A pandemic, the war in Ukraine, material shortages or price rises, etc. The impact has left many companies concerned about sustainable growth and long-term performance prospects. This means that keeping the costs of digital marketing strategies down does not seem to be the best option.
Already from 2020. The pandemic has forced companies to suspend or even permanently shut down their operations, and consumers and shoppers have to adapt their buying habits to a new world of social disconnection and self-quarantine. Many businesses are looking at the barrel of online retail permanently, even if it still seems unclear.
However, if there is such a thing as recession-proof marketing, it probably involves a multi-channel approach that focuses on very new shopping habits.
Marketing techniques such as search engine optimisation (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and social media marketing can be particularly useful in this period.
Recession-proof marketing is now more important than ever, so instead of cancelling any digital marketing campaigns, companies would benefit from strengthening them.
Many companies are taking precautions and cutting back on advertising spending in response to the economic downturn, but most professional business analysts agree that this is not the best strategy.
Decades of research show that maintaining or increasing advertising pays off better. MarketSense found that companies that pursued long-term branding strategies and short-term market sales were able to recover from the 1980s recession, while McGraw Hill researchers found that companies that had been in the market for a long time during the 1980s were able to recover from the 1980s recession. increased their advertising budgets in the recession grew almost 4 times faster than those that did not.
The number 1 promotional tool for your business is your website. In a recession, it can be very tempting to cut business spending. But one of the things you must do is to keep your website online, and if you don’t have a website, subscribe.
Yes, you will have to pay for it, but otherwise you will pay even more over the next few weeks or months for no online presence, zero search engine traffic, reduced customer loyalty, less evidence of your level of expertise in your industry, reduced customer trust in you, and no way of collecting emails. mailing addresses, thus keeping people interested in your services.
Your business website is the online home of your business. People go there to find out more about what you offer, to educate themselves about your industry and, of course, to buy your products or services safely and without fear. Without a website, they will no longer be able to do any of these things.
Ongoing online advertising campaigns mean that revenue will continue to be generated. In a recession, money is at a premium, so being able to supplement your business income is crucial. One of the main benefits of online advertising is that it provides businesses with a wealth of data that can help them improve their SEO and/or paid advertising campaigns for better results and greater efficiency. Using professional marketing can increase returns and reduce costs in areas that are not effective.
All this means smarter incomes.
In addition, search marketing strategies such as SEO can help businesses benefit from increased visibility as competitors remove themselves from search results when campaigns are abandoned.
Paid media is the same. As competitors withdraw from the market, metrics such as cost-per-click and cost-per-click can decrease, making traffic more accessible. A balanced campaign can help companies come out stronger on the other side.
The reality is that search engine marketing takes a long time and good results are hard to achieve. But it is much easier to lose ground than to regain it. As competitors complete their SEO efforts, this gives businesses that stay on course the opportunity to rise up the search engine results page (SERP) and stay there.
In fact, digital marketing is one of the few areas that is growing during the recession. Here are the specific figures.
In the short term, 2020 Google has noticed a change in search patterns for quarantine-related topics in the early 2000s, including school-related searches, exercise-related topics and, of course, keywords related to presentation. This has meant that shopping, grocery and e-commerce have seen rapid organic growth.
E-commerce has moved to other platforms. Net sales at online retail giant Amazon are up 40% year-on-year in the second quarter. Despite fluctuations in Q1, its advertising business also grew by 41%.
The downturn caused by the pandemic has been very hard on many companies that have not been able to transfer their model to the online world. However, the above statistics show that consumers are still shopping even as they continue to shift their shopping habits online.
There is also no reason for social media advertising to be hampered by more time spent at home, and social media advertising networks have grown faster as people spend more time interacting with brands online.
For many businesses, the most attractive forms of recession-proof marketing are SEO and PPC search.
Search engine optimisation enables companies to grow their business online naturally, without the large budgets required by paid advertising. Search engine optimisation is not free, but the main cost is the initial adaptation of the website to Google/Bing algorithms, followed by adjustments to the page. But SEO is renowned for the best long-term return on investment.
A survey by Search Engine Journal shows that even in 2018. 48% of companies said that organic search provides the highest return on investment. It’s a good long-term investment because it becomes more valuable over time, and a well-optimised website can rank in Google search results for a long time and generate search traffic for months or years.
It is this unique benefit that has led Statista to find that SEO is the only type of online marketing with the best average return on investment, with 32% of marketers worldwide claiming that it consistently delivers the best long-term results, i.e. y. more than almost any other type of marketing. SEO done well pays off in the long run.
In particular, SEO is a measure of effort rather than funding. This means that companies that focus on SEO optimisation during a downturn can reap long-term gains that will last long after the downturn is over. Search marketing gives you the opportunity to sow the seeds of success for the coming year.
SEO keyword research can help businesses get 1st and 2nd page positions, which leads to better traffic from the top half of the traffic stream, which leads to conversions in the bottom half of the traffic stream.
This is especially true for essentials and everyday purchases. People don’t stop buying in a recession, but good search marketing can help brands focus their audiences on the things they really need.
One of the most important parts of digital marketing in a recession is the ability to adapt to changing audience habits. This means focusing on keywords that are relevant to the needs of your audience.
