The global economy is in a state of decline, and as the word “recession” looms on many people’s lips, businesses have started to feel the pinch.
In the U.S., Bank of America’s CEO is projecting at least a “very slight” recession from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024. (Aljazeera) Other parts of the world are also bracing for a downturn because of several factors, including geopolitical instability. For instance, the Eurozone’s 20-member states already saw a dip in economic output for two consecutive quarters. (CNN Business)
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 91% of U.S. economists expect weak U.S. economic growth, while 63% look at a potential global economic recession.
Digital marketing offers a financially-sound solution for companies looking to stay competitive during a recession – allowing you to connect with customers online while keeping costs low.
In this post, we’ll explore why you must invest in recession marketing and share some digital marketing tips to help you make the most of a tight budget.
Marketing in a Recession: Is It Really Worth It?
The 2023 recession will likely bring a decrease in sales, but don’t be fooled into thinking that marketing should take a backseat. The truth is, it’s more important than ever to have an effective digital marketing strategy during times of economic downturn.
Here are some compelling reasons businesses should continue investing in digital marketing during a recession.
1. It’s an Investment for Your Future
From the more recent COVID-19 pandemic, a 2023 economic slowdown, to the older 1933 Great Depression, the trend shows that marketing spend “greatly diminishes” during a recession, according to Statista.
However, those who resist the temptation to cut costs see a significantly higher increase in market share after a crisis.
Screenshot from Statista
Similarly, your behavior during uncertain times affects consumer perception beyond that crisis. 65% of customers cared about a brand’s activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those with good brand visibility during the crisis are likely to make more sales afterward.
The lower cost of digital marketing channels can’t also be ignored.
“Digital marketing channels often provide a more cost-effective approach compared to traditional marketing methods,” said Chad Bittle, Thrive’s Email Marketing Manager.
“With tighter budgets during a recession, investing in digital marketing allows businesses to reach their target audience without breaking the bank.”
When you work with digital marketing agencies, you’ll even get a chance to choose how much you invest in professional marketing services. The different price points and services available can work with nearly any budget.
From social media marketing to web design, there’s a digital marketing solution for everyone.
2. Recalibrate Your Messaging Based on Customer Sentiments
Your marketing style may have worked well before the recession, but it’s essential to be aware of customer sentiment during a crisis.
“During a recession, it’s essential to acknowledge the challenging times and show empathy towards customers,” Bittle said.
Sure, one great tool for marketing is humor. However, during a recession, it’s important to be mindful of your audience and the context of current events. 38% of consumers during the pandemic thought using humor in marketing was inappropriate.
Bittle recommends that your messages “address their pain points, offer support and provide value. This can help build trust and strengthen the customer-business relationship,” Bittle said.
Investing less in your marketing cripples your ability to conduct market and competitor research. In turn, you’ll be less informed about how customer sentiment has changed.
3. Enhanced Efficiency
WEF predicts that 77% of businesses will optimize their supply chains for the 2023 recession.
While it may not be evident at first glance, digital marketing is crucial in streamlining your business operations.
Tools such as automation and content marketing are handy during a recession in cutting costs while maintaining the same effectiveness level.
“Digital marketing provides a precise measurement of performance which allows you to track and maximize conversion opportunities,” said Joseph Jenkinson, Thrive’s Senior Marketing Consultant and Sales Manager.
“The measurable results and data-driven approach of digital marketing will be the winner over traditional marketing every time,” Jenkinson said.
These increased efficiencies prevent overspending on a digital marketing campaign.
For B2B businesses, it helps you target customer segments and profiles more precisely than ever. This allows you to be more efficient in your marketing efforts and even acquire leads more likely to convert into sales.
4. Get Ahead of the Competition
We’ve discussed an increase in market share, and you may think these are flukes.
However, digital marketing during a recession is an established corporate best practice. In a 2022 Deloitte survey, 65.1% of chief marketing officers (CMOs) increased their marketing channels over the pandemic and reported a 10.4% increase in their marketing spend. On average, 57.9% of their total marketing spend went to digital marketing.
“Digital marketing is the best way to move users down the sales funnel,” said Wesley Wessels, Thrive’s Paid Media Engineer.
Dan Casey, Thrive’s SEO Manager, adds that investing in recession marketing opens doors of opportunities to outrank your competition and even test proof of concept marketing plans:
“You will find in a recession many businesses are not allocating a normal portion of their marketing budget, leaving the door open for competitors to outrank them,” Casey said.
CMOs recognize the advantage of investing in a quality digital marketing campaign during a recession. This way, they get ahead of their competitors, who are cutting costs and waiting to see how the market fares.
