I’ve gotta say that I’ve been pretty optimistic about this whole recession thing. It’s not that I’m oblivious, but I don’t tend to believe the absolute doom and gloom worst case scenarios you hear all the time. I’ve heard way to many comparisons to the Great Depression; it makes you wonder where these people got their educations. The fact is, the Great Depression was called that for a reason – unemployment rates hit more than 25%, and we haven’t even seen 10% yet. I could go on with other numbers, but its all irrelevant really. 

The recession is likely here to stay for the next few months, perhaps longer. We’re not going to die, but there will be a lot of people having a harder time than usual. That affects what they’ll be buying, and since we’re trying to sell them stuff, we need to know what and how they’re thinking. 

You might want to take the time to really get inside your markets’ heads a bit more than you normally would before just launching into a niche nowadays. However, if you try to think like they do, I think you’ll find there is still a great deal of profit out there. 

So, here are five niches for a marketer in a recession:

1. Make money / Home business etc. 

People always want money, and this has always been a hot topic, but now more than ever, when people are really feeling the cash crunch in their pockets, they will be looking for ways to make money on the side. 

2. Lose weight. 

You can’t get away from this one, even if you’ve lost your job. America is getting fatter, and awareness is growing as to the health consequences. This is a standby. 

3. Career change / Resume building / Job hunting.

Lots of layoffs these days, and those people aren’t all going to go home and twiddle their thumbs. They’ve got to get relocated, re-hired, re-trained etc. 

4. Stress relief / management. 

This one covers a lot of ground. Some people turn to hobbies for stress relief, some people will axe their spending on hobbies. Jenny How thinks that hobby markets will suffer, unless you can work that stress relief angle. 

5. How to sell your house.

Many people out there can’t afford their houses. Some are losing them outright, but the prudent ones who can’t afford what they have will downsize willingly, take the hit and position themselves better for the future. In short, there are a lot of properties changing hands right now. 

Well there you have a small list of a few topics that will remain hot for the next few months. There are many more out there, and you might be able to re-position a niche you’re already in differently, in such a way that you can target how people are thinking these days. 

I was on the Warrior Forum recently and saw a fellow who was selling a stock market product. He was bemoaning the economy. I had to tell him that people are interested in stock advice more than ever right now – it is so volatile, they want to know who to trust. He was advising people to run and hide, so its no wonder his sales were down. If he could think of a good alternative way to invest money he might have an opportunity to broaden his product a bit, and still make some good money in a recession. 

In short, the marketers that run and hide during a recession won’t make money. Those that take things head on, and smart, will profit.

I was reading in a BusinessWeek article the other day that many of the biggest brands are pinching their marketing pennies ever more closely right now. I’ve seen this sentiment echoed in various places on the internet as well, and each time I see it, I can’t help but think “yeah, but THEN what?”

A successful business should NEVER stop marketing – especially in a downturn. Downturns are when you need customers more than ever, right? There’s the no-brainer for the day. Jim Connolly referred to this as well in a recent blog post. 

Now, in light of what I’ve just said, I’m going to say this: many of these big names are probably 100% right to reduce their marketing budgets. 

Confused?

Here’s the problem: corporations have developed a habit of “spending on marketing” regardless of what it delivers. You and I would likely be absolutely floored if we actually found out how many unaccountable marketing dollars swirl around out there on a daily basis. The problem is that the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in television, radio, and print is so rarely tracked that the end result is simliar to throwing dollar bills into a tornado – you just don’t have a clue where they’ve gone! Now, I’m not saying that these millions of dollars have no impact – I’m sure that they do. However, nobody knows what that impact is! 

And that is the kicker. 

So, in today’s downturning economy – don’t stop advertising, get smart about it! The amazing thing about marketing on the internet is that if done correctly, you can attach a return on investment (ROI) to nearly every dollar you spend! That’s something that is incredibly hard to do with traditional media. 

So here’s my bold prediction – I expect that internet advertising will continue to grow in spite of the decline in other forms of advertising over the coming year. 

If you advertise your business, now is the time to take a close look at what forms of advertising are making you money, and which aren’t. Maybe those radio ads which you love so much because they’re really funny and you helped create them simply aren’t bringing in the dollars. That might be a hard decision to make, because of your personal investment, but it is one that needs to be made. 

Marketing is often confused with branding, and I think that is why corporations are so willing to spend the huge bucks on it. However, branding CAN be accomplished with correct advertising as well – they aren’t mutually exclusive!

So go get smart about your marketing bucks!