There is ample evidence from past downturns that the company that maintains its marketing spend through the downturn exits the downturn in a far better position than its competition. Even in the worst of times, there is still business to be written, markets to be taken and customers to be won. And a downturn, when many of your competitors may well be going quiet, often represents an unprecedented opportunity to grab a much larger share of voice.

2. Recalibrate your strategy and recast your budget strategically as opposed to simply cutting x% across the board.

People often look for the one thing that companies should do in response to a downturn. I resist being so binary since a downturn represents doom to some but incredible opportunity to others. And even for those for whom it’s a challenge, an across-the-board response is rarely the right one.

At times like this, strategy becomes more valuable than ever. Know where you’re trying to go, the best way to get there, and how you’re going to know that you’ve arrived. Cut those marketing tactics that won’t help get you there and re-invest the money in the tactics that will.

3. Negotiate pricing.

All the vectors you use to communicate to your marketplace are feeling the pinch right now. There is no better time to play hardball on pricing, or to negotiate added extras that usually cost a lot more. Most media outlets will cut their line rates or give you valuable extras like a free newsletter distribution, web conference, white paper distribution or even additional insertions. Trade show organizers may agree to a bigger booth space for the same price or throw in sponsorship opportunities or show guide advertising that in better times might cost you thousands more. Even if your supplier must hold the line on fundamentals, see if you can’t snag some of the valuable extras.

4. If you have channel or other partners, consider pooling budgets and activities to make your dollars go further.

Can you share a trade show booth with partners? Can you initiate a co-op advertising program that sees you put up some of the cost while your channel partners put up the rest? Is the opposite available to you — are you a channel for an OEM with a co-op program?

5. Do not abandon measurement.

If marketing is seen as the easiest thing for companies to cut during a downturn, then measurement is seen as the easiest thing for marketers to cut. After all, it doesn’t really contribute anything, right? Wrong. Harken back to tip No. 2: If you’re not measuring, you have no idea where you are or what got you there, you don’t know what’s working and what isn’t, and you simply can’t be strategic about your marketing spend. When times are good and there’s budget to spare, you might be able to afford to have some things work a little less effectively. When times are tough and every dollar must produce a result, you need to be measuring so you know which tactics are delivering and which ones aren’t.

6. Be transactional if there’s an immediate opportunity.

As I’ve already noted, a downturn means different things for different companies. If there is good business that can be immediately secured, be highly transactional in going after it. Alter all your messaging to “Buy now,” and focus on tactics, like advertising and direct marketing, that communicate transactional messaging best.

7. If there isn’t an immediate opportunity, go long.

It’s far more likely, however, that your customer’s buying cycle has stalled; it almost certainly has lengthened. So if your customers have hunkered down waiting for the storm to pass, there’s no point in blaring the hard sell at them or offering them discounts and other incentives to immediately do something they’re simply not going to. Does this mean you, too, should hunker down and draw the blinds until things blow over? No, it means your messaging should shift to support longer-term objectives such as awareness building, thought leadership and marketplace education. Tactics like media relations, content marketing, trade shows and white papers that establish your authority and expertise are a better use of your resources if this is your reality.

8. In all communications, employ story telling that emphasizes how your product or service saves money or drives additional immediate revenue for your customers. Speak to the pain they’re feeling in a recession.

Whatever the economic conditions, your marketing and communications messaging should be all about your customer, not you. You should always be speaking to the pain your customer feels and how your product or service solves that pain. In a recession, your customer’s pain is almost certainly all about revenue — making more of it or keeping more of it. Make sure you’re speaking to this.

9. Be overly attentive to your existing revenue base.

“Love the one you’re with,” says the old song, and that’s never more relevant than in a downturn, when new customers are hardest to acquire. Your current customers are keeping you in business and it’s almost always cheaper to maintain and build business with existing customers than to find new ones. Lavish your existing customers with attention, look for low-cost ways to improve the value you create for them, and communicate, communicate, communicate — let them know you love them.

10. Effective relationships never expire, so keep talking.

Keep talking to everyone in your value chain, including suppliers, service providers, channels, influencers and, of course, customers and prospects. Even if they can’t use your services or you theirs just now, keeping those lines of communication open and full of useful information will serve you very well when the economy recovers.

The 4 Bees

Four interdependent steps are required to make this happen. I call these the 4 Bees of Successful Online Marketing:

• Be Found. Ensure that your target audience can find you online.
• Be Convincing. Engage with your audience and convert site visitors to prospects.
• Be Analytical. Use the insights of web traffic statistics to understand visitor behaviour and to further improve your ability to be found and to be convincing.
• Be Integrated. Tie traffic into your business processes. Feed leads into your back-office systems for lead nurturing and follow-up.

The remainder of this article describes the individual ‘Bees’ in more detail.

Be Found

Successful online marketing turns the old “broadcast” marketing model on its head. Rather than focusing on outbound activities attempting to find buyers, the “inbound marketing” model lets buyers find you. This requires that your site uses the keyword phrases that your prospects use when they search for you in Google and other search engines. Keyword analysis tools such as the Google Keyword Tool help you understand which terms are being used by your audience. Working these terms into your web site content to create relevant content is just the first step in being found. The other equally important step is the acquisition of quality links pointing to your content.

Search engines evaluate both the relevance of your content and its importance, measured by how many other pages link to your content. These links come from many different sources – industry portals and online magazines, social media venues that discuss your industry, and many others. A proactive PR campaign and social media outreach is therefore a critical element of your online marketing strategy. An authentic presence in social media also lets you engage in conversations, learn what concerns your audience and become a trusted market participant.

I explore this topic in more detail in this accompanying video.

Be Convincing

Attracting targeted traffic from search engines, blogs and third party sites is not enough. Raw traffic is nearly pointless. It’s the resulting conversions (such as white paper downloads, webinar registrations or product purchases) that matter. Online visitors to your site are in a hurry. No one reads your lengthy prose – no matter how much effort you spent crafting it. Most of the time, a visitor will “scan” the page, look for visual clues, highlights, links and calls to action. This in turn means that content has to be easily “scannable”— can you look at your page for two or three seconds and “get” what it is all about? Make sure that your pages answer the following questions:  What is this page about? Is this content authentic? What’s In It for Me (WIIFM)? What should I do next?

Be Analytical

Web analytics are a critical component of successful online marketing. Properly configured web analytics allow you to easily understand where your visitors came from, how long they stayed, whether they followed the intended navigation and “converted” or left without a trace. This insight then enables you to modify those pages that didn’t perform adequately, improve your visibility on referring sites that have proved valuable, adjust your online advertising campaigns and much more. Systematically measuring Return on Marketing Investment lets you improve on past marketing activities and justify your next campaign. An easy (free) way to get started is Google Analytics.

Be Integrated

Leads from your website are rarely ready for hand-off to your sales department. They need to be nurtured with a series of complementary activities. Capturing leads in a systematic fashion via a CRM or other defined process allows for prompt and context-rich follow-up that satisfies both the visitor (with additional information) and your sales department (looking for qualified leads).

Lather-Rinse-Repeat

Feedback from each of these ‘4 Bees’ can in turn be used to improve each aspect of online marketing. Deep customer insight has never been more important than in the online world. While many tools are available to help you along the way, the old adage “Know Your Customer” remains as powerful as ever.