A recession brings uncertainty to businesses. (No kidding!) Jobs may not be as secure as they once were, cuts must be made, and the spending habits of consumers will change. In a recession, marketing (and other spending budgets that are traditionally considered to be “overheads”) will be cut first.
Conversely, customers will see that your business is strong and trustworthy if you continue to market during a recession 🤷♀️ And if you have to do that, you need to get real savvy about how to utilize your marketing dollars a lot more effectively.
Trust me when I say that marketers are more aware than ever that their craft may be on trial. Smart marketers, and small business founders who market on their own until they can afford coherent support, are the ones looking to plan their budgets in a way that minimizes waste.
Here are 3 rules to reduce wasted marketing dollars (spoiler alert: it involves increasing your content marketing distribution)
1. The 10/90: Creations vs distribution rule:
A majority of folks over index on how much content we create. And we go under on distribution. This is often because brand owners are more bored by our own messages because we see it over and over again. It helps to remember that not everyone in our audience has seen things as often we have seen.So remember this formula:
10% Creation
90% Distribution
(We’ll dive into a lot more detail about that, and the two more points below, in articles of their own as part of this series on making intelligent marketing decisions in a recession.)
2. 1:4: Creation/Curation:
Curation is highly overlooked among marketers.
Remember your own content is not the only way to make a point.
For every one piece of your own material that you create, aim to curate 4-5 pieces of material from the industry. When you look outside, be sure to look within your community including co-creators, partners, creative and business commons. You’ll find gratifying amounts of material once you open your eyes to collaboration and sharing of credit.
3. Create advocacy:
Advocacy is underserved!
Often when it comes to sharing content that is already created within an organization, a lot is expected from people who are lower down the rungs of the ladder. While it’s fantastic that advocacy programs are becoming much more common, the trouble is often that people are expecting talent to do the job of leaders. The single most important piece of advice I can give you as it relates to advocacy is this: move advocacy up the ladder and ask more leaders to show up and share your content. This is where you’ll get a lot more bang for your content marketing buck.
Mood of the moment: Stop wasting content you already have!
Know your content; know yourself.
I am offering an intensive review workshop for small business publishers. A deep dive into your content so that you know exactly what documents and systems you have (and might have forgotten), what formats you own, and where you can find the original pieces so that you CAN USE THEM MUCH MORE.
You’re going to need it in a recession.
If you’ve got over a 100 pieces of content and still find your team creating a lot of new stuff, you may need this:
