Many businesses think that the first line in economising during a recession is to cut their advertising budget as they assume the public don’t want to spend money.


However, research has shown that businesses advertising through a recession are shown to do better after the recession than those that don’t. 

In the 1981-1982 recession, research on a total of 600 companies showed that those businesses who maintained or increased their advertising improved their sales by 256% after the recession over those businesses that didn’t keep up their advertising.

Things to consider when advertising:

• Local advertising means keeping your business in front of customers and raising awareness. Although they might not have the money to buy your products now, customers will know where to go when they find the money. 
• Target your audience specifically. Choose a medium that is most likely to get your business in front of your target market and bring you more customers.
• Avoid expensive advert designs. Just have a simple advert showing you understand the readers’ problem and letting them know where they can get it fixed or changed i.e. from your business.
• Have a ‘call to action’ that tells people want you want them to do next. This can mean people have more of an incentive to come to your business.
• Make sure you track, record and monitor where your customers are coming from i.e. ensure you find out about how they heard about your company. Once you have this information you can make sure you’re only paying for advertisement that is effective.

So to sum it up, when advertising during hard times make sure you target your audience correctly and make sure you are able to identify where you get the most business from. This way you are able to maximise your business advertising and make the most of your advertising spend. 

Just a quick post about a local Deal artist Caroline Yates, who has an exhibition of her work opening this coming weekend. You can see Caroline's work including some of Deal at the Stark Gallery in Canterbury from Sunday January 15th.

So here we are in 2012 with the copies of the magazine being distributed in Deal today & tomorrow. I hope that you like it and would love to hear your thoughts on it once you've had a chance to have a read through.

Christmas for me was weird - I was at my Mum's in Devon as she was in hospital over the festive period. I missed seeing the Boxing Day Dip, however was delighted to see that there was a big turn out and loads of people cheering everyone one.