As an ad guy, I'd love to say that the key to effective marketing in a downturn is to spend more. And with some of my larger clients with heaps of cash reserves, that actually can be a smart strategy. Think about it-- the competition, dealing with the same economy as you, is in retreat, doing less to bring in customers. Which makes this the perfect time to advance your own position and grab market share. Provided a business has the resources to make such a move, times like these provide terrific opportunities to position for future growth.

But chances are, that's not you.

More than likely, you don't have the reserves to just throw money at the marketplace. Let's assume that, as with most small businesses, sales are down and clients are slow to settle accounts. The revenue isn't coming in as reliably as you'd like, and you've got bills to pay. Odds are, you're going to be forced to spend less on everything, marketing included.

The question is, can you actually make your marketing program better even as you're cutting costs? The answer is a big fat happy yes.

When the economy is solid and the money's rolling in, most businesses tend to get comfortable with the way they market, no matter how effective the program actually is. Only in a downturn do we realize that our marketing campaigns are far from bulletproof, and indeed may not be doing nearly enough to drive business and provide a healthy return.

Let's say your marketing campaign has over the past few years driven a 3 to 1 ROI-- for every dollar you've invested in marketing, you've gotten three back in revenue-- and it's worked just fine, so you've stuck with it. But now that revenue is down, you've got to cut marketing costs, making that ROI an impossibility, right? Wrong. In fact, now might just be the time to boost it even higher.

For a few simple ways to fine tune your marketing program even as you’re tightening belts, check out Anonymous Ad Guy