Creative Marketing in Tough Times - "Recession will roll-over into 2012"

Businesses are tightening their budgets and many of them are cutting their marketing budget. It is important to understand that cutting marketing budgets can often cause more harm to the growth of your business than you realize. Studies have shown that companies that continue to market during tough economic times often see growth during those times, where businesses that cut their marketing budget will often see a decrease in sales. It's time to re-evaluate and analyze what is working and what's not and explore new options of marketing that cost less, but can still deliver the results you are looking for. How can you market during a recession? There are low-cost and even no-cost ways to market your product and keep your business on track during these difficult financial times. The key is to look at your marketing budget as a long term investment, and not an expense.

Brand positioning is an essential strategy in the online space because of its extensive reach and cost effectiveness, and should be taken advantage of without contemplation. In recessionary times, brand placement is intelligent marketing for independent businesses to take market share from the competition.

Viral marketing is an effective marketing technique that induces websites and email users to pass on a marketing message to other sites and users, creating growth in the message's visibility and effect. For example, if one produces a viral ad and forward it to 10 people, who in turn send to another 10 people, in no time hundreds (if not thousands) of people would have viewed the ad. Viral marketing gives the consumer something that they can use for free with the intent of gaining that customer to market other products and create brand awareness.

A major key is to know your consumer. Know them inside and out. Know what they think and know where they are. Know how these economic times are hitting them. Create your message around that and reach out to them. Revise your product line if necessary and develop lower cost solutions if possible. Be flexible, but at the same time be aware and always assessing.

Consider this - if you in fact cut your marketing budget, how will your consumers find you? You have severed your business lifeline and future hope of potential growth. Consumers are looking for value, period. When the economy is booming, and people or businesses have money, the "value" is not as important. Thus, timing is everything and this is an opportunity to rally around the brand in your community. The critical factor is how to do that and successfully weather the stormy times so the brand remains on the right path for the future.