Keyword research is already an essential part of SEO/search ads, which is another reason why SEM can help companies to stay in business during a downturn by better targeting their content to specific audiences. A professionally optimised SEO campaign can use tools such as the Google Keyword Planner to target low-competition keywords that regularly receive medium traffic. In addition, Keyword Planner can help marketers learn about important keyword metrics such as competition and PPC bid prices.
In addition, good content optimisation aims to understand the intent of searchers and to find the keywords that will help searchers reach their ultimate goals. SEO tools such as Google Search Console help marketers understand clicks, impressions and click-through rates (CTR) for key keywords, as well as find new keywords.
Some keyword research tools are designed to collect queries, questions and queries based on longer phrases, which make it much easier for marketers to understand “intent”. Recession-proof marketing in SEO should create content for what the audience wants, and then SEO comes naturally.
Another reason why online marketing, such as SEO, is tempting: digital marketing is always booming in a recession.
In 2008-2009. During the financial crisis, US advertising volumes dropped by almost 18%, but digital advertising (still in its teens at the time) did not drop by nearly as much. Businesses preferred the measurability of paid advertising and search engine optimisation and the reliability of data.
One of the main differences of digital marketing compared to other forms of external advertising is that companies have access to much more data.
Businesses can rely on enterprise-level data using reporting tools such as Google Analytics to see how visitors arrive at their website and track key indicators such as form completion, time spent on site, demographics, conversions, sales/revenue, new users and much more.
“Google Ads/Microsoft Advertising campaign platforms and the Google Search Console provide more detailed data to see how different types of search results perform. This gives marketers the information they need to refine their SEO and PPC strategies. They can also read feedback data to reduce effort in low-value segments and increase effort in high-value segments, thus increasing efficiency.
Finally, these tools also provide some “forecast” data to help marketers better understand the short-term outlook based on historical data.
Earlier this year, Google announced that unpaid organic results would start appearing in the Google Shopping tab of Google search results. It turns out that the timing was right.
This move gave e-commerce marketers a huge new opportunity to drive sales directly from search results and was a major step towards Google’s goal of competing with e-commerce giants like Amazon.
Coincidentally, this move has also given companies a new opportunity to optimise their digital marketing during the recession. Unlike before, Google Shopping organic results do not have to be part of a paid search ad campaign, which means that businesses that are reluctant to fund ads can at least take advantage of the free option. All you need is a Google Merchant Center account and an effort to import your product listing data into the Google Shopping ad platform.
“Amazon is spending €4 billion to stop the decline and give marketers more confidence. The EU has allocated USD 1.5 billion to measures to fight the Corona virus. This makes digital marketing a good strategy for e-commerce sites on Amazon, as shopping habits on the site have largely remained the same or even increased, resulting in a 24% increase in its online sales.
“Amazon” The A9 algorithm is best suited for products with more clicks, higher conversion rates (CR) and products with verified reviews. This means that the retailer ranking algorithm is heavily influenced by the companies that decide to pay to get to the top.
For marketers looking to tap into such markets, Google and Amazon offer shopping and sponsored product opportunities that allow retailers to promote their products in key segments.
The best choice on these platforms is to maintain marketing during the downturn to maintain sales figures and ratings, which are much harder to recover from. To maintain the results, do not let off the gas.
The advantage of search engine optimisation and organic traffic is that they are low cost compared to external marketing efforts.
However, companies should not rush to stop paid advertising online. Modern digital marketing strategies such as search ads and paid social media marketing can still help businesses tap into key audiences – even on a flexible budget.
Media consultant Brad Adgate mentions this in his Forbes article reviewing 2009. recession. According to him, “the ‘noise level’ in a brand’s product category can decrease when competitors reduce their advertising spend”. For this reason, the data from previous years’ surveys always show one thing: it is best to maintain or even increase advertising efforts.
As shopping and business transactions continue to move online (especially in a “quarantined” world), paid digital advertising is the new norm.
Advertising platforms are trying to help businesses understand this. “Google has acted to discourage businesses from cutting advertising costs by offering free advertising credit to small and medium-sized businesses.
These free ad credits mean that small and medium-sized businesses can more easily support existing campaigns with one of the most reliable forms of digital advertising. In total, Google’s credits have provided existing users of the platform with €340 million. These credits are only available to existing advertisers, but they do provide some incentive to keep paid advertisements.
There are other reasons why digital marketing strategies are attractive. Their investment returns are well established.
Paid search ads (e.g. traditional PPC search ads) are one of the most popular forms of digital advertising. 23% of global marketers say this strategy delivers the highest return on investment.
Social media ads are even better, with 30% of respondents saying they find external advertising on social media apps and websites the most helpful. This means that PPC advertising far outperforms many other forms of marketing, which is why search ad platforms such as Google have famously claimed that businesses can generate an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 spent.
Marketers also rank social as one of the most popular strategies, with almost 20% of marketers ranking it as one of the top strategies. they say it gives the highest return. As the social sphere is less affected by social drift, this seems to be a good and strong recession-proof marketing opportunity.
It is this good return on investment that should make paid digital marketing a top business priority in a downturn. And it’s also about the core strength of paid marketing – data. The data helps professional marketers fine-tune your campaign, make adjustments and target only the best audiences.
“The effectiveness of ad platforms on Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon and other websites comes from a wealth of data sources that help marketers create highly optimised campaigns. This includes information on valuable keywords, search sessions, location, demographics, interests, employment, gender, etc. – all of which makes digital advertising much more effective than traditional marketing strategies in a recession.
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