Market Smarter, Not Harder

In reality, cutting your marketing budget in a bad economy is the last thing you should do. This is not the time to focus less on marketing … rather the opposite. The beauty of marketing in the 21st century is that many of the marketing channels available to you are cheap, easy and fast to execute.

The cost of entry has never been lower (and I am not just talking email marketing), there has never been more niche markets available and it has never been easier with today's technology to accurately measure the impact of your marketing efforts and make educated decisions about going forward to plan cohesive multi-channeled marketing campaigns.

Smart companies that continue to grow and prosper during hard economic times understand the value of multi-channel marketing:
 

Create strong customer relationships. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of multi-channel marketing is that it provides great customer relationship building opportunities.

Choose efforts that help you pick the low hanging fruit. Never forget to market most often and most strongly to those loyal customers who buy from you.

Some forms of marketing don't cost you a dime. You can create online buzz about your product through social media.

Want to drum up great PR? Get to know the media. Of the many channels of marketing, public relations is one that every business should embrace.

Don't go it alone. Many small business balk at the idea of joint ventures.

If you see a company, perhaps one of your competitors advertising often and in multiple channels - chances are it is a healthy company. Study that company, is there something they are doing that you can implement.