Surprise and Delight: Tips and Ideas to Show Appreciation and Enhance Customer Satisfaction

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Marketing plays an important role in every part of a buyer’s journey. From creating a memorable first impression to finding ways to turn customers into raving fans, it’s important to know how to create experiences that enhance customer satisfaction. 

The concept of “surprise and delight” is one of our favorite tools in our marketing tool belt. In essence, surprise and delight is a strategy to reward customers when they’re not expecting it. These customer experience tactics have proven to trigger positive feelings, create a deeper sense of brand loyalty, increase referrals, and multiply revenue. These moments work as a brand differentiator, and they can also be a highly effective strategy for fostering long-term customer loyalty. 

Some of our favorite marketing campaigns over the years have included helping our clients find ways to “surprise and delight” their customers. It’s always fun to show appreciation and bring joy to someone’s day. We’ve also learned a thing or two about how to enhance customer satisfaction using this technique. Here’s what we’ve learned: 

3 Tips for Incorporating “Surprise and Delight” Into Your Marketing

As you look for ways to surprise and delight your customers, here are three best practices to consider: 

1. Make it Personal 

The best surprise and delight campaigns are personal. Giving a gift or reward to a customer can inspire strong brand loyalty. If you have a small number of clients, consider how to make each gift or reward as personal as possible. Companies with a large number of customers can still find ways to have a personal touch. Customer segmentation is an effective tactic to incorporate personalization into your surprise and delight campaigns so that particular types of rewards target the customers who will appreciate them the most.

2. Make it Genuine

Today’s customers know the difference between a gift and a marketing tactic. For example, some companies create “surprise and delight” campaigns based on coupons or discounts. Other companies use location-based services to reach customers on mobile devices and offer discount coupons when they’re near a particular physical location. But these are classic sales promotions, rather than surprise and delight campaigns.

The best surprise and delight campaigns show customers you genuinely care about them. It could be bringing unexpected gifts or simply creating special moments in the purchasing process for consumers. Even website design can include moments of surprise and delight. For instance, an unexpected 404 error page can bring levity and playfulness to website navigation. The more small moments of joy you can include in the customer journey, the more likely customers are to retain positive feelings about your brand. 

3. Make it Simple 

One obstacle that keeps businesses from investing in surprise and delight is a fear of the unknown. Established brands may have trouble finding places in their customer experience for a breath of fresh air, a moment of joy, or a truly human connection. Our advice to these brands is to start small and go from there. Don’t overthink it. Maybe your sales presentation could incorporate a meme or pop culture reference. Your merchandise or packaging could include a character, pun, story, quote, or tasteful joke. With attention to detail and an understanding of your customer base, you can find places to spread joy and build brand integrity. 

3 Ideas to Enhance Customer Satisfaction with Surprise and Delight

As you consider how to incorporate surprise and delight into your marketing efforts, here are three specific scenarios you can create campaigns:

1. Send Client or Customer Appreciation Gifts 

According to data from Merkle HelloWorld Loyalty Report, the best ways to engage consumers is through surprise offers or gifts for being a customer. Many companies send gifts during the holiday season. But sending gifts randomly throughout the year is a great way to create a more memorable experience. In today’s digitally connected world, virtual client appreciation gifts are also valuable tools to enhance customer satisfaction. 

2. Incorporate Surprise and Delight into Client Onboarding 

The onboarding process is important for establishing the foundation of the relationship with your clients and customers. While creating a seamless onboarding experience and setting expectations are important for creating an outstanding onboarding experience, why not find a way to surprise and delight them from the very beginning? 

3. Celebrate Your Customers’ Personal Wins

One way to show customers you care about more than just their business is to celebrate their personal victories and successes. This is where social media channels can help you stay connected with customers. As you get to know them, find ways to show you have a genuine interest in them as humans. It could be sending a personal birthday card, congratulating them on an educational milestone, or sending a meal or gift card for their newborn. 

