Why You Shouldn’t Drop Your Marketing Budget in a Recession

She began her digital marketing career at an IT outsourcing company before transitioning into agency work, gaining experience at an SEO agency prior to joining Thrive. Use data tools like Google Analytics to track key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates, cost-per-lead and customer lifetime value. Focusing on retaining existing customers usually offers better returns than chasing new ones. Yes, digital marketing during recession can help you engage with cost-conscious customers when done right. Email marketing, retargeting ads and social media engagement also perform well due to their low cost and ability to reach warm or existing audiences. If you’re navigating a downturn and need expert support to realign your marketing recession strategy, partner with a team that can drive results in uncertain times.

According to a study by Neilson, brands should actually rethink their decision to reduce their marketing budget. With inflation rates higher than they’ve been in more than 40 years, the big question marketing teams should be asking themselves is, how are we currently spending our marketing dollars, and do we really have a data-driven understanding of our profit margins, customer CaC, lifetime value, and AOV by key customer segments? Many brands spent the second half of 2022 in denial around inflation and how that was directly impacting their sales.

Users who used to be reachable on laptops and smartphones are now to be found in a non-skippable, targeted OTT environment. With advertisers having more advanced technology to reach their target users and determine the impact on revenue, the long-term problem of brand recognition is virtually erased. We can now quantitatively measure the impact that advertising is having on a company’s bottom line. And with today’s advertising technology, advertising investment can be smart and calculated, resulting in both short and long-term gains. Numerous studies have been conducted on the short and long-term impacts of advertising during declining economic conditions.

Audit Your Marketing Channels and Performance Benchmarks

A study published in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly concluded that hotel firms that invested in marketing during the 2008 downturn saw better immediate revenue outcomes and longer-run gains. T.J. Maxx (TJX Companies) boosted ad spend by 15% and shifted messaging to attract new bargain-seeking consumers. The stock market tended to reward companies, especially B2C service firms, that increased advertising during recessions, reflecting investor expectations that these firms would capture future growth. A 2011 Journal of Marketing study by Srinivasan et al. found that many firms actually underspend on advertising during recessions, to their detriment.

Update Your Messaging Based On Changes In Consumer Spending

Every economic downturn eventually ends, and when the recovery begins, brands that planned ahead gain ground fastest. People discover new platforms, spend more time in niche communities and engage with different content formats. Fortunately, digital marketing tools offer everything you need to stay informed. A disciplined, data-first approach is essential for digital marketing during recession.

Cutting back on advertising during a recession is often seen as a short-term cost-saving measure, but the truth is that marketing during economic uncertainty can actually cost less and reap bigger rewards. Don’t cut your marketing budget in a recession; stick with what works best. Recessions don’t last forever, so use the time to conduct a content gap analysis to better position your brand against competitors on valuable keywords and topics. Paid search through Google Ads, Bing and social media offer easy-to-measure ROI, valuable customer data and the opportunity to A/B test to optimize ad spend.

• In their article from 2014, The Role of Advertising during Recession, Prof. Dr. Ayşen Akyüz and Dr. Mustafa Ercilasun mentioned that “In a recession, the first things that a company usually cuts come from the advertising budget.
• And although the joke is still on marketers, it feels we’ve learned a thing or two from past economic downturns.
• In our latest Global Issues Barometer study, three-quarters (73%) of the global population exasperatedly admitted that they don’t expect their incomes to keep pace with inflation.

Even when customers are hesitant to buy, they’re still paying attention. For marketers, this means expanded reach without expanded cost. Digital marketing is particularly well-suited to recession conditions because it offers a high return on advertising during a recession investment (ROI) across multiple channels. These investments rarely pay off overnight but prepare you to scale when the market rebounds. It’s a time to fine-tune your messaging, improve your website, publish evergreen content and build operational resilience. Your email list, social media following and organic website traffic are all assets that can drive compounding value over time.

Working with a full-service digital agency (hey, like us!) breaks down silos and increases a brand’s ability to change messaging and content quickly. You’ll need to utilize SEO, Paid Search, social media and other sales channels to stay in front of existing customers and get your message out to potential new clients. The company grew in 2008, with sales exceeding both 2006 and 2007, before the financial impact was felt worldwide. As the Depression worsened, Post made significant cuts to its marketing budget. Marketing during a recession is therefore less expensive, more impactful, and more likely to result in long-term returns through increased market share.

