Growing a business during a booming economy is drastically different than operating during a recession. A recession is a sustained contraction in economic activity around the United States. In most cases, a recession will cause many small businesses to go bankrupt. 

Going with your knee-jerk reaction to completely stop spending on things like marketing during a recession can create big problems for your brand. If you aren’t marketing your business during a recession, you will have a hard time losing customers to your competition. 

Instead of letting a recession get in the way of achieving your business goals, you need to alter your existing marketing strategy. If you want to grow your business during a recession, then consider the tips below. 

Gain a Better Understanding of Customer Behavior During a Recession

If you want to have success as a business owner, you have to expand your knowledge of human behavior. Realizing how customer behaviors change in times of economic uncertainty can help you greatly. Business owners widely accept that consumers spend less during a recession. 

Instead of allowing this misconception to get in the way of financial growth, you need to work on segmenting your audience in a recession. Emotional fulfillment influences consumer spending as much as financial means. Segmenting your customer base into the following categories can help you boost your bottom line. 

The Comfortable Buyer

The people who remain confident about their financial stability during a recession are considered comfortable buyers. Retirees and investors make up a large part of the comfortable buyer group. 

A comfortable buyer is usually secure about the amount of cash flow they have, and they’re confident about their ability to weather an economic downturn. These types of buyers are more selective with their purchases but tend to spend the same in both prosperous and uncertain economic times. 

The Essentials-Only Buyer

During a recession, essentials-only buyers are usually the more financially vulnerable. Consumers that fall into this category will eliminate wasteful spending and will decrease the amount of money they spend on anything not deemed essential. While low-income people make up the majority of essentials-only buyers, high-income consumers with job uncertainty can also fall into this category. 

The Cautious Buyer

The cautious buyer is usually concerned about maintaining their standard of living during a recession. These consumers tend to spend a bit more than essentials-only buyers but do make some adjustments to their spending habits. An overwhelming number of American consumers fall into the cautious buyer category during a recession. 

Segmenting your audience into these groups can help you devise a targeted marketing strategy. 

Improve Your Online Presence

Did you realize that over 50 percent of modern consumers start their buying journey on Google? Consumers spend an average of eight hours a day online. During an economic downturn, people will go out less and spend more time exploring the Internet. 

Reducing your marketing budget during a recession will negatively affect your online presence. If your competitor has a better online presence, they will swoop in and steal your customers. This is why you need to focus on enhancing your online presence in a recession. 

If you want to improve your online presence, you need to consider doing things like:

  • Make your website more appealing and easier to navigate
  • Post regularly on social media
  • Produce relevant content
  • Target popular industry-specific keywords
  • Guest posts on popular websites

Improving the online presence your business has isn’t easy. You might need to reach out for professional help to achieve your online presence goals. 

Change Up Your Sales Techniques During a Recession

The method used to market your products/services to consumers will need to change during a recession. You need to realize that the people you’re trying to reach with your message will change their thought processes during times of economic uncertainty. If you want to alter your sales techniques during a recession, consider implementing some of the tips below. 

Avoid Price Increases

When sales start to slow during a recession, some businesses think raising prices is a good idea. While this might seem like a great way to make up for lost revenue, it will actually send loyal customers running for the hills. Keeping prices consistent during a recession can help you weather this financial storm. 

Taking the time to research the prices being charged by your competitors is a wise move. Ideally, you want to keep your prices either lower or the same as your competitors. Performing market research is also a great way to see how your competitors are marketing their services/products to consumers. 

Utilize the Power of Predictive Sales Analytics

If you are serious about growing during a recession, you have to use the technology at your disposal. Predictive sales analytics software uses sales data to identify customer buying patterns and behaviors. When used correctly, predictive sales analytics can help you identify future market trends. 

Most businesses use this technology because it helps them assess their customer’s needs and alter their marketing and sales strategies accordingly. 

Optimize Your PPC Marketing Campaigns to Grow Your Business

Most tech-savvy business owners are well aware of the benefits offered by paid marketing platforms like Google Ads. One of the main benefits of using paid marketing platforms like Google Ads is the control it provides regarding what consumers see and when they see it. You are also provided with tools to track your PPC spending in Google Ads. 

There is no denying that Google Ads is one of the best direct sales tools for businesses during an economic downturn. Rather than cutting your paid marketing budget during a recession, you need to work on optimizing it. 

If you want to maximize the impact of your PPC marketing during a recession, you need to do things like:

  • Perform A/B testing to see what consumers are responding to
  • Turn off low-performing ad campaigns
  • Tighten your targeting options to create more quality lead prospects

Taking full advantage of the tools provided by Google Ads Manager can be difficult if you have limited experience. This is why reaching out to an experienced Google Ads specialist is imperative to your long-term paid marketing success. 

Content Marketing Can Grow Your Business In a Recession

A great content marketing campaign can influence, educate, and close sales during an economic downturn. The type of content included in your campaign will depend on your industry and the demographic you are attempting to appeal to. Some of the best types of content to provide consumers are:

  • Testimonials and reviews
  • Blog posts
  • Case studies
  • eBooks
  • Videos 
  • Infographics

As you start to produce new content for your audience, you need to monitor performance. Knowing how well certain types of content perform can help you optimize your marketing strategy in the future. For instance, if your audience is responding more to industry-specific blogs, you need to create more of this content to keep readers coming back to your website. 

Showcase Your Reputation

Consumers are very selective when it comes to the online businesses they use. The amount of research a consumer does before using a particular business usually grows during an economic downturn. When potential customers start to look around for indicators of your company’s great reputation, you want them to find plenty of positive reviews. 

Reaching out to satisfied customers is a great way to get more positive reviews to display on your website. Ideally, you want to display this form of social proof on your website’s homepage. Making this information easy to find will help you in your mission to grow your business during a recession. 

Don’t Forget About Email Marketing

The average person prefers to communicate with new brands via email. This form of communication feels more personal and less intrusive than text marketing, which is why it is so popular. If you want to grow during a recession, you need to get out of your comfort zone and start investing in email marketing campaigns. 

When handled correctly, email marketing campaigns can help you engage with existing customers and attract attention from potential customers. Acquiring email addresses from the people visiting your business website is difficult. Offering consumers something like an eBook or discount for their contact information is a good idea. 

If you want the people who receive your marketing emails to take action, then you need to do things like:

  • Personalize the messages you send to consumers
  • Segment your audience
  • Use interactive features in your emails
  • Focus on creating great email content
  • Provide email recipients with discounts on products/services

As you start to invest in different email marketing campaigns, you have to monitor how well they perform. By adequately monitoring the different approaches you use in your email marketing campaigns, you can optimize them for success. Getting rid of email marketing tactics that aren’t working can help you save money and increase the number of leads this marketing method produces. 

Just because there is a recession looming doesn’t mean your business has to stop growing. With the help of the tips in this article, you can continue to grow during times of economic uncertainty.