You’ll be well aware that there is currently a global cost-of-living crisis. Most countries are approaching recession (if they’re not already in one) and it’s projected that none of us will really be much better off until late 2024 at least.

It’s understandable that you might be thinking of pausing your marketing during this recession. You could be doing this to cut your own internal operating expenses, or you could be doing it because you don’t have faith in customers being able to continue purchasing your products.

But this is a mistake in your thinking.

Here’s why…

Customers Are More Price Sensitive​

During a recession, customers are much more price sensitive. As they have to start watching their spending a lot more, they naturally turn to deals.

If you continue to market and advertise your products or services, you can gain a competitive advantage. By positioning yourself as an affordable option, not only will your customers be more willing to purchase repeatedly from you, but will be more likely to recommend you to others they know. This is because people want to help the people they care about get by during economic uncertainty.

You likely already know that word-of-mouth marketing is king. Tapping into this during a recession will not only help you to survive it, but could potentially offer you a level of revenue you hadn’t even experienced pre-recession.

If you’re smart with your marketing and your pricing, your business will thank you.

Your Competitors Will Be Slowing Down

So because of the points we’ve already discussed surrounding recession, the worries of spending money on marketing is not just in your mind. Your competitors will be worrying over the same things.

It’s almost a guarantee that half of your competitors are going to slow their marketing down throughout this recession, because they’ve got it backwards in their head about what they should do.

If you’re lucky, all of your competitors will be slowing down.

So maybe you should too, right?

Wrong!

If all of your competitors are slowing down, this is a fantastic opportunity for you to further double down on your marketing.

Don’t underestimate the increase in market share you can make by doing this. If customers are finding that your competitors can’t keep up with supply, or aren’t showing up in their feeds often enough, they will quickly move on.

And if you’re there, waiting to invite them in with open arms, they’ll jump at the chance. Especially if you’re pricing in a way that helps them while still turning around a profit for you.

Mobile Usage Is At An All-Time High​

A recession does not stop users from being on their phone all of the time. In fact, it doesn’t even stop them from spending, it just reduces it.

So a recession isn’t really enough of a justification to stop your marketing, since your users can still be more easily reached than ever before.

If they see an ad or your posts enough on social media, or if they receive emails from you into their inbox on a regular basis – they are likely to purchase your products or services.

Your customers do not become immune to good marketing during a recession. They just become more hesitant.

By continuing your marketing, but focusing on valuable content as well as astute repricing practices, you’ll still make sales and could even grow your audience base.

Brand Awareness and Customer Loyalty Becomes More Important

Brand awareness and customer loyalty is important to a business in any period, regardless of the economic conditions of the market.

But in a recession? They become MUCH more important.

By increasing your marketing efforts throughout a recession, as we’ve discussed, you can increase your brand awareness and bring on new customers as your competitors will be slowing down.

But what about the opposite? What if YOU’RE the business that’s been slowing down?

Well, it’s not good news, unfortunately.

Regardless of your current popularity, sooner or later your business will decline in brand awareness. By not showing up and being seen to your customers, eventually they’re going to forget about you and focus on their competitors.

This also means customer loyalty decreases during this time.

What’s the consequence?

It’ll be harder for you to regain market share once the economy improves.

Think about it. Customers were loyal to your business, until you stopped showing up and weren’t helping them with your pricing models. If they were loyal to you, they’ll be loyal to the competitors they replaced you with.

Except your competitors never stopped helping them and showing up, so now they have no reason to switch back.

This is not good. You thought you were doing best for your business and swallowing consequences in the short-term, but actually this is more likely to result in consequences in the long-term.

Not many businesses can swallow long-term consequences. Would you really want to risk it?

Customer Behaviour and Preferences Shift​

Customer behaviour and preferences shifts all the time, even if its slower in some industries than another.

In a recession, this is doubly-true and can be observed very soon into the event.

Customers move towards better pricing as we’ve already discussed, but they also move more towards being loyal to a brand.

This is because in a state of economic uncertainty, they naturally like to reduce the uncertainty they face personally. A big part of this is choosing one brand for a particular product or service, and then using them as regularly as they need to.

What else does customers want during a recession?

More money!

So there’s an opportunity here for your business to conduct paid surveys and more market research in general, to tap into the shifts in behaviour and preferences amongst your customers in real-time.

Not to mention if you offer them a small sum for their time in a survey, you’ve not only got actionable information from pre-existing customers, but you’ve expanded upon that customer loyalty by giving them money. If you’re lucky, they’ll give you that money back by buying products with it, meaning you’re gaining more than you’ve lost.

By staying engaged with your target audience and remaining top-of-mind, you can not only weather the economic downturn but emerge from it in a stronger position

Now Is the Time to Ramp Up Your Marketing, Not Slow Down​

A recession is scary for consumers and companies alike. We understand that. But, unfortunately, it is not the opportune time to slow down on your marketing. In fact, you stand to lose far more if you slow down marketing during a recession, due to the long-term consequences this can result in.

Ramp up your marketing with an affordable agency that has the know-how to keep your business front-and-center of your customers’ minds and give them valuable, consistent content.