The best way to enhance customer satisfaction is to make them feel like you’re going above and beyond for them. Surprise and delight customers by doing something unexpected to show appreciation and let them know how much you value knowing them.

7 Marketing Tips to Effectively Explain a Complex Product or Service

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As business leaders and marketers, it’s easy to get so focused on our businesses that we forget to step back and see things from a customer’s perspective. We’re wrapped up in questions about operations, market positioning, staffing, and finances. But we often forget to stop and ask, “Do people understand what we do?” As a result, our potential customers walk away confused and unengaged whenever they visit our website or engage with our marketing materials.

If we want to generate leads and expand our business, we must stop confusing our customers and start connecting with them. The first step in marketing a complex product or service is to learn how to simply and effectively explain the products and services we offer. Then we need to clearly communicate how we can help customers experience success. That can be difficult if you work in a complex industry, but it’s not impossible. 

7 Marketing Tips for Explaining a Complex Product or Service

Here are a few marketing tips to help you capture the attention of your audience, make it easy to understand your product or service, and ultimately convert them into a customer: 

1. Define how your product or service helps your audience achieve their goals. 

If you want to help people understand your complex product or service, it’s important they know the answers to a few foundational questions:

  • Who is this product for?
  • What does this product do?
  • Why should customers want to use it?
  • Why do customers need it now?
  • How is this product different from what else is out there?

You’ll know your messaging is working if your buyers can instantly find out the answers to these questions.

2. Try to simplify your buyer’s journey into three or four steps. 

Making it simple for people to understand how they can become a client or customer is one of the easiest ways to gain potential business. That’s why we recommend breaking your buyer’s journey into three to four steps that explains how you can help them get from where they are today to where they want to be. 

3. Ask questions that help you get inside the mind of your audience.

If you want to figure out how to communicate with your audience, it’s important to understand how they think. Taking time to evaluate your product or service with the questions potential customers might be asking can help you create messaging that resonates with them.

4. Get direct feedback from your audience through surveys. 

If you’re not sure what people think about your product or service, ask them! Potential and current customer surveys are one of the most effective ways to truly determine how well people understand your complex product or service. Whether you’re a brand new startup or have been in business for years, surveys provide a simple way to get qualitative and quantitative feedback on your products, services, and messaging. 

5. Leverage storytelling to make facts or processes easier to understand.

People respond to stories. If you’ve struggled to gain traction by explaining your complex product or service with facts and details, consider integrating storytelling into your marketing efforts. This could be done through case studies, explainer videos, or a creative approach to advertising. Telling stories your potential customers want to hear can be an effective way to not only help them understand what you do but inspire them to take action.

6. Rely on data and analytics to help discover what content to create. 

You can discover what messaging resonates with customers by analyzing what type of content they engage with most. Analyze the numbers across all tactics (e.g., email marketing, blogging, website visits, social media, etc.) to discover what is working, what isn’t, and where there are untapped opportunities for making your messaging more effective.

7. Determine what channels might be most helpful in reaching your audience. 

One final tip in communicating more effectively is to consider your audience’s content consumption preferences. For example, 68% of baby boomers prefer traditional content formats such as news articles, research reports, and blogs. Effectively explaining a complex product or service also requires you to communicate with customers in the format they prefer.

If you’ve struggled to gain traction with your messaging, start with these seven strategies. By taking the time to understand your audience and meet them where they are, you’ll make tremendous strides in simplifying your complex product or service in a way that inspires them to take action. 

Ready to develop your marketing strategy but need some guidance along the way? Contact us to learn how Green Apple Strategy can help.

Case Study: How We Increased LinkedIn Followers 5X in 6 Months

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LinkedIn is an essential platform for many B2B companies, and there are several reasons why:

  • 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn “drive business decisions.” (Source)
  • 33% of B2B decision makers use LinkedIn to research purchases. (Source) 
  • 80% of B2B social media leads come from LinkedIn. (Source) 

There is no denying that LinkedIn is one of the most effective social media lead generators for B2B marketers. Since LinkedIn allows users to generate content and create engagement, it makes sense for those involved in the B2B industry to remain active on LinkedIn. 

