What to do in a period of economic crisis in which the change in scenarios and consumption threatens the survival of the business? Unlike what many imagine, advertising investment and digital marketing play a key role in winning, and today I want to explain why.
- The mistake of reducing advertising investment: save your business
- Why invest in digital marketing in the midst of the economic crisis
- Digital marketing strategies and actions to win
- 3 success stories of advertising investment in times of crisis
The decisions we make now will have a radical impact on the development and growth of the company. That is why it is a key turning point in which we must reorient many aspects of the business internally and get the most out of the marketing tools we have at our disposal.
The mistake of reducing advertising investment: save your business
We belong to a business culture where it seems that short-term economic results and the immediate future are the main objective. Therefore, in times of economic crisis, it may seem that reducing investment in marketing activities is a quick and easy solution. And although reducing marketing costs can improve the bottom line in the short term, mistake! Nothing is further from reality.
If we paralyze our emailing, publications on social networks, SEO or SEM to appear on Google, we stop being well positioned online, we lose visibility in the market, and the most economical tools for attracting and retaining customers .
Consequently, we run the risk of sacrificing our brand image and the relationship with our customers , something that would have negative repercussions on the company’s profitability and its growth in the medium/long term.
The strategy should not focus solely on reducing costs but on maximizing the performance of our marketing actions and looking for ways to reinvent ourselves by creating new forms of communication and advertising .
According to Philip Kotler, marketing guru: “Marketing must look to the future in the coming years, and ask what the world will be like and what customers will need and want.”
Furthermore, in times of crisis , rivalry increases, since there is much more supply for less demand. Therefore, by reducing our investment in marketing, we are reducing the presence of our brand and allowing the competition to take away our business.
On the other hand, when everything begins to improve, it will be too late to act, since consumers will have taken other brands as a reference, by consolidating relationships, associating images and values throughout all the marketing and advertising actions that will have taken place. launching until then.
Now is the time to consolidate our brand image, generate messages of social support, increase our visibility, generate trust and create solid relationships with potential clients. All of this will be reflected in the long term in the decisions of these potential clients.
As we see, marketing is a key tool to react to an economic crisis. But what type of marketing should we invest in: digital or traditional? Our recommendation is digital. The approach of traditional marketing is to encourage sales by focusing on the product or service, while digital marketing allows actions that connect in a deeper way with the user and their purchasing experience.
Why invest in digital marketing in the midst of the economic crisis
As we have been saying, we are in a period whose duration and consequences we do not know, but in the face of uncertainty and challenge we must emerge stronger and devise new ways of survival.
To begin with, we must change our focus by considering the situation as an opportunity rather than a threat, to reinvent ourselves and identify everything in which we can improve to offer the best customer experience and maximum value.
Reasons to carry out digital marketing actions in times of economic crisis
- Customer loyalty
It is vital for a company to have a solid base of loyal customers. In times of crisis it is very important to focus on the loyalty of existing customers. As HubSpot says in its article : “It costs 5 to 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Furthermore, on average a current customer spends 67% more than a new one.”
Digital marketing allows us to be very effective in building customer loyalty, as we can activate personalized communications adapted to their needs and interests, such as, for example, sending discounts for those products that we know may interest them, offering discounts on cross-sells, personalizing promotions… We already know the behavior of our existing customers, so it will be easier to retain them than to get new ones.
- Reduce cost and uncertainty
Digital marketing allows us to measure and analyze the success of our actions simultaneously while the specific action is being developed. This allows us to draw conclusions much faster and adapt the strategy to improve results.
- Cheaper channels
Digital channels have lower costs than traditional advertising, such as television or radio.
- Search engines
Digital platforms have a cost to display click-per-view type ads: that is, we will only pay if users enter and see our ad. In this way, we ensure that our investment has an impact.
- Social networks
Having a profile on the different social networks is free. If you want to promote your publications so that they reach a larger audience, you can do so at a very affordable price with the possibility of segmenting the audience you want to see your ads.
- Website and blog
In addition to paying for the server and the CMS on which to host your pages, creating a website and a blog does not have many direct costs associated with it, apart, of course, from the person in charge of managing it and creating the content.
Additionally, these are one-time costs that we amortize over time. To reduce the costs associated with content creation, the internal team can leverage their knowledge to write content following SEO guidelines.
- Know our audience
It can be very useful to have analysis tools for our customers to understand their interests, needs, purchasing habits, products that interest them most, interaction channels, their response to our campaigns… in this way we can send them personalized communications and offers that increase the value.
- Increase visibility
Without having to incur large costs, we can create structured content with a good SEO strategy that allows us to position ourselves as experts in a specific subject and for potential clients to find us. In addition, we can rely on social networks to increase visibility and reach a broader audience of users.
- Increase productivity
Automating many tasks will save us time and money, which will make it possible to invest that time in other more valuable tasks, such as thinking about new actions to continue improving results. We can automate email chains, marketing campaigns, data analysis, conversion…
- Remarketing/retargeting strategies
Thanks to digital marketing we can know which users have been browsing our website at a given time and what actions they have taken to impact them again later in the appropriate place, media and time.
- Improve service and customer support
Marketing actions must be accompanied by good customer service and good service. The people who contact our potential customers before the purchase, or our customers after it, must offer excellent treatment and provide added value, which will make users more likely to buy again.
