During economic slowdowns, most companies’ knee-jerk reactions are to tighten their belts and slash budgets— and marketing departments are usually one of the first (and worst) hit. But as we’ve seen time and time again, deprioritising marketing budgets actually erodes brand share, making it harder to recover when the economy is ready to bounce back.
There’s no denying that it's been a tough couple of years. From the pandemic health crises to extreme weather events, rising interest rates to record-setting inflation and now we’re bracing ourselves for another, dare we say it, “unprecedented situation”. As both businesses and customers struggle to come to terms with what constitutes a “new normal”, it’s clear that everyone is remaining cautious with all forms of spending while strategising how best to navigate the socio-economic hurdles of 2023.
Recent studies show that up to 62% of surveyed global customers already feel like they’re living in a recession, with 48% of these customers expecting this economic downturn to last for 12 months or more, which is bound to have an impact on how wallet spending is allocated. Businesses are expecting customers to focus their spending on brands they trust, and purchase more items on promotions and discounts – but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if your producing value-led content that resonates with your audiences. So, join Wordsmith as we cover four ways you can improve your content to weather the impending recession and stay connected with your target audience without breaking the bank.
1. Reach out to loyal customers regularly
Once a prospect becomes a customer, it may be easy to forget about them and move on to securing your next lead. But in today’s economy, this short-sighted approach can have a detrimental impact on your bottom line. In a slow economy, it can be more cost-effective to focus on producing great retention content, rather than attracting new potential first-time buyers. Creating personalised content that’s created specifically for your customers, whether it’s an initial onboarding email campaign, timely promotion exclusive for loyalty customers only, or content that can help your customer base understand your product and services better, this all helps to strengthen relationships and brand loyalty while increasing profits exponentially.
According to Mauricio Vianna, CEO of MJV Innovation, companies need to adopt an “outside-in” approach, where you look at your business from a customer’s perspective. During times of looming recessions, customers crave the convenience of frictionless transactions. They’ll also choose to spend their hard-earned money at well-established, stable brands they know they can trust. But it’s not all doom and gloom, Serenity Gibbon, former Assistant Editor at The Wall Street Journal explains, “Recession doesn’t necessarily need to equate to a slowdown in your company if a proactive strategy is implemented quickly. Investments into customer experience can help retain many customers that a company might have otherwise lost, and in many cases, they can also continue to grow their customer base.”
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again - good, attention-grabbing content starts with active listening. So our advice is: talk to your customers! Be attentive in replying to emails, encourage discussions on your social media channels and request feedback via customer surveys, as all of this can give you valuable insight into your customer journey and enable you to understand your customers' needs during these uncertain times. This is also a good time for you to review your ‘churn rate’. This refers to the number of customers who fail to renew subscriptions in a given period. Perhaps it’s time to reconnect with this group of people who are on your mailing list with timely offers, exclusive discounts, and helpful content.
2. Gain visibility into your best resources with a content audit
Another way you can improve your content in times of recession is by conducting a content audit. You’ll be surprised how useful an audit can be during times when budgets are tight and customer purchase intent is hard to track. Taking a retrospective look at your content marketing activities could ultimately put your brand in a better position going forward to create content that truly converts.
Karina Tama-Rutigliano, Digital Marketing Strategist explains, “One of the great things about online content is that it isn’t static like print content. You can change it any time you want…I get mileage out of past content by doing a content audit. It’s like casting a wide lens over the content you have already posted, analysing it and deciding what will work best for you right now. A content audit will drastically improve the quality of your content, which will drastically improve your traffic.”
Research from Forbes, shockingly claims that roughly 55% of marketers don't know which assets their sales team uses, and two-thirds of marketing content goes unused. But a great start to correct this imbalance is with a content audit to see what has performed the best and why, so you can inform your sales team going forward. You can surface forgotten assets, that might not have gotten much promotion and reschedule it for a republishing with only minor revisions. With just a quick update, your best-performing pieces could also potentially be used for other marketing collateral, so don’t be afraid to get creative with your content distribution. Repurposing your old content into an episodic content series, informative podcast, or free how-to guides could help to engage new audiences. Rather than spending a lot of time and money starting from scratch, an audit can help unearth great content that can be redistributed elsewhere.
Once you’ve finished your audit, you can also use this data to inform your content strategy moving forward into the recession. And companies that take the time to conduct content audits will reap the rewards when it comes to cost-saving and time management. Insurance company, Manulife, has already seen over $1 million in cost savings, by using the Contently platform, Stories Library, which gives the company easy access to sales enablement assets, allowing them to share internal coms faster while also helping them repurpose articles for local audiences. You may feel like content audits are tedious and painful, but amid uncertainty and recession, the learnings you can take from these audits could not only direct your content strategy but significantly boost your bottom line.
3. Adjust your messaging to speak your audience’s language
It’s key to remember that trust often erodes in a recession. Now is the time to focus your attention on brand-building content and promoting value-based messaging to help maintain and strengthen that trust with your audiences. Akram Atallah, CEO of Identity Digital, comments, “Recessions are hard on everyone. While your bottom line may be shrinking, customers’ wallets will be, too, and showing sympathy for the difficulties they’re experiencing can go a long way to earning long-term trust and favourability.”
In times of uncertainty, customers will be asking different questions and looking for different types of help from brands. Their needs are shifting, and companies have to keep their fingers on the pulse to ensure that every piece of content is tailored to meet their new needs. Being there for them and repeatedly showing them how your brand solves their pain points and problems will pay dividends when it comes to you protecting your existing customer relationships and paving the way for future growth with potential new audiences.
For some brands, this could mean shifting your messaging slightly as the recession approaches. Your communication might be focusing on highlighting products and services your customers want, but now, is the time to adapt your content to show customers your products and services are something they need. This re-framing could not only increase customer loyalty, but also reduce the cost of acquiring new customers.
Back in 2008, the Harvard Business Review highlighted that tech company, Dell, hit the nail on the head with their messaging during the recession with an advertising campaign that featured messages including, “Depend on Dell for simple solutions in tough times” and “Out of the box, within your means.” While your messaging doesn’t have to be quite so blatant, simply calling attention to the significant cost savings or great value your brand offers can go a long way in resonating with customers in the current climate.
4. Reshuffle your budget to invest more in great content
According to research from Gartner, marketing budgets as a percentage of revenue actually rose in 2022 compared to 2021, but ad spend is down, particularly in consumer and B2B tech – and this comes as no real surprise.
For most audiences, paid ads are seen as annoying disruptions that don’t drive conversions – but, unlike content marketing, they are easily trackable for businesses looking for actionable results into their return on investment (ROI), which is why some marketing professionals fall back on paid advertising. However, in a looming recession, smart brands are looking into investing in producing great content that resonates and converts. And better still, over the last couple of years, content ROI has actually gotten much easier to track and optimize. And any business that tracks both strategies will find that content is a clear winner when it comes to better ROI, particularly during times when budgets are tight. You can always adjust your ad spend over time, but remember, no amount of paid advertising can make up for poor-performing content – so make sure you invest in great writers.
The good news here is, buyers don’t stop buying during a recession – they just get pickier on who they spend their money with. So, as your brand prepares to balance the need for growth with the urge to scrimp and save, it’s key not to forget that great content can make a big difference to your bottom line. Now isn’t the time to pull back on content. It’s the time for reconnecting with loyal customers, performing content audits, shifting to value-based messaging and dialling down paid advertising to invest more in great content, whether that’s in-house or with an award-winning copywriter.