Recently, our team at Green Apple collaborated on a strategy to enhance our LinkedIn presence that increased our followers by more than 500 in less than six months. 

The Challenge: Testing Ideas to Transform Our Strategies

We often help clients use LinkedIn as a marketing tool and find effective ways to optimize B2B LinkedIn pages for business. We also believe to serve our clients effectively, we should always be looking for ways to test ideas and strategies ourselves. Understanding the ways brands use LinkedIn gives us insight into how we can integrate new approaches into the social marketing strategy we create for clients.

In May 2021, we sat down to develop a year-long plan that would help us learn new tactics and achieve specific growth, interactions, and engagement goals. We started with a little more than 100 followers on our LinkedIn page. 

Our Approach: Collaboration & Content to Accelerate Connection & Growth

To test ideas and strategies, we worked through the same strategic marketing process we use with our clients: 

  • We identified a goal and created a feasible strategy — We started by setting a goal to have 1,000 followers by May 2022. This seemed like an audacious but achievable goal. We also wanted to develop a strategy that would be reasonable for our team to execute. We know our team is primarily focused on client goals, so we collaborated on a feasible strategy that was highly achievable. 
  • We used our team strengths to devise a plan — The strategy we created was built to maximize our team’s unique strengths and gifts. One of the things that makes Green Apple unique is that our team is diverse in experience and expertise. We wanted to highlight this by encouraging team members to be present on LinkedIn. We also wanted to give our insights into the marketing industry, share what our team members are learning, and highlight the milestones our team reaches. 
  • We created a team-oriented approach — We knew that collective buy-in would be essential for achieving our goal. From the very beginning, we rallied the team behind the goal and provided ways to engage with our content, share their own content, and grow our network. We also wanted to share content highlighting the “everyday” aspects of our team — including behind-the-scenes photos and personnel updates from the Green Apple Orchard. 
  • We evaluated and re-evaluated our content each month — It’s important to constantly measure your efforts and tweak your strategy based on what you’re learning. Each month, our team would spend time reviewing the content we posted. The insights we discovered based on the performance of the various topics or types of posts allowed us to adjust our strategy along the way.

The Results: Discovering the “Link” Between Intentional Effort & Exponential Growth

Six months into the strategy, we’re well on our way to achieving our annual growth goal. We’ve also experienced exponential growth in our engagement. We’ve increased our reactions by 4,872%, comments by 7,800%, and shares by 2,566%. Along with these quantitative results, we’ve also created deeper, more meaningful connections with people on LinkedIn we hadn’t experienced before. 

If you want to learn more about our approach or discover how you can leverage LinkedIn for growth, reach out to us to help establish a strategic social media plan. Also — if we haven’t connected on LinkedIn yet, we’d love to share our content with you. You can find our LinkedIn page here.

A B2B Guide to Marketing Automation

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As a brand, connecting with your target audience is crucial. In order to connect with your target audience effectively, you need to know what content resonates with your target demographic, their sales cycle, and what they value most about your product or service. This type of in-depth research can be difficult to reproduce at scale, but marketing automation can be a powerful tool. Marketing Automation can help you identify your potential customers’ needs, establish several touchpoints on their sales journeys, and bring more sales to completion.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation refers to a set of tools and processes that are used to communicate with existing leads, bringing them closer to the point of buying. Any time a customer adds an item to a cart, leaves the page, and later receives an email with “Forgot Something?” in the subject line, that’s marketing automation at work. Setting up a series of processes, emails, reminders, or follow-ups can help you increase communication with your customers without taking the additional time or requiring you to hire new talent. Instead, marketing automation uses well-designed processes to help you discover potential customers, replicate high-performing practices, and encourage repeat purchasing behaviors. 

