How Brands and Retailers Can Get More ROI in an Economic Downturn

As we move deeper into the new year, an economic downturn is upon us, resulting in brands having tighter budgets with higher expectations. 2023 is set to see brands truly evaluating endeavors based on returns, which in turn may affect decisions to engage in projects that don’t have a measurable return on investment. 

Here's how online retailers can get more from their marketing dollars in 2023.

Data and Personalization

For brands, investing in data puts you in a better spot for when things do take a turn, as you can do more with customer information, including being more accurate, impactful, personalized and informed as well as having more meaningful conversations with customers. While brands could do some of this without customer data, guesswork is unlikely to yield the same results. While there may be no direct ROI on data infrastructure, there is if brands use that data to extend marketing spend. After all, how can you personalize if you don't have data?

Loyalty 

While it's something we hear about and talk about a lot, many businesses are still slow in activating loyalty programs. In essence this is future-proofing by collecting data on customer interest, and promotes that initial agreement to engage with customers in ongoing conversation. Customers are opting in to share marketing data and other information when they sign up for loyalty programs, ensuring as a brand you're getting quality, consistent customer information from members.

However, to truly succeed at loyalty, brands need to make their program meaningful to consumers. It needs to be relevant, entertaining and useful, but most of all different. Loyalty success comes from setting up data infrastructure and ensuring consumers don't feel overwhelmed. A loyalty program tactic isn't a quick fix; it takes time and effort.

SEO 

Search engine optimization is also important, and best of all, it doesn't require media dollars yet is often the highest ROI channel for brands. If you don't have a strategic focus on your organic channel today across content, product and marketing calendars, then you simply won't be as successful as you could be in reaping value in what could be a downturned economy. Instead, when the downturn hits, brands will have to spend more media dollars to drive up organic rankings of product pages. 

Intent-Focused Marketing

There's a nuanced approach to paid and organic search that relates to understanding what the "search query" can tell you about the customer and their overall search intent. 

While the economy continues to slow down, and marketing budgets get tighter, brands need to get more from their money. One way to do this is to ensure that you're bidding on high-intent keywords that tend to be lower volume but convert at much higher rates (they also tend to be less competitive and have lower cost-per-click rates for paid search). As a brand, ensuring that you're capturing these customers is going to be key. Brands should first evaluate their dollars in this area and find a balance between their awareness campaigns and those that are more intent focused. 

Another benefit of this approach is that when brand's show up in both organic and paid listings, there are incremental increases in traffic ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent depending on the industry and product. 

Overall, while 2023 is inevitably going to see budgets strings tightened, it's imperative for brands to understand where their money is best spent in order to strengthen trust with customers and drive revenue.

Christopher Birkholm is the director of demand services, North America, at Astound Commerce, a company that creates digital commerce experiences that engage consumers, increase sales, and fuel exponential growth.