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RecessProof — Strategic Marketing for Uncertain Times
FREE COURSE

Marketing During a Recession:
The Playbook for When Budgets Shrink

Turn economic uncertainty into competitive advantage with strategic moves your competitors are too scared to make.

5 Lessons ~2 Hours Free Forever
Enroll Free
RecessProof › Courses › Marketing During a Recession

Course Overview

When the economy contracts, most businesses panic and slash marketing first. That's exactly backward. Recessions reward the brands that stay visible while everyone else goes dark — but only if every dollar is deployed with precision.

This course gives you the exact playbook: how to reallocate budgets, craft messaging that resonates when wallets tighten, and double down on the channels that deliver measurable returns when CPMs drop 30-40%.

You will learn:

Reallocate your marketing budget using the 70/20/10 framework that survived the 2008 and 2020 downturns

Craft recession-proof messaging using the Value-Trust-Reliability framework

Identify and dominate high-ROI channels while competitors retreat from the market

Build retention systems that turn existing customers into your most profitable asset

Course Modules

5 structured lessons · ~2 hours total · Self-paced

Module 1 of 50%
1

Recession Psychology: Why Downturns Create Market Opportunity

22 min · 3 lessons
  • The visibility gap: what happens when 73% of your competitors cut ad spend
  • Consumer psychology during downturns — what they actually buy and why
  • Case study: brands that grew 2-5x during the 2008 recession
2

Budget Triage: The 70/20/10 Reallocation Framework

26 min · 3 lessons
  • Audit your current spend: the channel-by-channel ROI scoring worksheet
  • The 70/20/10 split: proven winners, strategic bets, and experimental plays
  • Where to cut without killing momentum — and where to double down
3

Recession-Proof Messaging: The Value-Trust-Reliability Framework

28 min · 3 lessons
  • Three messaging pillars that convert during economic anxiety
  • Headline formulas: 5 templates that outperform in downturns
  • Real examples: email subject lines and ad copy from the 2020 downturn
4

High-ROI Channels: Where to Spend When Every Dollar Counts

24 min · 3 lessons
  • Why email marketing delivers 42:1 ROI when paid channels get expensive
  • SEO as recession insurance: the compounding asset competitors ignore
  • Strategic paid ads: the 3 campaign types worth running with a reduced budget
5

Retention Economics: Your Existing Customers Are Your Best Asset

20 min · 3 lessons
  • The 5x rule: why retaining customers costs 5x less than acquiring new ones
  • Building a referral engine during downturns — when trust is the ultimate currency
  • Your 90-day recession marketing action plan: week-by-week implementation

Your Instructor

EB

Elena Brooks

15 Years · $200M+ in Tracked Ad Spend

Elena has led marketing strategy through two recessions — 2008 and 2020 — helping brands not just survive but capture market share while competitors retreated. She's the author of Stay Loud: Marketing When Everyone Goes Quiet and has taught this exact playbook to over 2,400 business owners. Her framework has been featured in Marketing Week, AdAge, and the HubSpot Blog.

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