by Jason M. Castle

Created on: September 16, 2009   Last Updated: September 28, 2009

Advertising and keeping your marketing options open for your small business during a economic crisis can often be the thing that can make the most impact after the economy bounces back. Many small and large businesses will cut marketing cost first in an attempt to streamline over head and keep over all profits in the black. While at first glance cutting the marketing department or spending less on marketing can be more harmful to your bottom line. Often in business the passing on of information about a companies product or service is highly dependant on "word of mouth". Also known as a "friendly referral". While this is still a huge part of advertising (your only as good as your reputation) it is important to remember that word of mouth is often the first part too a two part process. Let's say John and Jim are having a conversation John refers Jim to a Mechanic for his cars regular service. Now Jim is busy as many of us are and shelves the referral in that back part of his mind and goes about business as usual. It's not likely that someone as soon as they referred will drop what they are doing and rush to the referred business. If the consumer writes the referral down it is still more important to follow up the referral with a visual. Monday morning comes and Jim is reading the paper and sees an add for the very Mechanic that John was talking about. Now his mind has clicked on that referral and he goes into the shop. Some would argue that what if Jim did not read the paper, "You can't win if you don't play" as the old saying goes. That is very much the truth in advertising. The consumer can only see what you show them.

If your add dollars are spent in the local paper and on the Internet, their you have two very high traffic possibilities that are very inexpensive when you consider that other than word of mouth those adds will be your only real revenue generator. This is often how some small businesses live and die even when the economy is good. It is an imperative expense when the economy is down. The other reason that print and the internet is advantageous is that you can target specific demographics for potential client especially in the small local business sense.

When a small local business has advertising dollars spent on Internet and print media applications they are maximizing their potential for the highest customer recognition of their brand. When economic times are tough everybody has to struggle it is something that when is over we remember those who are with us. This can create a type of "we survived" together loyalty to brands that made it threw with the rest of the population. When a business advertises and lets their presence be felt in the community it sends the message that the service or product of that business is apart of the culture and no matter what will be there. This small message of reassurance to the consumer is the best way to insure that when things get better that your small business will be the one that everyone remembers.

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