Marketing Automation Saves You Time and Overhead

Marketing automation has numerous benefits, but the most important is the time you save by streamlining your sales cycle. Rather than spending hours identifying and contacting qualified leads individually, it gives you the capacity to reach out to leads at the ideal point in their purchasing journey. There’s no need to manually import customers into your database. Instead, an automated marketing tool can identify and label leads for you by tracking a user’s interaction with your brand. 

Marketing Automation Can Strengthen Your CRM

Marketing automation also increases the power of your customer relationship management (CRM) tool, such as Salesforce. In tandem with a CRM, marketing automation can help you build a customized onboarding process and follow-up communication for clients in order to strengthen your customer relationships.

Especially in B2B industries, having a personalized connection can make or break a sale. Because automation analyzes your audience’s actions, it actively nurtures your leads by personalizing their experience and automatically segmenting their journeys. Marketing automation can monitor behaviors such as clicks, site visits, or purchase histories and provide your leads with information and opportunities that are customized to their needs. You’ll see improved conversion rates, and you’ll be able to assess and improve your sales pipeline with actionable data. 

How You Can Implement Marketing Automation

While marketing automation can be immensely effective, you need a strong foundation to see powerful results. This includes a reliable contact list, an up-to-date website, active email marketing tactics, and social media management. If you need a starting place, try refreshing your current marketing by conducting client interviews or researching SEO best practices.

Once you’ve established reliable groundwork, you need to indicate your specific goals. Your goals may include an increase in subscribers, clicks, sales, or page likes. After you’ve determined your goal, decide what platform you want to use.

There are several MA systems available, but consider your preferred budget, ease of use, type of marketing automation, and customer service when deciding which one is best for you. Finally, you should determine if you want to implement alone or hire a professional marketing company to begin your process. 

Iterate and Improve Your Marketing Automation

Nothing works as well in a silo as it does when combined with other tools. To continue achieving marketing automation goals, you should pair MA with inbound marketing and CRM tools to increase its reach.

You’ll also want to include other team members in setting up and improving your processes. Sharing reports with senior executives and data with your sales team will allow you to collect and implement their insights into the sales funnel. With the feedback and assistance from various departments, plus the results from your marketing automation tool, you can optimize your content, messaging, and strategies to retain your current customers and attract more.

Need Help Getting Started with Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is a powerful tool that can be complex to implement. Green Apple Strategy is a full-service marketing agency that helps clients communicate effectively to their desired audience. Are you interested in learning more about how we can help you start your marketing automation journey? Contact us today for a consultation! 

How to Get More Out of Your Content Marketing

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Content marketing might be evolving, but it’s not going away anytime soon. According to the latest research, 82% of marketers report actively using content marketing in 2021, up 70% from 2020. Yet, the constant demand for content can be exhausting for businesses. Finding creative ways to get the most out of your content marketing is often one of the biggest challenges companies face in today’s marketing world. 

Recently, our senior content strategist, Skylar Wooden, had an opportunity to educate our team on the latest trends in content marketing. She highlighted specific ways our clients can continue to get more out of their content marketing efforts. We wanted to take a few minutes to share her key insights and takeaways in this post.  

How Today’s Audiences Are Consuming Content 

Businesses need to know the variety of formats that are driving most of today’s content marketing. A decade ago, most marketers focused primarily on written content, whether online or in print. Today’s businesses must consider the way content marketing has evolved. Here are the three primary ways today’s audiences are consuming content based on statistics  from a 2021 Hubspot report: 

