Recession? Direct mail marketer says NO

The NY Times reported Friday that although the American economy shed 20,000 jobs in April, some experts felt that the size of the loss was significantly smaller than many analysts predicted.  Direct marketer, Joy Gendusa of PostcardMania, said in response to the article that every industry can take actions to make the economic slump short lived -- and to help, gave tips to come out ahead.  Recently, she did what her executives thought was impossible and slashed her prices to help business owners promote in larger volume, despite Gendusa’s own rising paper costs and adding more benefits for her employees.  PostcardMania president, Jennifer Custer, said Gendusa was right again as she witnessed more entrepreneurs responding to the price slash by beefing up their marketing efforts.

Gendusa claims if businesses want to buck this slump, they will have to buckle down, work harder, get smarter and continue to promote.  Her 5 tips for coming out ahead during an economic slump are:

• First of all don’t “agree” — don’t buy into the fact that you can’t control your business’ outcome… or income.  Lots of businesses lived through many a recession.  Emulate the winners – not the whiners.
• Market smart — there are too many of your competitors that are cutting back their marketing budgets now (not smart).  Make sure you are targeting correctly and going after an audience that is likely to buy;
• Make better use of your own database — marketing for new customers is expensive but marketing to your existing customers has a higher return on investment.  So step up your marketing to your existing customer base;
• Look for a company that offers terms.  It’s less painful to shell out the money after you start seeing a return;
• Cut out waste — Figure out which form of advertising is making you more money.  The more precise you get, the higher the return on investment you will get.  Then channel your marketing budget to the avenue that is getting you the most ROI. 

Despite the hyped-up “recession”, the facts are the U.S.’s first-quarter growth was stronger than forecasted.  Gendusa said she wants entrepreneurs to keep it growing.

About Joy Gendusa:

Using a powerful, simple, extremely cost effective way of communicating with customers has earned Joy Gendusa Inc Magazine’s recognition as the nation’s fastest growing direct mail postcard-marketing firm with year 2007 revenues at nearly $19,000,000.  Gendusa began in 1998 with zero investment capital.  Today, her Clearwater, FL firm called PostcardMania, employs over 160 people and prints 4 million and mails 2 million postcards representing more than 28,000 customers in over 350 industries each week. Visit www.postcardmania.com