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Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Strategy Advisor and Mentor

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Marketing Consultants

June 17, 2022

Advice for independent marketers during a recession or downturn

Okay, so there’s some concern going around about a recession.

Will it impact your business? Is it already impacting your business?

Some of you have said that leads are drying up and clients are canceling services with you. So let’s get in front of it.

Here are a few ideas to consider here if you want to thrive during a recession or market downturn:

  1. Don’t panic—lead your clients
  2. Stay close to the money—focus on ROI, not just deliverables
  3. Be the better alternative to in-house employees
  4. Be ready to scale up or down as needed
  5. Invest in your expertise—be irreplaceable
  6. And of course, keep marketing yourself

The last scare like this

When COVID hit, my advice to my consulting clients (not marketers) was to a) get expenses in check so they could weather a potentially long storm and b) lean into marketing harder than ever before.

And while this advice is applicable to us as marketers again today, there’s a big difference between the COVID scare and an economic recession. The main difference is how much money (or lack thereof) is floating around.

I’m not an economist, but I see four big things happening now:

  1. Interest rates are going up, making debt more expensive, reducing overall spending, tanking stocks
  2. There’s less “free” money sloshing around in the economy in the form of stimulus cheques/checks
  3. Inflation is high and seems to be continuing—meaning everything is getting more expensive
  4. Unemployment is still low, so hiring employees is difficult (and expensive!) for your clients

And with that, companies are forced to tighten up. At least in some areas.

So what should you do?

1. Don’t panic—lead

As marketers, you have a remarkable ability to be nimble in times like these.

Remember that, unlike other discretionary business spending, marketing is still necessary and even more important in hard times than in good.

Here’s a great thread by Asia Orangio with data on how companies have fared when they leaned into marketing vs. pulling back during recessions.

Learn this stuff. Advise your clients on it. Be their fiduciary.

2. Stay close to the money

Your job is to help your clients make a financial business case to work with you.

Stay close to the ROI. Talk in terms of investment and returns—not just tasks and deliverables.

I can’t emphasize this enough. Focus on value, not deliverables.

Your clients are always thinking about how one thing creates more business profit or financial impact than it costs. Show them. Use my KPI sheet available in the MindshareOS package.

Focus on the KPIs that are moving the needle in terms of customer acquisition, retention, repeat purchases, and revenue per client/transaction.

Look at secondary metrics like volume and costs per lead, conversion rates, number of net new customers, account expansion, audience growth, and partnership opportunities.

3. Be the better alternative to in-house employees

In uncertain times, people want optionality. Use that to your advantage.

Your goal should be to position yourself as the better alternative to in-house marketing employees and teams.

You do that by having rare expertise (see #5 below) and flexibility.

Instead of hiring a new marketing manager, companies can hire a fractional CMO along with their recommended contractors for execution work—often for less than the cost of a senior marketing hire.

They can then turn on, off, up, or down the individual channels as-needed.

This is the flexibility they’re looking for.

I have seen this trend in marketing departments happening for a while and believe it will continue.

Agencies and freelancers who are willing to evolve what they deliver every month instead of sticking to a fixed scope of services will reduce the chance they’ll be fired and replaced with more flexible options.

Be nimble. Your value prop is greater expertise (and output) for the same or less than hiring internally.

Oh, and long contracts won’t be ideal, either.

4. Be ready to scale up or down as needed

Have down-sell options available.

If you’re 2x more expensive than all the other contractors, you’re at risk of being chopped.

Be proactive about reducing your fees (and scope) in cases where the value or demands require it.

Otherwise, clients think their only option is to fire you entirely. Think about this and make recommendations before they ask.

If you do drop your fees, drop your scope as well.

No discounts here. Price drops always include a scope drop.

My lower-cost services are often more profitable per hour than my high-ticket stuff. I give people better pricing when they buy more, not the other way around.

Don’t chop your fees when your clients need you to grow. 

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that three clients have expanded scope with me in the last few weeks. Smart operators know they need marketing leadership now more than ever.

