If you’ve watched any TV news broadcast lately, you will know that the economic future is clouded by uncertainties. The COVID-19 epidemic is still around globally, and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine impacts soaring interest rates. This could all be a disaster for your small business.
Economists predict that the United States will enter a recession by late 2023 or early 2024. With a recession on the horizon, businesses and industry leaders are in uncharted territory.
Is digital marketing a good approach during an economic downturn?
To put it simply, yes!
People will continue to look for products and services online even if overall demand has reduced. Therefore, your digital marketing efforts should not be shut down during a recession.
In fact, this is likely the most useful marketing decision you can make during an economic slump. Digital marketing allows you to reach people who are actively looking for what you have to offer. Also, whoever most closely match your target audience.
Experts agree that strong internet marketing is the smartest long-term investment for your company during a downturn in the economy. Recession-proof business marketing methods are more important today than ever.
Prepare Your Small Business for a Recession
There is one thing that separates recession-proof businesses from the competition. The fact that they take action sooner, and start business planning for a recession before their competitors do.
Have you started making plans for a recession in your business? Follow these digital marketing tips to better prepare your business for a recession and safeguard your brand:
Improve Your Online Presence
Building and maintaining a strong online presence in any economy is one of the foundations of recession-proof companies. Maintaining a strong digital presence enables you to capture a larger portion of the market when a recession occurs.
You must stay top of mind with your target audience, invest in market research, and create a mobile-friendly website. Hire a expert to help you with your search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.
There are many things to consider with a recession on the horizon. This includes establishing a stronger digital presence and staying on potential clients' radars.
Do Not Reduce Your Small Business Marketing Budget
During a recession, business owners must decide where to make sacrifices. Reduce their marketing budget, suspend marketing efforts, or double down on their digital marketing campaigns.
It may seem sensible to some to suspend marketing during a recession. Spending a lot of money on digital marketing may feel unimportant when sales are down. Consider what took place in 2020. Spending on digital marketing campaigns fell about the same time that 255 million full-time jobs were lost globally. Due to lower ad earnings during the COVID-19 epidemic, even Google had to cut its marketing budget by half.
So, why should you keep working on your digital marketing strategy and investing in digital marketing services?
Businesses that continue to market throughout a recession are more likely to survive, according to studies. During an economic downturn, many businesses reduce their advertising budget. This is a opportunity to show that your business is stable even when things are hard. So continue your digital marketing campaign efforts! Or, at most dial them back slightly, but never fully suspend them.
To keep business flowing, have a digital marketing strategy in place. Discontinuing your marketing efforts will make it much easier for your competitors.
It's Time to Optimize Your Website… Now!
Check out your website. Is it generating leads for your company 24 hours a day, or is there room for improvement? Not sure which parts of your website should be improved or updated? Consult with a reputable digital agency – it's what they do!
Agencies normally will employ conversion rate optimization (CRO) specialists. They perform in-depth website audits to evaluate your website's interactions. A specialist will also discover areas you need to optimize to meet your goals.
Conversion rate optimization helps you make the most of your traffic. This is done by examining the data from your website to improve the consumer experience.
You will learn what pages are visited the most and which pages receive the least engagement. You also can examine cart abandonment and overall customer behavior.
Gather this info to create a data-driven strategy. That way, you'll know that any changes you make to your website are more likely to affect your bottom line.
Maintain Your Social Media Efforts
During an economic downturn, many people prefer to stay at home in order to spend less and save more. This also shows that potential customers spend more time on their mobile devices. This is an ideal time to use social media marketing to attract new consumers. And, nurture leads via your sales funnel.
Continuing your social media marketing also ensures that your audience is aware that your business is still active online. A little can still go a long way to attracting new/existing customers.
Create Compelling Video Content For Your Small Business
Certain web marketing approaches pay off due to their cost-effective, creative approach to audience involvement. Video marketing is one example of this .
Video marketing is still one of the most engaging ways to connect with your target audience and deliver information. It fosters trust and confidence in ways that text alone simply cannot.
Consider creating video content that is evergreen and will continue to be useful content for years to come. This ensures that your dollar goes further than if you spend more on campaign-specific content.
Share videos on your social media platforms. Ask that customers create video reviews for you to use on your website. Allow followers to communicate with your brand and ask questions in real time by live-streaming on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
During a difficult time, Americans are likely to spend time online keeping up with friends and news. Video marketing is a great way to engage with your target audience. Learn where they spend the majority of their time, and grow your customer base!
Optimize Your Marketing Budget and Choose Your Priorities Wisely
Digital marketing is not like a light switch. You can't just turn it on or off, it is an ongoing process.
Even if the economy is struggling, you owe it to your team and customers to figure out how to source, sell, and optimize your business to get through difficult times.
It is crucial that you begin improving your digital presence and investing in new digital marketing methods. These methods will make positive long-term benefits for your business.
Looking for a good way to create video content for your small business? We can help! Sign up to meet with Jay Vics on the Meet the Experts podcast. Create great content and get your name out there!
