Digital marketing is still growing. The global digital marketing and advertising industry is will have nearly doubled in size from 2020 to 2026. What does this mean for you? Well, certainly there are some key digital marketing roles that are going to be important to you in regard to keeping up with trends. However, now too, these key digital marketing roles can help you survive and thrive in 2023. Yes, even in a recession.
Digital marketing encompasses search engine optimization (SEO), content, virtual events, social media, influencer engagement, email, digital advertising virtual events, and mobile marketing. There is also considerable and rapid growth in marketing technology and analytics.
This increased digitisation has led to an increase in the need for digital marketers. Many companies are struggling to find qualified professionals. Does your company have the goods?
Can be in-house if you have time to hire, or you can outsource to an agency but these are the key roles you need to help manage your business marketing through the recession.
Key Digital Marketing Roles: SEO & SEM
Search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are two different but complementary digital marketing tools. They both help improve your website traffic through search engines. For a full breakdown of the differences, read this article: SEO vs SEM differences. Today, we are more concerned with why you need SEO and SEM specialists to help your business thrive in 2023. SEO is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies. It relies on organic methods rather than SEM which relies on paid ads. SEO is a great way to survive the recession, and even be in a great position when it's over! It is not the quickest to show result however, so it is good to also look at SEM strategies. But you don't want to pay anything, "there's a cost-of-living crisis". We hear you. If you are seriously about riding out this storm, you will need to invest, but invest wisely. By turning to experts who have the experience and the time you can spend a little on the best placed and most target ads backed up with an SEO optimised website and keyword-rich content. Using SEO and SEM together can increase your visibility, give you some quick wins and conversions as well as setting you up for long term customer engagement and attraction.
Content Marketing
This is closely related to the SEO section above. Producing regular content is part of the SEO strategy. It has been shown that regular and relevant content improves brand loyalty and gives you a way to carry on delivering value to your clients. If you have the time and enjoy writing then there is nothing stopping you from doing this. Or, perhaps you have members of your team write content every so often. You wouldn't be alone in doing this. But here are some reasons to hire a professional (or use an agency). Professional writers improve your SEO. They are skilled and qualified to quickly write keyword optimised content. They can produce it regularly and topics will be cohesive and structured. This will keep your website up to date and looking slick. Poor quality writing looks unprofessional, and even if you or your staff are great writers, if it is a side project to a main job it is not going to get the care and attention it needs to work for your marketing. Your time is valuable so leave it to the professionals.
Key Digital Marketing Roles: Strategists & Analysts
Understanding the key metrics and how your ROI will look in regard to SEO, SEM, Content and more is, again, something you can do yourself. However, when resources are strained, it is more sensible to employ the services of a professional to get it right, faster! Letting your marketing fall by the wayside in a recession opens up gaps for your competitors to fill. With a good strategy and ability to analyse what's working you can be the business to fill those gaps. An expert in-house hire or an agency can provide you with this, leaving you free to do your job with less stress.Survive And Thrive in 2023
The tools are out there, and so are the skilled workers who can help you use them in the best way for your specific business and needs. For more on how marketing can help you through a recession, try these articles from our blog: How Will The Recession Impact Remote And Flexible Work In Digital Marketing And Ad Agencies? How Will The Cost Of Living Crisis Impact The Marketing Industry?
The incoming cost of living crisis is set to be a bigger threat to businesses than the pandemic. Rising energy, food prices, petrol and the highest inflation in more than 40 years are affecting all of us in some way. When it comes to business, the marketing budget is often one of the first to be cut when an economic downturn hits. To those in the industry, this is very frustrating. Marketing is often seen as a discretionary expense, difficult to track and justify especially when a particularly good marketing strategy and expenditure is likely to be quite high.
This way of thinking is outdated and ultimately flawed. If businesses can keep marketing sustained during a recession, there are opportunities for brand growth during and after the economic downturn. This is good news for marketers.
Cost of Living Increases Force Businesses To Lower Budgets
The biggest challenge for all marketing businesses over the next few months will be brands cutting their marketing spend. There are many factors at play here, including a government campaign earlier in the year to ask brands to cut their marketing expenditure. It is well known that consumers believe cutting marketing costs is the best thing to do when face with a crisis. The government directive played up to this. What is for sure is that consumers believe that cutting marketing expenditure to drive prices down is exactly what brands should be doing. Obviously, this could have a huge impact on marketers.
Customer Confidence Crisis
As we head further into the cost-of-living crisis, customers perceptions of their own financial situations are worsening. The lower the level of consumer confidence, the less likely people are to spend money on non-essential items. This leads to a dip in economic activity and when people begin to be more careful in spending, the resulting drop in sales creates a drop in advertising ROI compared to before. This is why bosses look at marketing and advertising as the first place to cut back spend. Marketers should both be investing carefully in their own brands, and advising their clients to do the same.What Can Businesses Do? 
Businesses should be looking at reviewing all their spending during a recession. But when it comes to advertising and marketing, drastic cuts aren't the answer. You should look at filling gaps in the ad market rather than dropping out of it. When other businesses cut spend entirely, the whole market becomes less competitive leaving you ad platform space to fill!
- Reallocating your spend in this way means you can increase the return on investment by using platforms likely to give you better results
- If you aren't targeting your recession marketing, you are wasting money
- Optimising PPC and paid campaigns are an excellent way to get measurable results
- Paid search campaigns help you target customers who've already started the buying journey (more likely to buy!)
- By using programmatic advertising, you can make this easier
Recession Can Be Managed With Good Marketing
Historically, businesses that continued to invest in their advertising saw more growth than those who didn't. Keeping up regular communication shows genuine interest and care for your clients. It also strengthens client connection. With digital marketing, there is also an expectation that a brand should share its purpose clearly, and include strong social responsibility communications to clients and employees.- Build new strategies
- Think outside of the box
- Invest in ideas that will provide the lifeline your business need