There is an unfriendly wind blowing throughout our economy right now. Inflation has caused many to be concerned that a major recession is on its way. With a devalued dollar and interest rates soaring to their highest rates in 16 years, consumers are cautious about spending and businesses are tightening their belts.

Can you recession-proof your business with marketing? If the economy goes underwater, can marketing save it? In some cases, yes you can. Some businesses have done quite well for themselves during economic downturns. Think about products and services that help companies do more with less. For instance, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the personal computer was launched during a recession. It made a splash because it eliminated a need for secretarial pools of people (mainly women) who took dictation and typed letters, memos and other pieces of communication all day long. Word processing software allowed a person to type, save and edit letters. Out of that recession came companies such as Microsoft and Apple. If you have a brand that can make your customers more efficient, save money, save time or eliminates overhead, marketing in bad economic times could be a boon for you.

What if your products and services don’t save time or money? Can you still make your marketing work for you in a downturn in the economy? Yes, but here is where this gets tricky for several reasons. First, businesses tend to cut their budgets when the sales forecast looks cloudy. That often includes cuts to the marketing budget. If you know your competition is likely to back off their marketing, the smart thing to do would be to increase yours. This takes business discipline and a fair amount of faith to make that happen, but it stands to reason if you take advantage of all your competitors pumping their marketing brakes, you could come away with a larger segment of the market.

The reality is, you may have to cut your marketing expenses too. As much as it makes sense to ramp up marketing in a sluggish economy, many times you have to market with less. A second way to keep the marketing door open for customers is to emphasize the essentialness of your products or services. Examine your marketing message. You may need to pare it back from making life easy for your customers to being essential to their existence. If you can make this claim with credibility, do so. It will help you when the consumer begins to prioritize their spending. However, if your products or services are non-essential, look for ways you can partner and bundle your brand with one that is essential. Partner with other brands that have influence and market both brands together. If you position yourself as a 2-for-1 deal, you can ride their coattails through the tough times.

One more thing I want to mention, and this should be a part of the way you are leading any customer in good economies and bad. That is, make it easy for them to do business with you. Get them to the offer to buy as soon as you can without a lot of hoops for them to jump through. Make a clear offer and give them an action point that makes it easy to say yes to your brand.