Marketing in a recession is do or die for most businesses. While many stop, smart marketers just get more picky. Having been direct marketing & internet marketing for 10+ years I’ve come to realize a few things. The need for marketing services don’t dissipate when recessions hit, business owners just stop throwing money at the ones that don’t work.
Having previously worked at a firm that did direct marketing for mortgage banks I’ve seen this first hand. When interest rates were low and the housing market was booming, all kinds of mortgage banks would see success with our marketing efforts. Many banks would throw money at any possible marketing campaigns o see what sticks. However, when interest rates would rise, banks with bad loan programs and no niche would go out of business or stop marketing all together while our more successful clients spent even more on marketing campaigns that worked.
Having been in the search marketing industry for 4 years now I’ve seen the same thing with this recession. Many of our previously successful clients that sold low quality or non niche products have put a hold on their marketing spend. While our clients that provide quality products or services are only spending more.
Successful business owners and marketers are putting more effort into evaluating marketing campaign results, analytic and conversions. We have seen many of our successful clients cut their PPCbudgets in half while increasing SEO and social media marketing.
This trend isn’t limited to us, this recent study shows how most businesses allocate their online marketing dollars and what will change in the future.
Search marketing is forcasted to grow over the years, possibly reaching as much as 24 billion in 2013. This is a significant jump from the 12 billion in 08. SEO expenditures will grow from 1.5 billion in 09 to as high as 3.85 billion in 2013 while pay per click is forecasted to grow from 7.7 billion in 08 to 14.7 billion in 2013.
