Back to Basics

By Susie Sands, Account Supervisor

It’s very clear that the tough economic struggles that were upon us a year ago are still looming. As people begin to make lifestyle modifications at home and work, we realize the importance of being flexible and ready for change. At home we have taken a lot of our shopping online, seeking out the best deals possible not only on clothing but our everyday items such as food, cleaning products, and personal grooming. Modifications have been made at work as employers cut back on staff and remaining staff is forced to work harder and possibly longer. As people find that they are out of a job, turning a corner to find and redefine a ‘new you’ is vital to finding the next opportunity. Taking all this into consideration as we work through these lifetime challenges, it’s a good idea to think about addressing these issues by going back to basics, realizing that since we last addressed the basics that the basics may have taken on a new form.

Going back to basics at home might mean shifting from cutting out coupons to searching online for the best deals possible. Letting your fingers do the walking to seek out the most competitive prices in an effort to save some money. Online marketers need to take this searcher into consideration as they decide on the promotions they are willing to highlight on their site. Is the phrasing ‘free ground shipping’ more likely to get a person to purchase or is it going to be ‘xx% off a purchase of $100 or more’? All of these simple marketing phrases will become even more important to getting the online competitive shoppers to purchase from the site as cost comparison becomes such a huge variable.

Going back to basics at work as our employers make changes and rely on their remaining employees to get more work accomplished in the same work week requires adjustments in how we work to meet these new expectations. This requires us to work smarter and harder being the most efficient worker that we can be. Your basic checklist of things to do becomes increasingly important as we try to balance all the deliverables and tasks in front of us. More importantly work relationships have become essential to perfect. Picking up the phone to talk to the key players or going to visit them in their office has always been a fundamental but the weight of these conversations has grown. Everyone is going through tough times and understanding others’ concerns and helping to address them along the way will make your services more worthwhile. Translating this into the work you do to turn around and say this year we were able to get ‘xx,xxx’ more clicks for xx% less money will be more valuable than ever. Think about how the campaigns are being managed and think about going back to the basics when applying changes to your Search campaigns to address the marketing challenges at hand.

Lastly, finding a job in theory has not changed but how we go about it definitely has changed. Social networking has allowed for more ways to find people, to keep in touch and to get updates on people. Utilizing social networking to promote yourself, highlighting your capabilities to past co-workers, past clients and friends will only help to increase your brand awareness. Making yourself top of mind in a positive light as you seek out your next role is best to do amongst people within your network. With all this said, in this case don’t be afraid to go back to basics beyond the computer once the outreach has been made to individuals and continue to market yourself in person as you once did a few years back. The acceleration social networking and computers allows with email, search and more is vast and invaluable but capitalizing on these opportunities requires stepping away from the computer and taking the basics of social networking in person. The combination of old school and new school will be lethal and will open doors as you learn to sell yourself online and offline. Take into account that as technologically advanced as we are that a face-to-face in person conversation and handshake is priceless.

Bottom line is that the nuts and bolts of life have not changed though they have been adapted to a new form, online. You will realize the benefit of relying on both new world and old world principles if you’re willing to embrace them all. Good luck as you work toward adapting with the times, learn to be flexible and don’t be afraid of discovering change along the way.

In today's economic times it means getting back to basics and in our industry that means making sure we are getting back to social, business and personal networking.