If so, put all the recession talk aside and take a walk down Main Street. Do you see people carrying shopping bags? Going into restaurants? Using cell phones?



You see, life goes on. Business goes on. Customers still need you. Yes, they may be more cautious about spending. Some may be in financial trouble. But if you keep your head on straight, you'll ride out the recession just fine.

Three Fundamental Principles of Marketing to Remember

1. Mine your customer list. Whether the economy is up or down, it costs five times as much to obtain a new customer as it does to sell more to an existing one. So treat current customers as gold, and make sure they know about everything you offer.

2. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Marketing succeeds with repetition. Do not try to economize by cutting the frequency of your marketing outreach. According to a study by the American Business Press, in past recessions companies that maintained their advertising had increased their sales four times more two years later than companies that had cut their advertising because of the economic downturn.

3.Stop marketing, and you soon won't have a business. I once asked a client of mine who closed down her business to retire how long it took after she halted all of her marketing before the calls stopped. Six months, she said. Too often I've seen consultants become complacent about how well word of mouth was working for them. One day they'd wake up and realize referrals had dried up, and they'd have to begin creating a marketing pipeline, which might not start yielding new clients for months. In both good times and bad, you must market to keep sales humming.

Extrapolating from the above principles, you can understand why it is a huge mistake to cancel all your advertising, pull in on your marketing expenses and stop spending on customer outreach. Instead, continue all the marketing efforts that worked in the past. Revive those that previously worked but you stopped because you got tired of them. And think about ways to tweak your marketing messages so they appear especially relevant to those suffering from the economic downturn.

Make sure clients are happy with your products and services and fix any quality issues. Consider reasons why, in good times, people remain on the fence about buying from you, and take away those doubts and objections. It's also a great time to join forces with other business owners to share ideas on how all of you can remain recession-resistant.

To paraphrase a famous saying of Eleanor Roosevelt, “Nothing can pull your business down without your consent.” You have a choice about what attitude and actions to take. If you refuse to adopt the mindset of those running around right now like Chicken Littles, you will be able to look back on the era of gloom and doom with a smile on your face and a big bankroll in your pocket.