The Business Cycle
The business cycle is comprised of four parts. The first of these is expansion, which occurs during the time a business is growing, more employees are being hired, and demand for the company’s product or service is beginning to grow. The second phase is the peak, which is when business is booming and orders are coming in faster than you can take them. Third is contraction, in which business evens out a bit and when a dip may occur, leading to the dreaded trough. This fourth part, the trough, is the downturn—this is when businesses must work carefully to get through this substantial hurdle and make their way back to expansion.
When the Going Hits Trough, the Tough Get Marketing
When an economic crisis occurs and hundreds of thousands of businesses find themselves in the trough all at once, each and every one of these businesses is faced with difficult choices. For example, companies may have to cut costs in several areas, including staffing, inventory purchases, and marketing funds. When it comes to your budget, the question is whether you’ll decrease it, increase it, or simply continue to maintain your current spend. Ultimately, we recommend not to cut out your marketing budget entirely, especially in a recession. A void often forms during an economic downturn, and you can use this time to fill that void and become a leader in your industry.
As there are several different avenues of digital marketing, we’ve parceled out the different ones you can consider depending on your budget.
Budget Decrease
If you find yourself having to cut down your marketing budget, we recommend considering paid social or e-mail marketing. You can really use this particular economic downturn to take advantage of social media platforms such as Facebook due to the fact that people are using them far more often than they usually do. Additionally, Facebook allows you to choose a daily budget, meaning you can decrease your spend according to your monetary needs while retaining the ability to build brand awareness.
Another affordable option is e-mail marketing. You often pay your ESP according to the size of your contact list, so trim out unengaged subscribers to lower your spend and to reach the people most likely to interact with your e-mails. A downturn is a good opportunity to communicate with your current customer base and to reestablish relationships. This is also an effective way to provide updates on your business during a difficult time.
Budget Maintenance
If you find yourself able to maintain your current budget, consider running an SEO campaign. SEO focuses on long-term results, and you can spend the extra time you may have on your hands to build out a strong presence in the organic results of the SERPs. You may want to work with a professional company that will earn you reliable backlinks and use their knowledge to build out an SEO-friendly website.
Budget Increase
Some businesses may want to increase their budgets during a downturn in an effort to draw attention from an entirely new pool of consumers. One way to do this is to increase the number of keywords you’re bidding on as well as your bid amount. The value of bids may fluctuate during a major economic downturn, so it’s important to put some time into your research.
Reach Out with Any Questions
If you have any questions on how to manage your budget or where to go from here, the friendly experts at Logical Position are happy to answer your questions and help you determine which marketing avenue may be the best for you and your budget at this time. We’re happy to offer a free review of your account, so we encourage you to contact us today.
