Apocalypse is one of those words that I remember from bible study as a kid.  The word itself just sounds scary – even if I didn’t know what it meant it would freak me out.  But it seems everyday we’re hearing about media companies making massive layoffs, shutting down publications, cutting costs and the like.  Even the agencies are cutting staff because of client budget cuts and the need for leaner expenses on the income statement.

So as a client what should you do?  Here are a couple of thoughts:

1. Lock in Low Prices.  Just like the stock market – you buy low and sell high.  So why not negotiate hard with media suppliers for lower CPM’s and lock those prices in for 2-4 years and with the ability to further reduce if thing get worse.  When the economy does turn-around, you’ll get a higher ROI aka make more money.
2. Renegotiate.   Why not renegotiate your contracts with agencies and suppliers?  Think about it… if your media/marketing spend has gone you’re paying more fixed and variable costs as a % of media/marketing spend.  So renegotiate the costs and contracts in order to keep those “non working dollars” as low as possible (or at least even).  While you’re at it, why don’t you put in some clauses that put some of the supplier/agencies income at risk?  If your company or campaigns do well… the agency does well.
3. Step up the SEO.  Get your webmaster to increase the SEO terms on your web site so you’re not paying for terms that your own website should drive. 
4. Fish Where the Fish Are.  Dig deeper into your database and determine who those best customers are and start using a Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value model to determine who is likely to response.  To learn more about RFM I recommend you read the book “Libey and Pickering on RFM and Beyond” by Don Libey and Christopher Pickering.
5. Get Closer to Your Customer.  If you haven’t been talking to your customers – get to it and start.  If you’re not talking to them, odds are your competitor is.
6. Listen, Listen, Listen.  Do I need to say more?  If your customers are telling you they want x from your product… give them x.  Stop listening to 30 person focus groups and start listening to the entire web, including blogs, social media, etc.  There’s a number of software available… many free some that you have to invest in.  Check out a product from a company called Aubice.
7. Look Deep into Your Organization for Recommendations.  I’ve often found the best ideas from the deepest parts of the company.  So start having lunch and coffee with a new group of folks and start asking them for their ideas. 
8. Get Even Leaner!   You’ve probably had to cut budgets, perhaps even some headcount… but start eliminating or reducing costs.  Couple of areas to think about:  Ad Serving Costs, Agency/Supplier Costs (see points 1 & 2), get rid employees who are deadwood and replace them with many of the outstanding professionals looking for employment, conferences (do you really need to go?), stop traveling all over kingdom come and use technology and the good old phone.
9. Shift Channels.  If your customers costs are getting out of hand – for instance they’re calling your call center a ton…. Perhaps you should start to direct them to the web where they can self serve themselves.
10. Lead.  If you’re not stepping up to make the tough decisions… start.  If you’re planning on “keeping under the radar” until the current economic environment turns, then I’d recommend you refresh your resume.