  1. Written Content — This includes content like blogs, e-books, and articles. 61% of marketers are paying more attention to writing these. Of the written content formats, the top 3 content types are social media content (95%), blog posts (89%), and email newsletters (81%).
  1. Audio Content — Many businesses have turned to podcasts as a way to reach their audience in recent years and for good reason! In under three years, podcast listening in the United States has increased by more than 60%. The podcast market is expected to reach more than 2 billion by 2023, meaning that marketers are preparing to devote significant time and money to the channel.
  1. Video Content — Video is now the primary form of media used within any content strategy. According to the report, a video was the most commonly used form of content marketing in 2021, overtaking blogs and infographics. So, how do you get more out of your content marketing efforts in 2021 based on these statistics? Here are a few important insights we encourage clients to consider: 
  • Consider Your Audience’s Preferences — Meet your audiences where they are, not where you want them to be. This is the most important principle to keep in mind when developing content. An estimated 68% of Baby Boomers prefer traditional content formats such as news articles, research reports, blogs, e-books, and email content from commercial brands. If you want your content marketing to make the biggest impact, you need to meet your audience in the channels they use (social, email, etc.) with the types of content they prefer (written, audio, video). 
  • Remember that Video Covers All Three Content Types — One unique aspect of the video is that it allows you to diversify your content into all three formats. You can start by posting the video, pulling the audio for a podcast or recording, and formatting the transcript to create a blog post or infographic. As video becomes increasingly important, this is an easy way to reach your audience by repurposing and reformatting.  
  • Know that the Future of B2B Marketing is Audio — While the video might be the most popular format of content today, businesses should pay attention to the increased interest in audio content. According to statistics shared at the 2021 Inbound Conference, 57% of the American population listened to podcasts last year and weekly listenership doubled from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, more than half of consumers say they consider buying from brands they hear on podcasts.  

How to Diversify and Maximize the Content You Create 

With these trends in mind, it’s important to consider all three formats of content in 2022. We also recognize that creating a new piece of content from scratch can be time-consuming. So, how do you diversify and maximize your content? 

  • Supplement Blogs with Audio & Visual Content — Is there a way to include a video or audio podcast into the blog posts you create to maximize content? Find ways to integrate audio and visual content into the online content you’re creating.
  • Maximize the Reach of Podcasts through Show Notes & Additional Resources — If you’re creating podcasts, leveraging the show notes is a great way to maximize your content and drive your audience deeper into your content marketing funnel. Providing a way for your audience to download additional resources can also supplement your podcast efforts and increase engagement with your brand. 
  • Repurpose Resources into Shorter Audio or Social Content— You can easily repurpose, repackage or expand every piece of content that you produce to get the most out of your investment. For example, if you’ve created a piece of long-form content such as a video or e-book, consider how you can repurpose key ideas and concepts for other channels such as social media or email.

As content marketing continues to evolve,  brands need to stay nimble. Remember, the most important way you can get the most out of your content marketing efforts is to ensure you’re meeting your audience where they are. Taking these tips into consideration will help you stay ahead of the trends when it comes to creating content that impacts your bottom line. 

Need Help With Content Creation? 

Our strategic, full-service marketing firm can help you plan and deploy an innovative content marketing approach to court customers and build brand loyalty. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your marketing goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

B2B Companies: How to Get the Most Out of Your LinkedIn Presence

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Are you struggling to get engagement or reach on LinkedIn?  Social media strategies aren’t what they once were. The formula for success is no longer simply “post more often,” or “interact with your content,” which we’re sure you’ve heard countless times. Especially for B2B companies, social media is a different animal—it doesn’t play by the same rules as its B2C counterparts. Not to worry, though. With a well-planned LinkedIn strategy, you can increase your following, engagement, brand awareness, and even encourage teamwork among your employees.   Here’s what you’ll need to get the most out of your LinkedIn presence: 
  1. A current and engaging business page
  2. Digestible content that speaks to your audience’s pain points
  3. Diligent and proactive engagement with your audience
  4. An employee-centric content and engagement strategy
  5. A budget for strategic paid ads

