Uncertain economic times call for creating marketing ideas. When sales slow and businesses start to struggle, it is usually easy to look at your marketing budget as an easy target for cutting. The problem is you take a chance at loosing market share to your competitors. During economic downturns, your target market shrinks which can result in less new customers. If you cut your marketing budget, you take a chance at loosing market share, which means fewer customers. When the market rebounds, your share is still smaller and your competitors might have the edge.

Today in church, I heard a message that really struck me. It was the story of Elijah and the widower with her two sons. Most of you are asking why church has anything to do with business and marketing. As I listened to the sermon, I asked myself the same question. I found this story unique because it struck me that this message has a great deal to do with our businesses.

Now that I have placed a few of my older articles on my blog, I thought it was time to start some timely articles. Over the next few weeks, I am going to cover some low or no cost marketing ideas to help you get your small business off the the ground. Most people know these ideas as Guerrilla Marketing. As a small business owner, I have always been a fan of Guerrilla Marketing. Most people just starting out in business have a limited budget to start so they choose to not put money into marketing. This is of course a mistake because marketing doesn't have to be expensive.

As a marketing and advertising professional, I have asked this very question many times to customers that I consult with. “Are you in business or a business person?” It isn’t meant to be rude or cut a business owner down, but rather to help them think about how they are currently managing their business. Too many people enter the world of small business ownership blindly without really having a good plan and the means to execute that plan.

You have paid your licenses, set up your company, bought your equipment and now you’re a small business owner. So, what’s next? In the movie, “Field of Dreams”, the catch phrase was, “If you build it they will come”. In the business world, it doesn’t work that easy. In order to get customers to your door, you have to market your business.

To many small business owners, marketing and advertising can be a mystery. In order to be successful, you need a plan. A marketing plan can be very simple to very complex. My recommendation is to start with a simple plan, then build on it.

Marketing in a Tough Economy

You can’t escape the news. These are tough times for businesses and consumers. Inflated fuel costs, slow housing sales, and inflation are making business a challenge for all companies, small to large. The simple fact is our economy is at a low point. The good news is the U.S. economy has always been cyclical. We ride high in the strong years and we learn to ride out the wave during the down times.