Ideas Collide guest blog: The importance of marketing in a down economy
Expenses are tight during a recession. And in those circumstances, businesses are often forced to make some tough decisions — specifically with budgeting and ensuring the company stays viable long-term. While marketing is often the first thing to go, reducing your marketing investment may create even bigger problems down the line.
So before cutting out marketing expenses, consider how a marketing team is uniquely positioned to help businesses survive and thrive in a strained economic environment.
Here are six reasons why your business should invest in your marketing — even during uncertain times:
Remain Competitive
Stay on your toes! Marketing helps companies remain competitive.
Across the board, consumers may have less disposable income and will be more cautious about their spending. Because of this, businesses should step up their marketing efforts to stay in the loop and attract customers, both new and old. This means developing a clear and compelling value proposition, identifying the ideal customer and creating a marketing campaign that resonates with the customer, convincing them to take action.
Drive Sales
Investing in marketing helps businesses increase revenue and drive sales during a recession. Instead of making cuts, consider the countless opportunities good advertising can bring during times of economic downticks. By collaborating with a marketing agency, for example, companies can continue building and strengthening search engine optimization, email marketing, social media presence and more to reach potential customers.
Putting it simply: “Lead generations = a higher conversion rate = more customers”. And customers are something businesses can’t always afford to lose in a downturn.
Build Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is the extent to which customers are familiar with a business and its products or services. It’s no secret that boosting brand awareness can help increase customer traffic. And as a critical element of marketing, brand recognition often makes all the difference in a business’s survival during a downturn.
Through efforts like content creation, campaign conceptualization and execution, positioning, messaging and more, brands can begin to create a solid brand identity, and in turn, more brand awareness. Building brand awareness is crucial in the long-term since it helps businesses attract customers, retain customers, and increase market share.
Stand Out + Deliver
Higher discounts and special offers are often used to attract business during difficult financial times, and this can mean customers have a wider range of options. Consequently, one of the most important ways businesses can generate sales is by standing out amongst competitors.
This is where an agency comes in handy. Agencies are a huge asset for building strategies that help businesses distinguish themselves and gain customers. Working alongside an agency, businesses can develop a strong brand identity, highlight a unique value proposition and create a memorable customer experience, all while keeping its ethics and core values close.
Save Time + Resources
Some may choose to take on their own marketing — and many are able to make this work. However, most businesses don’t have the in-house expertise or resources to develop and implement effective marketing strategies, and are stretched too thin during a recession, needing to focus energy on their core operations. All too often, this leads to wasted time and resources, and lost revenue that could have been better spent elsewhere.
Saving both time and money, hiring a full-service marketing agency with the tools to hit the ground running is a priceless asset, no matter the economy.
Fresh Perspective + New Ideas
Marketing agencies offer fresh perspectives and new ideas that businesses might have missed. During a recession this is highly critical — most, if not all, businesses are faced with changing market conditions that make them reimagine their strategies.
While it may be tempting to cut marketing efforts during a recession, it’s important to remember how important strategic advertising truly is. Businesses should consider investing in marketing as a way to weather the economic storm and position themselves for future growth.
Looking for someone to jumpstart your marketing? Look no further! As a full-service marketing agency, Ideas Collide can take your efforts to the next level.