The world’s global economy is testing everyone, from individuals to corporations, but how does we all travel in the same direction, onwards and upwards?
Ok, let’s break it down into components and those influencing factors causing success and failure.In any stressed economic climate, identify and audit your resources, not just from a ‘How much is ‘X’ costing this company?”, but more “Let’s see how we can best use ‘X’ in another way to be more financially responsible?”In terms of a business, ‘X’ could be a company vehicle, or any other asset that you more than likely see every day, including your website.  You may have already considered ‘X’ as being a staff member, particularly if you have recently completed a talent audit.

Talent Audit
Just as DNA is specific to a given individual, a Talent Audit can pinpoint the “job skill DNA” of a given employee. It provides access to skill comparisons and overall success potentials with a predictive accuracy similar to the way a DNA strand identifies genetic makeup of each individual person.
In this manner, organizations are able to inventory a complete list of strengths and weaknesses for all key employees across every important position.
By example, identify your incumbent salespeople who are most adept at developing new business (”hunters”) versus those best suited to managing existing customer relationships (”farmers”) or handling Strategic Accounts, or developing into a sales subject matter expert. Then determine which salespeople have the predictive skill strengths required to succeed in a sales management role or be more effective if they were deployed to support key account goals.
If you have an evolving customer who represents a greater portion of your business and there is a key strength match by both expertise and personality through relationship building with one of your staff members, redirect and retrain if necessary that individual to become a key account manager to that client.
This serves a dual purpose by strengthening a key client relationship, as well provides additional supportive training for the staff member into a more suited and mutually rewarding role.  
A professional Talent Audit assessment system and related tools are most effective for strategic decision making when used on a continuing basis. Because data is predictive, its value for both employee development and career selection is unparalleled.
If we audit obvious assets such as company motor vehicles that are parked throughout the day and could be unshackled for use as a local delivery vehicle or similar, then why should we not audit our staff, the most valued asset of any organisation?

Audit your Marketing methods

Website Marketing
Just recently, and by example, we at J-Curve have recognised that when the landscape changes, you need to change with it, particularly if it’s influencing your bottom line.
As a recruitment consultancy that services exclusively the Broadcast community through ‘Search’, we work with our clients under a professional fee structure. Although our fees are attractive, when the economy is not supporting the number of executive vacancies, we need to re-visit our marketing strategy.
In this case we audited our website and through it, have created a second tier business, a job board.

Clients who were reluctant to pay a professional fee are now invited to upload their own vacant positions, directly onto our website. It has opened up new branches within a market vertical that now addresses contract, part-time and permanent positions.
We utilised the back-end website automation we already have to provide automatic job alerts for both client and candidate.

Re-visit your website and if there is any opportunity to add some form of interactivity into it, this is the best time to do so. Whether it’s an enquiry form with an acknowledgement email or something more complicated in coding, there are more ‘www’ visitors now than ever before surfing the net.
They are scrutinising data that maybe your product specification, pricing or branch locations, so as your website is the front door to your business, re-visit and re-shape it into today’s landscape.
 
Email Marketing
Interlocking with website marketing is email marketing. Not to be confused with spamming.
Email marketing is a personalised approach to sending information to established contacts or qualified potential clients who will have interest in receiving an email from you and your company.
This is another cost effective tool to spread the word, but can also be highly destructive. There is a fine balance of hitting a target through the sights of a barrel to that of spraying the message, even though it might be intended for well established clients.

Customise your message from YOU to YOUR CONTACT, and be respectful of your relationship.
When sending out a quantity of emails you should cast your eye over each recipient who is listed on your target list prior to approving each mail out.

Here are a few handy tips:

• Develop a personalized and identifiable banner/look dominated by your brand. This could be email only and an email recognised brand to your business using your company colours.
• Generate campaigns with reasonable frequency so as to inform, educate, and raise interest without becoming perceived as spam or a nuisance
• Personalize mailing lists and compartmentalize campaigns by sender. That is, denote sender’s names specific to those who have contacts with the receivers
•  Time your mailing campaigns to arrive mid day and not in the early AM when most people erase overnight spam in mass
• Keep communication crisp and to the point. We all have a tot to read
• Integrate e-mail campaigns into your overall marketing program as a lead, reinforcer and supplement at various times
• Take care to avoid words in your ‘Subject’ line which are likely to activate spam control software of your receivers

Remember this is a form of communication that will take some time out of your reader’s day to absorb. Ensure that it is worth their while to do so. They should be positive or be able to take away something from it after reading it.
Direct e-mail can truly have a cost effective impact, but executed badly could damage your long term relationship.

Karl Jansson is General Manager of J-Curve Broadcast Recruitment Consultants.
Email: corporate@jcurve.tv  Interactive web: www.jcurve.tv & www.broadcastjobz.tv