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McGraw-Hill did a research study during the U.S. economic recession in 1981-82, analyzing 600 companies from 16 different SIC industries. The study showed that companies that continued to market, not only continued to grow during the recession, but moved past their competitors and grew 256% two years into the economic recovery.

Don’t forget that every other business out there is just as nervous as you are about spending marketing dollars in a down economy. That means that anyone who does market will have the attention of us prospects virtually to themselves. And remember that the companies I buy from are the ones who market to me consistently over time. Just because I don’t buy from you today doesn’t mean that your marketing is not doing its job, even in a down economy.

2. No Budget:

If you don’t have any budget now, and you aren’t marketing, where do you think the new clients are going to come from that will build up your budget again?  Do you think I am going to get up from behind my desk and come to you?

In the words of Henry Ford, “A man who stops advertising to save money, is like a man who stops the clock to save time.”

3. Nothing Works: 

So you have have tried a lot of different marketing programs that didn’t work and you believe that nothing is going to work.  You have been disappointed in the past so you are just going to take your ball and go home.  You are not going to participate in the game any more.  Does that make sense?

There are two things you need to recognize:

• Your marketing worked better than you thought - Marketing programs you tried in the past probably worked a lot better than you thought.  Just because you didn’t always end up with new clients right away doesn’t mean that your marketing did not have any impact on your prospects.  We saw it. We thought about it.  We filed it away in our brains for future reference.  The only piece that was missing is you probably didn’t continue to market to us consistently over time. So you didn’t get to reap the benefits of your earlier marketing efforts.

• Keep marketing for the long haul and it will always work - It is true that most of the marketing that crosses my desk and most of the phone calls I receive are deadly boring and couldn’t sell water to a dying man in the desert, but there are always some emails, some ads and some phone calls that get my attention. So don’t give up marketing. Look for something a little more creative—something with a proven track record.