Keep Advertising During The Recession

Back in my past life -- the one I had before I went into the real estate business -- I was in the marketing communications business, better known as the advertising and public relations agency business. I did that for about 25 years before I decided I was pretty close to being burned out and went into real estate.


Back in the late 1980's, two friends and I started an advertising agency and just about the time we had made it through the first two horrible years and were actually making a little money, along came a financial crisis and a recession that was pretty bad. Like a lot of businesses, we suffered financially.

In order to conserve cash flow, many businesses cut back on their advertising expenditures. After all, advertising costs stick out like a sore thumb on a balance sheet and this was about the time that companies started being managed by accountants who cared only about profit-loss statements and not by entrepreneurs who cared about customer growth and business expansion. So, the accountants-turned-CEO's eliminated those wasteful advertising expenditures and cut marketing costs in an effort to save some corporate money.

We had some clients who stuck it out with us and ended up doing pretty well through the recession. We had other clients who eliminated advertising and ended up not doing so well in the long run (or the short run either).

Why is it that some companies prospered in the recession and others failed, you ask?

Well, I don't remember all the facts and figures from back then, but Advertising Age magazine did some studies of the effects of advertising during a recession. Essentially, they found out three very important things that apply to real estate agents just as much as they do to international mega-conglomerates:

1. If you keep up your advertising expenditures during a recession, you will do better financially during the recession because the advertising exposure will allow you to maximize your share of the available business. Frankly, this means you will make more money during the recession.
2. If you maintain your advertising activities during the recession, you will pull out of the recession faster and with a higher level of name recognition (or, brand awareness) than competitors who reduced or eliminated advertising in an attempt to save money during the recession.
3. If you continue to support your advertising program during the recession, your business will grow faster and larger after the recession ends because you became better known than your competitors during the recession. So, in the end, your business will grow even larger at the expense of your competitors when times get better.

Now, the magazine had all kinds of statistics to support these three things but I can't remember all that. Suffice it to say that a recession might be a good time to grow your business at the expense of your competition if you just keep doing all those things that you would normally do to promote yourself -- you know, making phone calls, writing personal notes, promoting open houses, doing drop-by's, making monthly contacts with sphere of influence members, calling past customers, mailing post cards, updating your website, memberships in clubs and civic organizations. You know, all the regular things. Don't stop. Keep promoting yourself and your company right through the recession no matter how much it hurts to do it.

Good luck during the recession, and keep the faith baby!

For more information about real estate in the Tampa Bay area, please visit my website at http://www.thestpeterealestatesite.com/.

-30-