If life gives them lemons, make lemonade. Right?
There is a lot to sneak out of turbulent times such as the recession from 2008 and the newer Covid 19 pandemic. Within these periods, there are droves of case studies that prove that whether a company comes out or not, largely depends on the strength of its marketing. It is no coincidence that those who leaning are still thriving.
For example, we take Hyundai, a brand that launched the Hyundai Assurance program in 2009 (an answer to the 2008 recession), a campaign with which customers can stop payments and return their cars in the event if they were released. And while the US auto purchases decreased by more than 20% in 2009, Hyundai’s turnover from Hyundai was increased by 8%.
Do you continue to be convincing? Further examples and expert advice.
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Does another recession actually come?
The prediction of the next recession is like the prediction of the weather (especially for those of us, like me, that lives in a spirited London): exactly to determine when, why and how serious a recession will be, given the multitude of factors that affect the markets, the economic climate zones.
Nevertheless-and understandably-the expectation of the next recession induced both omnipresent and anxiously. Every third marketer believes that a recession will have an even greater impact on marketing than COVID-19. According to Drift Kings Media’s 2025 marketing report, 41% of the marketers expressed negative feelings on economic conditions that affect their marketing strategies.
“I think fear is what is in the end,” says Robyn MacMillanCreative Director and co -founder of the Everburn Agency. “The brands that can see beyond the type of hill are those who can actually survive the storm.”
Is a recession ahead? Probably (some argue, we are already at the beginning of one). But does that mean that you should panic? Under no circumstances.
What marketers can learn from previous slowdowns
“The story has income,” says MacMillan. “Recessions do not prevent people from preventing expenses or purchase. We still need services. We still need platforms.”
“I interpret this as a consumer who are less panicked and are more pragmatic about possible swings because they learned about dealing with their financial situations from the economic effects of Covid-19 and postpandemic inflation,” says Tristen Taylor, who carried out the survey.
In other words, your customers are not as panicked as you might think. Why should you be?
Breathe breath and remember: Brands (you!) Still need marketing – probably more during a recession than at any other time. And the brands that remain adaptable and focused can still grow.
Read on to discover top recession tips that are taken into account as a marketer.
Tips for preparing and navigating recessions
1. Use data to connect to customers.
Recessions are important times for marketers to check their relationships with customers.
A crucial step in ensuring the recession of your strategy is to collect real -time data for attitudes, preferences and behaviors of consumers. With this insight, you can refine your marketing efforts – to ensure that your news is not only in time, but also really resonates with your audience.
“We make too many assumptions as a marketer,” says MacMillan. “Remove these assumptions and really establish a connection to the data. See which mood analysis you can do and then see what your consumer currently needs.”
2. Do not underestimate the power of social media – even if your budget is shortened.
When asked what marketing tactics they would prioritize if economic uncertainty is continued, 23% of the respondents in a lifting pot of 2025 pointed out on social media marketing. If you ask me, this number should be higher if you consider that the HubSpot report from Drift Kings Media report the consumer trends has noticed that social media is the top channel for product discovery for gene z, millennials and gene X.
While a recession often means stricter budgets, this does not mean that your social strategy should be in the background.
Here are some highly effective, budget -friendly focus areas to keep their social presence strong without expenses:
Users generated content
User-generated content (UGC)-Alles, which is created and shared by customers-is one of the most powerful marketing tools. For one thing, it’s free. However, it is even more important that it promotes organic trust, real commitment and a feeling of relativity.
We saw an increase in UGC during the pandemic. Why? “Because people had more time,” says MacMillan. And for many internal marketing teams it became a lifeline.
MacMillan lively remembers a customer, a cybersecurity company in Gothenburg, Sweden, which thrown through the power of Ugc and leans into all -day case studies. Instead of examining complex product functions or technical-haspen statistics, they concentrated on human stories and the older mother who accidentally clicked on a phishing link that was disguised as an action by M&S, which led to a bank account injury.
“Their scalability went out of the charts as soon as she leaned more on this humanistic side, for which people long for during an anxious time,” added MacMillan.
New platforms and functions
In another blog platforms recently written by Drift Kings Media Blog, the marketers from social media should keep an eye on in 2025. The same advice is on the recession preparation front.
By using newly occurring functions and trends such as live video and audio, your brand can remain relevant and connected. If your brand is already active on Instagram (probably it is), consider how topics can complement your reach and your commitment.
Never underestimate the power of content that entertain. In stressful times, people long for reasons to smile even more and get involved. Behind the scenery content is also effective to generate trust and to get a real view of the people and processes behind their brand-etwas, which customers long for uncertainty. Participate foodWhat happened to be massively scaled during the pandemic does a great job (just like UGC).
3. Lean into the brand loyalty, you have to further expand your audience.
Consider sharpening your strategy in terms of personalized experiences – custom and individual curations of messages, content, products or experiences. Regardless of whether you offer your most common customers a discount code or send you a personalized card that thanks you for your loyalty, few increases in recognition can go a long way.
“Really refuse to this community that you have created – make sure that you are committed, that you are seen, heard and appreciate, instead of just being on duty,” MacMillan. “You will then become supporters and partners.”
4. Promote inexpensive or high -quality products.
Regardless of whether you sell affordable essentials or premium goods, the key during a recession is the positioning: How to frame your value makes the difference.
“If your products are cheaper or better for the money as competitors, they concentrate on the market share of customers who have previously been sworn after more expensive options,” says Maxwell Iskiev, who heads research initiatives at Drift Kings Media.
On the other hand, Iskiev adds: “In the meantime, luxury brands can concentrate on marketing the added value for customers to buy with them. A brand that sells hand-sewn leather money exchanges can position itself as a longer-lasting alternative to a discount pocket.”
