Marketing During A Recession
Early reports in January 2024 were suggesting of a recession hitting Australia at some point in 2024.
However, with the US Economy performing better than expected in 2023, the likelihood of a recession hitting Australia has reduced significantly. Albeit, not entirely.
Australia, in per capita terms, are currently in a recession.
The Australian economy is growing overall, with an increase of 2.1% over the last year. However, population growth has increased by 2.4%. Meaning that per capita, the economy has reduced.
According to the Commonwealth Bank, the economy will continue to shrink until at least the second half of 2024, and the new financial year.
With this in mind, many businesses, both large and small, will look to reduce their expenditure, with marketing budgets typically being the first to be reduced.
Whilst this is a safe move, history tells us that keeping your marketing budget consistent during a recession is often times one of the best investments a business can make.
Recessions aid way for higher ROIs, and whilst production costs may increase, the benefit of increased market share could out way the cost of marketing during a recession for your business
Why Should You Continue Marketing During A Recession?
So why would your business want to continue your marketing plan during a recession, and not place it on hold?
One such reason, is that there is less competition in your marketing during a recession.
With many of your competitors pulling their marketing budget during a recession, this offers your business an opportunity to maintain visibility in your market, with less noise to bypass.
This allows you to communicate your brand’s message to a wider number of prospects, making you become the face of your industry.
Recession marketing also enables you to build and improve your brand loyalty.
During a recession, consumers, for B2C businesses, and clients for B2B businesses, will look to reduce their spending as their own budgets become tighter and tighter.
As a result, many will go on the hunt for the cheapest price for your product or service.
This is not an ideal situation, and could result in your business needing to fight on price in order to survive – a situation you never want to end up in, especially during a recession where revenue is already slow.
To combat this, continuing to market to your current customers can keep you front of mind to your clients.
It reinforces their connection to your brand, and in turn, they may think twice about losing their relationship with you, and refrain from searching for the cheapest price.
Offering incentives for customers to stick with your brand is often a strategy many businesses will implement during a recession.
As mentioned earlier, with a decrease of competition in your market, this offers a significant opportunity for your business to not just maintain your current client base, but to also improve your market share significantly.
With your competitors scaling back their marketing efforts during recessions, this is your brand’s chance to take some of their market share.
How Should You market During A Recession?
So how can your business be marketing during a recession?
There are two goals for marketing during a recession. One, to maintain your current market share (although as we have spoken about, there is potential to increase your market share. And two, to set your business up for increased growth following the recession.
To achieve the first goal, the key is to be front of mind, and this is where long form and short form content is critical.
Both long and short form content play a critical role in the sales cycle.
Long form content go hand in hand with major touchpoints like phone calls and meetings with your prospect. Whilst short form content are tiny touchpoints, like a comment on your prospects LinkedIn post.
Many times, brands are unsure of what short form content to create. Short form content ideas are derived from the 5 brand film types – which are examples of long form content. Short form content can be produced in house, or via a production company like us. Make a decision for your business based on your team’s skills, your budget and your desired quality levels.
For long form content, you’ll almost certainly want to have a production company create these brand films.
To achieve the second goal, it’s all about setting your brand up for future success.
This is where SEO and clear branding comes into play. And brand films are a significant contributor to this.
Your customers spend twice as long on a website page that houses a video on it, than those without a video on it.
This is brilliant for strong SEO on your website, due to a metric known as ‘dwell time’, which measures how long a user spends watching something.
By housing your brand films across the 5 pillars on your website, you have the chance to improve your brand’s SEO, which, in the long run, pays dividends.
Recessions last for at least 2 quarters, 6 months. Imagine how much your SEO could improve in those 6 months by adding brand films to your website?
Clear branding is another beneficiary, and this comes as a result of an integrated strategy amongst your brand films, that supplement each other.
Together, your brand films work to improve your presence, and present your brand in the manner you wish.
Will Your Business Take Advantage?
Recession is often a term many businesses hate to hear.
However, for businesses who are bold enough to jump at the opportunity, recessions don’t need to be doom and gloom. Recessions offer businesses the opportunity to improve their market share and build brand loyalty, through continuing your pre-recession marketing efforts.
In doing so, whilst your competitors pull spending as they aim to protect their bottom line, your brand can take advantage, capitalise on market share, and set your brand up for even more success post-recession.
Need A Hand Forging A Deep Connection With Your Clients?
It’s not always easy to forge a deep connection with your clients. Which is why we’re here to help.
Brand story films are your brand’s north star. They help you to make decisions internally, and act as the centrepiece of your marketing strategy.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you forge a deep, emotive connection with your consumer through a brand story film, contact us via:
didier@fixonmedia.com.au
+61 400 801 891
All the best,
Didier Le Miere
Director | Fixon Media Group