Effective advertising can help brands that adopt short-term pricing changes reach customers effectively, capture market share, and encourage long-term customer loyalty. Ensuring that advertising investments work as hard as possible to drive higher media value is even more important during a downturn. Focusing on channels that allow for precision targeting, low wastage and high measurability is a good place to start. The energy crisis and the war in Ukraine have combined with prevailing negative economic conditions to create an economic downturn, and many economists are now saying that a global recession is all but inevitable. What started as a college kid trying to figure out how to run events in multiple cities has evolved into a text message-powered empire that consistently fills 1,000 to 3,000-person venues across the country, multiple times per week. The evidence clearly shows that maintaining or increasing marketing spend during economic downturns yields better results than cutting back.

Go to market GTM strategy: definition & 9-step guide 2026 Asana

That is the core mindset behind a strong GTM strategy. ”, ask “did this product launch strategy create the outcome we expected? Lisa Kamm, Head of Product and Design at Dow Jones, noticed how product teams are “held accountable for everything” but usually without direct authority over budgets, teams, or every decision.

This is where automation and AI can have an outsized impact. Teams use product experimentation, AI prototyping, cohort analysis, and AI-assisted revenue modelling to understand price sensitivity and forecast impact. Instead of going “after enterprises” or “SMBs”, you are choosing a segment where you have a real shot at winning. A modern GTM strategy, especially in AI-heavy, SaaS environments, usually includes at least these pieces.

Consideration In the middle "consideration" phase we're talking to managers, end users, developers, those in charge of data security and vetting. The different people mentioned above need different types of content and material to convince them to continue to the next stage. We created integrations with these tools, got listed on their app stores and created content so that if a user searches for ‘intercom pricing’ we’re there on the first page of Google. Now that we're focused on sales, we're still doing content but it's also sales memes, sales videos, deep research pieces and a lot of focus on LinkedIn, as that is where sales people often are.

How to create a go-to-market strategy in 9 steps

The slideshare includes the strategy, tactics, assets, phases and social media strategy. "Focus on use cases — you need to be descriptive and explain exactly how your users will benefit from this integration. Some may be aware of IFTTT, but many may not be, so it’s an opportunity to educate." If you aim to be the number one educator of potential customers in a subject like SEO, then you’ll be up against people like Neil Patel and Brian Dean who rank at the top.

It was much harder to sell a support product when the value exists but you can't always quantify it. HelloScreen has been through all the lessons learned and the conclusion so far is to have a compelling product that can clearly show value (in numbers) for a large and preferably growing market. HelloScreen has grown even though our initial GTM strategy was vague.

Real-world GTM strategy examples

• Now that you have an understanding of your target market and the value your product offers, you have a better understanding of what price a consumer might be willing to pay for your product.
• Segmentation is the process of identifying these shared similarities and researching the kinds of individuals or organizations that would be most likely to purchase your product.
• The value proposition that you identify should be as much about the target market you are selling to as the product itself.

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the way your company turns a product bet into real, measurable outcomes in the market. Plus, you have a solid product marketing strategy, and you’re ready to send it out into the world and get it to the people. The product should do as much of the work as possible but good sales people are not in a zero-sum game with product, they're a boost and, on enterprise deals, companies expect to talk to sales people. This slideshare shows how Symyx ran a GTM strategy that grew revenue and bookings and along with the before and after numbers.

Our target market evolved but the way we reach them is still roughly the same- via content and integrations. The solution is instant and interactive screen sharing, meaning you can send the customer a link and that instantly starts an interactive screen sharing session. When a customer fills in an application form or quote on your website and your sales agent gives them a call, you can’t ask every one of them to set up gtm strategy a Zoom screen share, so you can show them your presentation. There’s less of a market for a quick peek type technical support service and it’s used by many other teams outside of customer support. We first thought that HelloScreen was for taking a quick look at the user’s screen, when they had a customer support problem, to see the problem and fix it. HelloScreen is the next generation of screen sharing built for 'actually' doubling sales conversion rates, most often for 'over the phone sales'.

A useful way to think about GTM is as a set of decisions you make on purpose instead of by accident. On the other side, you have teams shipping features, campaigns, and experiments every week. GTM lives at the intersection of company strategy and day-to-day delivery.