When the economy is having trouble and money is hard to come by, marketing a small business can be a pricey task. However, that does not mean you can write off the basic business necessities until you can pay for them. What this comes down to is that you're just going to have to think about other possibilities. These suggestions will help you with marketing during the recession.

Step 1:

Get on the Web. Even during recession, you must have a website for your business. Put aside as much money as possible to create the best website you can afford - this will help your business incur a lot of online traffic. It's a good idea to get linked to other web pages in order to draw more visitors to your site. Another idea is to have a blog included in your marketing plan. It is a method of communicating with your clients and customers as well as letting everyone else stay informed.

Step 2:

Develop a mailing list of potential customers. As soon as you get started with your business, always make sure you keep track of all the people you meet. In other words, you should keep a list of any potential clients, colleagues, and competitors that show any interest in your services. This is a free marketing tool so your business will not lose any money. No matter what happens you will still be able to promote your business and products to the people that show the most interest in them. Email your prospects and clients regularly - use that opportunity to make them aware of new products or special offers. A useful marketing tool that is free of charge is Email.

Step 3:

Publish a newsletter regularly. No one looks forward to finding standardized advertizing in their letterbox. Your potential customers probably won't take any advantage of flyers or other marketing tricks, so don't concentrate your efforts on those. A better option would be to write a newsletter about your business which will hopefully interest your customers. Have information regarding your company and your products and services available as well as any other facts that may be interesting to your customers. Don't create a catalog, rather, it should be a combination of product information, company news, and messages from the president of the company. A newsletter written directly to each of your clients sent by email or snail mail) will help your business during a recession.

Step 4:

Make sure you have plenty of business cards. During a recession you want to keep your costs down, but it is still important to market and promote. Business cards are not very expensive. Using business cards at trade shows allows you to qualify your leads by assessing a prospect's real interest level instead of wasting time on mass marketing. Always carry around business cards so you'll always be prepared for a chance to advertise.

Step 5:

Take advantage of word of mouth recommendations, they're very powerful. It's extremely important to get folks talking about your business, because that's where the money is. Talking to groups of people, attending trade fairs, and joining online discussion forums helps get people talking about your business. Set up a free seminar for those who are interested in your small business. Word of mouth is the best way of marketing your business, from old customers to potential new customers long after your first efforts in advertising. If done correctly, people will talk about your products to others and personal referral is the best kind of advertising you can have.