Singapore’s leaders have been clear: they “cannot rule out” a recession this year, and the US tariffs will impact growth.
Faced with these sentiments, your company has likely started bracing for a recession. And that means making changes — ones that may affect your marketing budget.
It’s crucial to be strategic about these changes and focusing on leverage: actions you can take that will drive maximum impact. Multiple studies of past recessions show that strategic marketing during a recession doesn’t just sustain a business — it also helps businesses bounce back and grow once the economy recovers.
- A study of companies in the recession periods of 1980-1982, 1990-1999, and 2000-2002 showed that the companies that became most successful post-recession where the ones that reduced costs by focusing on efficiency, while increasing budgets for marketing and R&D.
- A time-series analysis showed that maintaining marketing investment in a recession had positive short-term and long-term effects. In contrast, companies that reduced marketing efforts in a recession saw negative effects even in the years post-recession.
- A study of 6,000 enterprises showed that those that maintained the same level of marketing spend during a recession saw higher stock market returns. This was consistent across both B2B and B2C enterprises.
Here are some ways you can shift your content marketing priorities during a recession.
This article comes from Rise, our newsletter for content marketers in Southeast Asia. Like what you read? Subscribe to Rise today.
Content priorities in a time of economic uncertainty
Help your clients by prioritising content that can help them now.
Acknowledge their concerns and the macroeconomic situation. Show them how they can adapt the way they use your products to meet their shifting needs.
Here are content priorities to consider. These recommendations are designed to help you:
- Mitigate risk
- Reduce the impact of disruptions
- Prevent customer churn
- Adapt to shifts in your clients’ needs, risk tolerance, and buying power.
1. Redirect content efforts towards products your customers may need during a downturn
By now, your company leaders would have an analysis and forecast of how customer demand will shift in an economic downturn. This includes the products and services your customers are likely to need.
Let’s say you sell finance products and services. If you anticipate that SMEs will take out particular types of loans in the coming months, share content on preparing for loan applications. If you’re seeing delinquencies, consider educating customers on the risks and benefits of restructuring loans.
Other companies may offer a “light”, cheaper version of their services, pivot towards a different value proposition, or aim to capture customers in an adjacent product category.
Ask your company leaders about these plans. Prepare a content contingency plan for these scenarios so you can execute quickly when the need arises.
For example, if you don’t have a content marketing playbook for product launches, start one:
- Document the most effective content marketing strategies from previous product launches.
- Create templates, checklists, and process docs to replicate these strategies.
- Identify old content assets you can repurpose instead of starting again from scratch.
- Audit your website and blog to identify pages you may need to update.
- Find places across your site where you can insert relevant CTA banners.
2. Prepare/update content libraries to sustain processes that will be affected by cost-cutting
For example:
If your company is cutting back on customer support budget
Have comprehensive FAQs on your site to encourage self-help customer troubleshooting. These can be glossary pages explaining your various products and answering the most common customer questions.
If your company is holding off on launching new features
Make sure the content on your website and blog is up-to-date (based on current features). Re-promote content related to features or services that have been proven to boost customer stickiness (ask your product team or account managers what these features or services are).
If your company is cutting back on marketing
Support other departments — for example, make your case study library easily searchable by sales and PR teams.
3. Curate a content arsenal to combat churn
Ask your product/account managers about the most common signals of customer churn. Identify your content assets that address these signals and their triggers. (If you have none, make them, quick!)
| Common examples of churn signals (These are sample scenarios. Ask your product/account managers about your customers’ churn signals.) | |
| If you’re a software company | When a user hasn’t logged in for two weeks straight |
| If you’re a service provider | When your POC (point of contact) leaves the company, or when they get a new manager |
Next, add those assets to an email campaign dedicated to preventing churn. If a customer displays behaviour that matches a churn signal, trigger that campaign.
(You can automate this with an email management tool, particularly one that’s connected to your customer data platform. Adobe and MailChimp, for instance, have automations for this use case. If you don’t have these tools, you’ll have to send the campaign manually.)
4. Help customers discover features or services they haven’t used enough
Ask your product/account managers what features or services your clients aren’t using enough. If the reason is a lack of understanding about their benefits — not a lack of need for them — send these customers content that demonstrates the use cases and benefits of these features.
You can also tease upcoming feature releases and remind customers about recent ones. Host AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions on your community forum, social platforms like Reddit or LinkedIn, and third-party sites where people in your industry converge. Your goal is to give your customers one more reason to stay with you.
5. Seek help, especially if your company is delaying a much-needed marketing hire
Consider temporary arrangements like fractional content strategists (that’s us! 🙋) and customised service bundles with your agency (still us 😉).
And keep in mind that content strategy is adaptive, not rigid and dogmatic. So if you need to adjust your strategy, let your With Content strategist know and we’ll help you out.
6. Make it easy for prospects to compare your products with those of your customers
Now is not the time to shy away from comparison content. It helps with organic search, AI answers, and branded search. Plus, if someone looks up your competitor’s brand, chances are your comparison article will surface in the results — redirecting the person to your site instead.
You can remix your comparison content via various angles:
- Traditional comparison content (Product A vs Product B vs Product C)
- Comparison based on use case (Eg: Which product is better for remote project management?)
- Comparison based on industry (Eg: Which product is more useful for companies in the telco sector?)
- Comparison based on company sizes (Eg: Which product is more suitable for MNCs?)
- Comparison between indirect competitors or vendor business models (Eg: subscription vs one-time buy; high-end vs bespoke; freelance vs in-house vs content marketing agency)
Match your risk appetite but keep your assets diversified
As a general rule, focus 70% of your efforts on core content, 20% on emerging opportunities, and 10% on moonshots. (This is based on McKinsey’s strategic horizons framework; learn how we adapted it to content strategy. Also, these numbers represent proportions, not exact breakdowns.)
This model reflects most businesses’ risk appetite in an economic downturn or recession: double down on your core market and value proposition, but explore emerging opportunities for growth too. You might pause or minimise experiments and moonshots.
Every rule has its exception, so make sure your content strategy matches your business model. If your product relies on differentiation or promises disruption, you’ll need experimental, aspirational, or opinionated content. This is higher-risk content that offers high rewards when done right, at the right time, and (as with most successes in life) with a little bit of luck.
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