Thriving In A Downturn Economy:

Top Strategies to Recession-Proof Your Marketing

It’s official. The country has officially begun its decent into a Recession.

While a downturn economy is difficult for all, it is especially trying for marketers. Because of a commonly held view of marketing as a cost center, many companies will cut marketing budgets significantly and for the dollars that remain, there will be increased scrutiny for each marketing activity. Every dollar will be expected to show a direct impact on the company’s ability to generate revenue. Adding insult to injury, companies will notice when their competitors are lifting their foot off the gas pedal and use that as an excuse to do the same. But here is the irony: For the companies that choose to see marketing as profit center, economic downturns present marketers with an opportunity to outmaneuver the competition and grow their businesses profitably.

That’s right. A recession presents Marketing with an opportunity.

Consumers will still spend (albeit cautiously) and businesses will still need to invest in their infrastructure, provided there is a positive return on investment within a reasonable time frame. When the economy rebounds, the companies that continued to invest in marketing will have outmaneuvered their competition. Just as you learned from your years in high school, it is not always wise to follow the pack and do what everyone else does. Be a leader and you will see that this is a situation where you will be rewarded for your bravery.

In an analysis of the 1990-1991 recession, Penton Research Service, Coopers and Lybrand, and Business Science International, found that better performing businesses focused on a strong marketing program enabling them to solidify their customer base, take business away from less aggressive competitors and position themselves for future growth during the recovery.  Reducing your marketing budgets in a recession could leave your company worse off (in terms of marketing momentum, profitability and market share) than if you continued to spend.

But now is NOT the time to maintain status quo.

Just because I am providing a justification for continued spending, do not assume that I am an advocate for maintaining status quo. To thrive in a recession, Marketers should use this opportunity to re-energize their company while focusing on significantly improving marketing’s efficiency and effectiveness to maximize resources. So now you may be wondering, “How can my company thrive in a recession?” and “What should I be doing to ensure marketing is optimized?”

Top 5 strategies that will help your company thrive in today’s difficult economy:

1. Eliminate waste. Consolidate multiple vendors to a full service integrated marketing agency. To manage integrated, multi-touch, multi-channel marketing campaigns using multiple vendors can consume all of your time, energy and resources. Time, energy and resources that can be better spent developing and executing additional campaigns to generate revenue. Using multiple vendors can also be costly as you will have redundant charges such as account management fees, setup costs, data maintenance fees, etc.



2. Don’t spend an excessive percentage of your marketing dollars on branding exercises that are not designed to drive response behavior. You can build your brand while driving consumer behavior through brand response activities.



3. Increasingly invest in cost effective online marketing strategies. However, be careful not to waste your dollars by migrating all of your marketing efforts online. Don’t waste your dollars looking for the “magic bullet”. Remember that the magic is in the mix of media. The combination of these media and touches along with an effective messaging and offer strategy will bridge the gap between your sales process and your prospect's buying process. These touches need to be well planned, to the right prospects, at the right frequency, using a consistent message with the right mix of offers in the right communication channels.



4. Focus on quality – not quantity of marketing programs. Don’t cut corners. And most importantly, remember that the success of any campaign lies within the data itself. A simple, average campaign with great data will always outperform an extraordinary, innovative campaign with poor data.



5. Make an investment in a marketing database and strive to develop a 360 degree view of your customers. Consolidate all your company's potential data sources into a single marketing database; make this marketing container available to all of marketing's constituents, track every marketing activity and progressively understand your prospect’s interests and needs. Make sure the database architecture is flexible, enforces data integrity at every step of your marketing process, has the ability to store ALL marketing touches and provides visibility into every stage of the revenue pipeline for all of Marketing’s and Sales’ constituents. Every campaign response, every web page they visit, every link they click, every white paper they download tells you about their needs and interests. In fact, they will qualify themselves for your company with every interaction with your brand if you let them. It is up to you as the marketer to use that intelligence to improve your marketing effectiveness.