Recession-proofed Marketing & Say Less, Repeat Often [M&M #015]
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🙅♂️ Marketing ➔ Recession-proofed Marketing
"Hide yo kids, hide yo wife cause they be stirrin up a ruhcession round he-uhh" - IYKYK
Well here we are. The next recession is happening.
Crypto, NFT's, Stocks - going down, down, and down.
Time to lay people off, pull back on our spending, cover your head in case the sky falls.
This is my sarcasm speaking FYI...
If you ask me, I see this as a time to double-down on your skills, think twice when spending, and by all means... DO NOT FREAK OUT.
Like a newborn baby,
Our businesses don't care about the state of the world. But boy can they get hurt by it.
The question for today is,
"How do we optimize our marketing to help keep the business chugging along?"
Here's a piece of advice that applies inside and outside of the marketing-minded discussions:
When things seem chaotic and your world is in a frenzy...
Slow down. Focus on the fundamentals.
Re-unite with what you're aiming to achieve and why.
Then and only then, should you begin to pick up the pace again. [tweet this]
A Few Fundamentals to Focus on today:
Clean your Emails lists
Cut the spending that isn't pulling it's weight for the biz
Re-Connect to, & Communicate your "why" to your audience
While there may be more bullets to add, let's expand on these three.
1) Clean Your Email Lists
When it comes to your email list, you probably fall into one of two categories. You either:
Have no email list - not gonna shame you for it, but it's imperative that you start
Have a list full of stale, unengaged contacts - this isn't doin' ya good
Cleaning your contact database, or email list is not only a good way to keep a clean house for your small biz, but it also important to see who is truly engaged with your marketing efforts. Odds are, it's a much smaller percentage than you previously thought.
Setting up a re-engagement campaign can help to entice stale contacts to come alive again. And if they still aren't opening your emails, you ought to unsubscribe them. Clearly they don't care to receive the emails, and keeping them around is only hurting your open rates and other metrics.
2) Cut the Spending
Pretty self-explanatory... What software are you not using? what subscriptions did you forget about?
The trick to making this spending audit really easy, is by either tracking all financials in a bookkeeping software (I use freshbooks) or keep all biz spending on one credit card. Then All you need to do is, look at the monthly recurring expenses and assess what's not needed.
By keeping your spending in check, the profitability likelihood increases and ensures that the marketing expenses you do have are truly necessary and not willy-nilly impulse items that don't actually help. Furthermore, this practice will free up extra dollars that can be re-deployed into fruitful marketing efforts.
3) Re-Connect to, & Communicate Your 'Why' to Your audience
Reminder, people don't buy into what your selling... They buy into you. [tweet this]
This is especially true for one-person businesses and creators.
In a recessionary period, it's a good time to look inward and rediscover your reason for being in business in the first place.
What's your 'Why'? - a.k.a. the thing that drives you to do what you do.
I encourage you to not only tap back into that, but then go out and share it with the world.
The more you share your why with your target audience, the more real you become in their eyes.
You won't be a commodity anymore. You'll be a human on a mission - a leader with a plan - a guide with a solution.
People will resonate with you and your brand like never before and they'll buy in.
Trust me, it works.
Start with these things and you too will become recession-proof.
☎️ Mindset ➔ Make the Call
We all know someone in our life who is a long-winded 'talker' by nature.
I often catch myself laughing on the inside thinking,
"Do they not realize that they keep repeating themselves? As if I hadn't heard them say this 10 seconds ago?!" 😂
And you know what... I'm that guy too. 😳
At least I can be at times.
Last week, we kinda touched on this idea that two opposing ideas can be true at the same time.
I see a similar pattern here too.
There's an interesting dichotomy within the concept of brevity.
On one hand...
Brevity in action is powerful.
Want to make an impact with your words?
Say Less. [tweet this]
A great leader is one that allows all of his or her constituents to share their thoughts/ideas/opinions on a matter before sharing their thoughts and subsequent decisions.
Let's say a leader calls a brainstorming meeting and then begins by laying out all of their thoughts/ideas/opinions before handing over the mic. When this happens it's often that others in the room may not speak as creatively or as freely because it seems that the leader already has their mind made up.
If my boss were to do this, why would I speak contrarian to their stance? I don't want to lose my job. I don't want to piss them off. And if the boss is so 'bold' as to air out all their thoughts first, how would it be beneficial for me by not falling in line?
A great book that comes to mind that shows this principle in action is Patrick Lencioni's, "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team". *I earn a tiny commission from this link
While on the other hand, coming from my marketing background we know that it takes around 8-12x of repetition for someone to remember our message. Think...
"Enterprise. We'll pick you up."
"Save 15% or more by making a 15min call to Geico."
I didn't have to think for more than 5sec before knowing these lines.
Repetition is powerful.
Brevity is powerful.
These are both true statements.
Two opposing principles can be true at the same time.
Two opposing strategies can generate similar outcomes.
Two opposing ideas compound in value when studying the dichotomy between them.
Study the friction, don't fight it. [tweet this]
How do we know when to apply each technique?
It comes down to the practical application and specific use-case.
But ultimately...
Brevity holds attention and keeps your audience focused.
Repetition helps commit important points to memory.
The principles of brevity and repetition are fundamental opposite - We know this.
And although I've painted them to seem counter to one another, the ultimate skill is using brevity and repetition in tandem. Marry the two approaches.
This'll keep the listener focused while ensuring they don't miss the point.
Say less.
Get to the point.
Only speak what should be spoken.
And then hammer it home by saying it often.
This is what high value people do.
High value individuals...
➝ Focus on the main point.
➝ Speak clearly and succinctly.
➝ Re-iterate the main point many times over.
Say Less, Repeat Often. [tweet this]
Until next time ✌️
Ev
P.S. I recognize the irony in a long email about saying less. The dichotomy lives on!
