Many small businesses underestimate the impact of marketing; they see it as just another cost to worry about. They don’t realize the long-term impact marketing has on generating consistent revenue, even in a recession.
Today, investing in marketing is more important than ever before, and we’re here to tell you why.
But Really…How Important Is Marketing in a Business During an Economic Downturn?
Marketing in a business is vital for everyday operations, especially during an economic downturn. While it may sound like an additional cost to worry about, marketing in a recession allows you to generate new business opportunities.
Long-term clients may be loyal to your business, but they may not have the financial resources to keep investing in your product and services. This is what makes marketing in a recession so important; if you continuously have new leads coming in, you won’t have to stress as much about potential cancellations from existing client relationships.
While retaining clients should be your ultimate goal, that can’t always be the case because companies often have to make tough business decisions. And as a business owner, you need to make sure you have a plan in place.
What Can Consistent Marketing Do for Business Owners in a Recession?
Consistent marketing is essential day in and day out, especially for businesses that encounter a recession. Before an economic downturn, it’s vital to develop and execute a marketing plan to maximize ROI.
Here are some ways that marketing can benefit business owners in a recession:
Marketing Allows You to Spread Brand Awareness and Engage With Customers
Marketing is essential for business owners to spread brand awareness and consistently engage with ongoing and potential customers.
As a business owner, you know how essential ongoing conversations with customers are for building long-term relationships and keeping people loyal to your business. With a marketing strategy in place, you have the opportunity to keep your company at the forefront of a buyer’s mind even if they don’t have the financial resources to invest right now. The more you touchpoints and messages you have in front of potential buyers, the more likely they are to remember your company. However, it’s also important to not overwhelm them with too many touch points because this could negatively impact their perception of your business.
Social media and email marketing are a few of the most powerful marketing tools for small businesses to spread brand awareness and engage with customers. Implementing a social media and email marketing strategy in your marketing efforts allows you to share relevant content with your target audience and quickly respond to inquires when customers have questions, comments, or concerns.
Marketing Campaigns Help You Build a Good Brand Reputation
With a marketing campaign in place, you can build a stronger brand reputation. A marketing campaign encourages potential customers to trust your brand and keeps your current customer base loyal and engaged with your business.
For example, let’s say you decide to partner with a local nonprofit, and a portion of your profits go to that organization. Sharing this new partnership via email marketing, social media, or press releases positions your company as a respectable leader in the community. If your company is dedicated to making a difference in the community, this shows ongoing and potential customers that you’ll also make a difference for their business.
Additionally, if a customer has any issues with your product or service, social media is a great place for them to voice their concerns and for you to respond. While the customer may be initially upset with their situation, you have the opportunity to turn it around by addressing their concerns and taking action to fix it. This shows that you care about their customer experience and increases the likelihood of them staying loyal to your business.
Marketing Enables You To Spread the Word on New Products and Services
Thinking of adding a new product or service to your business model? Marketing lets you spread the word on your business expansions to engage customers in your target market who could benefit from your new offerings.
Marketing your new products and services through various platforms empowers you to reach an audience you haven’t captured yet. With these product and service offerings, you can pique the interest of buyers with different pain points, further expanding your book of business.
Marketing Helps You Accelerate Your Business Growth Efforts
Marketing should be approached as an extension of your sales team. Investing in marketing accelerates your business growth efforts by allowing you to catch the right prospects at the right time through various platforms.
More often than not, sales is an outreach approach to engage prospects that meet your ideal customer profile (ICP). However, with a marketing plan in place, you have the ability to build brand awareness and bring in potential buyers who are actively looking for a solution to their pain points. While they may not initially be in your sales pipeline, inbound marketing allows them to enter it at their own pace, reducing their time in the sales cycle.
Marketing Allows You To Learn More About Potential Customers
As a successful business owner, you know how important it is to understand your customers. While your sales team may have a good understanding of your target market, marketing enables you to learn more about potential customers and what they’re looking for when it comes to a product or service provider.
There’s a wide range of marketing tools on the market to help you get a better understanding of potential customers. Tools like Google Analytics and Search Console allow you to see the journey a user takes when looking at your company’s website. You can see what potential buyers are looking at, giving your sales team the ability to adjust their pitches to further engage prospects in the sales pipeline. This helps you avoid the risk of guesswork and focuses your approach to business growth.
Additionally, marketing allows you to further segment messaging based on the buyer personas of potential customers and what they’re looking for in a product or service provider. Not every prospect in the sales funnel has the same approach to starting a business relationship, which is what makes understanding buyer personas of potential customers so important so you can reach the right prospect through the right platforms.
Marketing Investments Lead to More Informed Business Decisions
Last but not least, investing in marketing gives you the ability to make more informed business decisions. Especially during a recession, you don’t have the time or money to try something out to see if it works; however, you should be experimenting with new tactics to advance your business growth efforts. Marketing allows you to get to know your audience better and make more strategic decisions based on the specific needs of your target market.
What If You Don’t Have a Significant Marketing Budget?
Many small businesses underestimate the power of marketing, which is why marketing teams often have minimal budgets—especially during an economic downturn. It’s important to remember that marketing isn’t a quick fix to generating new business opportunities. That’s why it’s vital to have a long-term marketing strategy in place and consistently finetune it to meet the needs of your target market.
When companies can’t invest much time and money into their marketing budget, they often seek help from third-party marketing companies. While many businesses may not be in favor of outsourcing their operations, outsourcing provides significant benefits to those looking to grow their market share, even during a recession. Collaborating with an outsourced sales and marketing company gives businesses the ability to:
- Save money and maximize their ROI
- Use their time to focus on more pressing day-to-day operations
- Access different types of marketing resources
- Partner with high-performing specialists to advance their marketing plan
Key Takeaways
Marketing is essential for sustainable, long-term growth. However, many small businesses make the mistake of putting it on the backburner, and many business owners underestimate its power. Especially in a recession, marketing plays a key role in keeping your business afloat because even if customers leave, you have new opportunities rolling in to replace lost revenue.
At Sapper Consulting, we help businesses maximize their growth efforts through outsourced sales and marketing services. Even if you don’t have the capabilities to handle your long-term marketing strategy in house, we have everything you need to consistently engage your current client base and generate new sales opportunities.
When you’re ready to get the most out of your marketing investment, contact the business growth experts at Sapper Consulting!
