Marketing Strategists Take Advantage of Recessions

Online marketing strategists can find tactical advantage in any situation, including a major economic recession.

Of course, this assumes the business will survive the recession. It also assumes that owners and employees look for the opportunities that come with an economic downturn.

The idea that an economic recession has opportunities for a business sounds a bit strange at first. But it starts with having the right attitude.

A recession for most businesses means a decline in revenue. In the case of websites, it especially means a decline in advertising revenue and e-commerce transactions.

Revenue management requires time and effort. Less revenue should lead to more available time and effort. The next obvious step for a business is using that freed up time and effort for other purposes.

Marketing Tactic Shift

A decline in revenue usually leads to a decline in the marketing budget. Marketing is a discretionary expense and often the first one to get cut.

If marketing strategists can’t spend money and time managing advertising campaigns, they can shift their focus to tactics that don’t require money.

A recession is a good time to focus instead on the following tactics that don’t require a dime of hard cost, although they have a soft cost from the labor:

• Search engine optimization
• Social media postings
• YouTube videos
• Blogging
• Email marketing

Many businesses do some if not all of the above tactics. But owners and employees can use new-found time and energy that they had devoted to other activities on the above list instead.

Look for the Best Returns

All marketing tactics have different returns on investment. They vary according to the business, the industry and the skills of the marketing people.

Strategists shouldn’t focus equally on all of the above tactics. Instead, they can experiment with which ones have the highest growth rate for the amount of time they put into them.

Regardless of which one works best, all of them also have the advantage of offering long-term if not permanent value. Blog and social media posts are there for good unless deleted. The same is true of videos and podcasts.

Search engine optimization evolves over time, but the basics have stayed largely unchanged for years. These evergreen efforts lead to long-term benefits for the business.

Long-Term Marketing Investment

An economic downturn is discouraging for business owners and employees if it means less revenue, potential layoffs and other reductions.

Discouragement is a danger to the business because employees may become less productive. But marketers can use this time to invest more effort into free marketing tactics that will pay off after the recession ends.

Marketers who shift their strategy will increase the odds of a surviving business while other businesses fail.