How to Drive Marketing ROI If a Recession Comes Knocking

It sure has been an interesting year so far for ROI, hasn’t it?

Prices are up in record numbers, inflation isn’t much better, and there is chatter of a recession right around the corner (that is, if it’s not already here). 

Is this what any of us want to read, hear, or admit? No. But we are not going to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is perfect. 

Deep breaths!

Just like we prepare our clients’ campaigns for seasonal opportunities or the holiday shopping rush, tougher economic times are no different. Change is constant, and adapting is critical. 

And even though it might be your first thought, putting a hard stop on your marketing initiatives is the last thing you should do. We hear about companies doing this all the time. The economic belt tightens, and they stop running marketing campaigns or slash their marketing departments completely!

Taking one of these routes might feel justifiable and economically sound in the here and now, but how can you future-proof your brand if no one knows it exists?

You need eyes on your products or services now more than ever. 

In this blog post, we’re going to uncover some ways you can maintain marketing ROI if there is a recession—without breaking the bank. Let’s dive in.

Remarketing to Diversify

If you have been running Google or Meta/Facebook ads and have not been remarketing, now is the time to start. Remarketing is always imperative, regardless of the economy, as it helps you reconnect with those who have already interacted with your brand online (i.e., via your website or an ad you were running). 

These customers or prospects are more likely to have some familiarity with your brand, product, or service.

So, you are targeting warmer customers who will (most likely) have a higher chance of converting. And paid media remarketing has an extra added bonus. Usually, remarketing campaigns (or retargeting) are cheaper to run. 

All in all, take a look at your campaign performance and see if you could benefit from reallocating some of your ad spend from a standard paid media campaign into a remarketing campaign.

This is not stopping your marketing—it is diversifying your strategy!

Email Marketing

Email marketing should always stay at the top of your list.

Believe it or not, in 2022, email marketing still produces the highest ROI of almost any other kind of marketing. It may not be shiny and new—but it works. 

Your list of current and past customers (and their email addresses) is a gold mine that you 100% cannot overlook—especially if there is economic turmoil on the horizon. These are contacts that have already purchased from you or at least considered your brand at some point. After all, they did give you their email address. 

If you haven’t already done so, start drafting out Use This Promo Code, It’s Time to Restock, or Summer Is Savings Season emails that you can send to your customer base.

Bringing these customers back for more extends their lifetime value and costs you next to nothing. What is going to give you better ROI? Nothing!

But wait—there’s more! (There is always more.)

Abandoned Cart, How Was Your Experience? and It’s Your Birthday! emails are wildly effective when used correctly. If your marketing campaign were a car, email marketing is the oil that will keep the engine running for a long, long time. 

Segment Audiences with Marketing Automation

With marketing automation (not to be confused with email marketing), you can break your audience and/or customers into different segments based on their activity. Then you can automate “actions” like sending an email that is far more personalized and effective. 

Example: Let’s say you place an order for a pack of T-shirts from one of those thousands of brands that are dominating social media. That company could use marketing automation to segment you and push out a very personalized email to bring you back for more.

From the order itself, the brand can collect the basics (location, time and day of purchase, email, etc.), but additional marketing automation can segment by item purchased, gender, order revenue, and more. 

Based on the automation triggers in place, you could be identified as a male customer who purchased a 3-pack of black T-shirts, size large, on a Friday afternoon.

Automation can now send out a personalized email to you the Friday after delivery saying something like, “How are those black T-shirts working for you?! It’s one of our favorite colors too, but did you know that our Summer Promo is in full swing? We have dozens of other eye-catching colors to help you make a statement this August!”

You already know that email can drive incredible ROI. When you add this layer of automated segmentation on top of it—the sky’s the limit!

Conversion Rate Optimization 

 Another fantastic way to maximize ROI without additional ad spend is with conversion rate optimization (CRO), which is the practice of, well, improving sales conversions.

This may include testing variations of landing pages, your homepage, product pages, or even your checkout process.

Rather than trying to drive additional traffic, you are focusing on converting the attention you are already getting. This takes an understanding of customer psychology and user experience, but you can get started pretty easily. 

Open up your website’s Google Analytics dashboard and look at individual page traffic.

You are looking for pages that have high traffic but also high bounce or drop-off rates. These are the pages you need to check out to see what is sending customers running for the hills. 

Also, look at your “checkout” or “complete your order” page, as there are a million little things that might be keeping customers from making the purchase. Member-only purchasing, excessive or surprise shipping costs, minimal payment options, or even asking for too much information can hinder sales conversions. 

CRO is one strategy that lets you improve your ROI without simply pumping more money into your campaigns and hoping for the best. 

Accurate Ad Optimization 

Testing and optimizing the ads you already have running should be a never-ending process, but you don’t want to be running campaigns that are not performing…at all.

Our team is currently testing a new ad optimization platform called AdBeacon.

This tool allows us to test and optimize ad creatives faster than we ever have before—especially when it comes to Facebook advertising. 

We are seeing higher return on ad spend, higher profits, and lower cost per acquisition—all adding up to better ROI for our clients.

All in all, if you can’t afford to keep pouring cash into your campaigns like you did last year, don’t increase your spending, but do increase the number of ads you are testing and optimizing. 

Similar to CRO, you want to do more of what’s working and less of what’s not, and you can only get there through testing—diligent testing. 

ROI at Your Fingertips

Like an investment portfolio, your marketing strategy needs to ride waves and change with the times. Right now, you may just be aiming to maintain your ROI, and believe us—we get it. It has been a rocky few years and, as an agency, we have made some hard pivots to keep ourselves and our clients in the best possible position. 

But remember: With change comes opportunity.

We hope that you can take a few of these strategies and implement the changes that make the most sense for your business. We know that these strategies work for almost every type of ecommerce brand out there and that the opportunity for great ROI is still plentiful. 

If you need any help, we’re here for you. You can sign up for our weekly newsletter where we send tips, tricks, and actionable content every week. And while you are at it, contact our team to get a free ROI analysis during which we can unpack your best strategic moves—CRO, Amazon, automation, etc. Whatever you need, we’ve got your back!