Swamped During the 2009 Recession
Is it just us or are clients really returning in full swing back to their internet marketing firms. As with most web based ad agencies & search marketing firms, we experienced the valley right before Christmas 2008 and it continued through late May. However, the emails & phone calls asking for proposals & quotes have picked right back up, and we’re busier than ever. Admittedly, much of the busy-ness comes from quote & proposal generation, but this is a stark change from the peace & quietness we experienced during the darkest winter/spring months of ’09.
I’d be curious to know if other web based marketing firms and SEO companies are see any dramatic turnaround during late June/July. Feel free to drop a comment or give me a call to share your side. While we did experience a sudden influx of RFPs & phone inquiries mid spring, I’m hoping hard that this storm of interest won’t fizzle out abruptly like that earlier one did. Admittedly, the news from Wall Street is still bad, and people are still being laid off around me. Admittedly, I haven’t upped my staff’s hours back up and I’ve barely used an outside contractor since Christmas. But if even a portion of these proposals solidify into contracts, we’ll be back in business full swing. Maybe then I’ll pull out the deluge of resumes that have been littering my filing cabinets and see if anyone is still out there (qualified) looking for work.
So maybe spring just came late in 2009 …
Andrew Jensen, Sozo Firm CEO
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Andrew, I have experienced a big surge since the economy collapsed. It made sense. Companies were reaching out to a cheaper solution then conventional and often very expensive brand promotion and lead generation strategies, namely print, TV and radio advertising. My clients had been spending $24,000+ on print advertising and other promotional tactics. Compared to that figure what they paid our company was a fraction and our efforts got their phones ringing. Therefore, they cut their budget to print advertising and increased online marketing budget.