A Marketer’s Life

The weather in the United Kingdom over the last two weeks has been abnormally cold, producing lots of snow and ice. The last time we saw the situation as bad as this was over 20 years ago and we simply do not have the plans on standby to handle it. Salt stocks are at a low and the main salt quarry is working day and night to try to meet the enormous demand.

Local councils are coming under severe criticism for not having enough grit and salt stocks to keep all the main carriageways clear, let alone the minor roads and pavements. All in all it means that moving about the UK at the moment is very difficult indeed, if not impossible. All sorts of different firms and public service organisations are feeling the load as workers that do not live on the doorstep struggle to get into work, a large percentage of them not actually arriving at all. Some hospitals are asking that people turn up only if it an emergency, with all non emergency procedures being cancelled.

It does seem relatively bleak, and very bad timing for firms who are still reeling from the effects of the worst economic recession for 50 years. However not all organisations will be badly affected. Those businesses who have a large proportion of homeworkers, or who have the IT equipment in place for workers to be effective from home could actually get ahead of their competition here, keeping their services running whilst their competitors struggle with staff absences.

Even better, those organisations, like for example a Website Optimization Company, whose whole trade takes place entirely over the internet, will feel no effects of this current freeze. Their staff will carry on operating from their home offices or local offices and everything continues to run as normal. Their clients too may well be reaping the rewards of investing in such a service, which is carried out to ensure you get the most from your Online Marketing spend.

Without doubt the businesses on the high street and in the large shopping centres will not be doing a brisk trade. With travel difficult, pavements dangerously icy and a lack of staff to open the shops they will see a big drop in takings this month, and probably one they can ill afford. Even the Trafford Centre, a large shopping complexon the edge of Manchester City centre was struggling yesterday. A large number of it’s shops stayed closed due to staff shortages and the whole complex closed it’s doors early as worries developed for the shoppers facing the icy roads on their way home.

With a lot of people sitting at home unable to get to work or even to make it to their local shops it is to be anticipated that internet trade will be decent as shoppers stay away from the high street for the accessibility and ease of online shopping. Many of the larger retailers have their January sales listed on the internet too. Those who have invested in Online Marketing, to ensure that their websites are easily accessible to customers searching the internet, and who have a decent Search Engine Placement, may well off set the reduced high street sales that are looming for January.

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