncertain and scary times but we think that there are also exciting opportunities ahead and the businesses that leverage some of the tools, ideas and devices out there, if they succeed, are going to change the face of how whole industries operate in years to come.

Its a real game changing environment right now… But you can keep up to speed by reading our blog.