The arguments about who or what caused the current recession rage on and will no doubt continue to do so for decades to come, but for business people the only thing that really matters is how to survive and prosper in an era where demand for goods and services has fallen and may be constrained for years to come? Clearly cost-cutting and access to finance are key “survival” issues in this environment but now is also a good time to review marketing strategies. This article looks at the issue from the perspective of foreign-owned, mainly small businesses in Southern Spain and poses the questions:
What marketing opportunities are available?
What online marketing strategies work best?
Is the recession itself a cause for modifying or redirecting marketing strategy?
Winning new business in Spain
Some of the ideas in this section might seem a bit obvious but the hope is that some readers will find a couple of new ideas they can use to revamp their marketing plans. I have not devoted much space to ideas without a specifically Spanish angle but they can be easily researched online.
1. Revamp your product range or service offering If business is slow then you or your staff probably have some spare time. Use it to think up cheap or low cost ways of improving your product or service.
2. Leaflets The humble leaflet or flyer can be a valuable lead generator but takes some careful thought, firstly in terms of the design and secondly the distribution. The leaflet will only receive a quick glance from the majority of recipients so it will have to be punchy, to the point and give the reader a reason to hold onto it (e.g. a special offer). Distribute intelligently in a way that doesn’t waste material and annoy people. Sticking flyers on lampposts and under car windscreens hardly spells class; better to put a smart leaflet in a dispenser which can be placed in appropriate venues. Most Spanish towns have bars, cafes, banks, nurseries, garden centres etc that are popular with Brits and in my experience owners are more than happy to host a leaflet dispenser. Another tip is to shop around on price as your local print shop is highly unlikely to be the cheapest and prices vary enormously. When searching online look at Spanish and English sites for printers (“imprentas”) and take account of delivery costs if they are not local enough for you to collect from.
3. Competitions and offers If special offers and competitions were not effective big companies would not use them but there are pitfalls. Although they can aid your marketing effort they need marketing in their own right to be successful. Best used in conjunction with another publicity effort e.g. offer associated with a leaflet (no 2) or competition as part of a themed day or week (no 8).
4. Answer the phone and check your email Even large Spanish companies continually manage to disappoint in their responsiveness to customers. Emails in particular are routinely ignored. British companies in Spain are better but there is always room for improvement. Set a target for turning round emails quickly. If your only contact number is a mobile this suggest to customers that you are not long-established. When you are out activate your Telefonica answering service with a welcome message in English. This service will tell you the numbers of people who hung up without leaving a message. Better yet use their call divert service to send calls to your mobile. There are British companies operating in Spain who offer all sorts of international and freephone numbers and “virtual” exchanges to handle calls according to pre-set rules. Add Skype to your website.
5. Personalise your offering If you or your staff are one of your business’ main strengths put yourself or them to the forefront of your publicity and website.
6. Make use of SMS Companies are increasingly using text messages in more sophisticated ways. If you have or are in a position to collect the mobile numbers of your client base you can send out bulk text messages using an internet service like bulksms.com.es for about 6-8 cents a message. This can be a powerful tool particularly when promoting a specific product, time period or offer.
7. Add a language If your business aims squarely at English-speaking customers explore the possibility of expanding your reach to other nationalities. If you have a staff member who speaks another language you could reflect this on your website or premises. More ambitiously you could use Google’s “Translate” tool (vastly superior to earlier web translation tools) to research and target other nationalities online. You may find a niche market which is poorly served at present because there are only Spanish or English businesses in that sector in your area. On the subject of marketing to the Spanish see article “Should your Spanish Business Aim at the Spanish Market?”
8. Guarantee If you offer or automatically include a guarantee with your product or service could you do more to highlight this. If you do not, perhaps you could experiment with a “money back guarantee” or similar being mindful of the need to protect yourself from abusive or frivolous claims. In a country where many Spanish and British businesses are unregistered or otherwise not fully legitimate, this is one way to reassure people. Another way is to display professional or trade associations prominently.
