An Effective Marketing Strategy During a Recession

Marketing your offerings is like eating food and drinking water to survive. It is not a choice but a necessity. However, during the recession, marketing becomes the last option for business organizations. But this should not be the case.

When a business is stuck in recession, they prioritize paying salaries, meeting operational overheads, and maintaining contracts, and marketing takes a toll back. Businesses should see marketing as a tool to drag the business out of recession by acquiring new leads, improving conversions, and enjoying better revenue.

For any business, acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones become crucial, and it can be effectively achieved through branding and personal touch.

CustomizingCustomizing is the key to building and maintaining relationships with your customers and promoting brand loyalty. Thus, marketing becomes inevitable even during a recession.

In this article, we’ll learn about the top marketing tips businesses can adopt during the recession in 2023.

Top Strategy Tips For Economy Recession Marketing  

A recession occurs from time to time and dramatically affects overall economic growth. But companies of all sizes, natures, and industries can adjust to the abrupt downturn and alter their budget allocation for impending growth. Every business has different ways to cope with sudden change, but here are a few ways your business can thrive and leverage strategic marketing plans.

 Identify Consumer Spending Trends 

Leverage data is the most significant asset to draw the consumer spending trend. This could be an excellent opportunity to identify the latest industry trends and check where your business can meet market needs. Similarly, if you are a product-oriented business, you might notice that some product marketing strategies work more effectively than others. Such trends can help you frame competitive marketing strategies even during an economic recession to get the best results. Collaborative brand awareness-building strategies can help you increase your conversions and brand visibility.

 Be Flexible  

Since the economic recession has already disrupted the market, you must be flexible with your marketing strategies. For instance, your marketing strategies should be flexible enough to change quickly. If the existing strategies are not fetching the desired results, you must have plan B ready to be implemented.

 Evaluate Your ROI  

When the economy is in recession, calculating ROI becomes very crucial. Here are a few questions that you need to ask yourself.

  • What are your business goals?

  • How do you measure success?

  • What is your ultimate objective from your marketing strategies?

  • What do your consumers need, and how can you satisfy them?

You must have clear answers to all those mentioned before executing any marketing strategy during an economic recession. SMEs should be extra cautious before any kind of marketing spend during the recession.

 Create Value-Based Content  

Content is king and becomes a bit more crucial during economic recession times. During times of recession, value-based content will help your targeted audience to identify your offerings and take their buying decisions quickly. The content should always focus on helping customers move ahead in their buying journey by answering their questions, explaining various use cases, and establishing why they should buy your offerings.

Trust and Sensitivity in Marketing is Key  

Establishing trust and brand credibility in the eyes of your customers is critical to boosting sales. However, an economic recession often reduces your customers’ trust in you and the brand. Here are a few ways in which you can regain and well establish trust amongst your customers.

  • Don’t expect anything

  • Make your purpose clear

  • Commit and learn from mistakes

  • Be transparent and honest

  • Research, learn, and improve

  • PersonalizePersonalize your customer approach

Branding and personal touch help build trust and relationships to improve brand loyalty and, ultimately, success.

 Re-Evaluate Your Tech Stack  

An economic recession offers an excellent opportunity for companies to identify what they need vs what they don’t in terms of complicated modern technology. Businesses should leverage technology that brings the highest level of returns. Furthermore, even when the economy prospers, using only the necessary technology will simplify the entire operation process and reduce overall overheads.

 Strive For The Basics  

Even if your business doesn’t feel impacted by the economic recession, you must stick to the basics to plan for when the brand is affected. Rebranding or expanding during a recession is not a great idea; focusing more on strengthening your core business marketing strategies through collaborative brand awareness building will prove fruitful.

 Be Generous With Your KPIs  

Set achievable goals and be realistic with your KPIs during the recession. Thoroughly analyze your brand data and other valuable resources to draw further conclusions for effective decision-making.

 Collaborative Brand Awareness Building  

Even with limited funds, branding during times of recession is possible. Take benefit of areas that cost less but still produce results to create and portray a distinct identity to segmented customers. For instance, social media is great for gaining exposure and reaching new customers. A well-placed post on Facebook or Instagram can lead thousands of people to your website.

 Keep Your Vision Broad  

Recession marketing means practicing patience. You have to plan for time to survive the economic downturn, but be hopeful and don’t forget what will happen once the economy bounces back. Here are a few tips to keep in mind for short-term and long-term business growth.

  • Be prepared by effectively tracking the economy and obtaining adequate insurance coverage

  • Diversify your income streams to regulate smooth cash flow in the business

  • Leverage the talent and potential of your employees to the fullest

  • Identify partners to grow your business in terms of technology, marketing, and business management

  • Ensure maximum customer satisfaction

  • Concentrate on employee happiness and motivation

Surviving in the short term is crucial, but growing the business in the long term should also not be overlooked.

  Conclusion  

A good marketing strategy during an economic recession revolves around understanding consumer trends, being flexible, and holding onto the basics. Keep overheads low by evaluating tech and creating charitable and practical goals for KPIs and ROIs to make ultimate goals achievable. Furthermore, don’t forget that maintaining collaborative brand awareness and creating connections with customers will help in both the short-term and long-term during a recession and in economic prosperity.

Madavi can help you achieve your business goals effectively with their team of experts who brings over a decade of experience in helping brands boost sales, increase revenue, brand visibility, brand awareness, ROI, and ultimately better profit margins. We are there for you, be it during a recession or prosperity.

Victor Ambuyo

Victor Ambuyo is a Nairobi-based growth marketer with over 7 years of experience working with various companies and independently as a freelancer. Ambuyo has helped build brand identities for small businesses, advertising campaigns, and digital products for corporate companies. When he is not doing digital marketing, he dabbles in poetry. You can see his collection at https://ambuyo.com/ballads/

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