Decrease marketing in this economy? Why that's not smart business.

This economy has made all of us take a hard look at ways to cut back, and it is unfortunate that marketing seems to always be one of the first things on the chopping block.

Cutting drastically back on marketing your business won't help you nearly as much as you'd think -- consider these reasons to CONTINUE to market your company as aggressively as ever for the remainder of 2009:

1. Be different. Create a way to really stand out from the competition and market that aggressively so when the economy rebounds you have a very solid value proposition in place.

2. Create loyalty. Building even stronger relationships with your current customers should be a key element in your marketing plan. Referrals are the best way to obtain new customers and keeping your current customer base loyal assists with this process.

3. Ramp up your online exposure. This may include an audit of your current website and improvements to it, to creating a Google Adwords campaign. Creating the most exposure you can on the web is a huge key to customers finding you.

4. Communicate with the media. This is the perfect time to ramp up your public relations efforts. The media, as all of us know, have cut back on staff and are often LOOKING for content. Many of them are getting "ultra-local" to further carve their niche in the media world.

5. Analyze all customer touchpoints. Serving the customer is what growing business is all about. Both with your incoming calls and email and outgoing, your company should have a consistent and customer-centric plan in place. And the consistency of all touchpoints much be constantly looked at. If you create a consistent message, and take care of each and every customer, your brand will grow and succeed.