There is a lot of doom and gloom in the media at the moment which personally I think adds to the issue. But that said, it does look likely that we will be heading into a recession some time soon. It can be a scary time for everyone, businesses, the self-employed and employees alike.
After all, history tells us that not every business will survive. It can be very tempting to stop spending, especially on marketing – it’s often seen as a luxury rather than an investment or necessity. But history has also shown us that those that continue to invest in marketing during a recession are those that tend to do better when we come out the other end.
Just think about it for a second. The market may shrink as people stop spending as much, but this doesn’t mean your customer base will disappear completely, it just means that there are less of them. This, in fact can be a good thing. It means there will likely be less competition as your competitors cut back. It also gives you an opportunity to reach those people that you may not have done business with before.
So, battening down the hatches as they say is often the very worst thing you can do during a recession.
What if I can’t Afford my current marketing activity?
Now is the time to really explore your marketing spend and focus on those areas that bring you the most business. Take time to analyse where your customers are coming from, where your highest converting leads originate. You might need to adjust where you spend your budget, often it’ things like PPC that yield better results, again because the market is less crowded. But you need to look at your own numbers to work out what is best for you.
There may be areas you can delay, such as a new website build, attending an exhibition or rebranding your social media profiles. But stopping altogether could well be business suicide.
Pricing
There is a misconception that everyone just stops spending in a recession, that’s just not true. It’s the mid-tier products and services that tend to suffer most. The wealthy will still have plenty of money to spend, those struggling will likely tighten the purse strings and this means looking for cheaper alternatives to the thing they would have bought before.
So, think about your price point, who your customers are and how they are likely to behave. It may be that you can add additional higher end products or services to your range, or you may be able to do the opposite and add lower cost solutions. This is where diversification comes in…
Diversification
Now is the time to think about how you do business and what you sell. During the pandemic, lots of pubs for example started to offer takeaway options – this helped them to survive during difficult times. This is true during a recession.
Think about the additional and complimentary products and services you can add to your business. Is there a different way you can serve up your existing products and services? Now is the time to really look after your existing customers, building loyalty with them will help you to retain your customers’ base.
There are lots of ways you can diversify what you do and how you do it.
Strategy and Preparation
Don’t sit and wait, you need to start thinking about all of these things now. Map out different scenarios and start planning.
If you are ready to go with plans in place that can be easily implemented, you will be in a great position. Work out what you are going to do, how you are going to market yourself and the best way to use your budget and remember, there are always opportunities out there and many a million has been made during a recession. So don’t think that it’s hopeless and you need to ‘let’ it happen. You are in control of your business, there are so many different things you can do to make sure you come out of the other side of this.
Many studies have been conducted to explore the relationship between marketing spend and sales during a recession and every single one has shown that:
So, get that strategy in place, make sure you are spending your marketing budget in the best way, diversify where you can, think about your pricing and make sure you are giving your customers the very best experience with you that is possible.
If you need help with your digital marketing strategy then get in touch today, we offer a free initial consultation with absolutely no obligation.