When times get tough, marketing budgets seem to be the first thing to be impacted. This is generally the case because upper management doesn’t see a direct return for the dollars being spent. This is unfortunate but the fact of the matter is that many marketing professionals have not done a good job of measuring the effectiveness of their marketing results. And as a result, their marketing dollars are seen as unnecessary.

The good news is that as the economy struggles, advertising, direct marketing, and other forms of promotion can be negotiated. Long gone are the days of $20 CPM’s. Keep in mind that everyone is struggling and as a result, you can often get a better price on what you’ve been purchasing.

Take stock of all of your marketing spend. Whether it’s for online advertising or simply direct mail, get a good understanding of all the costs involved in your project. Perhaps you’ve been sending post cards to your target prospects. Speak with your printer or mail house and see how they might be able to improve their pricing. With direct mail you have numerous options. Don’t be afraid to negotiate the cost of supplies.

Another area that marketers are reviewing more closely is their online budget. Even though Google Adwords and other sites remain competitive in your pricing, now’s a good time to evaluate what aspects of your online spend are most profitable. If you’re not sure, use a free resource like Google analytics to better understand where your money is best spent.

After a thorough review of your marketing expenses, your are in a much better position for determining how you can group promotions to lower costs and improve sell through. Consider how you might take advantage of your current campaigns. Do you ask customers to forward a promotion to a friend? Are you communicating to your mailing list on a regular basis? Are you collecting information about your consumers that can help you customize your campaigns and improve conversion rates? Think through each touch point and how you might improve your sales.

To be effective with a smaller budget, you really need to consider how you can reduce costs while improving the effectiveness of your marketing. Reducing costs can seem a bit frightening at first but assume that you can still improve your results with less marketing. In essence, you are focusing on enhancing the results of your campaigns while purging what hasn’t worked.

There are a number of ways to impact your marketing success regardless of budget size. Improving your results requires an in-depth review of your previous marketing efforts and a full understanding of what has worked for you in the past and what is likely to work for you in the future. Focus on leveraging your existing campaigns by asking for referrals and marketing in a viral way. By doing so, you can have others market for you. This eliminates significant costs and can certainly help you grow your business. Improving results with a smaller marketing budget is more than possible. Just give it some thought, apply what you know works and eliminate the rest.