Marketing in a down economy provides an opportunity to come out on top

Studies show that those who advertise in a recession are more likely to increase sales in the future. In fact, marketing in a recession could be one of the best ways to grow your business long-term. When a recession hits, every business’ knee-jerk reaction is to cut their spending—and they usually hit the marketing budget first. Everyone else is doing it, you should too, right? Wrong. This is the exact reason you should advertise in a recession. There is much less advertising clutter flying around, which makes those who are advertising even more noticeable.

You see, if you advertise throughout a recession while your competitors are not, that gives you a unique opportunity to capitalize on your competitors’ err in judgement. With less advertising competition you can increase awareness of your brand, which can easily convert to market share when a consumer needs your service—whether that may be during the crunch or after it.

The secret to successful marketing is to be top-of-mind when a consumer needs a product or service. In order to be top-of-mind you must make your business known, and be visible and available when your prospect needs you most.

McGraw Hill has done several research studies on recession advertising. Some of their findings are as follows:

• Sales statistics of companies that maintained or increased advertising during the 1974 recession showed a 132% growth, post-recession.
• Following the recession of 1981–82, those who maintained or increased advertising spend throughout the recession achieved higher sales than their competitors in the three years following that recession.
• By the end of the three years following this recession, the sales of those who had continued to maintain their advertising throughout the recession had risen over 256% higher than that of their competitors.
• Another study in 2001 found that recession advertisers’ market share had grown to 2.5 times that of the non-advertisers.

That being said, can you really afford to pause your advertising?

Sure, everyone’s funds are tight in a recession, but for those who choose to maintain or increase their advertising throughout come out ahead post-recession. Plus, if you find your business to be slower than usual, putting some real effort into creating and implementing a well-crafted marketing plan is a valuable way to spend that time.