3 Reasons To Keep Up Marketing (Even When Times Are Slow)

Some days, though, are slower.

The occasional slowdown in business can sometimes be a welcome thing—a time for your shop to invest in new tools, make sure certifications are up-to-date, and maybe even just take a breath.

It’s when that occasional slowdown drags out that people start to get…well…a little nervous. They start looking at what they can cut. The fancy coffee subscription? Maybe the guys will be OK with Folgers. Swanky new uniforms? Ehhh maybe the old ones will do for another couple months. The marketing budget? 

Hold up. Don’t slash that just yet.

Hey, we understand the temptation. Whether you’re paying someone else to maintain your site or handling it on your own, it’s still a significant outlay of money and/or time. And if things are slower, well, maybe you can put those resources toward other stuff. 

We’d suggest you keep your marketing where it’s at. Here’s three reasons why: 

1. MARKETING CAN BRING IN BUSINESS—A LOT OF IT

Your marketing is what brings customers to you. If you’ve got a website and social media up, that’s a lot of opportunities to get in front of the right eyeballs. If you take those down, all you’ve got left is word of mouth.

Yes, word of mouth is awesome. But the reach your marketing can give you is truly astonishing—and if you’re getting leads and opportunities from that avenue, why would you cut it?

Your marketing is your ticket to more work. It’s your pipeline to new customers who may not hire you now, but who will be seeing your shop’s name and materials again and again once the market picks up. And yes, the market will pick up. 

2. GOOGLE LIKES CONSISTENCY

Google rewards businesses that are consistently producing relevant content. Running ads, keeping your SEO up-to-date, and publishing articles/updating your website tells Google that you are a reputable company and deserving of a high spot in the search rankings.

But Dieselmatic, you might be saying, I don’t want my fate in the hands of machines! 

Hey, neither do we. But that’s the way the internet cookie has crumbled. If you’re marketing, you’re basically playing by Google’s rules, and to a lesser extent the rules of other search engines and platforms. 

3. REBUILDING FROM SCRATCH IS A PAIN

If you do decide to yank all your stuff down, what happens when the market picks back up? You have to put everything back online. 

In many cases, that means a significant re-investment of money and time, depending on how much work you need to do. Rebuild all that authority you had established. You’ll be up against shops that kept their marketing alive and may have snapped up your share of the market.

In more succinct terms, you’ll be playing catch-up. 

TAKE IT EASY—AND DON’T PANIC‍

This is usually where we’d tell you that Dieselmatic can take care of all your marketing—and…well, we just did, but we’re not going to turn this into a proper ad. Instead, we’ll advise you to take the advice of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Don’t panic! If you’re seeing a slow spot, know that things will pick up again. Everything is cyclical. 

Take a deep breath and relax. You’ve got this.