Don’t cut the marketing budget during an economic downturn!

When cash flow is down, marketing will help bring it back, so don’t cut the marketing budget when times are tough.

It’s basic math: you can’t spend more than you’re making. Not for very long anyway. It’s a natural reaction to tighten our belt when cash flow isn’t flowing, but when you’re running a business, you’ve got to be extra careful about where to cut, and where to spend. Cutting down on waste is a no-brainer. Fix those leaks, dot the i’s, cross the t’s. But don’t cut the marketing budget! Marketing is one expense you definitely need to keep, and graphic design will increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

Communication is crucial, not just to the success of our businesses, but to our every day lives as well. It’s important to have our intentions be understood clearly so we get the results we want, and not ones we don’t. In a world of ever-shortening attention spans, we need to maximize every opportunity to communicate effectively with our audience.

There are opportunities hidden in a recession.

Building and maintaining a strong brand that customers trust is one of the best ways to ensure your business’ survival, even in lean times. A vital ingredient in recipe for a successful brand is taking your customers’ needs and priorities seriously. Those needs and priorities shift during an economic slowdown, but rarely are they completely abandoned. It’s up to you to maintain a meaningful connection with your customers, recognize their changing priorities, and adjust your products and services to accommodate.

Remaining sensitive to the needs of your customers shows empathy, that you’re in this together. It helps them feel more confident in changing times, that you’re willing to change with them. It helps you remain valuable to them while they redefine what is valuable. The challenge is how to nurture the relationship with your customers. You have to keep the lines of communication open, but also communicate effectively

The human brain favors visual input.

For a majority of customers, what they see is the most important thing affecting their decision about what to buy, and from whom to buy. Therefore, the quality of your graphic design just might be the most important determining factor as to whether someone will buy from you. Before a customer will listen or read, they’ll make a quick decision about whether it’ll be worth their time according to what they see. Is it appealing? Does it look professional? Is it telling them that they’ve come to the right place? We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but that’s exactly what people do if they’re presented with bad design, or non-design.

Your brain’s ability to process images and graphic visual information quickly explains why infographics are so popular. It’s far more appealing and efficient to present information with graphics rather than a dull spreadsheet. Think about the deluge of visual data that your brain zooms through on social media apps like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook without breaking a sweat. But which posts do you stop and look at? Sure, your nephew’s little league picture probably gets some time, but of the ones you don’t know personally, it’s the ones that look good and communicate effectively that grab and hold your attention.

Marketing graphic design is your ticket to riding out a recession.

Think of your marketing efforts as the engine driving a train, with each car pulling along the one behind it. Marketing generates awareness, so a customer can decide if they want to engage, buy, and come back again. If you stop marketing, the train goes nowhere. You’ve got to keep it moving, especially when cash flow is slow, or cash flow may just stop completely.

The link between each of those cars is graphic design. Good graphic design makes sure your marketing creates awareness. Good design ensures the awareness leads to a positive decision to engage, then to buy and then to come back again. If you’re not using visuals to make the most of your marketing efforts, you may lose any number of those trailing cars. Bad design or non-design at the decision stage means goodbye Engagement, Sales and Loyalty.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Even in a recession, your customers are going to have to spend some money. Don’t cut the marketing budget! If you cut back on marketing spending, your brand risks losing awareness with customers, resulting in loss of current and future sales. Keeping your marketing active will help your business continue to win customers during an economic dip, and keep the ones you already have. Graphic design provides the visual communication that will help your marketing efforts get the best return on investment. If you’d like to chat about how to keep your marketing train on-track, please don’t hesitate to reach out.