A recession was overdue
There is an opinion that a recession in the world economy was long overdue. That economies are cyclical and following a number of years of growth, there was a recession waiting in the wings to snap businesses out of their complacency; driving transformation in both businesses and the economy.
Recessions mean transformation
Recessions can mean transformational change, and unfortunately irrelevance for some business. However, smart businesses pounce on valuable opportunities to reposition themselves and capitalise on a changing market.
So, how do you as a small business take advantage of transformational opportunities in a recession?
Marketing is critical
As a small business, your key weapon for success is your marketing. For many small businesses, a looming recession means that the axe is taken to the marketing budget first. However, this may be an impulse that can hurt in the long run.
Research following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis shows that while cutting your marketing budget protects your short term profits, your brand strength takes a hit and is less profitable when the recession lifts.
In a recession, where everyone is cutting budgets, maintaining your brand voice in the market can mean less noise and achieving far better results for your spend.
Reassess your marketing assets
How well are your marketing assets working for you? Reassessing assets such as your website can drive leads, underpin targeted initiatives in your marketing strategy and keep your business relevant.
Get the most from your assets by using them to educate, updating them to align with best practice, supporting audience and reach expansion (don’t panic, there’s more on this below) and underpinning value.
Focus on your unique value
Take the time to understand your unique value and drive this message to your customers.
Carry out some customer research and lifetime value analysis. Understand how customer behaviour has been impacted by the recession. Understand who your best value customers are.
Once you understand your customers, your marketing can focus on your core competencies as a business and how they meet the needs of your best customers. Retaining your most valuable customers and reinforcing your value to them is now even more critical than before. It’s about getting bang for buck and making the most of your marketing spend.
Look at your brand position
Ask yourself, do you need to reposition your brand to maximise your core competencies and drive your unique value to customers?
Take the time to carry out a brand audit, understanding where your brand stand in your competitive landscape? Do changes in the landscape provide opportunities for you? Should you shift your brand position to realise higher value?
Become a prospector in new audiences
If you are repositioning your brand, take time to consider new audiences. Leverage your unique value to become a prospector in new audience spaces. This could minimise your revenue loss and drive benefit from your unique value and brand position.
Expand your geographic boundaries
Look at your environment, in light of all of the potential actions above, should you also consider expanding your geographic boundaries? Are there other, untapped markets that have become available through the powers of the recession? How can you refocus your messages to capitalise on these?
Innovation
It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention; and this is no truer than in a recession. Look for opportunities to innovate, to change the way things are done, to act in non-traditional ways and use non-traditional approaches. Question why you do things the way you do and drive efficiency and relevance in your business.
Final word
Be prepared to be flexible and nimble and you will not only survive, you will thrive on the other side!
As a special offer to businesses during this challenging time, we are conducting FREE marketing reviews of your website to empower you to increase your income and sales conversions. Click here for more info. This is a service marketers usually charge money for and many businesses are willing to pay thousands for the insights. Take advantage while we are still offering it 💥
Source: Research by Capital One, 2009 https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/assets/smallbusinessgrowthindex/
