UK Growth in Sight - Pause for Thought to Consider These 4 Points.

1) Hooray! Activity in the UK's services sector is increased in March, following similarly encouraging results from the manufacturing and construction sectors http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17610221 . This news suggests a first-quarter UK economic growth of 0.5%, which is far better than the predicted double-dip recession expected late last year.

As a company, we are out and about visiting and meeting many types of business, and there definitely seems to be a certain ‘confidence’ in the marketplace, more optimism than tangible evidence at the moment, but there none-the-less. Perhaps now is the time to look forward with a positive attitude and approach.

2) A note of caution! Not to dampen the enthusiasm for the point above, but it is interesting to look at the graph below (it is updated regularly http://www.niesr.ac.uk/gdp/GDPestimates.php )

The profile of recession and recovery below clearly shows that coming out of this recession is slower and will take much longer than previous recessions. Enthusiasm is good, realism is better; recovery and growth will be less of a sprint and more of a marathon, so plan accordingly.

3) The marketing and communication landscape has changed since October 2008. Social media has arrived and digital marketing as a whole drives marketing and sales opportunities. Activities like ’in-bound marketing’ didn’t exist, yet now they are extremely relevant. How has this change affected companies? For many companies we talk to, they have marketing and then they have social media and the like – what they do not have is integration and synergy of effort across the different types of marketing.
The marketing landscape and how you use it in your business will affect how effective you are at generating sales opportunities; have you really figured out what needs to into marketing and what the return ought to be?

4) This ‘pause for thought’ amalgamates the three points above to look at your customer base. Customers are getting ready to buy; they are clearing back-logs and looking for new orders – they are ready for your approach (point 1). But, they are still slow and sceptical (point 2) and they communicate and commit trust across different media (point 3); where is your value-add and how will you get that across to potential customer.

Your answers to points 3 and 4, in effect, defines your marketing planning and approaches for the coming months – definitely worth pausing for thought.

Tina Webb

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