How to Recession-Proof Your Agency: 15 Strategies to Survive

The 2008-2009 mega recession left invisible scars on numerous industries and turned the course of life for many. But this was not the last recession to happen. Post-pandemic, we are yet again heading towards a major recession, which is not as severe as the 2008 downturn but big enough to jolt the economies across the globe.

Negative Impacts of an Economic Downturn

A downward recessionary spiral can crush everything. With decreased incomes and less money to spend, retail sales tumble down, impacting the entire economy.

Businesses are forced to shrink their workforce and cut overall operating expenses to prevent a possible shutdown. Mass layoffs lead to high unemployment, lower wages, fall in GDP, and missed opportunities.

Slow and uneven recovery and social consequences further compound the problem, as we saw in the Great Recession of 2008. Student debt, lower fertility rates, increasing mental health issues & suicide rates, breaking families, and social unrest brutally hurt economies and markets for many years.

How to Keep Your Business Afloat During a Recession?

Even the best businesses struggle to survive during the recession because their expenses supersede their incomes. Here are 15 tips on how to market and survive during a recession.

1. Discover or Create New Revenue Streams

Follow the market trend during tough times and seize potential opportunities. You have numerous options to find alternative methods of creating new revenue streams.

Take stock of your abilities. You can create new products and services by utilizing your existing capabilities. These products and services may save your agency when there is a slump in demand for your current services.

Strategic partnerships will help you during the tough times to expand into the markets you previously couldn't tap.

You can sublet it and add your rental income if you have extra office space.

2. Sell Online Courses

As the eLearning market is booming, you can launch your online education business. Online courses are selling like a hotcake these days. Create online classes on your areas of expertise and sell them aggressively.

You need the following items to start with –

• A good HD Camera and a tripod
• A whiteboard, projector, and lights
• Proper Software to edit
• A well-written script

Buy a software program such as Teachable or WordPress’s LearnDash to make life easy.

Teachable is a popular software for creating online courses, which makes creating online courses a cakewalk. You can start with a fully functional free plan.

LearnDash is the best WordPress online course creation software with the best features to win your heart. Yet, it's quite affordable.

3. Implement an Evolving Business Model

Purge the static business models and replace them with evolving models, so you can easily withstand the tough times. To achieve this, you must pay attention to the changing customer needs. Keep your business model flexible to stretch and change your offerings.

4. Cut Your Pricing to Beat Your Competition

Premium pricing can knock you out of the market, especially during a downturn. So, to stay afloat, get out of your comfort zone and cut your pricing. Remember, customers, act as a lifeline for your agency. Keep them happy, and they will keep you in business.

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5. Innovate and Deliver Value

Innovation acts as a game-changer for businesses. Automate your operations. It saves time and money. Agencies can use the DashClicks white label platform and enjoy its amazing automation tools and apps that make report generation, analytics, and building websites a breeze.

Improve the quality of your product and services and improve your processes through DashClicks Deals and Project Management apps.

6. Position Your Agency Strategically and Find New Niches

If you are a PPC agency and notice that your clients have drastically cut their ad spending following a demand slump, try positioning yourself as a social media or SEO company. It can be a great survival move. You can also target new niches such as TikTok marketing etc.

7. Plan Proactively Ahead of an Economic Meltdown

If you foresee a downturn ahead, plan proactively to deal with it. Revamp your marketing strategies, migrate from manual to automated processes, and cut your costs. You can also consider downsizing your agency.

8. Hire Business Coaches and Mentors

Mentors and business consultants bring a lot of experience and new ideas on board and can help you survive a recession. Recessions wouldn't last forever, but the value that business coaches bring would elevate your agency to new heights, even after the slowdown.

Hiring a business coach can infuse life into dying agencies when many businesses get wiped out, and only the fittest survive. DashClicks offer business consulting services to digital agencies to make them recession-proof.

A business coach can help you maneuver through times of uncertainty. You need to take a plunge and undertake risks to pick up low-hanging fruits during the recession and reap unmatched rewards when the market recovers.

9. Offer Discounts, Incentives, and Rewards to Your Customers

Rewards and incentives hit the "temptation zone" and instantly help promote sales. It becomes even more important during tough times. Leverage discounts and rewards to romp ahead of the looming competition.

10. Reduce Your Operating Cost

Perform a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). Study all costs of a project or decision vs. the total projected benefits. Of course, it also involves assigning a monetary value to those benefits. This way, you'll get to know if a particular expense makes sense or not. Slice off all the unnecessary expenses and drastically reduce your operating cost to stay lean and agile.

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11. Increase Your Marketing Budget

Contrary to conventional wisdom, some marketing gurus advise businesses to increase their marketing budget instead of reducing it during a recession. It has logical reasons behind it.

At a time when a small gesture of kindness may catapult your agency to newer heights, increasing your marketing budget may put the oxygen to your business and make it top of mind.

12. Monitor Your Cash Flow

Study your accounts and pay attention to patterns such as clients' payment cycles. Make sure your income supports your expenses, such as staff salaries, rent, payment to vendors, EMIs, and other bills, on time.

Improve your cash flow by cutting costs, getting customers to pay faster, and getting cash for your assets. You can also apply for credit lines and business credit cards if needed. Make sure your invoices are paid on time. You can also consider delaying payments to vendors.

13. Go International

If you see a slump in demand in the domestic market, you can think of expanding into global markets. Every country has a unique supply and demand pattern, and you may easily find clients overseas if you invest in international marketing.

According to an Americal Enterprise Institute study, Procter and Gamble (58%), Chevron (57%), Oracle (53%), Alphabet (52.7%), IBM (52%), and Pfizer (50.5%) generate more than 50% of their sales in overseas markets.

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14. Postpone Big-Ticket Items

If you plan to buy big-ticket items, postpone them until the market recovers. Shelve your plans to purchase premium furniture or invest in machinery or equipment. Freeze recruitment unless warranted to keep the wheel moving.

15. Fix Your Credit Lines

Identify the credit cards that might be bleeding your budget dry. Immediately pay down high-interest credit card balances. Switch to fixed interest rates from variable ones.

Final Words

In short, a recession would mean you and your client will spend less on marketing and advertising. Even the strongest brands need to pull punches to survive the tornado. But you can still spend on marketing because it has numerous rewards in store for you.

Some marketing gurus even recommend increasing your marketing spending during a recession. It will take you miles ahead of your competition, who risk disappearing from the public eye when they need them the most. Make sure your cuts in spending don't hurt your agency's momentum. The best way to survive a recession is to 10X your marketing and customer service.