Scale up or down as needed.

5. Continue investing in your expertise

Make yourself irreplaceable.

In the coworking niche I serve, there’s literally nobody (that I’m aware of) with my combination of marketing expertise and industry knowledge.

Sure, others have both traits independently. But I keep investing in my unique knowledge combination of marketing strategy, tactical execution, and industry-specific trends.

You simply can’t hire an employee or agency who can do what I can or bring the same value per dollar. At least… not easily. 🙂

And that has helped me increase scope with two clients in the past couple of weeks in the coworking industry (and one more in another industry).

6. And of course, keep marketing yourself

Stay consistent with your publishing, even if it seems like it’s bearing little fruit. Deals take time to form.

Talk about the state of the industry you serve. Share stories about what others are doing. Teach people the ways of flexibility and adaptability.

Make connections with your peers (i.e. in the free Mindshare community or via social media circles). Talk shop to stay on the pulse of things.

Be an advisor to your potential clients before they even hire you. That’s how they know you’ll be a good asset when they do hire you.

Don’t get desperate, know your value, and keep doing your thing.

In closing

Market downturns affect all of us differently. But clients are still hiring and doing marketing. They always will.

It’s up to you to help your current clients get the best results possible in a flexible manner while leading your audience/potential clients, much in the same way you would advise your own clients.

Remember, people flock to leadership in uncertain times. Be the guide.

Oh, and don’t forget to focus on the ROI—even if it’s a longterm process.

June 10, 2022

Getting paid to think

Back in 2015, I was spinning plates and grinding out deliverables.

I ran a solo agency (with contractors) offering web design and a wide variety of marketing services.

It nearly burned me out. I took home less than 30% of revenue as profit, and I worked hard for it.

I was always thinking about deadlines and deliverables. I couldn’t relax—even on my vacations I was working.

But when I started doing advisory work, everything changed.

I became less stressed and earned a LOT more money. It finally felt like I was working in my zone of genius.

When I began to niche down in an industry vertical, things got a lot easier again. And more profitable.

Now that I think of it, there seems to be a correlation between how hard I worked and how little I earned.

Anyway, advisory work isn’t for everyone. You have to know your craft.

But if you’ve mastered the doing, it might be time to get out of the weeds and start selling your brain instead.

Today I launched a new program called Paid to Think. It’s all about making that transition from doing to advising.

If you’re interested in making a similar leap, you can check it out here.

June 8, 2022

What to do if nobody is buying your productized services

Are you having trouble selling your productized service?

In this new episode of Mindshare Radio, I break down the four main things to consider when trying to fix this specific problem.

Listen and subscribe.

June 3, 2022

Predicting the future of in-house and outsourced hybrid marketing teams

Companies are hiring in-house and outsourced marketers differently than they did before.

I’m seeing less reliance on using a single in-house marketer or even one full-service agency to “do everything” for them.

Marketing has gotten too broad with too many specialties to work like that. But there’s still a long way to go.

In this episode, I share a prediction on how marketing teams will continue to evolve toward a hybrid in-house/outsourced way.

I’ll get into how I see things evolving and why this presents an opportunity for you.

Agree? Got another view? Hit reply and let me know.

Listen here or subscribe via your podcast player.

May 26, 2022

Why you may want to offer multiple price options (audio)

When a client requests your services, it can really help to have multiple options at different prices.

You can do this with a product or service ladder at different prices and scope, or you can create multiple options in your custom proposals.

In this episode, I break down the reasons why you may want to have multiple options and how to price them based on the value you’re delivering.

This seemingly simple idea can have a major impact on your average deal value—often increasing your revenue by 30%+.

Listen in to learn more or add Mindshare Radio to your favourite podcast player.

May 20, 2022

Coaching and gut instincts

Working with business coaches in the past has coincided with some of the most transformational periods of my business.

I can point to the places where my business dramatically improved and it almost always intersected with some level of coaching.

