Trading through a downturn, part three: Growing your business while tightening your belt

When the bottom falls out of the economy, budgets tighten yet the need for leads becomes more urgent than ever. It’s a pincer movement. Here's how to navigate it.

This is the third and final interview with Stephen Waddington in our series on trading through a downturn. The first part, on agency finances, can be found here, the second part, on getting your leadership team on the same page, can be found here.

If you’d like to book a 30-minute meeting with Stephen to discuss any issues covered in this newsletter, you can contact him via email at [email protected].

Cobblers’ children have the worst shoes. A builder's house is never finished. We never eat our own dog food.

There are lots of idioms that describe how marcomms agencies are often bad at applying their expertise to their own businesses. Stephen Waddington puts it a little more bluntly.?

“We’re notoriously shit at our own marketing.”

Stephen Waddington, agency advisor and founder of Wadds Inc., says that marcomms agencies often fail to apply their own expertise to their marketing, especially evident during economic downturns when the pressure to generate leads intensifies amidst tighter budgets.?

I don’t know many agency founders who would disagree with this.?

I like to think that Hard Numbers gets its marketing right in a number of ways – we’re consistent across shared and earned channels, we create content that’s tied to our proposition, and we use content to not only build brand awareness, but to book meetings too.

But there are plenty of instances in which our shoes don’t look all too shiny. Coverage to Capital was envisaged as a quarterly content series. We’ve done three in four years. SEO and PPC? We do a bit. But it’s nowhere near as consistent and well thought through as the strategies we suggest to our clients.?

We’re relentless, some of the time. We’re strategic, mostly.?

“Marketing for creative and professional services agencies is about showing up and being there relentlessly,” Waddington continues. “Memorable organisations are few and far between, but they succeed because they stand out, build trust and take a smart tactical approach.

“Other agencies often focus on one dimension of marketing, like branding or chasing awards, without a long-term sustainable strategy.”

When the bottom falls out of the economy, budgets tighten yet the need for leads becomes more urgent than ever. It’s a pincer movement, and one that leaves a lot of agency founders struggling to balance the short term need for cutting spending, and the mid-to-long term need to grow their businesses.??

How should your marketing strategy change in a downturn??

Waddington emphasises the importance of being flexible in your approach when market conditions change.?

"Back off from brand focus and concentrate on lead generation and activities that will drive sales. It's almost like the old-fashioned approaches, like ABM, come back into practice, especially during a downturn. There's a shift away from branding toward focusing more on sales and lead generation."

Founders need to make sure they find a balance, however, between short term needs and long term growth opportunities. At Hard Numbers, we’ve pulled back on some of the brand building exercises – drastically reducing our awards spend is the biggest example – but we know we can’t do that forever.?

“There's a necessary shift towards lead generation during economic downturns, but maintaining a balance - brand building, industry profile - is crucial.?

How does Wadds Inc. approach marketing??

Waddington says there are two key pillars to the marketing strategy for Wadds Inc., community building and what he calls ‘show and tell’.?

“We've built various communities around the organisation, like our Facebook group, which is a prime example, and our sector-specific newsletter. By constantly showing up and being helpful, we maintain engagement.

“Show and tell is crucial, too. I'm writing more deliberately about our work on LinkedIn, which is proving to be surprisingly fertile. Additionally, we're creating intellectual property, like conducting studies on agencies that started during COVID and other strategic reports.”

The show and tell approach allows Stephen to effectively combine ABM and brand marketing. He can build one to one relationships with people through co-creation of content – eg interviewing them for a research driven piece of content – then one to many relationships when those people amplify the content on their own channels.?

“It’s worth noting that several of our recent business opportunities, particularly in research, have come through LinkedIn, with people connecting with us directly there.”

Write, post, test, repeat

Whatever approach you take, discipline is key, Waddington says. The agencies that truly standard out do so because they have a point of difference, but apply this point of difference consistently over time.?

“You’ve got to get into the cycle of meeting monthly or quarterly to review your process. Taking the time out is really, really important to find a balance between short term goals and long term ambitions. That balance is something that a lot of people just don’t have.”

Would you like a fresh pair of eyes on your marketing approach? Book a free 30-minute meeting with Stephen. You can contact him via email at [email protected]