It can be incredibly difficult to manage through a long and difficult economic period. The money dries up and you’re just trying to keep the wheels from coming off of the bus. You’re tightening spending, you’re laying off valuable team members, you’re writing cheques you’re pretty sure will bounce, and you’re cashing in your “savings”.
There is some idea out there that entrepreneurship = easy street. We don’t know where that came from. Probably someone with an excellent marketing strategy.
As we mentioned wayyy back in May 2020, when the going gets tough, marketing is often one of the first places to feel the blade of the axe. We generally recommend that you resist that natural urge to slash your marketing spend, as those businesses that cut their marketing budget - often viewing it as an expense rather than an investment - during a downturn are the ones who often fall behind when the economy ramps up again.
While sales are meager through the tough times, draining resources away from marketing can reduce sales even further, increasing the length of time that it takes for you to create momentum when the good times return.
Whether times are tough or you are so busy that you can’t keep up, killing your marketing can eventually do the same to your business. Why? Your profits come from people knowing your business exists, and that it’s one they want to work with. Stop getting the word out and… the word stops getting out.
Even if it feels like a waste of time, or overkill, keeping your marketing team in “drive” is important. The efforts you make here are what connects your business with the outside world, and keeps you top of mind with your key audience.
It’s important to remember that economic cycles come and go. We’re not going to be perpetually churning out amazing growth, and we’re not always going to be experiencing losses. Regardless of what stage your business, industry, or the overall economy is in, part of building resilience into your company means preparing for terrifying downturns, intense upturns, and your eventual recovery from both.
If you drop out of your clients’ line of sight when things go sideways, they’re going to have a hard time seeing you as consistent. If you’re not consistent, they’re not going to be either. You want to build loyalty in your clientele, and you do that by demonstrating it. You need to keep showing up.
At the same time, it pays to remain adaptable. The world is always going to change around you, and it pays off in fat profits - or at least steady revenue - when you adjust to meet those changes.
As an example, during the pandemic, all in-store shopping became online shopping. If you were a business that adapted quickly, offering ecommerce services, you were able to keep your head above water while many others were not. How did your customers know that you were doing this? Through marketing, of course.
Marketing is so much more than blasting messages about your business to whomever will hear it. While David Ogilvy correctly said, “When times are good you should advertise. When times are bad you must advertise”, you also need to be clear on what you’re communicating.
Get to know your audience. Work with them. Treat people like ...people... with unique perspectives and experiences, and get curious about them. Understand their worries, and help them find solutions. Just like any other relationship, when you stay on top of what is important to them, and respond to it, they’ll keep coming back to you for more.
There’s nothing quite like taking a massive hit to the pocketbook to trigger a reassessment of where you’re spending your money. If this is happening to you, it’s happening to your customers as well. For this reason, “it’s critical to track how customers reassess priorities, reallocate funds, switch brands and redefine value”. Your marketing during these moments of change is not just a nice idea - it’s vital to your survival.
When you’re feeling the pinch and your customers are feeling the pinch, your competitors are as well. Since it’s natural to start slashing budgets during these times, you can reasonably expect the others in your field are doing exactly that. This makes it an even better time to keep your marketing machine going. Suddenly, the stage is empty, and you’ve got your hands on the microphone.
Now that you’ve got it, what are you going to say? And how much are you going to spend saying it?
We know it’s easy for us to say, “Hey, just keep spending money on marketing” but we don’t mean that you should be blind about it. As one of our good friends, a business professor, once said to us: Marketing and strategy sit right on top of each other. They need to work together to produce results.
Just like your clients, who are reassessing what makes the most sense to them, now is the best time to reassess the value of your various marketing efforts. It’s time to pay a little extra attention to what will actually make the best impact on the people you want to affect, and to determine what is actually going to be sustainable, so you can build the loyalty that will see you through every kind of business cycle.
Content Marketing
Why Do It
Content marketing - creating cool written and visual content (including videos!) - is an excellent way to show off your skills and expertise. Whether your business sells services or widgets, a simple blog (like this one) is a clear way to demonstrate your understanding of your clients’ pain points, positioning your business as the right provider for their unique needs.