How to Get the Most Out of Your LinkedIn Presence

1. A Current and Engaging Business Page
When was the last time you revisited your LinkedIn business page? Chances are, a lot has happened in your business since you first created the page. On top of that, standards for what makes a good business page have changed. Review your page to ensure that all your information is up to date.  You may also consider switching up your “About” content to speak directly to your audience. Rather than a simple description of what your business does, capture your audience’s attention by telling them how you can solve their problem specifically. Tell them who you help, what you do, and what your differentiators are. This allows your audience to quickly identify that you’re the right fit. Tip: LinkedIn only shows the first two lines of your description without the user having to click to read more. Make those two sentences count!
2. Digestible Content that Speaks to Your Audience’s Pain Points
This is always the tricky one, right? Engaging your audience through eye-catching content. You must find a way to speak to your audience’s needs, while also giving them content that they can quickly digest. That may include graphics, original blog content, thoughtful insights, or shared content from other reputable sources. Try to create (or find and share) content that your audience can learn something from very quickly as they scroll through their feed.  Tip: Always tag any relevant people or businesses in your posts. Also, make good use of your hashtags to help users find your content.
3. Diligent and Proactive Engagement with Your Audience
We know you’re busy and have very little time to watch over your social accounts. But, engagement is one of the most important elements of your LinkedIn strategy. Ensure that you always answer comments or proactively engage your audience in conversation by asking a question in the first comment on your post. To further encourage engagement, you may also consider tagging someone in the comment who you feel may have particularly good insight on the subject.   Tip: Set a calendar reminder to help you remember to check your LinkedIn and engage at least twice per day. 
4. An Employee-Centric Content and Engagement Strategy
Involving your employees is a great way to build teamwork, making your team feel more connected to your audience and to each other. Here are a few of the ways you can encourage your team’s help with your LinkedIn strategy: 
  • Request that each team member spends ten minutes per day engaging on LinkedIn
  • Tag team members in content they helped create or contributed to
  • Create branded cover photos for your team’s profiles 
  • Share content congratulating team members on their accomplishments
  • Tag team members to ask insightful questions 
Tip: Ask team members to create content of their own that they would be proud to share with their LinkedIn connections. 
5. A Budget for Strategic Paid Ads
Organic reach is always the goal, but in today’s social media environment, you often have to pay to play. Consider your business’s primary goals, and set a budget for each that you can use for paid LinkedIn ads. If that’s hiring, for example, you may boost a job advertisement. If it’s brand awareness, you may put your money behind case studies. Whatever you choose, make sure that your ad spend correlates with your team’s goals. Tip: To get the most out of your ad spend, you may prefer to hire someone to help you with this area of your strategy.

Ready to Build a Lead-Generating LinkedIn Strategy? 

Your LinkedIn content has the power to paint a picture for your clients, prospective employees, and anyone coming in contact with your brand. Let’s make it count. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

B2B Marketers: Is Facebook Worth Your Time?

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Are you ever disappointed by your Facebook reach?  You’re not alone. Brand pages often see dips in engagement for a variety of reasons, but one in particular: Facebook wants you to pay to play. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true. 98% of Facebook’s revenue is generated by ads. And, unsurprisingly, the average reach of an organic post (without paying for an ad) is a sad 5.2%. It’s quite simple: the more you see the need for a Facebook ad—because you’re not getting satisfactory reach—the more money Facebook makes.  So, should you quit Facebook? Not necessarily. But, you do want to be sure that you’re using your marketing dollars effectively. Here are a few ways to make sure that Facebook is worth your time. 

Consider Whether Your Decision Makers are On Facebook

First and foremost, you want your Facebook presence to be noticed by not only your target audience, but the decision makers in that audience. Often, for B2B marketers, their audiences are more present on LinkedIn than they are on Facebook; however, this will be specific to you. After all, no one knows your business and your customers better than you. 

Strategically Think About the Content Your Facebook Audience Wants 

Here’s a thought: perhaps Facebook isn’t where you make the sale. Rather, this could be a place where you plant the seed, promoting brand awareness and developing other parts of your business. What we mean, is that instead of a post about your services, you might instead promote your business’s podcast, newsletter, or other helpful tools. If you choose to use Facebook as a marketing tool, it’s vital that you use it strategically. 