If we do not offer good service, it is likely that users will not buy. For example, this study shows that 15% of users hang up the phone when they are made to wait more than 40 seconds on a call.
You know how to do it?
Digital marketing strategies and actions to win
We suggest some key ideas to add value to your business in times of crisis and, in this way, improve the effectiveness of investment in advertising and digital marketing.
Audience segmentation: invest in your database
In digital marketing it is easier to know users than in traditional marketing, so, in turn, it is easier to adapt our actions to them and, therefore, obtain better results.
A well-segmented, detailed and thick database will be the most valuable tool to have room for action in the most unfavorable times.
When we know our target and we know to whom we want to direct the effort of our investments, digital marketing can be very useful to us, as it allows us to segment our target audience in a very precise way. It is much more feasible to determine the activity of users on the Internet: their consumption habits, their interests and needs, their journey through the purchasing process, etc.
In this way, we will know how to differentiate marketing campaigns and to whom to direct each type of content, centralize the most relevant offers for each type of prospects and know through which channels (according to which ones they use most frequently or in which that demonstrate greater interaction).
Invest in social networks with little profit margin?
Social networks play a fundamental role in digital marketing. They have an enormous influence on society and their impact is directly related to the consumption and purchasing habits of users. People increasingly discover new products and services through social networks. In addition, social networks also serve as product recommendation engines. There is no longer just word of mouth.
Users spend more and more hours on these networks, so it is very important for companies to have a presence within them . It is not enough to just create a profile, but it has to be active, updated and enhance engagement with your followers and potential clients.
To enhance engagement, you can run promotions or contests aimed at encouraging user interaction with the publications and encouraging them to share them with other users. This way we will increase the visibility of the brand and be able to attract new potential customers.
It is also very important that companies take care of customer service on social networks : that they are able to respond quickly, pleasantly and effectively to user questions and comments.
Practice endomarketing in times of crisis: mentalize your company
Endomarketing is marketing that is carried out within the company, through employees, to achieve alignment of the entire company around common objectives . In this way, all departments of the company work together and know their role perfectly.
It is not only very important that workers firmly believe in the brand and are influencers of it in the market, but also that they are motivated within the economic crisis to avoid reducing the quality of the offer.
Endomarketing actions are aimed at achieving the commitment and motivation of workers with the aim of increasing their productivity and the quality of the service they offer to customers.
Facing the crisis, branding
We must stay in the consumer’s mind through brand memory and keep up with competitors, who surely will not stop investing in advertising investment for the growth of their community.
Thus, through online Display advertising campaigns on websites related to the sector or the implementation of paid campaigns on social networks, development of landing pages, etc., we will improve brand recognition and be able to maintain our positioning in the sector.
To do this, we must put the team to work in brainstorms and encourage creativity and innovation, so that we can add value and create a differentiation that attracts our target audience. This way you won’t go unnoticed!
Collaboration as a success strategy
Join forces with your allies to direct projects with the same common focus: improving the satisfaction and purchasing experience of the end customer. Partners, suppliers, distribution channels… must collaborate on an ongoing basis, establishing a relationship from which they can take advantage.
3 success stories of advertising investment in times of crisis
These three cases that you will see below represent an example of how a customer loyalty marketing strategy can be very effective, even when consumption and return on investment expectations are not, a priori, very favorable.
TRESemmé Giveaway
As we mentioned, users increasingly play an increasingly important role, so it is essential to involve them in our brand and invest in their experience.
We encourage you to use social networks just like TRESemmé did in this campaign in which it was raffling off a kit of shampoos and hair products. As is usual in this type of giveaway, the requirements for users to participate in it were that they comment on the photo, follow the page and tag other users.
In this way, they got users to participate in the campaign and increased engagement with their brand. Not to mention that with this type of marketing campaigns it is easier to attract new customers and increase brand awareness.
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Samsung’s customer loyalty example
You are surely familiar with the “Galaxy forever” campaign, a reference example for customer loyalty and retention. In this case, Samsung offered its customers the possibility of taking a new Galaxy Smartphone in exchange for returning their previous Samsung.
Coca Cola and emotional marketing
In times of crisis, it is very common to see advertising campaigns focused on arousing emotions and good feelings in users through emotional marketing .
Through emotions we manage to make our content viral while engaging our target. Emotions make our target audience pay more attention to us and be more receptive to the messages we send them.
An example of emotional marketing campaigns is that of Coca-Cola. The idea is that consumers, by drinking Coca-Cola, are strengthening their relationships and friendships by “sharing happiness.” Of course, at the same time they quench your thirst. Thus, the brand is positioned among users as a young, fun, carefree brand… and they perceive this image through its campaigns.
You just have to take a look at their social networks, such as Instagram, whose feed is loaded with messages of emotional support and exploits the value of sharing.
Both in times of economic crisis and boom, marketing actions can become our best ally . We must direct our communications to the right audience through the appropriate channels and analyze the performance of all active campaigns and the results obtained to optimize the strategy.
Cutting investment in marketing may seem positive in the short term, as it will reduce costs on our bottom line. However, in the long term it will harm our brand image to the detriment of our ability to compete, we will have less room to react and we will not know how to get out of this.
If we want to retain our customers and get new ones, we have to be on the map and, to do so, we must continue our advertising investment by betting on digital marketing.
Has your investment in the marketing department been affected by the crisis? Tell me your experience in the comments section!
