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5 ways to boost digital marketing in a recession. Are you ready?

Fay Roe

A global financial downturn is never the type of business news you want to have to read about. The threat of a looming recession is even more worrisome, especially to experience.

Yet here we are. Recessions are cyclical. They typically come around every 10 years. New Zealand's last recession ended in 2009. Therefore, it could be said we were overdue.

However, spoken like a politician, digital marketing lessons have been learnt from the previous recessions. Hopefully, this will lessen the impact on businesses. While no two recessions are exactly alike, understanding consumers' changing psychology and habits is key. For example, the dot.com crash in 2001 and the Credit Crunch of 2008.

This will enable businesses to hone their content marketing strategies so they can survive the current downturn and prosper afterwards.

Make your marketing budget more efficient

Impulsively, you may want to stop all subscriptions and rip up the marketing budget. However, this is not the time to cut down your marketing budget and run for the hills. This is the time to ramp up brand awareness. This is the time to make every marketing cent work hard for you.

Try these tactics to increase the efficiency of your digital marketing budget.

Reviewing your Google Ads campaign
Updating your website design
Revising the website content
Fine-tuning SEO

Explore and discover new audiences to target

While your usual target audience will be holding their wallets close to them. Use the power of digital marketing and the reach of social media to identify new clients. And spend time exploring new markets, demographics, and geographic regions. Listen on social media and assess where people are spending their money.

Think about the businesses that thrived during and after the pandemic – they were the ones who pivoted and responded to the changes with speed and agility. Restaurants that did takeouts, hairdressers who did online DIY hairstyling tutorials and sold hair care products online. These businesses not only continued to make money but have thrived since.

red paper plane soaring high compared to all the other white paper planes

Adjust your messaging to resonate with your target audience

How do customers view your wares?

Essential: a necessary expenditure
Treats: a justifiable indulgence
On the wish list: a needed or desired item but can delay purchasing.
Expendable: would have been purchased in better financial times, but understandably unjustifiable now

It’s important to adjust your Facebook adverts, social media, and website content messaging to the economic climate. Sensitively emphasise value and affordability to resonate with the target audience’s concerns and priorities but keep positive! Positivity is always appreciated in tough times – be the beacon of joy and hope!

Look after your existing client base

During tough economic times, it’s more cost efficient to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones. Loyalty programs or special deals via targeted email campaigns are a great way to keep current customers engaged with your brand and cultivate their loyalty.

Experiment with new tactics

To survive the recession, it’s crucial to develop the relationship people have with your brand, and today, that means experimenting with new tactics to reach new audiences and drive engagement. If TikTok is one step too far, get active on your business’s blog – and show people behind the scenes, how-to guides, an employee of the week – content to show the human side of your business.

Recessions are hard, but they are temporary. The key is to be flexible and responsive to the changing economic landscape by creating a robust digital marketing strategy to make a resilient business. By adjusting your digital marketing strategy and proactively searching for new opportunities, you can continue to drive growth for your business.

Unsure how to digitally market your business? Not sure where to start or what to do? Contact Christchurch NZ online marketing agency, Digital Presence today. Drop us a line or call 0274 278047 for a free no obligation chat.

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