As global economies slide towards recession, the marketing decisions you take today could have far-reaching implications for the future prosperity of your business. Get it right and your business will emerge with stronger brands and share of voice.
Get it wrong and … well, we all understand the potential consequences. But how do you know if the spending decisions you have identified are going to add value to your company? What tools are at you disposal to make the right decisions? Let’s face it, if you can’t convince your CEO that your marketing plan will generate a positive return on the investment (ROI) then you won’t get the funding that you seek.
A robust analysis is essential to help you identify the profits that could be generated from your marketing activity and the strategies that you must have in place to make it happen. Even in a recession, some of the most enduring and successful marketing initiatives have been launched; the ‘Intel Inside’ programme was launched in the 1990- 1991 downturn.
As companies shift spending to more measurable channels there are a number of strategies that you can adopt to ‘test and measure’ your marketing activities which will allow for a speedier introduction of new ideas and a faster justification of go or no-go decisions.
- Identify the greatest sources of growth.Targeting high value and high potential segments is traditionally the source of growth that will have the most impact on profitability, but defining who and how to reach and influence the most profitable sectors is essential if you are to attract, retain and grow customers in a recession. Clearly mapping the sales process from identification to engaging, nurturing and converting prospects to valuable customers is the first step to testing and measuring activities that will influence this process.
- Develop and measure multiple channels. Back to basics marketing typical of a recession involves reducing or eliminating marketing activities that are ineffective. Typically it is the advertising budget that is cut first ” in the 2001 downturn advertising spend fell by 9%. Yet some, aggressive advertisers, saw their revenues grow by more than 2.5X faster than those who reduced their advertising spend. Unless you have the ability to measure the response (and hence return) from your advertising spend you, along with many other companies, will revert to marketing activities that are easier to measure. It is no coincidence that in the last six recessions spend on direct marketing actually grows!
- Define your metrics. Tracking and measurement should be designed to capture funnel progression, to enable the ‘leakage’ points to be identified. Understanding and acting upon these metrics will help achieve higher conversion rates for hard won prospects.
- Test and learn. Pragmatic strategies, used to good effect by software companies, can be applied to many forms of product development. Beta testing or trialling ‘nearly ready’ products with a small sample of potential customers can provide invaluable user feedback that will help refine the product and provide insight to likely purchasing patterns.
