topic of Mike Collins' "Charlotte Talks" on WFAE Thursday, Dec. 10.
Buck Lawrimore, president of Lawrimore Communications Inc. (www.Lciweb.com
), spoke on how small businesses especially can prepare for and take
advantage of the coming recovery.
Other panel participants were Dr. John Connaughton, UNC Charlotte
economist, and David Swenson, Vice President of the Charlotte Regional
Partnership. WFAE operates at 90.7 FM.
"Small businesses in the Charlotte Region appear to vary widely in
their current state of financial health based on the market sectors
they serve," Lawrimore said. "Those fortunate enough to serve health
care, government, energy and other strong sectors of the economy
appear to be doing fairly well, and some have not seen any drop in
sales. Those who serve cyclical market sectors like real estate are
really suffering. This is especially true of architects. One estimate
is that over 40% of Charlotte area architects have no work at this
time. Other architects that specialize in serving health care,
government and education markets are doing much better.
"Certainly the Great Recession will be followed by the Great Recovery
in the next few years," he continued. "Those companies fortunate
enough to survive the Recession and wanting to take advantage of the
Recovery should consider guides for action like the following:
-"Keep your name out in the marketplace so when customers come looking
for a provider, they can find you fairly easily. The two most cost-
effective ways to do this are through internet marketing and public
relations."
-"The internet is the ultimate marketing tool because it is so
inexpensive. It is absolutely essential to have a website that is
search engine optimized so that people can find your business on the
internet. I am here today, and practically all the new business my
firm is receiving as the Recovery begins, is because our website is
highly search engine optimized."
-"Consequently we are finding a lot of companies that had unoptimized
websites are coming to us to rebuild their websites so they are highly
optimized. It used to be that a website was not essential for doing
business, but now it is. Likewise the time is coming where businesses
realize that an optimized website is essential. Google, Yahoo and Bing
will deliver you all the business you need if you are not locked into
a depressed market like commercial real estate."
-"What is so important about search engine marketing is that, unlike
many other forms of marketing, the potential customer is in the hunt
when he or she goes online to look for a provider. If you use
advertising, direct mail, or many other forms of marketing, most of
the people you reach, sometimes at great expense, have no interest in
your products or services. But when people are using a search engine,
they are searching for a solution. So you need to be sure your
solution can be found on the first page of search engine results."
Lawrimore pointed out, "A related very cost-effective way to prepare
for the Recovery is to get more and more information about your
business out on the web. Increasingly companies are realizing that
they don't have to depend on traditional media like newspapers,
commercial radio or TV to reach their target markets. They can
broadcast their news stories across the Internet. So when potential
customers come searching, the chances of them finding a story about a
new supplier might be even greater than finding their website. Of
course the right kind of Internet PR story will contain links back to
the website. This is also another way to increase search engine
rankings.
"Another way to prepare for the Recovery is with updated strategic
planning. Traditional strategic planning tends to be a failure because
it assumes the company has control over many external variables which
it does not have. New forms of strategic planning, what we call
dynamic strategic planning, places a lot of emphasis on monitoring and
adapting to the constantly changing market environment. Instead of
being internally driven, the new form of dynamic strategic planning is
more market driven. Having a dynamic plan will help any company think
creatively about the markets they have served, the markets they could
serve, what sort of signals or indicators to watch in terms of new
market opportunities, and much more. Involving the whole company, not
just the management team, in this kind of process can lead to all
sorts of innovations and increased energy, positive attitudes toward
positive change which is coming."
Lawrimore Communications Inc. is a full-service marketing and
strategic consulting firm based in Charlotte since 1979. The company
provides internet and traditional marketing, public relations, web
design, advertising, graphic design, strategic planning and related
services. The company has conducted surveys of the attitudes and needs
of small businesses in the Charlotte Region for Mecklenburg County and
the City of Charlotte's Economic Development Office.
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[For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Buck
Lawrimore at 704-332-4344 or email Buck (at) Lciweb.com]