Make Sure that You Have Time to Engage

Facebook, like any social media, is a “get what you give” kind of platform. The more (well-planned) content you place on your newsfeed, and the more you interact with your audience and promote your Facebook page, the more likely it is that your reach will grow. A set-it-and-forget-it approach will likely leave you feeling like you’re creating content for no one to see.

If It Isn’t Working, Try Something New

Did anyone ever tell you to not be a “quitter”? We won’t be those people. If a tactic isn’t working for you, there is a very good chance that the platform may not be for you. The last thing you want is a drain that sucks your energy and time without giving you the return on investment you need. Try connecting with a marketing partner to discuss your social media strategy. There is a chance that other platforms will better serve you. Or, you might have new options for the direction of your Facebook page. 

It’s Not Just You

Facebook is difficult for other B2B companies, too. We can help. Are you looking to boost your online presence? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.

7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Cut Your Marketing Budget in a Recession

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“But, we have to cut something.” You may be feeling as though marketing is the easiest line item in your budget report to slash. We get it. As we’ve worked through this recession, Green Apple has made cuts of our own to ensure that we’re financially strong enough to serve our customers. We’re right there with you. However, cutting your marketing budget can hurt your business long-term, even when it might help it slightly in the immediate future. 

To ensure that your business can continue serving its customers, you must consider a few key points. Here are seven reasons to reconsider reducing your marketing budget in a recession.

1. What if your competitors don’t?

You may consider cutting your marketing budget, but if your competitors don’t, where does that leave you? When you reduce your marketing budget, you decrease how and how often your customers see you—allowing your competitor to move in.

2. Your marketing team can help your customers support you.

The return on investment for your marketing strategy is still valid during a recession. While things are “normal,” your strategy is to drive sales and build relationships; however, during a recession, you are more focused on the relationship-building side of things and can keep your customers invested in your success. They love you as much as you love them, and they don’t want to see your business struggle. Your marketing team can help you show the right amount of vulnerability and transparency, while still sending the message that you are here to help.

3. Your marketing team protects you.

Clients often think about marketing as advertising, but it’s so much more. Your marketing team is telling your brand’s story, and that story must be shaped to align with the social climate—so as to not be insensitive or offensive. Using COVID-19 as an example, companies needed to quickly shift their messaging strategies to be sensitive and empathetic. Having a team on your side that can help shift and shape your message allows you to support your audience, while keeping your brand top of mind.

4. You don’t want your customers to feel abandoned.

Your marketing strategy strengthens your relationship with your audience. A reduction in your budget can leave your customers wondering where you went—or worse, if your business is in jeopardy of shutting down.

You will, of course, be there for your audience in a different way during a recession. Your messaging will focus on how you’re taking care of customers as the tides change. Marketing can tell your audience what you’re doing to keep their best interests in mind, strengthening their trust in your brand.

5. It may be time to launch that new product.

You have less competition during a recession, as other companies are focusing on staying afloat. They aren’t putting their time and effort into launching new products or growing their business. If you are in the position to, and you have ideas ready to launch, work with your marketing team to put your new product out into the world.

6. You will not bounce back as easily.

If you reduce your marketing efforts, it leaves you in a difficult position when you’re ready to bounce back. You’ve spent a great deal of time and money growing your brand’s reach. Rather than scaling back, discuss a strategy with your marketing team to find ways to keep your reach consistent. Once the economy is on an upswing, you will appreciate not having lost months—or years—of progress.

7. It can take you off course to meet your goals.

Even amid a recession, you still want to move forward. Your marketing team can help you keep your goals in mind and find new strategies to meet them. Don’t underestimate a marketing team’s versatility and the potential to keep your business growing, even when the economy is less than ideal. 

Talk Strategy Before You Make Cuts

Before you decide on your budget, discuss all the options with your marketing team. They can likely work with you to achieve your goals, even with necessary budget accommodations. Your relationship with your marketing team should be transparent—they want to see you succeed, too, and will do everything they can to make that happen. 

Ready for a marketing team with your best interests at heart? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.