Worried About the Tech Economy? Here’s Why You Should Keep Investing in Digital B2B Marketing.

When the economy takes a downturn, it’s natural for businesses to slash spending in the face of uncertainty. As a result, B2B companies face significant challenges—from reduced revenue and cash flow issues to shrinking budgets and changing market dynamics. While cutting back on your digital marketing spend might seem like a good way to save money, continuing to invest in digital marketing efforts during economic uncertainty can actually give you a competitive edge. In fact, it may be even more important during challenging times than when the economy is booming.

Let’s look at some of the ways digital marketing can help to recession proof your business and strategic approaches that can extend the value of your marketing budgets.

Staying top of mind

When businesses pull back on spending, marketing is often one of the first budgets to go on the chopping block. According to Statista, advertising spend diminishes considerably during economic crises—for example, it fell 3.7% when the pandemic struck in 2020. More recently, McKinsey & Company surveyed three dozen North American CMOs in December 2022 and found that marketing spend at their companies had been cut by between 8-20% over the previous 12 months.

But pulling back on marketing efforts will only save you money in the short term. With less revenue flowing into the market during a recession, it’s even more important to stay top of mind—and that requires a strong digital presence. According to McKinsey, “During times of economic uncertainty, marketing is more important than ever… By eliminating inefficient spend and reinvesting it in high-growth areas, resilient marketers will weather pending storms while also creating opportunities to rebound stronger.”

Maintaining digital marketing efforts can help to ensure brand visibility throughout the down economy—and beyond, when the market picks up again. A recent Statista study found that the brands that cut back on marketing and ad spend during recessions saw the lowest market share growth when the crisis ended compared to those that maintained or increased their media spend. So, continued marketing is an investment in both your short- and long-term success.

Smart ways to market on a budget

If you’re dealing with staffing limitations or tight budgets, assess the tools and systems you have in place to streamline digital marketing efforts and support a dynamic online presence. This might also be a good time to look at your SEO performance and identify opportunities for improvement. Make sure you’re using the right keywords and keep an eye on how high your site is ranking, because your position can change frequently as the market shifts or the algorithm is updated. Your website’s overall performance also impacts search rankings and stickiness. Page load speed is critical along with ongoing maintenance to ensure availability and performance.

Keeping your website up to date and regularly publishing new content that’s clear, compelling, and provides value will also help to keep your customers engaged and give prospects a reason to choose your brand over the competition. Consider implementing a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, or AdobeAEM to streamline the backend and make regular updates easy. Doing a content audit to see what kind of assets are connecting with your customers can also help you make smart decisions about where to focus your efforts going forward.

While it may seem counterintuitive, marketing during a recession also presents a unique opportunity for growth. With less money flowing into the market, it becomes quieter. That means you can break through the noise that may have previously seemed insurmountable—especially in B2B markets that are saturated and highly competitive, such as SaaS, AI solutions, and cloud software. Another reason to consider doubling down rather than pulling back.

Why digital marketing is the way to go

When you’re trying to reduce expenditure, digital marketing offers a number of advantages. For starters, it’s considerably less expensive than traditional advertising on TV, radio, or billboards. At the same time, it allows you to expand your reach across channels and markets—which means you can tap into new places and customers without a large upfront investment. In other words, you get more bang for your buck. Marketing through websites, social media, and email also gives you a direct connection to your customers, which makes it easier to nurture the relationship and build long-term loyalty compared to static channels.

Unlike traditional advertising, digital marketing delivers added value in the form of customer engagement data. Tracking the performance of various digital marketing initiatives lets you see what’s working and what’s falling flat, so you can continually fine-tune your efforts to improve outcomes. You can also use that data to enhance personalization and target more precisely. All of this adds up to greater efficiency and ROI.

A dynamic digital marketing strategy can help you weather the storm of economic uncertainty. Let’s talk about how we can help you make the most of your marketing dollars, streamline backend processes to empower your teams, and keep your website performing optimally—after all, it is your most powerful digital marketing tool.