9. Staff motivation If you employ staff who come into any kind of contact with the customers, you should regularly review how effective that contact is even if it is just to look around and see whether you can see smiling, dedicated and enthusiastic expressions on the faces of your workers. Do they always make a good impression and deal with customers in the way you would like? Are they as keen to see the business success as you are? If you are not entirely satisfied that you can honestly answer yes to these questions then you must act. An obvious spur to improvement is the implementation or extension of an incentive scheme. It doesn’t have to be expensive; even a Corte Ingles voucher of the employee of the month could work wonders for morale.
10. Theme It’s common to arrange a marketing push around a specific theme such as “back to school” or “Summer’s Here”. To differentiate yourself from the competition and get some attention consider something unusual that’s not tied to a traditional season or holiday. If it fits your target demographic, you could coattail on the buzz around a big film release, like the Twilight series which appeals to teenage girls, or tap into something relevant to your customers here in Spain like the falling pound, ferias or the beach.
11. Go mobile In this era of crowded roads and a desire for convenience it may be worth adding a mobile element to your business. If you are located in a busy Spanish town centre where parking is constrained it may be very attractive to customers not to have to come to you. You may already offer to come to clients and if so you should emphasise this in your publicity. At Advoco we offer to pick people up and drive them to appointments which obviously appeals to those without cars or who are less confident finding their way around.
12. Discount / Loyalty Cards Many businesses use these cards to build and retain customer loyalty but given the set-up and running costs not for every business will find it worthwhile to set up their own. There are a number of discount cards operating in Spain which offer the holder discounts and benefits at a wide range of outlets and businesses. These are cheap to join and normally come with free publicity like inclusion in promotional literature. If you choose a multi-lingual card operator like VIP Marbella Card, you can use joining as part of your effort to add additional client bases like Germans and Spanish (no 7).
13. Radio The Spanish Costas are very well served by English-language radio stations which can be a superb way to connect with large numbers of potential customers, particularly if you can negotiate some editorial coverage (favourable mentions or being interviewed about your business) alongside the ad spots. Obviously radio advertising is a major investment and my advice would be to (a) bargain hard with a variety of different stations and (b) only do it if you have very clearly defined objectives, such as publicising a new product or offer or selling a particular message (c) be ready to offer the best possible service to the new customers you do win so that the benefits – in terms of repeat business – last long after the campaign is over.
14. Customer service Apart from perhaps RyanAir there isn’t a business in the world that does not realise the importance of good customer service, but how many of them are just paying lip service to the mantra of “first class service”? I am sure Carrefour, Telefonica and Leroy Merlins have customer service policies but judging from my actual experiences they are not working. As foreign businesses we have an opportunity to compete on service because the Spanish service is rarely first class. We have touched on some ideas already (nos 10, 4) but how about motivating your staff with a bonus (or a penalty!) based on customer service performance or asking a few customers how their experience could have been improved.
15. Free advertising There are many free advertising opportunities online (www.advoco.es uses Kugli.com and Expatica Spain). At a local level there are many notice boards which are free to all comers – my local healthclub has a good one. You could also add some advertising to your invoices, on the back of business cards or at the foot of emails.
16. Charity link-ups An opportunity to do some good and to market your business at the same time. Animal and medical charities plus Age Concern are very active on the Spanish Costas but perhaps it is an idea to pick a charity that means something personal to you and view involvement with it as an objective in itself with favourable publicity being a welcome side effect.
17. Exploit your existing client base Larger companies almost always find ways of “cross-selling” to their existing client base and there is no reason why smaller businesses should not do likewise. The first step is to find a way of connecting with customers such as by collecting their email addresses perhaps in exchange for a newsletter or product updates. Naturally avoid being intrusive and over-commercial. Rather than use your contact list for just naked selling why not offer exclusive discounts or host a coffee morning or drinks evening? (see also no 6).
18. Press releases One of those marketing methods which is often overlooked by small businesses because they think they are too small to issue one or because they don’t know how to. The internet has changed all this and it is easy for anyone to issue a press release although to be effective they should be genuinely interesting and newsworthy and not just promotional. Advoco uses these two press release services (one example is an Advoco press release, the other from another Spanish business):
19. Press advertising There are no shortage of English language newspapers and magazines in Spain and they are an obvious way of reaching your target audience. However placing ads indiscriminately and without thought can also be a quick way to lose money. I am scaling back my press advertising in favour of an internet-based strategy. If you do buy press ads ensure that you get a good deal, negotiating on price for repeat insertions and for free editorial space alongside the paid ads. The ad itself will need to be attractive, professional-looking and have a very clear message. Check to see how many similar businesses are advertising in the same publication because there is no point in paying to be lost in the crowd.
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Online marketing checklist
Most of these marketing tips are not particularly Spain-specific but I have included them because the internet is central to the marketing strategies of so many businesses:
20. Spruce up your website A lot of businesses neglect their websites after an initial flush of enthusiasm. Now could be a good time to add new content, update or add a blog and remove or renew outdated material. Take a look at your site with your customers’ eyes and ask yourself whether it is (a) interesting and appealing enough to hold their attention (b) clear, well organised and easy to navigate (c) directing visitors towards taking the actions you want them to, like email for a quote? If you feel you need professional assistance be careful what you are charged as I have heard some ridiculous quotes from firms based in Spain. I use www.elance.com to get quotes from around the world from dozens of providers before employing any design or internet company. As a guide the Advoco site including logo design, a system that allows me to change all content myself and a year’s support with unlimited revisions cost about 500€
22. Forums There are a lot of Spain-related forums which would seem to be perfect places to promote your website and business generally but there is a right and a wrong way to go about it. Posting sales copy and links to your website is not a good idea because it will almost certainly contravene the forum rules and because you end up looking a bit desperate for business. Remember that the forum-users don’t come on the site to be sold to and the website owners have to make a living from selling advertising. A better way to use forums is to actively participate in discussions without selling or linking. Many have “signature posts” which allow you to promote your business and if your contributions are good enough you may end up getting people looking to you as an authority. Also if you have published anything on the internet which is of genuine relevance and interest but is not a direct sales pitch, most forums will be happy to let you link to it. Finally you can use forums to keep your finger on the pulse. What are people thinking? What are the big issues in your area? What problems do they face? Perhaps this knowledge will let you tailor your product or service to be more attractive or relevant.
Some good Spain-related forums:
There are of course very local forums as well like my local one:
23. Online advertising There is a lot of debate over whether it is a good idea to “buy traffic” for your site by advertising online using for example Google Adwords. I generally favour the “organic” approach of building up internet traffic (see next section) but online advertising has its place and uses. This article discusses the pros and cons of each:
24. Search engine optimization (SEO) An alternative to paying for traffic on a Pay Per Click basis is to generate more traffic organically using SEO techniques. There is a wealth of information online regarding this topic and the article above deals with it. Here I will just comment that you should beware of leaving this aspect of marketing your business to a third party. The core of most solid SEO strategies is publication of quality, original content about the relevant sector which only you are to be able to produce. If you employ a third party they may use more dubious tactics such as buying links, spamming or duplicating the content of others. SEO also requires long term commitment and hiring a consultant for a couple of months is unlikely to produce long term results. Better by far to keep SEO in-house and learn the requisite skills yourself employing third parties for occasional or specialist input.
25. Keywords
Whether you are paying for traffic or optimizing your site make sure you do your keyword research i.e. spend a lot of time and effort deciding which search terms to promote. Ideally you want a term that lots of people search for, that will bring in relevant interested customers but is not too competitive and sought-after. If you are in Spain research the geographical descriptions and language people actually use when searching e.g. if you build swimming pools do people look for “pools Marbella” or “Spain swimming pool”? Choose the best value or easier option rather than the most popular - if term A is twice as popular as term B it may also cost four times as much to promote or be five times as hard to gain a high ranking. Look to see if people are using Spanish terms to search. Be careful not to assume that all searches for “Spanish” things relate to Spain e.g. a search for a Spanish lawyer could be by an American looking for a lawyer who speaks Spanish in the US.
