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- Is your B2B marketing ready for next recession?
Is your B2B marketing ready for next recession?
How should I adjust my B2B digital marketing if recession happens?
Stephen Tseng
August 28, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
Dminor Studio Newsletter
August 28th, 2024
Hey, it’s Stephen.
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In today’s issue:
How to recession-proof your B2B digital marketing (if it happens again)
AI is Not Disrupting Search or Making a Dent in Google
Great marketing tactics aren't worth as much as you think
And more….
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My Daily Post — I share my thoughts and learning on LinkedIn at 8:00 am (NY time) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, except for US holidays.
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📖 Deep Dive - How to recession-proof your B2B digital marketing (if it happens again)
If you paid attention to the financial market, you would know that on August 5th, the global market crashed (or dropped?) deeply.
One of the fears was US might have another recession coming, given weak macroeconomy numbers.
Most of my clients in the US and China are still not optimistic about the economy in the next 6 months.
It leads to a question I received very often in the last 3 weeks:
“How should I adjust my B2B digital marketing if recession happens?”
Should I just stop all my marketing activities?
During the recession, every marketing leader is thinking about the same question: should I just stop all my marketing activities during these uncertain times?
My answer would be you should not stop marketing activities.
Here are my thoughts:
You still need to do marketing for the future
Yes, business activities are quiet and slow during the recession.
But most businesses still need to survive in the market.
It is time to review your marketing plan and budget. Most importantly, you still need to keep your marketing activities going.
Here is why:
Don’t wait until everything is quiet.
You might think, during this time, you should stop marketing activities until things calm down.
The truth is it will be too late when things calm down.
In B2B marketing, it takes a certain time to build up trust and close sales deals.
You need to fill up your sales pipeline in advance before you can generate sales revenue.
It takes longer to nurture leads during this time.
Nurturing leads during a recession will take much longer.
That is why you still need to have your marketing campaign going.
The real question is how to market effectively
If you want your business to survive, you need to fill your sales pipeline sooner than later.
Stopping marketing is not a good option.
The real question is not, “Should I stop marketing?”
It should be “How do I market effectively during the recession?”
Below are two actions you can take:
Review your marketing budget.
You might need to review your marketing budget again.
Try to allocate your marketing budget, according to your sales prediction.
You may need to predict the recession will last 6-12 months.
80/20 rule.
As soon as you have your marketing budget in mind, you can use the 80/20 rule to decide which marketing activities you want to have.
If you have a track record, try to allocate 80% of your marketing budget to marketing activities that can bring results in the short term (1-3 months).
Allocate 20% of your marketing budget to marketing activities that will bring results in the long run (3-6 months).
The principle is you want to have sales in the short term to help your company.
Focus more on outbound digital marketing in the short term
Outbound digital marketing brings results sooner, but it is not as sustainable as inbound marketing.
On the other hand, inbound marketing takes time to see results, but it is more sustainable.
During the recession, you might need to put more budget into outbound digital marketing in the short term.
Below are some outbound digital marketing channels you may consider:
Online ads
Online ads are a very direct channel.
You will reach your target audience directly.
Also, during the recession, many businesses will pull out their online ads.
It means you might be able to get a cheaper price.
LinkedIn outreach
LinkedIn is a good platform to market your business.
The biggest advantage of LinkedIn is that you can find the exact target audience through their profiles.
It makes your marketing outreach very precise.
Still keep inbound marketing
Although outbound digital marketing should be your first priority during this time, you should still maintain your inbound digital marketing.
Below are some inbound digital marketing channels you should consider:
Content marketing
You should have a clear strategy for your online content.
Think about what topics your target audience might be interested in.
More importantly, your content should help your target audience solve their problems.
Newsletter marketing
Most B2B prospects still rely on emails to communicate every day.
The newsletter would be a great way to nurture your potential clients.
Plus, you really own your audience on this channel.
SEO.
SEO is also a good way to market your business in terms of inbound digital marketing activities.
It takes time to see the results, but the results last longer.
The easiest way to do SEO is to keep putting good content on your website and promote your articles through other different channels.
Focus on the things you can control (Mindset thing)
During the recession, you might find your life and work have many uncertainties.
The media is all about bad news.
The truth is there are a lot of things you cannot control.
You should focus on the things you control, for example:
How you run your business
How to take care of yourself mentally and physically
How you spend your time every day
How you react to the current situation
How you live your life
On the other hand, don’t overreact to the things you cannot control, e.g. news.
Takeaway
If we look at history, all recessions were solved in the end.
It is just a matter of time.
You don’t need to stop your marketing activities.
Instead, you should adjust your marketing activities to fit the current situation and promote your business effectively.
More importantly, remember to focus on the things you can control.
Don’t focus on the things you cannot control.
Your mindset will impact everything you do.
🧙♂️ My Picks
AI is Not Disrupting Search or Making a Dent in Google — I thought more people would use AI for search. Glad to know SEO still works.
Attribution is Dying. Clicks are Dying. Marketing is Going Back to the 20th Century — I did find attribution data is more inaccurate now. It goes back to marketing fundamentals again: Right Message, Right Place, Right Audience.
How AI Is Revolutionizing Marketing In 2024 — AI is a must-have skill for marketers now. Period.
Top Companies by Generative AI Patents — Guess what? The top 3 are all Chinese companies. And 6 of the top 10 are Chinese companies.
🔧 What I Have Used
Unhooked — This is the best Chrome extension that makes YouTube distraction-free by far. Highly recommend.
📚 What I have watched
Ernest & Celestine — I watched this animation in the theater recently with my family. The story and art are nearly perfect. And it made me laugh all the time. A great movie to watch with your friends and family.
Before you go: Here are 2 ways I can help
B2B Digital Marketing Solution — We help B2B companies grow business through proven B2B digital marketing approaches.
China B2B Digital Marketing Solution — We use China-specific digital marketing approaches to help B2B companies grow in China market.
Thanks for reading,
Stephen Tseng
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