Figures released by the government today confirm that the UK is officially in recession. In the 4th quarter of 2008, the economy shrank at the fastest rate in almost 30 years. We haven’t been in an economic climate like this for almost two decades.

To anyone living or working in the UK, this isn’t exactly news. Times have been hard for a while and not a day goes by without another well known business making mass redundancies or calling in the receivers. What may come as a surprise is the fact that the current situation might offer you the best opportunity to grow your business that you’ve ever had.

As Harvard Business School’s John Quelch famously stated “It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at a lower cost than during good economic times.”

Godfather of Advertising, David Ogilvy, agreed by saying "Studies over the last six recessions have demonstrated that companies which do not cut back their advertising budgets achieve greater increase in profit than those which do cut back.”

It takes real guts to increase marketing spend during a recession. Many of your competitors will pull back on their advertising, which gives your messages a greater chance of being noticed. Customers will be more likely to build a relationship with your brand and less likely to return to previous suppliers that no longer engage with them.

So, you need to market your way through this recession, but just how do you do that with every penny you earn being used to survive?

A couple of pointers to get you started:

- Analyse everything. Do you know where your customers are coming from? How much does it cost you to acquire a customer from each source? Does the amount these people spend differ depending on how they came onboard? With these figures in place, you will know your most profitable marketing activities as well as ones that could be operating at a loss.

- Make more of your existing customers. Some marketers will tell you that it’s seven times cheaper to convert an existing customer than it is a new prospect. Other marketers will tell you it’s ten times cheaper, and some say fifteen times. Whatever the correct figure, it’s certainly reason enough to start directing money at your customer database. Perhaps you could send a newsletter, or some promotional materials, to your existing customers with the aim of cross selling, i.e. getting them to purchase additional products/services from your company. Even if they are not ready to buy right now, you’ll be at the forefront of their mind when they are.

- Use the internet to your advantage. If you aren’t selling via the internet then it’s time to start. Businesses are often surprised with just how cost effective online marketing can be. As you are selling your products or services online, your door is always open and there are no geographical limitations. Test out search engine optimisation methods and Pay Per Click advertising campaigns to see what brings in the most revenue.

Marketing your way through the recession doesn’t have to cost a fortune. By working smarter and making every penny count, you could see your business come out the other side of the downturn in a much stronger position than it is in now. Good luck.

These days, the success of your marketing and sales messages relies as much on bypassing Junk Mail filters as it does a catchy headline. Even with the best intentions in the world, it is easy to compose emails that incorrectly get marked as Spam. Here is a list of 50 words and phrases related to business that you should avoid using if you want your messages to ever see an Inbox.

1. "work from home"
2. "be your own boss"
3. "financial freedom
4. “home based”
5. "earn cash"
6. “get paid”
7. “100% free”
8. "lower mortgage rates"
9. "lower insurance rates"
10. “life insurance”
11. "compare rates"
12. "eliminate debt"
13.  “free investment”
14. “100% satisfied”
15. "extra income"
16. "cards accepted"
17. "money back"
18. "guarantee"
19. “mlm”
20. "multi level marketing"
21. "£££"
22. "$$$"
23. "as seen on..."
24. “advertisement”
25. “order now”
26. “order today”
27. " money order"
28. "apply now"
29. "fast cash"
30. "free leads”
31. "no purchase necessary"
32. "you're a winner!"
33. "free offer"
34. "free gift"
35. “free sample”
36. "you’ve been selected"
37. "no strings attached"
38. "no questions asked"
39. "18+"
40. "must be 18"
41. "must be 21"
42. "over 18"
43. "over 21"
44. “stock alert”
45. “pennies a day”
46. “free grant money”
47. “your income”
48. “no investment”
49. “debt consolidation”
50. “unsecured debt”

You should also avoid WRITING IN BLOCKS OF CAPITALS, w r i t i n g   w i t h   g a p s, w-r-i-t-i-n-g w,i,t,h s:i:l:l:y p.u.n.c.t.u.a.t.i.o.n, and wr1tiNg 1n Thi5 r4th3r $trAnge w4y.

Where better to get tips on pleasing the search engines than from Google themselves? Nowhere, so click here for a PDF that has been kindly put together by the guys at Google, and highlights search engine optimisation (SEO) best practices.

If you already have a website then make sure it follows these instructions. If your site isn’t SEO’d well then it’s a lot harder for an online company like us to help your website rise in the search results. If you find that your website doesn’t meet many of these guidelines then maybe it’s a good time to have a new one built (ask us about that, we can make recommendations).

If you do not have a website yet then take a look at the previous sites created by your potential web developer. Are they built to this standard? Check things like the internal linking structure and use of keywords in titles. Don’t just assume it’ll all be in place as many website companies do not make sites that meet these basic search engine optimisation levels, even with Google freely giving out how-to guides.

