Global Recession And Impact On Businesses That Digital Marketing May Solve

During 2007-2009, the whole world faced a global recession when the U.S housing bubble burst out. This was known to be “The Great Recession.” This didn’t just affect the U.S, but also other countries globally had an impact. The recession deeply affected businesses and concerned them about their performance and growth.

Global trade almost completely collapsed between 2008 and 2009, falling by 15%. Over 30 million jobs were lost globally between 2007 and 2010, and a startling 3% increase in unemployment was detected.

Also, it created havoc in the business sector. Many business owners started cutting their marketing budgets. But this could be the worst decision any business owner could ever Make.

As Rand Fishkin founder of Moz and SparkToro said -

“…that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume.”

Let’s analyze why Rand Fishkin has said that…

But, first of all, let’s understand…

How Recession Impacts Customers

When a recession takes place, consumers change their behavior and buy fewer things which leads to a drop in sales and revenues.

Basically, they reduce their spending. Unemployment goes high and credits get difficult to obtain. And the business which is also a customer of somebody also cuts down on costs.

The cycle keeps on going on and on…

People spend less, businesses start cutting costs that reduce the prices of investments believing there’s no hope of improvements.

Perhaps, to stay in the business… Many business owners started cutting down their business costs for advertising and marketing. Which again resulted in a hammering decision.

According to research by the Harvard Business Review,

“In past downturns, consumer goods companies that were able to increase their share of voice by maintaining or increasing their advertising spending captured market share from weaker rivals.”

The recession period could have been the perfect time to invest in advertising, and marketing your brand. Especially, when your competitors were cutting down their costs during that time.

When a consumer sees 4 or 5 companies for the same product, which makes it difficult to compete in such conditions. Just imagine, if the customer sees your brand only.

Of course, your customer acquisition cost would drastically drop down.

You would be shocked to know that cost per click for Google ads had dramatically reduced in the earlier days of the recession.

And that time, too many businesses realized very late that SEO and Digital Marketing were the best solutions for them to stay and be successful in the businesses.

At that time, their competitors stepped back from online and Digital Marketing as they had a great chance and space to come and beat the competition which would eventually lead to a higher market share.

There is one another famous quote from the investor of the century that resonates best with the recessions which is,

“Our goal is more modest: we simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

Here, we can also consider the example of the 1990 to 1991 recession.

Taco Bell and Pizza Hut grabbed the opportunity when McDonald's cut down its marketing cost. And this brought a 61% increase in sales for Pizza Hut and a 40% increase in sales for Taco Bell. Whereas, McDonald’s sales dropped by 28%.

Unfortunately, there was no Digital Marketing and SEO at that time, but this example perfectly fits today’s scenario.

See also: Digital Marketing Trends For 2023 By Industry Experts

Digitally-Focused Recession Marketing Strategies

1. Adjust Changing Audience Habits: This simply means targeting the keywords that match the intent as per your audience's needs, this drives keyword research into action .

Keyword research is a fundamental part of SEO and Digital Marketing. And, that’s one of the finest reasons why SEO can help companies remain profitable during the recession period.

2. New E-commerce Opportunity: The time turned to good when Google announced the organic results for Google Shopping. SEO, along with the recession gave eCommerce marketers a new opportunity to directly sell their products in Search Results.

Not only this, but it also opened a new opportunity for them to sell on big eCommerce giants like Amazon, eBay, and many other platforms.

This gave businesses a new move to optimize their strategy with SEO and Digital Marketing.

3. Never Stop Paid Advertising: You must have known that SEO and Digital Marketing are much cheaper than outbound marketing. However, businesses shouldn't reduce costs too quickly of the paid advertisements.

Digital Marketing and paid ads can help you be benefited during this period as the chance for running your website’s ads gets enhanced at lower Costs.

One of the media consultants, Brad Adgate says-

“Those advertisers that maintained or grew their ad spending increased sales and market share during the recession and afterward.”

See also: 10 Unmissable Reasons To Learn Digital Marketing In 2023