The opinions expressed by the members of the entrepreneur are their own.
All the talk of a recession suggests that small business owners are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. To understand how small businesses prepare, I reached out to several marketing agencies that specialize in working with entrepreneurs to grow and scale. Getting ready to ski is like skiing. You must be prepared to weather the storm. To help, I've combined their feedback with the marketing strategies we employ at our company so we're ready for whatever the future holds.
There will be no universal approach. Your approach will depend on your current situation and the level of marketing you are doing. In the wider small business market, you will have a full-fledged marketing team and multiple agencies to support your business. And on the smaller end of the spectrum, you might have a marketing manager. Evaluate each of these strategies in terms of how they apply to your business and adapt your approach.
Related: 6 Proven Business Marketing Strategies for Growth During a Recession
Create trigger points to change marketing spend
If there is a recession, you can expect a decrease in income. If this happens, what will the marketing costs be? It's best to plan these decisions in advance when you're not stressed. Where will you cut costs? Where will you increase your spending? What metrics will you use to measure the success or failure of initiatives? What is your target price per lead? What is your target price for a new customer? All of these questions are now being asked by business owners and their marketing teams.
We are working on creating some basics. It's like building an airplane while we fly. After Apple's iOS15 update, we're seeing some categories such as ads and emails drop, and it's hard to tell when we'll hit bottom. Meanwhile, we're seeing growth in others like thought leadership, influencer marketing, and podcasting, and we're not sure when we'll hit a ceiling. The key is to stay on top of the marketing mix and hold ourselves accountable to figure out what really moves the needle that we need to move. A comprehensive strategy will consider new customer marketing, customer marketing and affiliate marketing for a holistic strategy.
Invest in branding and messaging to stay ahead of the competition
Companies are making a redoubled effort to stand out from the crowd. Bob Gillespie, founder of Propr Digital, said his clients want to stand out with strong branding and messaging. "Brands want to stand out. And once they do, they want differentiation to increase. We see companies investing in their corporate branding and messaging and then doing so across their entire company to increase brand awareness in a more competitive environment. marketing environment.
We decided to do this during the pandemic. We knew the market was changing and we couldn't compete as a small business due to size. So we knew we had to stand out and make every interaction count. We hired a branding agency. They scrapped our brand and came back with something that really differentiated us in the market. We then hired a messaging agency to coordinate our sales messages. We now focus on making an impact and being memorable at every point of interaction.
Related: How Small Businesses Can Survive and Grow in a Recession
Be strategic about your ad spend and goals
If profits fall, most companies will cut advertising spending. "It's going to make it difficult to scale," says Steve Krakawer of Harbor Marketing Agency. He advises asking yourself, "How can you be more effective at acquiring customers? Focus on ROI as the single big metric and reevaluate expectations. Growth may be slower. Exit. That's why we're trying to focus on brand building." We publish a lot of content to build a community around brands and companies. So we complement that brand advertising with direct response advertising. Getting results takes a lot more effort than it did five years ago, and building a brand isn't mandatory in today's market."
He also advises to “be smart about your spending. You don't have to wait for a recession. Maybe you're not that aggressive.
Join forces to boost resources
Now is not the time to act alone. Deployment as part of a “full suite” costs more; people think that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Brian Taylor of Goldiata Creative says, “Join other companies that are recession-proof. Look for sectors that will be least affected during a downturn, such as government, healthcare and consumer products."
We have made a strategic shift to align our go-to-market strategy with specific partners. We realized that it is impossible to boil the sea with a small marketing team of three people. We had to focus and leverage our partners' marketing teams to make an impact. This allowed us to align our sales teams with a global account-based marketing strategy, leverage content marketing resources for both brands, and increase the number of leads that drive sales. It's a win for everyone. We are in a market where we understand we are stronger together. Our partners have marketing teams three times larger than ours. Why try to do it ourselves when we can co-create content and run joint promotions that maximize the reach of both our brands? We have a powerful story together, so let's tell it.
Related: Why you should never skimp on brand marketing during a recession
Provide more social proof to increase loyalty
With a market downturn, everyone's reputation is at stake. And that means every decision matters. Joe Dominick, partner at Gauge Media and owner of a small IT company, says, “Be prepared to provide more social proof in a down market. “It's not about loyalty, it's about reducing fear and uncertainty about prospects. Reputation is important.
We've invested heavily in case studies as part of our content strategy, knowing that over time, recession or not, they'll become increasingly useful. Social proof is always important. Learn how you can tell your customers' stories and turn them into your heroes. Your success is their success, and the more you can put them at the center of your marketing strategy, the better. Even in industries where you can't publish a client's name, you can still publish it with the company and type of industry they work in and make it anonymous. The idea that we can't share our successes is simply wrong. Every story can be told creatively.
Entrepreneurs understand that we need to think ahead and start making strategic changes to prepare for the unknown future. How you implement your marketing strategy can make or break your business. During a recession, it's not uncommon for entrepreneurs to cut back on marketing budgets and rely solely on the sales channel. This is a bad strategy because you need both to stay competitive. If you disappear from the market and expect people to remember who you are, you will be disappointed. We live in an out of sight, out of mind culture. People will forget about your work. Small businesses must find a way to do both to stay competitive. They have to be smart about it. The reality is that we can't do everything. Thinking strategically about what to focus on right now will help you build your workload so you can increase or decrease it as needed. Every down market offers small businesses great opportunities for growth.
