Continuing with your advertising during a recession may seem a little counterintuitive. However, if you cut your budget, stop sending emails regularly, or reduce your spending on social media – how do you expect your customers to remember you when things get better?
With a marketing strategy in a recession, you can keep your business top of mind for your customers. When they’re ready to shop for everyday essentials, you’ll be the first they go to.
Here is everything you need to know about marketing during a recession:
Why Your Brand Needs Recession Marketing
You’re Still Marketing, But Your Competitors Aren’t
For many companies, the marketing budget is the first to be cut. They stop their paid ads, let go of their marketing department, and adopt a survivor mentality. While they start to panic and brainstorm innovative ways to stay afloat, they forget about the marketing initiatives that helped them get where they are today.
If you continue to market to your current customers or prospects, you can ensure your brand is top of mind while the others pull back on their marketing strategy. This will ensure you continue to receive a steady pace of business, even if it’s not where you want it to be during a recession. (and stay two steps ahead of your competitors!)
Maintain Customer Loyalty
Every business has a few customers that love and appreciate what you do. Your loyal customers are the ones that always use promotional offers, open all of your email communication, and follow you on social media.
While a business may be slower than usual, these customers will likely continue shopping with you when they have the extra cash. If you continue showing up in their inbox or on their timeline – you can continue to get sales from your loyal customer pipeline.
Growth is Still Possible
Yes, growth is still possible even during a recession. It’s just not the growth you want to see. Even if you cut your marketing budget in half, you can use these funds to continue growing your business and sales pipeline. However, you need to be more strategic because customers will buy, but not at the price you’re hoping for.
Instead of marketing the expensive products with a great margin, consider switching them up to items more likely to fit into someone’s budget. You can also provide discounts, special offers, and two-for-one deals to get customers to shop on your website.
You can also rethink your content strategy to be more valuable and thoughtful. Whether it’s with video content, how-tos, tutorials, or thanking your loyal customers with a special discount.
Most Recessions Are Short-Lived
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the average recession lasts roughly 17 months. However, there have been recessions that last for only two months. Will every month of that recession be agonizing for your business? Probably not.
This means you only need to realistically pivot for 6-12 months before you get back on a path toward normalcy. During that time, you’ll learn a ton about your business. You’ll know which team members are ready to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. You know which marketing tactics work the best for your current and prospective audience.
Keeps Your Branding Consistent
Consistency is key to building your online presence and continuing to bring in business. If you decide to rebrand your business to appeal to a larger audience, it can negatively impact the solid pipeline of work you already have. Instead, weather the storm, use marketing tactics that you already know work and continue to nurture leads at every part of your sales funnel.
How to Continue Advertising During a Recession
Market to Your Current Customers
Did you know your probability of selling a product or service to an existing customer is around 60 – 70%? However, the probability of selling to a prospect is more like 5%-20%? Retention is the secret to seeing results. If you focus on marketing to your current customers, you can continue to bring in sales. Depending on your product and industry, you’ll want to brainstorm ways to retain your current customers. Whether it’s with new perks or exclusive loyalty discounts – these small tactics can drive a big impact.
Change Your Offerings
Did you know 93% of shoppers use at least one discount code every year? Even if you don’t historically offer discount codes, this can be an opportunity to relate to prospects and reward customer loyalty. Consider running a promotion at least once a month. You may need to go steeper than your traditional discounts. That’s okay, it’s only temporary. If you can bring in a few new customers, you can nurture them into loyal customers and increase their lifetime value over time.
Continue to Build Your Online Presence
Keeping your website up to date during turbulent times is essential to your survival. You want to show your customers and website visitors that your business is open and operating normally. Start by ensuring all discounts and offers are clearly advertised, you have a newsletter sign-up, and your CTAS is clear and concise.
Rethink Your KPIs
The truth is: The KPIs you currently have might not make sense for the current state of the economy. Since consumer spending during a recession tends to slow down, you’ll want to adjust your KPIs and be more realistic with your goals. This will help you get a clearer picture of your success and help you measure the success of your recession marketing.
Common FAQs
What is a good strategy for marketing during a recession?
The best way to approach recession marketing is to stay flexible, focus on customer retention, and be more strategic with your budget. A recession isn’t the time to A/B test your content or step outside your comfort zone. Instead, you’ll want to stick to what you know and not be afraid to pivot at the last minute.
Things may be rough – but remember that it’s temporary and will only be this way for 2-17 months.
How do you attract customers in a recession?
One of the easiest ways to attract customers in a recession is with promotions, deals, and special offers. These discounts can help attract customers with a strict budget they’re trying to stick to. Even though consumer spending during a recession is historically lower, shoppers will still buy here and there.
Build a Marketing Strategy With Kanbar Digital
If you decide to table your marketing strategy in a recession – you could make a big mistake. Even though marketing is more challenging during a recession, it can be an invaluable tool that helps you retain current customers, connect to prospects, and keep your business afloat.
Not sure how to start marketing during a recession? The team at Kanbar Digital is here to help. We can help you finetune your marketing plan and build a strategy that aligns with your goals and current marketing budget.
