B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

B2B Marketing in a Recession: a Modest How-To

July 24th, 2008 Posted by: Bill Gadless

OMG!!  We just came across this absolute killer article (actually, only a few bricks shy of being a white paper!) by Jon Miller, “The Definitive Guide to Business-to-Business Marketing in a Recession.”  OK, so that may be the most overblown title since Douglas Adams’  “Life, the Universe and Everything”;  but please, don’t let that stop you putting it way up on your must-read list.

In part, we liked this piece because it agrees with many of the points made in our own recent blogposts on the topic of the current “maybe/maybe-not” recession (or the worst possible non-recession, as Jon says he likes to call it);  and it includes research backup for several of them.  For example:

• In our posting “How a Website Makeover can help recession-proof your company”, we said:  “In a downturn, smart companies seek to grow market share.  Investing now to improve your share puts your company in a much stronger relative position coming out of the downturn, which pays obvious dividends down the road.”  Jon’s formulation:  “In a study of US recessions, McGraw-Hill Research found that business-to-business firms that maintained or increased advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth than those that eliminated or decreased advertising … by 1985 the companies that were aggressive recession advertisers had grown their revenue over 2.5x faster than those that had reduced their advertising.”
• In that same posting, we blogged:  “Study after study has shown that online marketing is the highest-ROI, most cost-effective marketing you can do;  which explains why surveys taken even after the slowdown began are continuing to forecast strong growth for online spending (primarily at the expense of more traditional vehicles such as print advertising and events).”  Jon puts it this way:  “A recession will accelerate the decline of … mass advertising that simply shouts your message to customers … we will see increased growth in measurable and relationship-based strategies such as search marketing, email marketing, lead nurturing, and online communities.”

By the way, Jon definitely does not expect a repeat of the 2001 recession, when Internet advertising fell 27%.  This time will be different, because back then online marketing was still unproven and got caught in the downdraft of the dot-com collapse.  Today, the shift of advertising dollars to measurable online channels has been underway for some time.

Jon’s piece closes with seven strategies for B2B marketing during a slowdown.  We’re not going to treat them all here – remember, we really want you to click over and read the piece – but here are a couple of teasers…

Use lead management to maximize the value of each lead.  Companies that do a better job of managing leads and developing early-stage prospects into sales-ready leads will be in the best position to thrive in a downturn.

Build and optimize landing pages.  A relevant landing page can double conversions versus sending clicks to the homepage;  and testing your pages can increase conversions by another 48% or more.  That’s 2.5x more leads per dollar invested in acquisition.

Tilt your content toward later in the buying cycle.  Focus your offers on content that appeals to someone actually looking for a solution, as opposed to thought-leadership or best-practices type content.  Examples:  a “Top 5 Questions to Ask a Potential Vendor” white paper, buyer’s guides or checklists, analyst evaluations, etc.

Jon’s closing thought:  “The marketers who focus on getting the most out of every dollar spent and on demonstrating marketing’s impact on revenue and pipeline will be well positioned to come out of the slump looking like a star.”  Oh and btw, your Web marketing consultants can help you pull that off.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Internet Marketing