Digital Marketing Strategies During a Recession
So, yes. Marketing during a recession is a must.
But is there a nuance in recession marketing that sets it apart from the normal, great times?
The answer is also yes. Your online marketing tactics must be strategically planned and executed to make the most of a recession
Here are some digital marketing tips you can use to help your business succeed during tough times.
Strategy 1: Create Your Marketing Budget Plan
The number one fear of most businesses when it comes to recession marketing is overspending and not seeing any return.
That’s why a marketing budget plan is essential for any business. This should include:
• Setting a budget.
• Determining which channels to focus on.
• Creating an emergency fund in case the recession takes a turn for the worse.
It’s important to remember that a marketing budget plan is not set in stone. It should be regularly evaluated and adjusted according to the changing market conditions.
Strategy 2: Know Your Brand and Stick to It
Recession marketing should stay true to the core of your business, even when the times get rougher. After all, the trust that customers have in your brand will keep them coming back.
Write compelling content, design engaging graphics and create videos that capture the spirit of your business.
A solid, on-brand digital marketing plan also gives customers a sense of stability. This is important when consumers are looking for certainty and consistency during uncertain times.
Take this multi-location ABA Therapy Center as an example. They know the importance of branding for digital advertising. That’s why they created branded imagery and conducted A/B tests for ad copy and creative combinations.
This paid off two months after implementing their strategy, generating 174 leads for their company. They also yielded amazing results on relevant KPIs such as clicks and engagement rates:
Case study: Multi-Location ABA Therapy Center
“A brand needs to maintain a strong online presence and continue building brand loyalty. In fact, in times of a recession, it may be even more vital to do so,” Jenkinson said.
Jenkinson suggests that we should “view digital marketing as an investment that generates a return and grows the business,” not another expense that should be cut when times get tough.
Strategy 3: Utilize Automation Tools To Improve Efficiency
Now is the time to start if you’re not using automation tools. These tools allow you to streamline processes such as social media posting and email marketing campaigns so that they take less of your time and energy.
Tools that make your work easier and cut your costs are crucial when business planning for a recession.
Some marketing aspects you should automate include the following:
• Email marketing
• Social media posts and ads
• Content creation and curation
For example, in email marketing, there are several ways to leverage automation and even personalization, according to Bittle. Here are some ways you do this:
• Set up automated drip campaigns.
• Deliver content and offers based on customer actions and interests.
• Personalize subject lines, content and product recommendations.
Remember: automating your processes doesn’t mean you’ll have to lay off workers. You’ll still need their nuanced skills and human touch to get the most out of your digital marketing campaign.
For example, advertising during a recession is a tricky process. You must balance being sensitive to current events and promoting your brand’s values.
This requires understanding the market and your consumer base only a human can provide. The data is there, but you need experts to interpret it and create an effective digital marketing plan.
Strategy 4: Segment Your Customers
Your audience isn’t one monolithic category with the same needs and wants. Customers are individuals, each with their own unique set of values and preferences.
Harvard Business Review identified four customer segments you must keep in mind when marketing during a recession:
• Slam-on-the-breaks: customers who are likely to pull back on spending.
• Pained-but-patient: customers who are willing to cut back on spending but want to be sure they’re getting the best deal.
• Comfortably well-off: customers who experience minimal impact from a recession.
• Live-for-today: customers who are still willing to spend despite a recession.
Image from Harvard Business Review
Advertising during a recession must be tailored to your target customer segment
For example, a budget airline may focus more on the pained-but-patient customers. On the other hand, an online luxury goods store may target comfortably well-off customers.
“The best strategy is to work your customer down the sales funnel,” Wessels said.
Wessels explains that you should also focus on generating brand awareness, not just more sales and conversions.
You can also create segments based on your customer data and tailor your content marketing strategies accordingly.
Recession Marketing and Digital Marketing Services for Your Business
More than digital marketing tips, there are also digital marketing services that businesses can turn to for help. Even amidst the 2023 recession, your digital marketing plan should include a strategy for how to get the most out of your campaigns.
Here are tried-and-tested strategies to prepare and pull you through economic decline.
1. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Marketing
While it sounds counterintuitive, paid advertising during a recession can benefit your business.
Digital marketing services spend some time fine-tuning and readjusting their PPC campaigns to adapt to the new market conditions.
An asset tracking company benefited from good use of PPC campaigns. Throughout its PPC campaign strategy, this company:
• Scaled their budget and bids.
• Crafted descriptive and compelling ad copy.
• Tested custom and lookalike audiences.
