Thriving in a downturn (and smashing your competitors): Part two

In my last post, I talked about what’s coming down the line for business leaders and companies in the recession. And how an investment in focussing on your LinkedIn and thought leadership performance pays dividends.

Running a business when the going is good is (arguably) straightforward. When things get rocky, the metaphorical wheat gets sorted from the chaff.

And right now, we are facing another bumpy road after 3 years of turmoil. So what am I seeing business leaders do? The vast majority are investing. Lessons were learnt during Covid and businesses suffered when they pulled back.

A critical part of this investment is marketing and PR – owned media via your LinkedIn shop window, and longer term brand and business positioning.

For starters, are you connecting your online and offline activity with a digital marketing strategy? If not, your investment is only partially performing.

Your words are key…

An integrated approach to marketing is a must. Do you have a strategy that unifies your website performance with your PR, blogs, LinkedIn content, PPC, and more?

A surprising number of businesses don’t understand they are partially using their marketing investment to drive new leads and improve their reputation.

At the heart of this is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which determines your website’s position on a search engine’s results page. And the driver for SEO is your keywords.

The keywords you select can make or break your marketing efforts. Choose a competitive term that’s hard to rank for and you’re wasting your time. If you choose words that your customers don’t actually search for, meanwhile, you’ll have a stack of traffic that will make you feel successful but is irrelevant.

If you don’t want to hire a specialist agency then you can boost your marketing efforts by investing in platforms such as SEMRush. This clever and easy-to-use platform helps to identify your keywords and the keywords your competitors are using, plus pinpoint gaps in your own. There are a stack of resources available to guide you step-by-step through the process, including this here.

With keywords, the more specific the better. Long-tail descriptive keywords often convert leads at a higher level compared to broader, more general ones.

When was the last time you reviewed your keywords? Do you even have them? They are the means to uplift your wider PR and marketing efforts.