Surviving an Economic Downturn: 6 Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners

Economic downturns can be difficult to navigate for small businesses, but with the right digital marketing strategies, they can survive and even thrive during challenging times.

So, how can small businesses stay competitive and make the most of their digital marketing efforts during an economic downturn in the UK? What strategies should they consider in order to ensure their success?

In this article, we will discuss six effective digital marketing strategies in the UK that small businesses can use to survive an economic downturn.

The Role of Digital Marketing in Building Resilience for Small Businesses

In the wake of the pandemic, the significance of digital marketing as a crucial marketing strategy has increased significantly in the UK, leading to its rapid adoption by businesses of all sizes.

According to Gartner, marketing budgets accounted for 9.5% of total company revenue in 2022.

However, small businesses face economic uncertainty and may not have the luxury of significantly increasing their marketing budgets.

But, by leveraging the scalability of digital marketing in the UK, small business owners can help fill the gaps and make their businesses recession-resilient. Below are a few ways small businesses can use digital marketing to achieve this goal in the UK:

1. Prioritize The Consumer Experience

2. Be Easy to Find Online

3. Standardize The Voice of Your Company

4. Keep in Touch with Your Audience

5. Consider Video Marketing

6. Stay Active On Social Media

 

1. Prioritize The Consumer Experience

With consumers spending more time online, digital marketing has become the most efficient way to engage your audience on a large scale in the UK.

It offers unmatched reach and control due to its capacity to tailor experiences for various customer types and point your target audience toward particular brand interactions.

Customer demand for a seamless digital experience must be understood, though.

To live up to this expectation, make it simple for them to use your services and goods. It is also crucial to ask for reviews because they are a valuable resource for learning about customer satisfaction and giving prospective customers social proof.

Never undervalue customer feedback, and make use of it to build a better, more effective company.

2. Be Easy to Find Online

Choosing a central location is essential for attracting customers to your shop.

This can be a website, TikTok account, Etsy page, or any other platform where you can interact with potential customers and turn them into paying customers.

Increase the content's search ranking to increase the effectiveness of your hub.

If your website serves as your central hub, for instance, identify the search terms that lead to the most relevant search results and produce valuable content using those keywords.

Utilize an SEO ranking tool to keep track of how well your domain is performing and modify your content strategy as necessary. By doing this, you can make sure that your hub is simple to find and that the right customers are drawn to your company.

3. Standardize The Voice of Your Company

Every brand has a distinct personality that reflects its market niche, target market, and values. To establish, strengthen, and uphold a positive brand perception among consumers, a consistent brand voice must be maintained.

This brand voice must be consistent throughout all effective digital communication channels, such as email newsletters, social media posts, website copy, and company blogs.

During times of economic uncertainty, consumers tend to gravitate towards established brands they trust.

Consistency in brand voice and values becomes all the more critical in such circumstances. A clear brand voice will help guide how you communicate with your audience and ensure that you meet their needs while pursuing your overall business goals.

By upholding your brand's unique voice and values, you can create a powerful connection with your customers, foster trust, and differentiate your business from competitors.

4. Keep in Touch with Your Audience

To enhance the customer experience, it is important to sustain engagement with your audience.

This can be achieved by posing questions, inviting feedback, and proactively addressing their comments and direct messages online.

These actions can serve as a guide to your digital content strategy by understanding the customers' preferences and identifying the social media platform that best resonates with them, allowing you to deliver the content they require in a convenient manner.

It is essential to keep in mind that every customer feedback holds significance. Favorable feedback can be utilized as content for your website and social media pages.

On the other hand, constructive criticism can aid in shaping your approach going forward.

5. Consider Video Marketing

In today's digital marketing landscape in the UK, video marketing has emerged as the most effective approach to engaging with your target audience, surpassing other forms of visual content.

Social video content, in particular, is gaining momentum and generating a whopping 1200% more shares compared to image- or text-based content online.

The popularity of video marketing can be attributed to the fact that it provides easily ingestible, personable content, which most social media algorithms prefer. Videos can also foster genuine brand trust and deep connections that written content cannot.

Consider live streaming on the social media channels of your company or making and sharing short-form videos on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook to fully utilize the power of video.

6. Stay Active On Social Media

In a cutthroat market, staying at the top of consumers' minds is crucial.

A dependable consumer base can only be built through the release of high-quality content, and social media is one of the best channels for doing so.

Consider using a tool like Loomly if you run a small business with constrained bandwidth to help you optimize your social media management procedures.

Although economic instability can be a daunting obstacle, it can also act as a catalyst for a business to adopt crucial digital marketing strategies that could yield substantial long-term growth.

We trust that these suggestions will serve as a useful starting point to develop a resilient and sustainable business.

Moreover, it is crucial to be open to innovative and unconventional ideas, as not all strategies are suitable for every business.

With digital marketing services continually evolving, it is important to remain flexible and maintain a testing mindset with help from a digital marketing agency, as opposed to relying on a fixed strategy.

By VROX Content Team - 23 Mar 2023