Marketing in a Recession - How to Keep Your Small Business Growing When the Economy Isn't

If you're concerned about how you're going to navigate your business through the economic minefield that's expected to last for the foreseeable future, you've got good reason to be. Running a small business isn't a picnic at the best of times, and with consumers expected to tighten their belts and employees bracing for corporate cut-backs, your first reaction may be to retreat, cut your marketing, downsize, and trim expenses.

For smaller companies, there usually isn't much fat to trim, and if your business takes a dip it can make for extreme financial pressures and gut-wrenching decisions. So what's the best strategy to keep your business moving forward when the economic outlook is doom and gloom? Reassess your plan, maximize low-cost promotional opportunities, be as creative as possible, and stay aggressive with your marketing.

1. Don't wait to see if your business is going to suffer because of global economic issues, take immediate action now. Review every detail of your marketing programs and prioritize each one to determine where you can reduce expenses if you absolutely have to.

2. Focus your advertising. If you can't track measurable results from your advertising, cut back in favour of other opportunities. In tough times you need to focus more on initiatives that deliver direct results and target the exact audience you want to reach, at the expense of ads that look good but aren't generating any direct sales.

3. Get creative. Creative promotions, offers, and ideas attract more attention, generate more interest, result in more word of mouth advertising, and have a longer 'shelf-life'. Use your imagination or borrow ideas from other industries to keep your marketing as fresh and creative as possible.

4. Connect (and reconnect) with your customers. Re-introduce your company to past customers and work closely with your current clients to let them know you care about their business, to find out what new services you could offer, to help generate more referrals, and to determine where you should focus your resources.

5. Become a guerrilla marketer. Host a seminar, write an article, network more than ever, develop partnerships with other businesses, and use your size and speed to your advantage by responding quickly to the needs of your customers.

6. Ramp up your online marketing. Google's predicting their business will continue to soar even as the economy sours because they offer low-cost advertising tools that will be embraced by businesses looking to save money during the current economic downturn. Now's the time to capitalize on e-marketing to reach new markets, closely target your customers, and get more value out of every dollar you spend.

Believe it or not, a shrinking economy can create an opportunity for your business as consumers and companies alike look for new ways to save money. And as many businesses will inevitably cut back and reduce services to preserve their bottom line, this opens the door for someone else to steal their customers by offering new services, adding more value, and going the extra mile.