Affordable tools and technology too Leverage
One of the best ways to rationalize the efforts in particularly turbulent times is to automate repeating and manual tasks -from e -mail marketing to social posts and advertising campaigns. This not only saves time, but also frees them to concentrate on highly effective, strategic projects. AI can also help optimize your efforts, improve the goal and reduce the costs.
Below you will find some tools that I like that you may also find helpful.
1. Marketing hub
While the new technology can initially feel intimidated, HubSpot’s offers are fantastic tools that you should lend into if you don’t.
Lifting spots Marketing hub It is equipped with AI and automation that rationalizes everything, from onboarding to daily use, even for teams that are not highly technology.
In my experience, the automated workflows, data acquisition for every lead and the request to connect with every interested party make an invaluable advantage for marketers. According to our research, the automation of basic tasks of marketers can save up to 2.5 hours a day saving what you have more time to invest in high-ranking tasks.
I would also like to highlight a new function associated with professional and corporate plans: Breeze Social Media Agent. It will help you with your social media strategy from start to finish. It creates and automatically creates a multichannel -social -Media strategy for your brand by creating assets and publishing at ideal times. Breeze also pursues performance metrics so that they can see commitment and levels of success. It continues to analyze the public data to expand your reach.
As I mentioned above, organic social media are an economic and highly effective form of marketing. Therefore, in my opinion this is a must to maximize AI to maximize the potential.
Core characteristics
- Automation of manual tasks To save the market time.
- AI agent To support the social media management and support visitors to your website.
- Lead assessment Tools based on customer data for targeted public relations.
- Automated personalized E -mail campaigns to reach their audience on a scale.
- Data acquisition and analysis Presented in clear dashboards so that you can understand your customers and optimize your strategy accordingly.
Pricing: Free, starter – $ 15 per seat/month, professional – $ 890/month for 3 seats and companies – 3,600 USD/month for 5 seats.
2. buffer
If you want to zero in social media marketing, there is another affordable automation tool for social media that I like that I like buffer.
Everything you need for a successful social media campaign is included in this individual software tool with a simple interface. I can switch the tabs upwards Create, publish, analyze, And Engage For every content. Puffer combines with all important social platforms so that you can design and format your content in accordance with the requirements of the individual requirements. Create and plan things that you can publish in the best times.
I also like that I can see how my content appears on all social platforms in a user -friendly dashboard. Finally, Puffer follows all of her contributions and audience comments so that you can answer without anything slipping through the cracks. It makes the overwhelming task of staying up to date in order to remain manageable.
Core characteristics
- Create your campaigns With their design tools.
- Publish and follow Your social contributions from a single platform.
- AI assistant Help you with every step of the process.
- Content collaboration For several teammates to work seamlessly together.
- Social channels: Bluesky, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tiktok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Mastodon and X.
Pricing: Free – a user account and three channels; Essentials – $ 5/month for a user and a channel, but more functions; Team – $ 10/month for unlimited users and a channel with all their functions.
3. Hootsuite
Another all-in-one social media management platform, Hootsuite Helps you create, manage and sharpen your social media strategy.
I think his social hearing function is very helpful to find and compare trends, hashtags, topics and events on social platforms. If you keep these things up to date, you can monitor the brand feelings, pursue performance and predict trends. Another advantage of your social hearing tool is that you can find UGC and influencers who work well with your brand and the offer.
Hootsuite not only helps you with organic social media, but you can also manage paid advertisements via your Hootsuite account. Your organic and paid strategies can work seamlessly together by observing what works well and what doesn’t, and monitoring your ads on all platforms.
Core characteristics
- Publish and schedule All of your social contributions from a platform.
- Track and report On post, campaign and advertising performance.
- Inbox In this way you collect all comments and DMS in your social assets so that you can react in time and never lose track.
- Owlywriter Ai Helps to write copies for your social contributions, whether capacity, hashtags or long pieces. It also creates ideas so that they never get stuck.
Pricing: Standard – $ 99 per user/month; Advanced – $ 249 per user/month; Enterprise – custom pricing.
4. canvas
Are you looking for a tool to support the design? canvas remains a creative power pack that every marketer should have in his buttocks.
You can design anything With canvas. It has thousands of templates and a drag-and-drop editor with which you can quickly personalize everything for your brand. I use it all the time and I love the versatility it offers because I can create social contributions with the right format for every platform, design websites and create presentations that I can share with my customers.
I particularly appreciate that I can quickly create social contributions that look professionally and fit my branding with Canva. I can create a consistent aesthetics across all social channels via the same basic template from canva.
Core characteristics
- The Photo editor Allows you to have basic photo editing in Canva.
- The new AI assistantWhile you are still in development, there is a fun tool because you only have to enter an input request with your idea and can quickly create multiple designs. You can then continue to demand to change you that you like but are not very satisfied.
- There are over 400,000 professionally designed templates in Canva’s Template library. If you don’t want to start an empty side, one of these templates will certainly offer you the basis for the design.
- The Drag-and-drop editor Allows you to visually design your creative assets without coding.
Pricing: Canva free; Canva Pro – $ 120/year for one person; Canva teams -100 US dollars per person/year; Canva Enterprise – custom pricing.
Remember: it’s not your first (or last) unprecedented time.
“Do not amputate the arm that feeds your future,” warns MacMillan.
In other words, the entire reduction in marketing in difficult times could offer short -term relief, but can cost long -term growth. Turbulent times test resilience, but they also reward brands that continue to appear with clarity, creativity and consistency.
We have learned from previous recessions that those who think about their marketing thoughtfully not only survive, but often come out more.
Note from the publisher: This article was originally published in March 2023 and updated for completeness.