Recession Survival

The only thing any business owner with a will of steel needs to remember is that all recessions come and go and none are forever.

This attitude helps develop a more proactive perspective on recession survival. The single word that plays the most important role in recession survival is “creativity.”

What Causes a Recession?

It’s important to know what causes a recession in order to check your business creativity level and help your business survive.

As a business owner, you need to be aware of the economic issues that bring on a recession. These include:

. Weaker consumer investment

. High unemployment

. Lower business investment

. High inflation and inflationary volatility

The U.S. Federal Reserve referred to the period between 1980 to 2007, as “The Great Moderation” which was marked by a wave of relative macroeconomic stability.

Savvy business owners find it helpful to maintain memberships in business organizations and associations that keep them current on economic changes. This helps them quickly identify the potential for an oncoming recession.

Keep in mind that the definition of a recession is an economic downward trend in the business cycle. The emphasis here is on “business cycle” and not long term business.

This downward trend is characterized by an actual decline in production and employment. The ripple effect is a decline in income and by association consumer spending.

A Recession-Proof Marketing Guide

When you can pinpoint the causes of a recession and know its effect on your specific business, you have the tools to create a recession-proof marketing guide.

The first step to create a recession-proof marketing guide is to gather all the evidence before a recession occurs.

A recession-proof marketing guide requires designing, planning and implementing marketing strategies that produce desired results. These strategies include:

. Ensuring continued contact with clients

. Emphasizing your leadership role to employees, customers and target markets

. Clarifying the business marketing message in a more creative manner

. Revisit your business model and rethink and specify profitability

. Consider the monetary value of your business expertise

. Review financial access from internal and external sources should it be needed

Creative Recession Survival Strategies

Becoming a member in a local or national professional business organization is one way to know what other business strategies are and if they are successful, as well as those that are less successful.

By expanding business creativity, there are a wealth of options that become available to business owners.

It is also important to maintain focus on existing clientele while expanding this group by encouraging client referrals. Social media is a big help for new business presentations.

Employees’ duties can also be creatively managed by setting up ideation teams. Very often, employees have a clear assessment of areas of a business that need updating or improvement. Value their marketing input.

Recession Visibility

Nothing says recession-proof business like maintaining a highly visible profile. There is a treasure trove of ways to do this.

Take your business online in a proactive team effort. Customers love to know as much about a business as businesses are willing to share. Set up a Skype video that “stars” different members of the business staff.

Celebrate discount sales and marketing events on video to cover a wider target market. Take the time to plan ahead for holiday events to stay ahead of competitors.

The key to maintaining a high profile locally and online is consistent advertising. Form a marketing team that creates product and service advertisements for a wide range of public relations venues.

Recession? What Recession?

To most customers a stable business is never seriously affected by a recession. It is the expectation of consumers your business products and services will be readily available under all circumstances and events. That being so, it is up to business owners to ensure their business reliability is messaged throughout the marketing guide and all public relations venues.

Give a Little to Keep Business Active

Even during a recession when business finances may be restrictive, business owners should be able to reach into their rainy day fund to afford to give little extras to their most loyal customers. Customer appreciation is rewarded by solidifying B2C relationships.

Don’t forget the importance and value of B2B relationships during a recession. It may be prudent to take the time to study B2B transactions of the past and reactivate them through social and business meetings.

These meetings could also highlight various new business owners, business speakers and consultants, as well as local celebrities.

These meetings could also be open to the public via video and announced on social media. This is also a good time to highlight local athletes and children who have been actively involved in or successfully sponsored community and charity events.

Reach Out to Civic and Charitable Organizations

Part of surviving a recession for business marketing is creating a solid business image and model. It is important for local and national customers to know how your business responds to civic and charitable needs.

One of the most cost-effective ways of doing this is to volunteer personal time and also that of your staff. This presents beneficial, unified optics of your business policies.

A Pre and Post Recession Marketing Guide

All businesses eventually amass valuable past marketing history. A recession is the time to make full use of the past marketing plans and use them as a reference on how to retrofit archival plans to fit into a recessional downward trend.

While business transactions may occur more slowly than before a recession, this can be an advantage if the business owner can reshape business projections to suit a recession.

This is similar to filling in recession gaps as they emerge. For instance, if customers are not spending in volume during a recession, it may be beneficial to send them samples of a new product or offer a service discount.

To fill in recession gaps more creatively, consider online discount coupons that can be used to encourage purchases.

When time hangs heavy on customers’ hands during a recession due to unemployment, it may be a good idea to present graphic videos of various aspects of the business products or services as tutorials.

A New Recession Survival Marketing Guide

One of the most valuable points of a marketing guide is tracking changes made during a recession. By highlighting these changes in comparison to pre-Recession marketing strategies, the business has a reliable reference for new ideas that have growth potential post recession.

Keep all data up-to-date from mailing lists, patrons of business events and meetings, speakers and dignitaries. When sending out customer newsletters and postcards, these attract immediate attention.

This is also true of business website blogs. Business event participation during a recession makes for great public relations references that often create social media buzz.

Formulate these recession marketing guide references so they are SEO and keyword rich, capture online traffic and enhance business browser ranking.

A Recession Proof Check on Data Sources

When a business owner sorts through past emails to and from clients, it is possible to catalog these and refine their potential for post recession marketing plans. Take the time to review all data and additional data sources such as variables in business inboxes.

Very often what is dismissed as junk mail in an inbox has potential for B2B and B2C business contacts. These types of junk mail contacts provide business owners with a ready supply of sales and marketing potential customers even when they are selling to your business.

This is what turnaround in sales and marketing is all about when the need to survive a recession is a priority. Turn junk mail contacts into customers and/or business partners.