How to Build a Good Marketing Strategy In a Bad Economy
The world of marketing is a tricky one. Sometimes things go well and you have a steady stream of customers coming in the door, while other times it feels like no one wants to buy anything from anyone. Most of my marketing peers are feeling this right now. The market is slow. Companies are not buying at the same rate they were two years ago.
When times are slow, it can be hard to know how to adjust your strategy so that you can get through the slump as quickly as possible.
Here's my five-step plan for getting through any slowdown:
1. Use the time to review your marketing goals
Use the time to review your marketing goals
When markets are slow, it's a great opportunity to reassess all aspects of your marketing strategy. Make sure that you've set clear and measurable goals for each year's plan, so that you can assess whether or not they're being met. If you've been struggling with reaching these goals, now is the perfect time to re-evaluate them and make sure they are still relevant to your business objectives. If they're no longer achievable or important enough, perhaps it's time for some new ones!
Check if there are any holes in your current approach that need filling
If sales have slowed down over recent months without any obvious reason (e.g., external factors like fluctuations in oil prices), then it could be worth checking whether there are any gaps in the way you operate currently - such as having too few sales representatives on staff at certain times of year - which could be preventing effective communication between departments and customers alike
2. Review your buyer personas
Reviewing your buyer personas is a great way to get started on crafting and implementing your marketing strategy. Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers, which help you understand them better and tailor marketing messages to them. These profiles can help you decide which types of content will resonate with different segments of your audience, and they can also be used as a foundation for developing new strategies based on what works best for each type of buyer.
3. Check your data
Now that you have a clear understanding of your customers, you need to check your data.
Review the data you have and the data you are collecting. Look at what works, what doesn't and if there's anything missing.
Check your analytics to see what is working and how much engagement each channel gets.
4. Look to what works in previous slowdowns
In a previous article, we outlined the four things you can do to effectively manage your business during slowdowns:
Look to what works in previous slowdowns.
Look to what worked in previous downturns.
Look to what worked in previous recessions.
Look to what worked in previous market downturns.
5. Review your content marketing strategy
In the absence of much else, content marketing is your best bet. Content marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content for a defined audience in order to create awareness, drive traffic, build trust and loyalty, convert prospects into customers. It includes email newsletters and blogs but also include other forms of content like eBooks or even videos. But remember: before you can start creating valuable content, it's important to understand what your target audience cares about most so that you can tailor your message accordingly.
When times are tough you need to take a closer look at what you are doing and see what works, and adjust your strategy as necessary to get through the slowdown as quickly as possible.
When times are tough and your business is struggling to grow, one of the best ways to get through the slowdown quickly is by taking a close look at what you are doing and making some adjustments. This means reviewing your goals, buyer personas, data, content marketing strategy and anything else that might be relevant for your business.
Once you have done this review and made any necessary changes in your strategy, it's time to implement them. You will need to put plans into action so they can start working immediately while continuing with whatever else it was that brought about the decline in sales or conversion rates in the first place (e.g., poor quality leads).
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped you understand how to build a marketing strategy when the market is slow. It’s important to remember that it’s not just about implementing new techniques and tactics, but also making sure that what you are doing now still makes sense in light of your goals and objectives as an organization.
