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Show Notes

When the economy takes a turn, business owners often look for ways to cut back in anticipation of the recession. Unfortunately, one of the first places many businesses cut costs is their marketing budget. But I’m here to tell you that cutting your marketing budget during a recession is not only a bad idea, it can be downright dangerous! Let’s take a closer look at why you should keep your marketing plan intact even when times are tough.

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Jennifer: Hey there, welcome back to marketing matchmaker, I am super excited about today’s episode. So we’re actually in December, this is actually my first solo episode. In several weeks, I spent the month of November really interviewing guests who could help your business grow through their areas of expertise. And while some of them may have touched on marketing, or may have been indirectly related to marketing, most of them really were about growing your business. And if you haven’t actually listened to those episodes, yet, I’d suggest you head over there, I had some fantastic guests with some really great insights that could shift how you do business in the next year.

So today’s episode is really going to address Well, what I’m calling the elephant in the room. So I was at a mastermind in the last week or so. And we were discussing marketing, because, you know, that’s what we do. We talk all about marketing. And someone brought up this elephant in the room, which is the economy, and where the economy is sitting right now and how it’s affecting business. So according to some reports, we’re moving into recession. According to other reports, we’ve been in a recession for a year or more, it all depends on who you’re listening to, and what you’re consuming. That being said, in all indications, our economy is a little rough right now. Which means that we get to look at our business in a perspective of from a perspective of being in an economic downturn. So for some of us, we may have already navigated a recession, you know, back in 2008, there was some before that, that’s the latest one. And we may have been in business already, and we know what we did wrong, or we did well and can navigate this upcoming recession. For others of us, we may have just started our business in the last couple of years or even after that last recession. So we’re not really aware of how to navigate a recession effectively for our business.

And so that’s kind of one I wanted to touch base with, with you today. Business owners, I think a lot of us are still brushing ourselves off from COVID. And what happened in our business during that, because it was a rocky road. 2021 I think actually may have been the best year for a lot of my clients 2022 dependent on their industry, some were doing amazing, and some were still struggling, I think it’s that way for every business owner out there each year is could be better or worse than the last depending on what you did for your business. And what I know from looking back in history of navigating a recession, in your business is that there are some things that you’re going to want to do.

I know that a lot of business owners, when you start thinking about running a business during a recession during an economic downturn, you really start to worry about cash flow, and investments and how you’re going to do that. And so you start looking at ways to cut things in your business. That’s a pretty standard response from business owners when it comes to really, you know, keeping their business alive during a recession. And here’s the thing, most there’s a lot of business owners out there, the first thing they want to cut is their marketing budget.

And I want to just encourage you to think twice about that.

There have been significant studies in the past over recessions that really show and highlight that those people who cut their marketing budgets are the ones that end up suffering. When it comes to running a successful business, you really want visibility and awareness of your business, especially during a recession. Ensuring that you continue to invest in your marketing in your business will mean that your business stays viable and visible and in demand. It is more important than ever, to start making sure that you are visible to your audience.

And when it comes to things like launching or new products. A lot of business owners will sometimes pull back the reins and and maybe slow down. However, the past has shown us that the long term survival and higher revenues are possible. When you push forward with your marketing in a recession. There are business owners during the last recession that made millions of dollars because here’s the reality, people still spend money, even during an economic downturn. So it’s more about making sure that you are visible in front of your audience on a regular basis. And if your competitors are cutting their budget, because they are fear based, and they are worried about what they’re spending, and when they’re spending, so if they’re cutting their marketing budget, what do you think’s going to happen, their audience is going to start going and looking for someone else to fulfill the need that they have.

So if you have a product service or solution that is essential to people’s lives, or even a luxury to people’s lives, it is incredibly important that people know about it. And the only way people are going to know about it is if you are continuing to market your business. You really want to look at marketing as a long term investment in the future of your business. It’s important to understand that businesses are going to go through ups and downs. And if you just like the economy is going to go through ups and downs. And if you are continuing to invest and market and advertise your business, you are creating an audience and a following. And people who are aware of and ready to purchase your product service or solution. In the current economic state, actually, in every economic state, it really does not matter what that state is, it’s important to make smart long term decisions when it comes to your business.

So really think long and hard about what your budget is for the next year. Here’s the reality, economic and uncertainty doesn’t have to spell disaster for your business. There are a lot of strategies that you can use to make sure that your business not only remains afloat, but thrives and flourishes and grows. Whether it’s things like leveraging your social media, or keeping your pricing flexible or maybe reevaluating your product service or solution.

That’s what I did in my business. That was one of the conversations during this marketing mastermind group that I was part of, because they were asking us what we were doing to address that economic uncertainty in our audience. And what I decided to do was repackage my product services, my products and services so that people were, well, it came a no brainer for them to buy, right, so we have two new packages in the business that we’ve been advertising for the last couple of months.

One is our profitable ads program, where we have this hybrid kind of agency going on. So we have both of our packages are a hybrid agency, the first 60 days of these packages, we take you on like we would any other client, and we allow, we get all of the heavy lifting done. And the second second 60 days of the package is where we teach you to scale and optimize your ads and continue bringing in leads.

