Dealing with inflation can be an obstacle that impacts any small business. Rising prices and wages can reduce a company’s profit margins and ultimately run them out of business if they don’t adapt.
Since digital marketing is such a pivotal part of a business’s success, it’s important to understand the impact of inflation on digital marketing and advertising. Learn ways you can save your business money, and thrive in any economy.
How Inflation Affects Marketing Budgets
According to the 2023 CMO Survey, more than 52% of companies lowered their marketing spending in response to rising inflation in 2023. Meanwhile, 31% of companies felt no impact on their budget. 16.6% reported budget increases.
These decreases are likely due in part to financial strain on businesses overall. When budget cuts need to be made, it’s easy for upper management to target marketing budgets. They don’t always know how to measure the effects of marketing. In fact, in the 2021 CMO Survey, marketing departments reported increased pressure from CEOs to prove the impact of their marketing efforts.
When companies don’t understand how their marketing budget contributes to the growth of their business, the knee-jerk reaction is often to reduce it. That’s why it’s important to have solid marketing goals planned out with a timeline of expected results and relevant KPIs to measure success.
Inflation-Proof Marketing Tactics
The cost of digital marketing services is steadily on the rise. According to Skai.io, in Q1 of 2018, the global cost-per-click of search advertising was $0.47. Compared to $0.62 in Q1 2022, that’s a price increase of more than 30%!
Digital marketing and advertising channels may cost more overall, but there are still strategies you can implement to grow your business despite inflation. We’ve outlined several examples of tried-and-true marketing strategies below.
Adapt Your Content Marketing
Nowadays, it’s all too common for people to use ad blockers. Since online users often find advertisements to be more annoying than helpful, content marketing is a great alternative to build rapport with your potential customers.
To build a successful content marketing strategy, start by researching your audience. The better you understand the people who support your business, the easier it will be to reach them. Understand each stage of the buyer’s journey so you can make valuable content every step of the way that supports them.
With a proper strategy, you can reduce your overall marketing costs since you won’t have to spend as much on ads. Focus on SEO and understand the problem that you want to solve for your audience. When you provide legitimate value to your customer, they’re more likely to trust you, appreciate your brand, and buy from you in the future.
Take Advantage of Social Media
In the same vein as content marketing, your goal with social media should be to create content that brings value to your audience. Your customers are on social media platforms, so building a social media presence without ads is another way to decrease overall spending on digital advertising.
Social media has been around for a while now. A lot of other businesses hop on the trend of posting regularly without any purpose to their content. But you don’t just want to post a copy-pasted motivational quote once a day. Create relevant posts that engage your audience and interact with them in the comments to build rapport.
Monitor your posts to see which content is reaching the most people and receiving the most engagement. Research trending topics or hashtags in your industry or niche to see what’s popular with your audience. You can also ask your audience what they would like to see more of on social. It’s a plus to check out competitors’ accounts to see what content is resonating with their followers.
Stay on Top of the Latest Trends
When it comes to content marketing and social media marketing, the landscape is always changing. At the end of the day, if you want your business’s marketing efforts to be successful, you need to stay educated on the latest trends. This will help you create a lean marketing budget and not waste any efforts towards outdated strategies that no longer work.
For example, if you want to rank higher in search engine results, you’ll need to understand SEO and keep up with the changes in what Google prioritizes. Social media is the same deal. The algorithms for each major platform regularly change for different types of content.
Conclusion
Running a successful company during times of inflation can be difficult but is far from impossible. Keep up-to-date on economic trends and use the above marketing strategies to help your business flourish and maybe even help you save more for retirement!
Need a hand with digital marketing? Contact us today to learn how the experts at Fisher Green Creative can help your small business grow.
Rhett Rivera is a content marketer at Siege Media with a passion for creating engaging content that resonates with his audience. When he’s not crafting marketing campaigns and researching keywords for his clients, you can find him playing chess, reading memoirs, and entering local film festivals.
