by Susan Payton,
Ladies Who Launch member, Orlando

Times are hard. “Recession” is a big buzzword right now, and companies
are cutting back on spending. That means no fancy client lunches, no
unnecessary business trips, and no … marketing?

As a business owner during troubled times, it’s understandable that
you would need to shrink your budget. And while reducing your
marketing spend minimally may be necessary, understand that to make it
through a recession and come out on top, you will need to continue
your marketing efforts.

Flowering Sales

Think of your business as a plant, and of marketing as a seed. What
you plant and cultivate now will bloom into business and sales down
the road. If you stop all your marketing, you won’t plant any seeds,
and you’ll find yourself in the red even after the current economic
condition is over.

Marketing in a recession doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, it shouldn’t be, since you really can’t forecast your sales past a month or so. But marketing in a recession has to be
smart. You have to know where your marketing dollars are best spent,
and you have to pay attention to what’s working and what’s not. If,
after an initial test of three months, you find one method isn’t
netting the results you want, kill it and move on to something else.

Here are some tips to help you through the recession and even come out
on top:

Get out of the old and into the new. You have to first change
your mindset about marketing. The best way to reach your audience is
no longer a phone book ad or billboard. Think more targeted, more
flexible, and more affordable.

Look into marketing 2.0. There are a lot of marketing tools out
there that are free or extremely affordable, like article marketing
and blogging. Study up on them so you understand how they can work for
you.

Plant a few seeds. The great thing about marketing 2.0 is that
it’s easy to try out and easier to stop if one method isn’t generating
the results you want. Test a few different options, like pay-per-click
ads or press releases and see where you get the biggest bang for your
buck.

Talk to other entrepreneurs. We’re all in the same boat, so why
not help one another out? See if you can get advice from others (or
give it) on forums or social networking sites like Facebook.

Get creative. Use innovative resources (while they’re still
innovative) like videos. I have one client, who after launching a
product video on YouTube, received 150 views over the weekend with
very little promotion. The possibilities are limitless!

Susan Payton is a member of the Orlando Incubator, the managing partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, and the blogger behind the Marketing Eggspert Blog:
Marketing in a Web 2.0 World.