Recession-Proof Marketing Tips: Learn from Kellogg’s

When recessions hit, businesses naturally tighten their wallets. And more often than not, many businesses drastically cut their marketing departments.

Smart marketers, however, understand there is a great opportunity in times of recession – especially for those who crank up their marketing efforts. If you do it right, you can swoop in and grab up market share while your competitors are huddled in the corner in the fetal position. Just like Kellogg’s did in the Great Depression.

Before the Great Depression, Post dominated packaged cereal. Predictability, Post cut way back on advertising while Kellogg’s doubled its marketing budget. By 1933, even as the economy plummeted, Kellogg’s profits had risen almost 30 percent and afterwards became the industry’s dominate player.

Now, I’m not telling you to spend your cash like it’s 1999 (or 1929). You still have to be smart about where you spend your marketing dollars. Your specific plan will depend on your target market and your unique objectives. During down times, you should generally focus on measurable, direct-impact marketing media – the stuff that will bring in actual sales now.

Here are a few proven marketing ideas that will bring you results during good times or bad:

Search Engine Optimization
If your website shows up on the first page of results for your keywords, you will get a constant flow of customers who are looking for exactly what you have to offer. Aside from increased traffic and sales, getting to the top of the search engines will build your reputation as a leader in your industry.

PPC Search Marketing
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising offers more targeting control than organic search, and you can limit your campaign to specific geographic regions or time of day. Have a professional set up and manage your campaign and you’ll see a huge difference in results.

PPC Contextual Advertising
Many people assume that content network ads don’t perform as well as search. This is true some of the time, but not always. Average cost per click is often lower with contextual ads, so you can achieve comparable results to your search ads even if the conversion rate is lower. However, just because you can display your search ads in the content network doesn’t mean you should. Since people seeing these ads didn’t necessarily search for your keywords, you need to use an ad that matches their frame of mind.

Affiliate Marketing
The allure of this tactic is: you can get thousands of websites to promote you, and you only pay for completed sales. But, it’s a lot harder than it sounds. If you are generous with your payouts and treat your affiliates right, this channel can have a big affect on your company’s sales.

Email Marketing
It costs 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to sell to an existing customer. Effective email marketing will help nurture relationships and retain existing customers. Send customers and prospects good offers and valuable information. Customize everything to their specific needs and let them know how you can help them.

Joint Ventures
It’s smart to use your own customer list, and it’s also smart to leverage the loyal customer base of partner companies. Pay your partner a commission for sales they generate, or cross-promote their products to your customer list.

Direct Mail
Response rates for direct mail campaigns are way down, and non-targeted campaigns are usually a waste. But if you target the right list with the right message and the right offer, direct mail can work magic. If all your competitors are sending email, a personalized letter in the mail will stand out.

Each marketing plan is different. So make sure to customize it to meet your objectives. Test everything. Ditch what doesn’t work and increase spending on what does. Don’t let a recession get in the way of reaching success.

– Dave