Surviving a recession—how agencies can continue to grow and become more resilient

Summer started with labor market cooling as tech giants including Netflix and Coinbase announced significant layoffs were coming. As the days get shorter, the list of companies planning to downsize is getting longer and includes big brands in virtually every sector.

Inevitably, budget cuts will impact in-house marketing departments and agencies of all sizes. If we do enter a recession, lots of industry leaders will have to reassess their immediate and long-term strategic plans.

No one is safe during an economic downturn. Just last month, industry stalwarts such as Huge, R/GA and The Many became the latest to announce job cuts in response to clients canceling or pausing marketing initiatives. They likely won’t be the last.

So how should executives be thinking about the future? Is it all doom and gloom?

It’s hard not to have a bearish bias, especially in the short term. But for those that know where to look, there will also be plenty of opportunities ahead.

Even if you’re leading an agency in the middle of downsizing or consolidating services, there are a variety of paths you can take to turn contraction into expansion. Here are just a few:

Delight customers

While there’s a tendency to funnel marketing dollars toward tactics with a demonstrable, measurable ROI, now is a great time to focus on activities that can’t be as easily measured. When times are lean, shifting to low-cost or even free tactics for engaging customers can ensure you’re top of mind when they open their wallets again.

Cultivating loyalty among existing clients—and successfully executing highly targeted account-based and inbound marketing tactics—require a deep understanding of your ideal audiences. That takes time and commitment, but the upside is that you can use the knowledge you gain to create content that you know will resonate with them.

Talk to your most valuable customers to ask how you’re doing and find out what you could be doing better. Pivot if you have to. Remind them of great work you’ve done in the past if it seems relevant. Whatever you do, don’t stop engaging.

When agencies and their clients can no longer rely on big paid media campaigns to attract audiences and dollars, owned and earned media channels can help build loyalty with audiences they already have. For a high-growth company faced with favorable economic conditions, these tactics might not be viewed as scalable. But for businesses staring down the uncertainty that comes with a potential recession, delighting existing customers (and prospects) with personalized experiences can keep you in business.

Explore public sector work

The United States Government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world. Collectively, federal agencies and departments spend more than $2 billion each year on services related to marketing communications. While half of that is gobbled up by the advertising industry’s largest holding companies, the rest goes to firms of all shapes and sizes. If you have the experience the government seeks, you might be able to parlay it into a sizable new revenue stream.

There are plenty of federal agencies, departments, and programs with missions related to health care. If you helped a medical device company with a rebrand, for instance, or drove a big increase in membership for a primary care network, there’s a good chance your experience would at least attract their attention when choosing a partner to unveil a new program or attract new qualified specialists.

Local and state governments need marketing communications services too, and unlike federal agencies, every marketing communications firm has one of these prospects essentially in their own backyard. Major programs such as state lotteries, tourism initiatives and public health campaigns can become significant revenue sources for the firms chosen to oversee them—and states generally don’t set the same past performance requirements found in federal RFPs.

Make a deal

Merger and acquisition activity in the marketing industry remains elevated, to say the least. Even amid growing fears of a recession, research recently published in the Wall Street Journal indicates year-over-year deal volume increased by 38% during the first half of 2022, while global M&A contracted by 20%.

Whether selling to a larger competitor, a private equity firm, a group of employees or members of your own family, if you approach a sale strategically, you could set yourself and your agency up for a bright future. For leaders of well-performing businesses who aren’t thrilled at the prospect of leading their company through another recession, this could be a prudent option.

Whether we’re truly entering a recession, the marketing sector will face important challenges soon. There will also be opportunities. Combining your resources and capabilities with a rival, strengthening loyalty with top customers or adding new revenue streams are just a few ways you could achieve short-term growth and make your agency more resilient in the long run.