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Marketing in a recession

When you look at it logically, we should all be increasing, not reducing our marketing efforts.

If it’s harder to achieve a sale because we’re all spending less and being more selecitive where and how much we spend, surely there’s never been a time when an investment in marketing has been more needed?

Research shows companies that increase their marketing during a recession are those who then enjoy a stronger market position once the downturn has passed.

It’s also worth considering that by not investing in marketing and brand awareness now, it’ll require much more effort and expense to achieve this for your business in the longer term.

The opportunity: to make more noise while your competitors reduce their marketing.

Organisations which show they are still in operation, and delivering messages relevant to customers’ changing needs will be more attractive to deal with, and therefore will continue to grow their customer base.

Those who continue to invest in marketing stand to gain market share from their competitors during tough periods and best position themselves to prosper afterwards.

Taking advantage: now is the time to revisit the business plan:

  • Who are your high value customers?
  • Which services or products really bring in the cash and are therefore worth focussing your efforts on?

It’s back to basics stuff, but will really help to identify target audiences and therefore your marketing plan. Once the business objectives have been established, it’s time for some marketing objectives. These shouldn’t be too hard to determine, as the idea is that these should support the business goals.

It’s well worth taking the time to identify these objectives, as they will then help you to measure the success of your marketing and determine which initiatives prove the most effective – and therefore where and how your marketing spend should be allocated and targeted.

Measuring your marketing is important – now is the time to ensure every pound you spend on promoting your business works as hard as possible.