Is It Right For You?
Not everyone enjoys writing. Even fewer people are good at it. Still fewer have the resources and structure to create a working system of content planning, reviewing, editing, proofreading, image curation, production, and more, on a regular basis.
If you have a blog and it’s gathering dust, ask yourself where the blocks are. You can outsource nearly all of the actions involved, creating a solid series of informative articles that can provide value, demonstrate your expertise, and even be turned into books.
Social Media
Why Do It
Social media platforms are the Town Square and teeming marketplace of the internet. Despite what some believe, it’s absolutely not a pure advertising platform. How many of those ads are you clicking on when you join social media, versus the number of conversations and updates you’re reading? Eyes on the prize, friends. You want to build an authentic conversation with the community that’s waiting for you online.
Is It Right For You?
Remember what we said about loyalty: it’s created with consistency. Just as starting a blog series and then forgetting about it when you run out of ideas can make you look unreliable, rare and irregular social media tells people you’re just not engaged - with them. It’s better not to show up at all than to put in a partial effort.
Don’t imagine that everyone on social media is in a particular demographic. As the stuck-at-home shoppers showed us, everyone of every age group has the ability to access social media, and connect on it. Your careful understanding of who you’re looking to connect with, and where they like to hang out online will help you create success through social media connections. Get as narrow as you can, and get comfortable with the idea that not everyone is your ideal customer.
While you’re honing your market, remember to do the same thing with your business. If you’re going to start being a voice online, you better have clarity about what your voice actually is. Is it clear and educational? Friendly and warm? Funny and biting? Sarcastic and silly? People connect with online brands that are demonstrating real personality. Your clients are demonstrating their personality online, so you need to draw them to yours.
Advertising and Promotions
Why Do It
If you’re looking for clear metrics demonstrating the ROI (return on investment) of your marketing initiatives, this is the activity for you. You can clearly see every dollar spent, and the exact results.
The downside is, of course, that the results stop the moment you turn off your advertising spend. That’s why it’s generally recommended to use ads as just one part of an integrated marketing and communications plan.
Is It Right For You?
You definitely do not have to spend a fortune on advertising to benefit from it, especially during an economic downturn. Just like with all other forms of marketing, other businesses are reducing their costs in this area. Take advantage of this reduced demand (which often results in reduced pricing) and promote your business.
Sales and Business Development
Why Do It
“I’m not a salesperson,” says nearly everyone, imagining the TV image of a slick and smarmy salesperson, out to relieve you of your wallet and good sense.
Sales is part of what we all do, every single day. Whether you are a business owner, a consultant, an employee, or any other title you feel comfortable with, we are all selling something. That doesn’t mean you have to be terrible, a liar, or inauthentic. Those are actually ways you’ll guarantee that you won’t sell a darn thing.
Relationships are what sales are truly about. It’s about creating trust, through demonstrations of reliability, honesty, and authenticity. The best salespeople are the ones who take really great care of their clients and customers. If you’re doing that, well - surprise! You’re great at sales.
Nothing gross about it.
The relationships you build are the ones that will stick with you over the long term. The people who “get” you, because they’ve interacted with you, are the ones who will keep coming back to you, never even entertain the idea of another provider, and will forgive your mistakes.
As your competitors hold back on their own sales and business development, you suddenly have a great deal more room to explore, grow, and try out new areas that you haven’t considered before.
Is It Right For You?
Hopefully, it’s right for someone in your company. This is one area of business we don’t think you can simply walk away from.
Your relationships are built with multiple layers, just like every other kind of communication. It may include coffees and lunches and dinners and drinks (virtual or in real life). It may include emails, social media connections, text messages, and telephone calls. It might be a gift or card on special occasions, and other ways you can show you care. It might be a series of speaking engagements and guest appearances on podcasts. Figure out which components of relationship building and maintaining are best for you, which are best for other members of your team - and then outsource the rest.