The major mistake most businesses make during slow economic times is to slash their advertising budget. While business owners may convince themselves that this is a smart move, studies have shown that those companies that actually increased their advertising budgets during the Great Depression actually came out ahead after the depression was over. The reason for this vary from increasing their market share while their competitors failed, being more in the public eye than their competitors, to brand name recognition that built a loyal following even after the recession was over. Those businesses that decreased their advertising were quickly forgotten by the general public and suffered the consequences of a self-fulfilling prophecy of lower demand, which was their main reason not to advertise. While it’s true that advertising is an expense that may or may not return immediate dividends during a tight economy, in the long run it positions a company to grab more market share. Luckily, in these modern times, the Internet has made it possible to cut costs in traditional advertising, while increasing exposure online to a bigger audience, making your new advertising campaigns an experience in fun budgeting.

Online Affiliate Programs

One of the best ways to get great exposure for less monies is to offer an online affiliate program for publishers to advertise your products in return for a slight commission. A good affiliate program will encourage people to spread the word about your products and services and recompense top publishers effectively. You can even offer a sign and referral bonus with multi-tiered affiliate programs that encourage your affiliates to sign up sub affiliates to increase the number of people advertising your products. Affiliate programs can be as inexpensive or as costly as you want to make them. There are a variety of different networks that provide different perks to advertisers and can get you listed in their network of publishers. If you only want to pay for performance instead of click exposure, you can sign up with the newest types of affiliate banks that offer cost-per-action programs. This way, even if you don’t make a sale, you can still get a customer lead to market later. This appeals to business owners who want to be able to determine how effective their dollars were in generating leads or sales, instead of just click exposure.

Check Out Social Networks

Twitter.com and Facebook.com are quickly becoming a new type of search engine that might one day rival Google.com. Even if that doesn’t happen right away, these social networks offer a quick way to connect and listen to the people in your target demographic. All you have to do is set up a profile with your name and your business interests. Check out other people online by joining groups or setting up a sales page. Network online to determine what topics are most relevant to your sales demographic and use that information to develop and market products that sell right away upon release, even in a tight economy. Anyone can join these sites and it doesn’t take an expert to generate a substantial following of people. If the terms of the service agreement allow you to publicize your new offerings, promotions, and articles on your website, it can be a great way to identify and drive just the right customer to your online store.

If you have been diligent in collecting the email addresses of the people who enter your offline retail store and online website, you have a great tool to market and advertise your current business. Email marketing is one of the cheapest ways to get the word out and it can be done very effectively with a single group email address. It doesn’t cost anything in postal charges, and as long as you are adding value to email and not just spamming your customers, they will appreciate what you have to offer. Some ways to use this valuable tool is to send them discounts, special store promotions for valued customers, and other perks that they can’t get otherwise. It will be certain they will take the time to check out the email if you’ve helped them to save money during a tight recession.

Use Other Non-Traditional Venues

Don’t limit yourself to online advertising for non-traditional ways to save money. You can always use radio spots, billboards, and even people wearing sandwich boards to get the word out about a sale or promotion. Sponsor a contest and see if your customers can find innovative words to advertise for you. When you begin to get into the spirit of this new wave of advertising, you will find it saves you money and is fun too!