How Should Brands Look to Grow Their Customer Base?

 

During times of economic downturn, it makes sense that business owners would want to put a little extra money aside for a rainy day or find new room in their budget to help retain their staff. One of the easiest expenses for many businesses to slash is marketing. While companies won’t come to a halt if they skip marketing their products or services for a while, cutting back on marketing efforts may not be the most strategic move to make amidst a recession.

According to Will Margiloff, Chief Strategy Officer, Zeta Global, this instinct to cut marketing budgets during difficult financial times isn’t unusual. “Marketing, especially digital marketing, is so quick. It’s easy to put up, it’s easy to take down. And marketing in general is an easy thing to cut. You’re not cutting bodies, you’re not cutting people, you’re not cutting emotions, right? So very easy for teams to look at. You know, here’s a way we can slice off hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to try and hunker down. And that’s been pretty consistent in many of the downturns,” Margiloff explained.

Despite this natural inclination to want to spend less on marketing during recessions, Margiloff feels that the companies who continue to prioritize marketing can reap the benefits of sticking around, “There’s this opportunity for challenger brands to come up and gain market share. And you’ve seen that happen historically over and over and over again, all the way back into the depression,” Margiloff said.

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