A downturn can create opportunity for the companies that are more efficient at turning marketing investments into revenue, since there will be less competition overall. In a study of U.S. 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. In fact, by 1985 companies that were aggressive recession advertisers grew their revenue over 2.5X faster than those that reduced their advertising.

Now is the time to go on the offensive and steal share to expand your business. If you have the right marketing ROI system, it may be easier, more reliable and more predictable to improve sales than it is to raise capital. The key is increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing.

Spending smarter and faster

A business should aim to grow market share by investing in marketing and can lose share by cutting back. Considering the unique dynamics of this financial storm, marketers need to spend very wisely and adapt faster to grow share.

Cost-cutting is the first place everyone hunts. Offering unique business insights can truly differentiate your company. Inevitably, you have some degree of visibility into a category, a customer segment, or geography that your customers haven't fully explored yet. Not only can you help your customers save money through better targeting or more informed decision-making, you can create a new revenue stream for your own business. Committing to help your customers generate top-line growth is harder but just as important.

Consider promoting long-term value as opposed to ‘luxury’ to make clients feel more secure in spending. Indeed, value should be much more important to a client than actual cost.

Boost lead efforts

In a recession, risk-averse buyers take longer than normal to research potential purchases. This means that you need lead scoring to identify which leads are highly engaged and lead nurturing to develop relationships with qualified prospects that are not yet ready to engage with sales.

Implementing even simple automated lead-nurturing programs can yield a 400% improvement in the conversion of qualified prospects into sales opportunities over time. Companies that can 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.

Sustain the brand and build customer loyalty

A strong brand helps clients to trust a company, so don’t forget how critical it is to maintain and build a strong brand. According to a recent American Marketing Association survey, 63% of marketers say they can lessen the impact of a downturn by investing in brand building as part of their marketing plan.

While you always want your products or services to meet the needs of the customers, this becomes more significant during a downturn. Therefore, you need to market your product or service as important to your customer as possible. You need to solve a problem, satisfy a need, or make life easier in a cost-effective manner.

Find out what your customers need, and then actually deliver value to them. If you are able to be flexible with your clients now, chances are they will remain loyal when the economy improves.

Refining target audiences

When budgets are cut, the channels with the least ability to measure marketing ROI are cut especially hard as companies shift spending to more measurable channels.

New tools allow you to be much more precise when delivering your message. Online marketing tends to be less expensive than print and radio, and can be easily quantified. Hosting seminars which are of interest to your client base positions you as a thought leader in your industry. Networking websites can be useful ways of making contact with potential customers.

Maximization and ROI management

Be very specific about the expected impact and ROI in advance. Only work with programs that can achieve scale today. Start with inexpensive pilot programs combined with high-quality measurement. Create a pro-forma example of expected ROI to check the math. It can add another powerful dimension to generating sales and profit.

If you are looking at your quarterly numbers and thinking that the best way to improve profitability is to cut marketing and put it to the bottom line, think long and hard before doing that. It is a mistake that may save you this quarter and cost you’re a lot more next quarter. Well-managed marketing ROI makes marketing a predictable demand driver. Sales are an excellent source of cash flow, and you wouldn’t want to make matters worse by cutting demand drivers.

A downturn creates opportunity to accelerate growth faster than your competitors. This means it may be the best time to step up your marketing. If you can take advantage of momentum that you built during a downturn, you can remain ahead of the competition for the long term. The marketers that 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.