Congress Finally Passes The "Bailout" Part II -- So what's a marketer to do?

It's not enough that the housing market is in the dumper. People don't even want to talk about buying real estate, even though it's the best buyers market in years. People are largely afraid to invest in property, and it doesn't have to make logical sense; it just is.

OK, so that means companies marketing real estate developments have to adjust their messages. People training real estate investors need new angles. Companies that invest and fund these projects, such as socially-conscious City Capital, must look to new ways to address their products and services for investors. So far, that’s all pretty obvious stuff.

What about car dealers? They don't have anything to do with real estate. Yet they're having to lay off employees and in some cases, shut their doors. How do they address the changing market, one where 60% of their applicants get turned down? Of course, they might be able to sell you a new car or newer model used car at 27% "tote-ur-note" rate. Not interested? Didn't think so.

Over the last 20 years or so, we have created a credit-driven, credit-dependent society.

Internet sales depend upon credit card sales for a significant part of their ability to survive. Might be a good time to invest in PayPal, since their model is credit-neutral (and no, I don't own their stock either)

How do we as marketers address a marketplace where spontaneous purchases will become more and more difficult to effect? As credit tightens the economic noose around people's necks, not only will discretionary spending go way down, fewer and fewer will have the ability to use their credit at all.

As I mentioned earlier, with City Capital Corporation (www.citycapcorp.com) we've seen response slow down from marketing with a real estate message. That's the front-end interest waning. People have different questions and concerns now from just a few months ago, and as credit tightens, even people who were approved in the past cannot get accepted now. Fortunately, City Capital has several areas of interest, such as their IRA/rollover investments and biofuels, that have allowed them to adapt their message and begin seeing responses and conversions increase once again.

Back in the day, you could run up your credit cards, second mortgage your house to pay them down, and do it all over again (after all, by then you'd have even more equity to play with!) Apart from the grasshopper mentality, it wasn't a sustainable model. But it was one we all -- as marketers -- benefited from. It made the conversions a lot easier to come by. If you don't think so, you haven't been marketing out there recently.

For example, more and more seminar clients have approached WEB3Direct because their responses have dropped as much as 50%, with conversions down even more. It takes more than just clever changes in your message to overcome these kinds of numbers.

So how do we adapt to these kinds of market conditions?

To be successful today is going to require creating those outside-the-box creative offers, using a variety of payment options including PayPal, self-financing, and payment by check (or e-check) or money order, or even wire transfers. Sort of like the old days before credit was so free and easy. The greater the cost of your product or service, the more creative you'll need to be. There will still be credit out there, but don't expect the market to loosen real fast. As I pointed out in my last blog, the real hurting will begin after the holiday buying spree racks up the balances on people's credit cards.

We all still have a few months to test some new strategies, some new approaches. And testing is the real answer. And then testing again, and again and again, to improve your results. Granted, it's a tough time to get your message out there and heard, because of the incredible clutter of the election noise and the annual retail hell-race of marketing for November-December. But testing -- even on a small scale, even with results skewed by all the seasonal clutter -- is still the best solution. Think outside-the-box, and test new offers, new payment plans, and other new ideas. But by all means test… we have a window of time to prepare for the next wave of financial news, so use it!