What Does the Cost-of-Living Crisis Mean for Your Small Business Marketing Strategy?
Last week the 2023 Spring Budget was announced by the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. As expected, there are plans to cut inflation and get debt falling. The Spring Budget made plans to grow the economy and the 4 pillars of the government’s industrial strategy were spoken about too. These 4 pillars are enterprise, employment, education and everywhere.
But what does cost of living mean for your small business marketing?
As with most new budget announcements, there are parts of the Spring Budget 2023 that will excite you, and other parts you’d prefer weren’t there. However, it is important to note that even with the recent budget announcement, we are not in a recession and experts do not believe we will be in 2023.
That said, we are in a cost-of-living crisis and small business owners are feeling the pinch. Now is the time to work smarter with your small business marketing strategy. While you may need to rethink your marketing strategy as the cost-of-living rises, you shouldn’t turn off your all marketing efforts.
During the pandemic a lot of businesses went into panic mode and stopped all marketing efforts or drastically pulled back. However, as we are now at the other side of the pandemic, we can see how well this work. Sadly, it didn’t!
Businesses that engaged with both their loyal and potential customers throughout the pandemic saw a swifter business recovery than their competition that switched off their marketing when the pandemic hit. While it may be necessary to pull back your marketing budget while your business handles the cost-of-living crisis, you need to maintain your online presence. It is important that you stay connected with your customers, so you stay at the forefront of their mind.
It is extremely likely that the cost-of-living crisis will affect your business and impact your marketing. For example, you may have less footfall in your bricks and mortar business. Perhaps you will see an increase in visitors to your website, but less sales or conversions. It’s likely that you’ll see a boost in the sales of ‘need’ items as opposed to ‘nice to have’ products and services.
If you are looking for ways to manage your marketing within this cost-of-living crisis, call our team. We can look at your marketing strategy and see where improvements can be made so your marketing is better managed and more successful.
