3 key tactics for businesses to recession-proof their marketing

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Headlines about recession and inflation can make even the most experienced businesses nervous about their contingency plans. This is a make-or-break situation for marketers. In the past, we have seen that when a recession hits, organisations are quick to reduce their marketing spend. 

During an economic downturn, consumer sentiment and buying habits shift rapidly and businesses are impacted by factors that are beyond control. Therefore, it is imperative to have a recession-proof strategy to mitigate the consumer churn rate. 

Invest in smart marketing tech

Your marketing tech is an essential marketing expenditure. But it needs to be smart and seamlessly integrate with your existing marketing stack. Investing in an all-in-one platform is the way to go. In the enterprise world, there are different tools and services with different functionalities.  Right from collecting and organising data to analytics and alerts, notifications, automation, and information distribution. 

An all-in-one automation platform connects data from disparate sources across the stack such as CRM and e-commerce platforms. Streamlining the marketing process using automation tools can improve team efficiency and lead to annual cost savings. It also makes it significantly easier to create personalised and relevant campaigns. 

Pulling in information about recent activity, preferences, location and more, helps the team to gain insights they need to build triggered marketing campaigns that land in the inbox when it matters resulting in an increased conversion rate. 

Focus on empathetic marketing

Your customers have gone through a lot recently – from dealing with a global pandemic and empty shelves to supply-chain issues, rising inflation, and now an impending recession. Their confidence is understandably shaken. That means businesses need to go over and above to earn their trust as customers need to have confidence before they decide to engage with brands. In trying times worried consumers see familiar, trusted brands as a safe place to spend their money. 

You need to start at the core of your business. Can customers trust you to protect their data? Are you asking them what they want and need and collecting their marketing preferences? Will you provide them with quality goods and services that make spending their money worth it? More than that, what are you doing to better the community? Issues such as sustainability and corporate social responsibility are now affecting customers’ perceptions of their favourite brands. 

In times like this, it’s imperative to focus on empathy. Brands need to demonstrate how they understand what people are going through. You should convey a sense of “we’re going to get through this together” and show gratitude. Customers will remember this and perceive the brand more positively if they feel as though you empathise with them.

Customer retention is vital

Existing customers are a valuable asset. To really thrive during a recession, businesses need to be focusing on customer retention tactics. So, how do you boost customer retention?

For starters, unifying customer data into a single source will help you gain actionable insights into the audience. Single customer view (SCV) will not only help understand the audience and their motivations but also helps create segments that have similar interests, preferences, past orders and more, in a single click and create target audiences based on their brand loyalty. The insights offered in SCV allow us to personalise the customer experience, so every journey is unique. Paired with AI affinity scoring that surfaces product recommendations based on likes and past purchases, customers will be delighted by every email. 

There’s no denying a recession will affect businesses in some way or the other. In the business world, budgets will shrink as companies tighten their belts and brace for the bad times to come. Therefore, it’s important to prepare early. Get your strategy in place now to ensure you’re in a good position to ride the wave in the months to come. Inevitably, this will save you and your team a lot of heartache down the road.

About the author: Matthew McClelland is head of growth – Southeast Asia at Dotdigital.