Marketing is probably the most important activity that a business can perform. Good marketing will bring increased loyalty from existing customers, as well as attracting and retaining new ones. For your business to grow, it has to communicate with its market and build relationships with customers. Unfortunately though, most people consider marketing to be an expensive exercise, and are reluctant to spend money on trying out new marketing activities. This doesn’t have to be the case. Here are some tips for new and small businesses that have a small marketing budget.

- Have you tried direct marketing? Posting letters, making telephone calls and sending emails can be some of the most cost effective ways of getting your message out there. For this to work though there are rules that have to be followed: make sure you are marketing to your key target market; make sure the data is accurate; make sure you have a good offer that is relevant to that market; and make sure the marketing material discusses the benefits of using your service or purchasing your product. You'll also need to include a strong call to action. Using direct marketing to keep in touch with existing clients (company newsletters and e-bulletins) is also a great way of increasing sales activity.
 
- Make the most of the Internet. The internet can connect your business to most people on the planet, so you should be able to find some new customers through it. Use it as a medium for making yourself known as well as a way to study your customers and your competitors. Write new content, news articles and/or blog posts and place them on your website. These are the type of thing that search engines love and will help improve your website ranking.
 
- Encourage word-of-mouth marketing. You could provide your current customers with incentives, offers and special deals if they help to promote your business to their friends and colleagues. A word-of-mouth referral strategy is not only cheap to implement, but it often generates the best type of business, as most companies find referred enquiries are the easiest to convert into new customers.

- Show off some testimonials. People are cynical and used to businesses providing a poor service. Build confidence in the marketplace by broadcasting what your satisfied customers have said about your business. Stick these in your brochures, on your sales letters, in your newsletters and on your website for everyone to see. The bigger and more well-known the client, the better. Just make sure that they are happy with you quoting them.

- Get out there and network. Making friends and acquaintances in the business world can be very beneficial. A lot of businesses are just waiting to be a supplier or customer for your business. Sign up to breakfast meetings and get to know other businesspeople in your area, you could build strong strategic alliances that are valuable for years to come.

- Try Public Relations. Taken on a new members of staff? Won an award? Launching a new product? Write a story about it and send it in to newspapers and magazines. Readers often consider editorial as more important than adverts, and are more likely to trust what is being said. If however you do not know how to write a story well, or do not have the confidence to contact journalists, then it will be worth investing in the services of a PR firm.

“We guarantee to put your site at the top of Google.” If you own a website then the chances are you’ve heard that line before. There are scores of SEO specialists out there, a lot of which are genuine and can generate considerable results (ourselves included, of course) but there are also those that will promise you the marketing Holy Grail: your website as the Number 1 result on Google. They get you thinking about the increased traffic and massive profits this would bring and how it would turn you into the market leader overnight. It all sounds too good to be true but before you sign up you need to know one thing – NO ONE can guarantee you the first position search result on Google.

The way Google ranks websites, using its secret algorithm, changes on a regular basis. No SEO companies know what will happen with search results from one day to the next.  Any companies making unrealistic promises should be approached with caution as Google itself has stated that you should “beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings” and you can’t heed advice from a more qualified source than that.

Ever since businesses started to realise the profits contained within search traffic, there have been tricksters looking to make money out of them. The scams are often pretty simple and though they are well known to most online marketers, they remain unfamiliar to the greater business community. There are a number of scams that guarantee you front page listings or offer you your money back, and the way they get away with these bold promises include:

- Non competitive search terms. When outsourcing your SEO services make sure that you specify the search terms that you want to be found for. “Used Mercedes” would be hard to compete for but “High mileage used Mercedes in Colchester” would not. They may hold up their end of the bargain by getting you to the top of Google for search terms related to your business, but if no one is using these keywords then you’ve wasted your money.

- Short term results. Quite often these companies can generate great search rankings but only for a little while. It takes a lot of skill and a lot of work to maintain high Google rankings. Once they have you there, they will send you a screenshot as evidence, but you’ll be unlikely to find your site when you try looking for it.

- Dodgy “black hat” techniques. Probably the most concerning scams of all are ones that involve Black Hat tricks, such as gateway pages and link farms, as these can actually damage your website in the long-term. If Google find out that you have used these techniques to manipulate the search results then your site could be penalised and the cost involved in correcting the issue is likely to be huge.
 
One of the other most common scams doesn’t actually involve the natural search results at all. Google Adwords is the Pay Per Click advertising system which allows companies to place adverts above and to the right of the search results. Some devious companies have realised that many people do not understand the distinction between Adwords listings and natural search listings, and are quick to take advantage of this. You will be promised first page rankings on Google but what they won’t tell you is that you are actually paying for this via advertising. Not just any old advertising either but advertising you could easily and cheaply set up on your own. You will often be subject to a high set up fee and an on-going management fee, and after a number of days/weeks/months, the money runs out and so does your traffic. If you are in the market for search engine optimisation then make sure it’s not simply Adwords management wrapped up in a different package.