While Brian Solis' recent TechCrunch post, Fear Kills Businesses, Dead offers much more than the two key points below, I thought I'd pull these out to share my favorite part of the post. Keep these items in mind as you review budgets and evaluate plans for 2009. It has been proven over and over again in several studies that cutting marketing budgets in a recession is a big mistake!

Do Not eliminate marketing or sales efforts. Okay, I’m biased here, but cutting marketing and sales has a direct and reverberating impact on future income, so don’t be surprised if next quarter’s numbers are down. Without support, sales will continue to trend downward.
Be wise as you evaluate your sales and marketing efforts. With the right team, you may want to consider maintaining or increasing financial support in order to excel while your competition retreats.

Do create an innovative and cost efficient formula for running a concentrated, sustained, and proactive outbound marketing program that effectively creates a bridge between your core customer’s needs and your product.

While companies are cutting costs to extend their runways, consumers and businesses are reducing spending in parallel. However, it’s important to remember that customers are not freezing spending altogether. They are and will continue to research, invest and procure the solutions, services, and products that will help them succeed, offer entertainment, or streamline aspects of their day-to-day workflow. And, they’ll also continue to make impulse decisions just for the hell of it.

Labels: infuze marketing, marketing in a recession, marketing plan for 2009