Navigating Economic Uncertainty:
Strategies For Business Resilience
During economic uncertainty, customers' disposable income decreases, and small businesses must work harder to convey their value and justify their customers' investment.
To thrive in this environment, it's crucial to highlight your value proposition. Here are some strategies to help you succeed:
1. Emphasize the benefits of working with your business.
Highlight your customers' reviews and showcase your years of experience delivering positive results. List the benefits of working with your organization. Potential customers may be shopping around to find the best mix of value and pricing. If applicable, promote your payment plans or financing options to appeal to budget-conscious customers. Create a budget-friendly value proposition.
2. Diversify your income streams and expand your services.
Identify in-demand services related to your business and integrate them into your company's offerings. For example, medical aesthetics professionals can invest in functional medicine lab training to enhance their customers' results and gain a competitive edge over other med spas. By adding functional medicine labs to its service offerings, a medical aesthetics practice offers a new wellness component, transforming itself into a med spa and wellness center under one roof. The global wellness market is worth 1.8 trillion dollars, and med spa customers need and can benefit from functional medicine labs, the labs' insights, and recommended lifestyle enhancements.
Ask yourself, "What product or service is related to your business, solves a problem that your customers are facing, and can generate additional revenue for your company?"
3. Create offers that entice customers to take action.
One of my clients in the medical aesthetics industry received 13 bookings in 72 hours from a limited-time flash sale. The med spa centered the promotion around Dysport Day.
The flash sale encouraged people to call the business on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday to book their Dysport appointment before the end of the year and save 10% off their Dysport treatment. The customers had to mention the offer to claim the savings. A $100 deposit was required to make the appointment.
Two days into the flash sale, the owner of the medical aesthetics practice mentioned, "Our revenue numbers are definitely up. We had two really, really strong days."
Everyone loves a deal.
4. Continue marketing your business to new and existing customers.
Your customers already know, like, and trust you. They are like low-hanging fruit. Be sure to communicate with them every week via email. Consistently post messages on social media to stay top-of-mind. Send them short text messages linking to webpages about your services, and respond to their messages.
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, a research organization, tracked companies and their marketing decisions for over 20 years. They discovered that when organizations stop advertising, their sales typically decline by 16% after 1 year, 25% after 2 years, and 36% after 3 years. The impact is even more severe for small businesses, as the study notes that "small brands typically suffer greater declines than bigger brands."
During a recession, when most businesses cut back on their marketing efforts, what happens if a company decides to forge ahead and actively promote its brand? According to the University of Pennsylvania, research indicates that companies that maintain consistent advertising efforts perform better over time, even during recessions. A study examining 600 companies from 1980 to 1985 found that businesses that maintained or increased their advertising during the recession saw significantly higher sales once the economy rebounded. Companies that advertised aggressively during the recession experienced sales that were 256% higher than those that stopped advertising.
5. Leverage online advertising platforms, which work like an auction.
Consider what happens when businesses stop advertising on auction-based platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google. When your company and other firms run ads on these platforms, you participate in an auction. If other businesses pull out of the auction and stop advertising, but you continue, your likelihood of reaching your target audience increases, and the competition decreases. Stay in the game.
Bringing it all together:
While economic uncertainty presents challenges, it also offers opportunities for businesses to demonstrate resilience and adaptability. Businesses can navigate these uncertain times by enhancing customer relationships, leveraging digital marketing, adding new, innovative services, and offering financing options. Ultimately, the key to thriving in an unpredictable economy is to remain proactive, flexible and committed to delivering value to your customers.
Digital marketing strategist Michael Guberti has witnessed the full lifecycle of med spas growth:
his clients starting them, scaling them, and even selling them.
His long-term clients successfully sold their practices from a position of financial strength after years of strategic growth.
Michael has been featured in the following media outlets:
What people are saying about Michael Guberti:
"“Michael Guberti is a Game Changer for DermAesthetics. We teamed up about eight years ago and never looked back. His depth of knowledge and consistent review of our online metrics relates directly into a more effective marketing expense and increased revenue year after year. Thank you Michael!”
Scott Tedder, CFO of DermAesthetics Anti-Aging, Laser and Medical Skin Care Center
"Thank you Michael. We appreciate everything you do for the office."
Dr. Comizio, founder of Comizio Orthodontics, top 1% of Invisalign provider offices in North America two years in a row.
“I have to give a shout-out to Michael Guberti. He is absolutely brilliant as our social media strategist.”
Lisa Topham, RN BSN
"Thank you! What would we do without you! You're the best!"
Anjie Cho, Architect and Feng Shui Expert
About Michael
Meet Michael Guberti, strategy and results-driven digital marketer with 10 years of experience building paid and organic marketing funnels for business-to-consumer and business-to-business clients.
Marketing efforts he has overseen have generated roughly $90 million dollars in lifetime revenue for his clients. He has managed and spent over a million dollars on online advertising campaigns.
Strategies that work for one business may not work for you. Michael doesn't put you into a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter template. He implement customized, high-value strategies that goes beyond just ads.
You’re not “just another client” to him, you’re a committed, ambitious entrepreneur and the heartbeat of the economy. He wants to use advertising to propel your business.
After all, advertising is his speciality.
Other activities:
Michael enjoys promoting his client's philanthropic initiatives. His clients have raised:
- Over $100,000 for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides college scholarships and educational counseling to the children of Special Operations personnel who have lost their lives serving our country.
- Over $3,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
- $4,000 for Kenway's Cause, a dog and cat rescue nonprofit organization.
Michael and his brother Marc have a history of giving to others. The brothers started a 501c3 nonprofit called Guberti Giving to empower the next generation of leaders. For four years, they held in-person programs at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. They sponsored students from the nearby areas and lower Westchester so they could attend and learn how to identify their passions, create products, promote themselves, and propel their careers. It was a personal and professional development program. The brothers were grateful to receive support from the New York Knicks, Nextiva phone company, and other organizations. The New York Knicks gave Michael and Marc the Sweetwater Clifton “City Spirit” Award during a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.