3 Marketing Tasks to Focus on During a Slow Time

Economic slumps are bound to happen once in a while. Whether it’s “The Great Recession” of 2008 or the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, these unexpected incidents force digital marketing agencies to take a critical look at their advertising efforts and make necessary changes to them. The good news is that slow periods allow us to reflect on our marketing messages and delivery.

At WEBITMD, we know that your ad budget goes beyond internet advertising campaigns associated with PPC and SEO. So we’ve put together an actionable guide to marketing during a recession. From “four-walls marketing” to evergreen content, here are three marketing tasks you can focus on right now to set the foundation for a fast rebound.

3 Marketing Tasks to Focus on During a Slowdown 

1. Four-walls Marketing

A significant portion of your marketing budget is aimed at increasing new business. Four-walls marketing addresses what happens after that. Ask yourself:

• Do your new customers ever feel misled after responding to an ad?
• Is the customer experience everything you advertise it to be?
• Does every element of your inside marketing represent the same brand?

According to Columbus Business First, as much as 80% of a brick-and-mortar’s marketing occurs inside. So use an economic slowdown as a chance to clean the business top to bottom, ensure everyone has the same branded sales support materials and give your business a facelift with new signage and crisp potted plants. Once that’s done, you can move forward to task number two. 

2. Storytelling: Tell a Community Tale

Storytelling has been the hot boardroom buzzword for a few years. Its principles apply perfectly to recession marketing.

• During times of crisis, it doesn’t matter which buyer persona you usually target. Even your most high-profile customer is only human.

So craft a brand story of community wellness and social involvement. Whether your organization delivers hot meals to first responders, or offers temporary payment forbearance, or provides cloth masks for kids, do something. Record it and promote it on social media and inside the office. 

This segues nicely into our third prong of recession marketing: create historical, evergreen content. 

3. Create Great Content to Use Now and Later

The best content addresses your end user’s pain points or solves their problems. Economic slumps bring a new challenge to content creation, especially for brands that aren’t poised to be the most economical option in their market.  

Imagine you’re the marketing director of a high-end, historic brand — like Cadillac, for instance. Economic slumps are not a reason to downplay your brand’s value as a luxury choice. Instead, this is the time to tell a story of historic advancements or to publish interesting facts and anecdotes. If an astronaut loves your brand of socks and underwear, now is the time to talk about it. 

• Remember, once you drop a level in pricing or prestige, it’s nearly impossible to gain that revenue or reputation back. 

At WEBITMD, our approach is about driving business. We hope you’ve enjoyed our list of marketing tasks you can address during a slowdown. We sure enjoyed writing it. If you’d like to learn more about The Growth Stack approach to marketing, contact us. We’d love to help you develop and promote a brand story through organic search results, outstanding content, and paid social marketing. So let’s talk!