They also integrated customer testimonials into their PPC strategy, building trust and confidence with their prospects.
These strategies resulted in increased lead generation and conversion rates month-over-month:
Case Study: Asset Tracking Company
Recalibrating your paid search engine campaigns takes more than just budgeting, though. You must understand the market, analyze consumer data and adjust your targeting.
The asset tracking company recognized this need and added more digital marketing services to the mix, helping them address more issues in a cost-effective manner.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Sustained organic growth requires SEO, and recessions are no exception. Investing in quality content and long-term digital marketing strategies pays dividends, even during a recession.
You can use these SEO strategies to maximize your brand’s search engine visibility:
• Conversion rate optimization
• Heat maps
• On-page SEO
• Customer analytics
Business planning for a recession must be forward-thinking and strategic. SEO is one of the most important digital marketing strategies for long-term success.
“SEO rankings can be hard to get. They often take an abundance of time to make a page strong or to outrank your competitors,” Casey said.
“When consumer spending increases, you will be there to reap the benefits of the [SEO] investments you had made during the recession.”
A sneaker boutique with only 17 website purchases implemented a holistic SEO strategy that increased their year-on-year leads by 324.1%:
Case Study: Sneaker Boutique
Their SEO strategy included executing on-page SEO revisions and comprehensive website and advertising audits. From there, they also integrated social media with SEO and leveraged negative keywords to target potential customers.
The results show that SEO amplifies your organic growth potential, helping you weather economic downturns through sustainable visibility.
SEO should be the one constant in your digital marketing strategy.
“You might find out that during the recession, your business may only have a couple of services or products that the consumers are willing to pay for,” Casey said.
That’s why you want to ensure your website is properly optimized to increase conversions and “help bots understand your page better.”
3. Social Media
Leverage social media’s growing role in the digital space to know how to survive a recession. According to Sprout Social, 77% of customers spend much higher on brands they feel connected to. Social media is the best way to build those connections.
“Besides bringing in more business, it also sets you aside from your competitors,” Wessels said.
“With your competitors cutting their budget, your business will be front of mind which results in the client or customer coming to your business first!”
Furthermore, social media analytics offer valuable data that inform several aspects of your 2023 recession marketing strategies, including:
• Sales strategy
• Content strategy
• Customer experience
Image from Sprout Social
If you don’t know where to start, social media marketing services help you create effective campaigns to engage your customers and build trust.
You can also partner with influencers to boost visibility or implement targeted ads and creative content to keep your followers engaged.
4. Email Marketing
“Email marketing is a highly cost-effective way to communicate with customers and prospects during a recession,” Bittle said.
In a study by MailJet, 41.8% of their respondents believe that email marketing provides the best return on investment (ROI) during a recession. This is followed closely by digital advertising with 41.6%.
Image from MailJet
This is because of several reasons, including the following:
• It’s an owned platform. How to survive a recession? Start with a platform you own. The right email marketing services give you complete control over your emails’ content, tone and design.
• It’s cost-effective. Email campaigns are relatively cheap to create and send compared to other mediums, such as TV or radio ads.
• It’s direct. You can deliver personalized messages directly to your customers’ inboxes.
Bittle explains that email “allows businesses to engage with their audience at a minimal cost, delivering personalized messages and offers that can drive conversions.”
5. Omnichannel Digital Marketing Strategy
Being present in all relevant channels is vital to reaching your target audience. Digital marketing agencies that provide a full suite of services are typically the most cost-effective and high-quality solutions.
This is because you don’t have to deal with separate service providers for each channel. Instead, you get a unified digital marketing strategy and custom-made campaigns that work together to reach your goals.
One good rule of thumb when business planning for a recession with digital marketing: if it impacts the customer journey, include it in your strategy.
Why?
Because digital marketing is more than just ads or content.
It’s an ongoing process that requires a holistic approach and understanding of the customer journey.
Recession-Proof Digital Marketing Strategies? Work With Thrive.
These are uncertain times for businesses, but marketing in a recession is a reliable way to stay afloat.
Just like building a boat requires more than just having the right materials, crafting effective digital marketing plans during recessions takes more than knowing what online marketing tactics are available. It also requires experience and expertise in analyzing data and making decisions based on those insights.
Partnering with a trusted company like Thrive Internet Marketing Agency provides the best of both worlds: access to the latest tools and techniques and in-depth industry knowledge.
We have a proven track record in crafting digital marketing strategies that deliver results, and we’ll be with you every step of the way.
Want to get started? Contact us today, and let’s discuss how we can help shield your business from recession woes!
