There are times when the finance team continues to push for reductions in marketing. We’ve all been there! And in these challenging times the marketing function is an especially easy target.

It may seem like a bold move to keep investing in marketing strategies when revenues are flat or heading the wrong way, but it’s important to stay committed during the tough times. Why? There are three reasons:

• Prevent that downward spiral and loss of market share. If people don’t see you or hear from you, the assumption is that you’re gone.
• On the other hand, if your competitor is cutting back, you’ll add their market share for the same reason – out of sight, out of mind.
• You’ll be on solid ground to pull ahead when conditions improve, and they will improve.

GlobalSpec, a research and marketing firm focused on the industrial and manufacturing industry segments, has published a white paper titled, 9 Ways to Make Marketing Work in Challenging Times.

Here are 9 things you can do to make marketing work:

1. Focus on what you can control
2. Re-state your goals
3. Get more targeted
4. Measure the past to size the future
5. Think integration
6. Maintain frequency and consistency
7. Push and pull your way to success
8. Focus on quality over quantity
9. Seek assistance from media partners

From GlobalSpec’s 2009 Economic Outlook, there are 8 more strategies offered – actually 6, we’ve got a couple of duplicates:

1. Fine-tune messaging
2. Reach a higher-level decision maker
3. Emphasize value or cost savings
4. Review all of the markets you sell into
5. Seek out new markets
6. Maintain frequency and consistency (where did we hear that before?)
7. Push and pull your way to success (ditto)
8. “Right-size” your marketing spend

Now is the time to turn to more efficient and effective marketing strategies and tactics.

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