Doing More With Less: How to do Marketing in a Recession

Companies of all sizes—from scrappy startups to big enterprises—are bracing for an economic downturn this year.

That means, resources are scarce, hiring freezes are commonplace and layoffs are happening left and right. So, how can marketing and creative teams adapt and deliver results with fewer hands on deck?

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Stop Hedging and Start Making Smarter Bets

In times like these, the knee-jerk reaction is to reign in costs and stick to what's safe. In theory, it’s a sound strategy. But in practice, it might backfire for three reasons:

1. There’s less demand to capture in a downturn

Forced to choose between reliable, incremental growth tactics and creative high-risk, high-reward ideas, it's easy to choose caution.

But prioritizing safer demand capture tactics when demand is dwindling leaves marketing and creative teams playing defense when they should be playing offense.

A smarter bet: Create demand instead

With fewer resources, your focus should return to the first function of marketing: Generating demand for the products and services you sell.

Your marketing strategies should prioritize brand awareness, engagement campaigns and better efficiency. But of course, many teams lack the capabilities to execute these strategies, which brings us to the next problem with hedging…

2. High-impact ideas are half-executed (or not executed at all)

Getting the resources to execute can be tough even in good times. But when resources are scarce, teams might press pause or scrap winning ideas altogether.

Yet a single well-executed bet can change the course of a company, like Patagonia’s famous anti-consumerism ad. So, how can marketers and creatives continue to execute on big ideas with limited resources and low tolerance for risk?

A smarter bet: Lean on a trusted creative partner

You may not have budget for new hires or pricey agencies, but with a Creative-as-a-Service (CaaS) like Superside to back you up, you can continue to execute to a high-standard, without breaking the bank.

With Superside at your side, you get access to top creative talent from around the world—designers, illustrators, motion experts and more who’ve helped brands, like Amazon, Shopify and PUMA execute at scale.

When failure isn’t an option and up to 70% of a marketing campaign's performance is determined by the quality of creative, Superside is the partner you need in your backpocket.

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3. Politics become fiercer as resources become scarcer

What happens when marketing can't get a designer's time to launch a new campaign because the creative team is under-staffed and at capacity?

Corporate politics. When even the low-hanging fruit becomes hard to pick, it can get Game of Thrones real quick, leading to all kinds of dysfunctions, especially between marketing and creative teams.

A smarter bet: Invest in creative operations to add more capacity for execution

Overcoming limited resources means investing in areas outside of tactical execution, including operations and technology.

Superside checks these boxes, too. When you sign up for Superside, you get a dedicated team of project managers, designers and creative directors, all powered by a frictionless DesignOps platform. Simply put, we have your creative operations covered.

Get Your Marketing and Creative Teams the Support They Need in These Times

With a recession on the horizon, marketing and creative teams need to do more with less. But that doesn’t mean they have to go it alone…

A CaaS like Superside can fill the gaps without bloating budgets, adding headcount or causing headaches! Get access to top-quality creative on 24-hour turnarounds and continue to deliver results in these times.

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