Now this provides my audience my potential clients with a no brainer to invest in their marketing because they don’t have to invest in a long term agency, right. That’s what a lot of people are afraid of is those long term strategies. So maybe looking at what it is you offer right now becomes your first point, right? It’s analyzing your market, and adapting your offerings to meet them where they are, so you can help them go where they want to go.

When it comes to preparing your business for the craziness that has become this economy, one of the most important steps is really to analyze your market. So sit down and think really learn from your audience what it is they’re struggling with, or what is their mindset around you and your offerings and around their own economic issues that will help you to then determine how, what, why and when they’re going to be ready to buy.

As business owners. We can help them really alleviate a lot of the fear that is surrounding spending money. It’s about helping them. The people who are feeling uncertain to feel more certain when making a decision to buy from you. And that really does start with your offers. So make sure that your offer is amazing, it will help them provide value to them in ways that they never thought of. And at a price point that is both economically feasible for them, and economically feasible for you.

One of the things we want to avoid is slashing prices. Oftentimes, you’ll see business owners do that, right, they may have a $10,000 package that they sold last year for $10,000. And they’re cutting it to $5,000. Here’s the problem with that all of those people that bought that package, that service or that coaching program, or that group coaching program, or mastermind, or whatever it is, for $10,000, they’re not going to be so happy with you that you’ve slashed your prices. So you’re going to alienate the audience you already have, it is much more economically viable for you to keep your prices where they are, and either create something completely different, that can meet them where they are right now, or add more value to that $10,000 package so that it makes it a no brainer for them to buy.

Either way, assessing what your market is willing to invest in right now. And meeting them there is really going to help you sustain your business and grow your business and scale your business, especially if you can have a product that is scalable. So for instance, our profitable ads program and our profitable marketing accelerator program, both of those programs allow our clients to continue to grow and scale their their business with effective profitable marketing, while also avoiding long term commitments to agencies. And it really does make it a no brainer for them.

Here’s what I know about DIY packages, unless you have something that somebody is going to implement. And there are a lot of people out there that have fabulous DIY programs. But if you know your audience, I know my audience, my audience doesn’t DIY, my audience wants to DIY, but they don’t actually DIY, it’s a good idea to think of something that will allow maybe it’s a hybrid program like we’re doing or maybe it’s a group coaching program, where one on one coaching is just that next step up, make it something that’s feasible for you so that it’s a win win for both you and your audience. The next strategy to really focus on hyper focus on right now is really understanding your audience and their needs.

This is not a new strategy.

This is something that I bring up quite a lot. However, when the economy is struggling and people are afraid to spend money. Now it’s more important than ever to really understand your target audience. And what it is they’re struggling with right now so that you can meet them where they are right now, quite often, people want to put aside, maybe you have a health program, and they don’t really want to focus on their health right now. You get to figure out what it is that they’re struggling with right now and meet them there. And then explain to them why their health is more important now than it has been ever really deep dive into your audience so that you can address these fears and concerns before they become objections before answering their objections before they get on a sales call with you is going to save you time, money and effort and stress about trying to close on.

That’s the thing about marketing that I think people forget is that it is really a warm up to your sales call. You are getting to address all of those fears around expectation set those expectations really address their objections before they even get on a call with you so that when they get on a call, all you’re really doing is walking them through the sales process itself.

Making sure that your marketing is set up to do that is going to save you a ton of time when it comes to sales. And this last strategy that you really want Want to address when it comes to an economic downturn in your business is building your cash reserves and investing wisely. Now, that is both for you and your audience, right?

When you have a limited resources of income, you want to make sure you’re investing them in a way that’s going to serve you in a way your clients is going to serve them the best. So really making sure that you, well, you don’t overspend, maybe it’s not time to invest in a $20,000 program, if you don’t have those, that revenue coming in. Or maybe it’s the perfect time to invest in that $20,000 program, because it’s gonna get you $40,000. On the other side, it all depends on where your business is at.

But making really wise choices when it comes to investing in your business is essential. And I will tell you right now, the best investment you can make in your business is your marketing. There were so many businesses in the last recession that died. And there are so many businesses even during COVID that died. Why? Because they didn’t market it, because people didn’t know they were there.

And that’s what happens when you slash your marketing budget or you turn off your marketing completely. You end up choking your business in a way that is not going to help you succeed. And right now, it’s an opportunity. It’s an amazing opportunity to create something that will help you and help your clients and help you guys continue to grow and succeed and scale. That’s what we all want right is to grow our business, increase our revenue and scale our impact by investing in our marketing we could to do just that.

OUTRO: Thank you for listening to the marketing matchmaker podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love to hear your feedback. Please head over to Apple iTunes and leave a review so we can hear from you. And if you are a coach, consultant or online course creator who are looking to grow your business, increase your income and scale your impact. Connect with me at your marketing matchmaker.com I look forward to hearing from you.