Digital Marketing in a Recession

EMAIL MARKETING

Email marketing allows you to spread multiple messages to multiple segments of your client and prospect database.

Not only can you send multiple emails for free using Gmail or something similar you can also use some automated software such as Mailchimp to send emails to lists below 2000 subscribers.
So, why does email marketing work so well?
With email marketing you can be specific and segment your audience.
You can segment between existing clients, existing clients using your specific services (such as web design, SEO, website maintenance) and you can segment between active clients, old lapsed clients and potential new clients/prospects.
Use email marketing for a number of reasons, but use it wisely.
In a recession we all struggle and all need a helping hand.
By just using your email marketing to promote your services/special offers, you are likely to hit resistance and appear as trying to only sell your products and not add any value.
Start by segmenting out your audience.

The Market, Message, Media method always works well to help you here.

Market: Who you want to send your message to
Message: The message/offer you wish to send to your market
Media: The platform such as email, direct mail or telemarketing that you will use to deliver your message to your media.

Once you have segmented your audience out it’s time to think of a message for them.
If you have a list of clients that you have just completed work for then why not send them an email asking if there’s anything else you can help with and importantly, if they are happy with your service, asking them for referrals.

If you have a list of existing customers who purchase from you at random times, why not approach them and just simply ask how they are getting on and how they are finding things?
Instead of selling, genuinely check up on their progress and well being – It’s good to talk!
You could send a variation of a message to all your list segments, maybe you want to reach out to your list, make an offer to their friends and family and extend your network?

Remember, the message will vary depending on your market and should be adjusted for such.
In a downturn, you don’t want to be sending special offers to your list, you want to be sending well thought out messages that add value, provide some solution to peoples problems and keep you in a positive dialogue with your existing clients, past clients and prospects.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION

SEO is always great and produces great results especially if you have researched your market properly and the phrases/keywords they are using to search Google for the service/product that you offer.

Whilst a long-term burner, during a downturn/recession this digital marketing activity is often one of the first to be cut due to its often-perceived high cost and sometimes slow returning results.
The big thing about SEO is that if you have done your keyword research right and your keywords have the right traffic and intent behind them then your business will grow – as long as your actual website is useable and clear and conveys the right message and call to actions!
SEO is usually the most expensive of the digital marketing activities available but does produce the better results.

Depending what you offer and depending why there is a downturn/recession – E.G Housing recession, Financial recession, Dot Com recession, Pandemic recession – then usually searches and intent behind searches remains and if it doesn’t, then it always picks up once the downturn starts to improve.
As it stands right now in April 2020, we in the UK are all in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic.
What has happened is that during the first few weeks when all the major uncertainty kicked in, such as “will I lose my job?” “Why have enquiries stopped, when will they pick up again?”, “Is working from home efficient?”, “How much cash do we have in the bank?” “Who do we sack first?” we saw website traffic drop on average between 25-30% – Especially for luxury items.

This is because of spending, with a lot of people being laid off or on furlough and getting 80% pay, search intent for luxury items dropped as there is no disposable income available.
Now that we are into the 5th week of the Coronavirus breakout, search queries are beginning to pick up and enquiries are starting to return even though website traffic on average is still down about 10-15% compared to the first 2 months of the year.

This highlights why it’s so important to spend on SEO during a recession.

Continuing to execute an SEO campaign during a downturn will allow you to be in a much stronger position as we slowly come out of the downturn.

Put yourself in the position of a business.

We hit a downturn and you are number 1 in Google for your search term, e.g. Web Design Birmingham – You are getting on average 300 visits a month from Google for this search term alone.
Then suddenly your traffic drops 50% and you are now only getting 150 visits a month for this search term or even less!

Being number 1 in Google or near the top of Google you will still get a bigger chunk of the traffic.
Now, out yourself in the position of the business who ranked number 8 in Google for the same search term and was getting 15 or so searches a month on a very very good month – Suddenly that has dropped to a handful of visits per month.

As confidence returns to the market and search queries increase, being at the top of Google means you will get the majority of the traffic and the first bite of it, where as those further down page 1 or even on page 2 will be getting next to no traffic at all.

From that illustration you can see that by keeping up your SEO efforts not only do you get the bulk of the traffic during a downturn, but, you also get the bulk of the traffic when confidence and search volume returns as it always does.

PPC

SEO is always great and produces great results especially if you have researched your market properly and the phrases/keywords they are using to search Google for the service/product that you offer.

Whilst a long-term burner, during a downturn/recession this digital marketing activity is often one of the first to be cut due to its often-perceived high cost and sometimes slow returning results.
The big thing about SEO is that if you have done your keyword research right and your keywords have the right traffic and intent behind them then your business will grow – as long as your actual website is useable and clear and conveys the right message and call to actions!
SEO is usually the most expensive of the digital marketing activities available but does produce the better results.

Depending what you offer and depending why there is a downturn/recession – E.G Housing recession, Financial recession, Dot Com recession, Pandemic recession – then usually searches and intent behind searches remains and if it doesn’t, then it always picks up once the downturn starts to improve.
As it stands right now in April 2020, we in the UK are all in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic.
What has happened is that during the first few weeks when all the major uncertainty kicked in, such as “will I lose my job?” “Why have enquiries stopped, when will they pick up again?”, “Is working from home efficient?”, “How much cash do we have in the bank?” “Who do we sack first?” we saw website traffic drop on average between 25-30% – Especially for luxury items.

This is because of spending, with a lot of people being laid off or on furlough and getting 80% pay, search intent for luxury items dropped as there is no disposable income available.
Now that we are into the 5th week of the Coronavirus breakout, search queries are beginning to pick up and enquiries are starting to return even though website traffic on average is still down about 15-20% compared to the first 2 months of the year.

This highlights why it’s so important to spend on SEO during a recession.

Continuing to execute an SEO campaign during a downturn will allow you to be in a much stronger position as we slowly come out of the downturn.

Put yourself in the position of a business.

We hit a downturn and you are number 1 in Google for your search term, e.g. Web Design Birmingham – You are getting on average 300 visits a month from Google for this search term alone.
Then suddenly your traffic drops 50% and you are now only getting 150 visits a month for this search term or even less!

Being number 1 in Google or near the top of Google you will still get a bigger chunk of the traffic.
Now, out yourself in the position of the business who ranked number 8 in Google for the same search term and was getting 15 or so searches a month on a very very good month – Suddenly that has dropped to a handful of visits per month.

As confidence returns to the market and search queries increase, being at the top of Google means you will get the majority of the traffic and the first bite of it, where as those further down page 1 or even on page 2 will be getting next to no traffic at all.

From that illustration you can see that by keeping up your SEO efforts not only do you get the bulk of the traffic during a downturn, but, you also get the bulk of the traffic when confidence and search volume returns as it always does.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

How can social media marketing help during a recession?
There are a number of ways to use social media during a downturn.

Not only can you use it to stay in touch with your existing customers, you can use it to create look-a-like audiences and get your message in front of new cold audiences who may not of heard of you before and may be interested in what you have to offer.

Social Media is always tough at the best of times depending on your message and market, it can be one of the greatest or worst ways to distribute your message.

Social Media marketing doesn’t necessary yield instant results and can be used along side your existing marketing efforts to reinforce your message across multiple platforms.