During a recession individuals and businesses cut back in spending borne out of uncertainty and necessity. As a business you still however need to attract new and retain existing customers. This means you need to become more clever and careful about how you spend the money you do have to market yourself.

Here are a few ideas to help with what you can focus on for your online marketing during a recession with cost effective strategies:

• Learn how to manage your own website so you don’t have to keep paying your web designer to do it. This means having a Content Management System that allows you to easily update text, images, add new pages and so on without knowing html code. The added benefit is that you can easily keep your website up to date and fresh.
• Make the most of all the free online marketing tools out there such as google maps, social networking, youtube videos and photo sharing.
• List on free business website directories like Made From New Zealand and websites related to your industry (see more about this here).
• Make comments on relevant and popular blogs about your area of expertise and even start up your own blog page that can be part of your website.
• Maintain relationships with your customers through regular email marketing initiatives and social media networking to keep them interested and hear their feedback…all for very low cost. These should also work in with content on your website to drive traffic to it.
• Make online “pay per click” advertising work for you and to suit your own budget using Google Adwords.

If you haven’t yet formed a strategy about online marketing for your business then the time to do it is now.