Making the Most Out of Your Marketing in a Recession

There’s a lot of very robust and documented evidence out there to indicate that companies that increase advertising during a downturn can build their brand and receive an ROI on marketing spend at a much lower cost than when times are good. And there’s a whole bunch of marketers on LinkedIn right now making that argument.

Yet for many small and medium-sized businesses in the data and insight industry the reality of keeping the same, or even increasing, the marketing budget this year may mean a junior researcher is made redundant. That is a decision no one wants to make.

However, in the data and insight industry, you can make a big impact without a huge financial outlay. Channels are cheap, particularly at the moment – social media, email marketing, content marketing, and a whole range of digital conferences and webinar opportunities. The secret to being effective is in preparation, critical thinking, and a little bit of time. So how can you make sure you’re making the most of these channels?

 

Customer Profiles

Talking about customer profiling makes me feel like a broken record. Yet, in the last 5 years of working for industry suppliers and agencies I’m not sure I’ve started on a project with any client who already had a fully fleshed out customer segmentation. Understanding the demographics, pain points, key challenges, motivations and need states of your potential clients allows you to frame your offer and create valuable content far more effectively and far more easily.

However, if you do already have profiles, revisit them! Things have changed significantly in the last few months, now is the time to review and reflect on those key targets.

 

Don’t Forget Your Existing Clients

Far more marketing budget is spent on bringing in new customers than keeping your existing customers loyal. In a recession, your existing customers can be a much-needed lifeline for your business. When research budgets are cut clients need to do more with less, which means they need to be secure in the knowledge that their partner will get it right the first time. Clients are less likely to take chances in a recession, so leverage those client relationships and make sure you have a customer strategy that provides added value content and stays top of mind throughout the downturn.

 

Service Triage

We’re in a very unique situation, a recession in the midst of a global pandemic. Yet not all businesses are feeling the effects. From conversations, I’ve had with agencies in the UK and US digital-first businesses along with those that provide a more consultative and strategic service appear to be bucking the trend. Some services and products are going to be doing better than others, so it’s incredibly important to ensure you focus your marketing resources on the products and services that will sell in the current climate.

One of the most common communication mistakes in data and insight is to try and be everything to everyone, it often means that messaging is weak and diluted. Now it is doubly important to focus, you need to make sure any resource spend, whether that’s time or money, is as targeted and efficient as possible.

 

Build Expertise and Trust

As mentioned above, clients in a recession need the assurance that you will get things right the first time and add value. They want to know that they’re working with experts they can trust. Luckily this is an industry with a plethora of channels available to help you do that. The GreenBook Blog, Research World, Quirks, and Research Live to name are few, are all platforms that provide the opportunity to promote your expertise and knowledge.

What’s more, all those in-person events may not be face-to-face anymore, but they still provide key opportunities to talk about your work. A key consideration with any of these content opportunities is to avoid trying to sell a product or a service. What you’re trying to highlight is your knowledge and its application through demonstrable impact. Your client personas can be incredibly useful here in framing this content based on key client needs and challenges.

 

For many, this is a strange and challenging time. What’s important to realise is that marketing and communications is incredibly important through a recession. However, a lot can be done with minimum financial outlay. In data and insight, traditional advertising as a singular channel, without the support of other channels, can be ineffective. This is an industry that is built on relationships, thought leadership, and expertise and none of that needs to cost much if you’re doing the right kind of preparation and using the right channels.