26. Google’s “Local Business Listing”
Adding yourself to Google’s listing of local businesses is free and straightforward and can give your web visibility a real boost. Say you add yourself as a pet shop in Velez Malaga; this means you will come up at the top of the search results on a map of “local business results” any time someone searches for a pet shop in your area. You can add a description of your business, opening hours and even discount vouchers. A genuine free no-lose opportunity that not every business has yet taken advantage of.
27. Market your knowledge The internet is a great place to share knowledge and if you are an expert in your field or simply have some useful information and tips relating to your business sector, publish on the internet to enhance your credibility and reputation. Do not just restrict yourself to publishing on your site. There are many sites which publish articles and allow you to link back to your site. Spanish sites like www.eyeonspain.com allow you to submit articles and write blog posts for their readers. By inserting links from articles back to your site you can boost your website’s search engine rankings but if you are publishing on multiple sites be aware of the dangers of “duplicate content” which can diminish the effectiveness of this approach. If you feel up to it upload a marketing video on Youtube which is very positive in terms of rankings.
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Surviving the Spanish recession
What can you or should you do differently during the recession which seems to be dragging on in our part of the world? Obviously many of the above suggestions apply equally well to any economic climate, but these are some things to consider during a downturn:
28. Pricing strategy The first instinct is to reduce prices when business falls in a downturn and indeed this be essential for survival. However take time to think about your pricing in depth and you may see that a more subtle strategy is called for. See article “Raising prices in a recession and other crazy / smart moves”.
29. Focus on a problem During a time when people have problems it can pay to present yourself as the solution. What are the specific problems facing customers and businesses in Spain and how can you help? For example the property downturn has caused knock-on problems way beyond the immediate difficulties of builders and home owners in negative equity. A lot of ancillary businesses have seen business levels drop and are looking for alternative ways to cover their overheads; perhaps they could distribute your products or be open to other forms of collaboration. Is there something you can offer that reduces those overheads or helps them bring in new sources of revenue? On the consumer side, besides offering lower prices, how else can you make yourself more relevant to your market? For example most Brits on a fixed income from a UK source are suffering with the pound’s fall so FX companies are pushing their superior exchange rates in this context. Rather than just saying “come to us” they are being relevant to their customers’ current needs and concerns.
30. Case studies Customers, particularly businesses, can become very conservative during economic hard times and not spend money even when they have funds available and it makes sense. If you feel this is the case in your sector you should consider presenting case studies or testimonials on your website, advertising or leaflets which attest to the benefits of your product or service. It may be that you are selling something that is actually more attractive in a recession because it saves money or gives your customer a competitive edge. You can bring home this message powerfully by giving some real life examples of customers who have benefited showing how they have saved money or increased sales, while of course respecting their privacy. “XYZ Limited saved 313€ a week using my gizmo” sounds a lot better than “my gizmo can save you money”.
31. Where did the Brits go? As you walk around the new M&S store in Marbella or listen to the voices in the bars and restaurants you might be forgiven for thinking that your market on Costa del Sol is exclusively British, particularly if you are not geared towards Spanish customers (see 7). This ignores history because it wasn’t so long ago that Germans and other non-Europeans were almost as numerous as Brits and I am sure it was similar in other parts of Spain. Now many Brits have left and with the Euro stronger against the pound the tide is turning again. Advoco receives many non-British enquiries and will shortly introduce a German-language page on the website. Besides making your business less “British” you should also consider how the British market has now changed, with less new arrivals and proportionally more long term residents, and adjust your product or service offering accordingly.
Good guide and source of information for those new to running and promoting a website http://helpwithyourwebsite.com
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