It’s critical to continue marketing your business, even during a recession. Learn strategies for promoting your business during a slump. When a recession hits, most business owners start looking for ways to cut costs and overhead. It’s crucial to continuously market your business to prevent endangering its long-term success. Here are ten tactics for promoting your business during a slump, as recommended by our experts.
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1. Boost customer loyalty:
Holly Cooper, the Marketing Manager & Planner at LUCAS PRODUCTS & SERVICES, believes that “Your main focus during a recession should be retaining your current clients. Instead of searching for new customers, it is more economical and effective to sell to your existing clientele. A loyal customer may be your business’s most important asset during a recession.” She adds, “If you want to build client loyalty, you should start by paying attention to your customers. Ask for their feedback on your products and services by sending surveys to them and interacting with them on social media. You will be able to learn more about your clientele and their demands as a result.”
You should also look for ways to improve the client experience. Could you, for example, launch a loyalty program to thank your customers for their business? Or would your ideal customer have more options for making payments?
2. Construct a novel selling proposal
Dayna Carlin, Director of Marketing & Sales at NovoPath says, “Customers are more selective about their purchases during a recession”. She adds, “You will thus need to do more effort to win their trust and persuade them to purchase your product or service. You may do this by creating a unique selling proposition (USP), which is a specific benefit that sets your business apart from competitors. Your USP describes the distinctive way you resolve the problems of your clientele. After you thoroughly know your USP, you may use it in your marketing materials and advertisements.”
3. Invest in content marketing:
“Content marketing is a fantastic, low-cost method of business promotion. You must provide pertinent and instructive content if you want to engage your target audience. Instead of attempting to sell to your audience, you are creating good content and generating value for them. Most of these individuals will ultimately amass a devoted following. Before employing content marketing, you must establish a content plan. This plan outlines your goals, target audience, and the sort of content you’ll offer. In 70% of situations, the most successful content marketers have a clear plan in place.” according to Sasha Quail, Business Development Manager of claims.co.uk
4. Keep a careful eye on your competitors:
Marketing Labs’ CEO, Matt Janaway says, “It is important to keep an eye on your rivals during a recession to get a sense of how they are coping with the situation. If you see that some of your rivals are decreasing the amount of money they spend on marketing, this presents a chance for your company to expand.”
5. Offer different service tiers:
“Tier pricing is an excellent method for luring customers with a range of budgets. You may gradually increase the value of each bundle based on the number of pricing tiers you have available. Tier pricing is well-liked by most customers since it gives them more alternatives” explains Adam Crossling, Head of Marketing at Zenzero. He furthers, “They can decide to begin with a less-priced service and upgrade once they have the cash. Thus, using tiered pricing to upsell to your present customers may be a terrific idea. Furthermore, tier pricing makes it more challenging for customers to compare your prices to those of your competitors.”
6. Remain dependable:
Tim Parker, Director of Marketing at Syntax Integration, suggests “During a recession, it is not advisable to make any big changes to your marketing strategy. A recession is not the time to rebrand or make any other significant changes to your company name or business plan.” Making significant changes is unlikely to draw in new customers; instead, it would likely confuse your current clientele and reduce revenues. Focus on keeping doing what you’re doing, instead. The main goal should be to continue operating till the recession is over because they don’t endure forever. You need to make sure your team is motivated. If you need new skills think about using a remote hub as a place to find professionals on a permanent or project basis.
7. Consider Value-Based Marketing:
Value-based marketing is essentially upholding your principles. Nely Mihaylova, Marketing Manager at UNAGI Scooters asserts, “It considerably raises consumer trust, which often falls off during a recession. The purchasing confidence for costly products like homes or autos decreased by 7 points between May and June 2022 as a result of consumer economic concerns. This implies that developing trust with your customer base should come before advertising your sales message in your recession-proof marketing approach. A value-based marketing approach may be useful in this situation. During a downturn, consumers tend to limit their purchases, so they will be more attentive to consider the worth of your goods.”
You must distinctly state the value-adds your products will offer to stimulate their interest in making a purchase. Making your recession marketing strategy customer-centric is essential when appealing to consumers who are on the fence. Once your marketing approach has demonstrated how useful the product is, make sure it lives up to what you have promised.