No, it wasn’t in 2008, it was in 2020 – “The Pandemic Recession” and it was a short-lived 6 months.
I remember at the time, R Print had lost 90% of our customers due to enforced lockdowns cancelling exhibitions, conferences and meetings; the lifeblood of our print customers!
Was it time to panic? Yes – for about a day!
Often, companies will rush to cut as many costs as possible once a recession hits and some did that in the 2008 recession. Yes, we were around then too! However, that’s a short-term view. Recession trends show that marketing is crucial to a business’ success and odds of surviving the slump. Businesses that come out of a recession strong don’t make significant cuts to their marketing budgets.
So what did we do during Covid? Shortly after we panicked, we then regrouped; the previous recession had taught us that those businesses that survived and thrived were the companies that remained visible and carried on with their marketing.
What did we do?
We carried on networking.
There were many online options, but we ensured our brand was visible by designing both virtual and real backdrops for online meetings – and we designed them for our customers too! It was a new challenge for us, and we loved it.
We got busy on socials.
We created branded social media graphics and shared our thoughts and all the projects we were doing to continue the community feel that we love. We’re an authentic bunch and we love sharing our processes and ideas.
We reviewed our pricing plans.
We saw the impact the recession was having on our clients and created offers that appealed to marketing on a budget. This consisted of shorter runs and more targeted print marketing. It was successful and we’ve still got those clients today.
We changed our audience.
We looked at markets that weren’t affected by the lockdown and recession – retail, property and the signage industry were booming – we directed our online and print marketing to the people who were busy and needed our help.
We built on our customer loyalty.
We used appreciation and positive messaging to make sure our existing clients knew we appreciated them by keeping in touch regularly. By continuing to market to our customers, we showed our stability, giving them confidence that we would weather the storm.
We kept writing.
We didn’t curl up and cry, instead, we kept writing our blogs and sharing advice. We covered advantages of print for SMEs, how training has moved online but print was still needed, and how to prevent poor backdrops on Zoom, especially as we were spending so much time on zoom calls.
Currently, our business is stronger than before the pandemic. We wouldn’t be where we are now if it wasn’t for our fantastic staff, loyal customers, and the fact that we did not give up on our marketing.
Will there be a recession in 2023? Yes, there will be – but that means it’s time to get busy marketing so you can come out strongly on the other side.
Don’t give up marketing your brand, contact us for your print needs today.