There's no doubt in my mind that 2009 will be a better year for business.

The economy will turn around, if it has not already done so before the end of 2008. Many businesses will disappear in the mean time, some closing their doors, some just dropping out of sight. It's those "dropping out of sight" businesses I want to talk to you about...and I want to  make sure that you're not one of them.

When business gets slow, when money gets tight, the mistake many businesses make is to cut back on marketing. When they look at the profit and loss statement, marketing looks like one of the easiest "expenses" to cut. Hey, nobody gets hurt, right? It's easier to stop advertising than it is to let an employee go, or worse yet, start taking home a little less money yourself.

Here's what happens when you stop marketing: You disappear. You don't just drop out of sight, you drop out of your customers' recallable database. When people are ready to buy, the businesses that pop up from memory first get the first shot at the business. The business that stops promoting themselves, even if temporarily, falls off of that list. They've been replaced by the businesses that are still actively advertising and promoting themselves, keeping their name in front of prospective customers.

If you absolutely must cut back, cut back on the number of people you contact. Don't cut back on how often you contact them. In stead of buying space in the whole metropolitan newspaper, pick your best neighborhoods and buy space in their editions...just as frequently as you've always advertised. If you use direct mail, mail to fewer people (the best names on your list) just as frequently as you've always contacted them.

Don't think you can make it up with email marketing. I notice that many of the businesses I have given permission to email me are upping their frequency lately. I have unsubscribed to more ezines in the last two weeks than I can ever remember. If you get so frequent that people are asking to be taken off your list, you've over saturated them. Unfortunately, you may not even know it. You may just be getting added to blocked sender lists, which means your message will never be seen again.

Businesses that promote themselves consistently in tough times show their prospects that they are serious, solid businesses. When the economy comes back, they'll be the names that are at top-of-mind when the money starts to flow. Isn't that where you want to be?