Often, I hired them because I was making big changes and wanted to de-risk the process. And maybe I would have succeeded anyway.

Either way, the results are inarguable.

With that said, it’s easy to feel a little paralyzed when you hire a coach and work with them long enough.

It’s easy to feel like you’re not “allowed” to make any significant changes to your business without them telling you to do it.

But that’s not true, of course. It’s your business. You have to keep innovating.

The best way to work with a coach is to treat them like an advisory committee.

You’re still in charge. You still run your business and listen to your instincts.

And yes, you still act on their advice—even if it makes you a little uncomfortable (it should).

But along the way, keep making adjustments that feel right to you.

Give your coach a heads up about what you’re thinking. Do a gut check. Run it through their filter.

Listen to what they have to say. That’s why you hire them, after all.

But keep taking action based on your own gut instincts, too.

Nobody is responsible for your success except you. Your gut, combined with an experienced coach, can be a formidable combination.

Keep taking action.

May 17, 2022

What to do when clients don’t take your advice (audio)

What do you do when clients ask for your advice but do their own thing anyway?

In this episode, I talk about why this happens, how to prevent it from happening, and how to both give and get the best possible advice.

Have you had this issue before? Hit reply and let me know what you did.

Give this a listen.

May 16, 2022

Selling your expertise, not your hands (an interview with Alastair McDermott)

Alastair McDermott had me on his podcast recently, The Recognized Authority.

We chatted about the transition from selling execution to advisory services and knowledge products, what it means to be a fiduciary for our clients, some ethics and trust considerations, niching, and a whole lot more.

Give this a listen and subscribe to his show to hear from other great guests he’s had on his show before, including Alan Weiss, David C. Baker, Jonathan Stark, Philip Morgan, and Chris Do coming soon.

May 13, 2022

Twitter growth and memes-as-marketing with Dagobert Renouf (audio)

I interviewed Dagobert Renouf of Logology last week on how he’s been so successful on Twitter.

Dagobert is extremely active and publishes a meme every day of the week, which is a big hit for his 30k+ audience.

But like any successful story, there’s an underlying mindset and strategy that makes the tactics more successful.

So I wanted to dig into those. And he delivered.

​We’ll get into the specifics of:

  • ​His overarching Twitter strategy
  • ​Why he believes memes work so well
  • ​How he comes up with his meme ideas each day
  • ​How he actually creates and publishes his memes
  • ​His approach to engaging with accounts—small and big—at scale
  • ​The tools he uses to manage Twitter as a power user
  • ​How he’s grown his logo design business with this strategy
  • ​And a range of other topics!

Listen in to hear this episode—it already changed my thinking and approach to Twitter.

Mentioned links

  • Logology
  • Dagobert on Twitter (@dagorenouf)
  • Black Magic (Twitter CRM/Analytics)
  • Rocket (emojis for Mac)
  • Imgflip (meme inspiration)

> Click here to listen or add Mindshare Radio to your podcast player.

 

P.S. You’ll hear me saying “mm-hmm” a lot, which may be slightly annoying to the listener (it annoyed me) so I will fix that for future episodes!

May 11, 2022

“In order to do this right…”

I know I said I’m stopping my daily publishing habit, but old habits die hard. You can bet I’m showing up again today because I want to. Onto the show…

It can be nerve-wracking to propose a project that is more expensive or takes longer than a client is asking for.

Our first instinct might be to charge the bare minimum to get the job done. Or to promise the most ideal of timelines—assuming nothing will go wrong—to win the deal and avoid pushback and rejection.

But we know that’s not realistic. Something always comes up.

The problem is, while you think you’re giving the client what they want, you’re actually undercutting both you and them.

You’re reducing the likelihood of achieving the very thing they’re hiring you to do, which is to get a business result.

In this episode, I talk about one magical phrase that gives you and your clients more confidence to do better and more expensive work than they originally hoped for.

And why it’s the best thing for them—and you—to take this approach more often.

Listen to the 2:35 episode or add Mindshare Radio to your podcast player for future recordings.

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