What is the first thing most companies do during a tough economy? Hint: It’s the last thing you should do. Most companies cut back on their marketing during a recession. Why? Marketing costs money, and most companies really don’t know which marketing is working. Do companies can their sales force during a recession? Rarely. Why? Sales makes money, and it’s much easier to see the results.

During a recession, you cut back on the non-essentials that cost money, but how do you define the non-essentials? Marketing is a must-have essential part of success, especially in a tough economy. Cutting back on marketing during a recession is like fasting at your last supper, yet nearly every company does it. But you know what? That’s good news for you and me because it makes our marketing efforts even more powerful.

A recession presents an exceptional opportunity for marketing-savvy companies to out-market their competitors who are busy fasting and praying for a miracle. It’s a great time to build your brand because you can gain more visibility in a less crowded playing field. You also have the advantage of media outlets who are more likely to be offering deals to fill empty space.

To thrive during a recession, you need three primary elements. The first thing you need is realistic budget. Next, you need an actionable marketing plan. Third, you need the self-discipline to follow through on the plan. Many companies need one more thing: A marketing communications firm to help keep you on task and get you the design work you need.

Lets take a look at the three primary elements, along with a non-biased look at the fourth:

Budget
How do you set a budget when you haven’t any money? There are two primary ways to set your marketing budget during a recession. One you will like, and the other one, although very effective, may be difficult for some.

One of the biggest ways you can save money on your marketing during a recession is by hiring a marketing firm instead of an in-house marketing employee. A marketing firm or individual will typically cost about 1/10 the price of an employee. With that cost-savings, it’s clear to see how you can free up some cash for a decent marketing budget. This may not be easy to do if you already have an employee. An option to letting someone go is to pair them together with the firm. We frequently partner with in-house designers to help them strengthen their brand and market more frugally and effectively. The slight increase in cost is easily justified by the increase in sales and efficiency.

The second way to set your budget is a little more complicated and is often best handled by a marketing firm. If you want to give it a try yourself, start by setting some reachable goals. Figure out which methods of communication you will use to get the highest return. (If you don’t know how to do that, we can help.) Estimate the costs of your selected marketing methods. Take a look at your operating budget for the next 12 months, and see how these methods fit in. Stay away from planning for the ‘what if we make this much’ scenario. Plan with what you can count on from what you already have. If you are short on resources, reduce your expectations and adjust your goals. As you begin reaching milestones, you can ratchet your goals and expectations back up.

Marketing Plan
Your marketing plan should have a maximum of four objectives. Figure out which is the most important, then set up 8-10 marketing methods for achieving the primary goal. When you reach it, move the second goal into the primary position, and high-five your former doubters.

Follow-through
This is important! Who will be responsible for implementing the plan? Set up some checks and balances. Set weekly goals, and schedule each task into your days. If you are working with a marketing firm, make sure they are following up with you as often as needed to keep you on task and get you the communications you need.

Hiring a Branding and Marketing Firm to Help
One of the biggest problems companies face in marketing is simply not sticking to the plan. A good branding and marketing firm will help you do just that. They will gently prod you to stay on task and meet regular milestones. They will make your job easier by taking on some of the responsibilities that are a drag on your time and efforts. Last but certainly not least, they can help you dramatically strengthen your brand and improve your marketing communications.

Before you implement your plan, be sure to set a reward, even if its as small as dinner at your favorite Italian joint. When you reach your goal, give yourself the reward. If the reward is for your employees, make it special, and make it happen. Everyone likes to be rewarded for hard efforts.

If you continue your marketing through a recession, your company will come out of it stronger than ever, most likely with business booming. You will also learn to have more appreciation for your best customers, and they will feel that. It will strengthen your brand and your customer relationships.

Or Really, Magazines, Plural.

Twitter says it’s “a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time.” But it’s really a whole lot more than that. Lately, I’ve been thinking about Twitter as a daily magazine, and I get to be the editor of my own personal edition.

Each Twitter user runs an interactive, constantly updated magazine. Each magazine has articles, features, tidbits, letters to the editors, tips, and advertising galore. Some have photos, called ‘pics,’ while others do not. Twitter magazines have subscribers too. Bucketloads of them.

Magazine staff is made up of everyone under the sun. Twitter has senior staff and junior staff, and there are staff members who have absolutely no idea what their job is, but they are happy to be there. No one gets paid because everyone works on a volunteer basis.

Junior staff hang on every senior staff comment, action, and behavior. Some of them have ambition, just like in paper magazines, while others are just along for the ride. The people with the most followers by and large were already well-known, and already had numerous paper magazines or blogs following them. Now, people follow them on their own Twitter magazine.

Your Twitter page is your magazine cover. Your tweets are headlines and sound bites that entice people to read your next tweet, or to turn to the next page so to speak.

Writing is generally not nearly as good as in old-school magazines, but no one seems to really care all that much, especially since each sentence is too short for you to get a feel for any real substantive writing style. People do pay attention, however, to tweets referencing great articles, if they manage to see them. You don’t have to be a good writer, you just have to know how to find great writing.

The magazines are free. The only cost is time. Much, much time. If you have 15,000 Twitter magazines – or folks you are following – to wade through, as many Twitterers do, that’s a whole bunch of reading. When will you ever find the time?

Twitter articles range from interesting to so boring your eyes fall out, and from valuable to totally irrelevant (yet sometimes entertaining) drivel about the morning’s breakfast or it coming back up. (Not that we aren’t all genuinely concerned for our fellow woman or man, but really, would you spend all day reading blog posts about how the weather is in Wyoming today or what your friends ate for breakfast?) Unfortunately, this means that to find the really good magazines, junior staff must wade through hordes of magazines which have nothing to do with their interests. But they do so religiously. Like sheep.

Why? Because junior staff are looking for the secret to success, their own personal key that will show them the way to the senior staff lounge and their own private chair. Only senior staff have these keys, and everyone knows it, so everyone reads what senior staff says, follows them and falls on their every tweet.

One of the coolest things about Twitter is that its creators have made it easy for people to blog without blogging. That is, since you have only 140 characters, you don’t really have to write much. You can rely on others to write great posts, then just link to them.

What are the primary differences between Twitter magazines and old-school magazines? Well, the paper and permanence for starters. The bigger difference is that with Twitter everyone has the opportunity to have an equal voice. Sort of. Some voices are louder or more eloquent or more valuable than others.

Why is it important to see Twitter this way? Perspective gives you wings.

Now that Twitter has put the publishing power is in your hands and you are creating your own magazine, you can make it a whole lot better. Your tweets can be substantive and add meaning to the conversation. Imagine if all tweets did this. Why, Twitter could read like a well-thought-out daily magazine.

2009 marks the fourth year running that Train of Thought has acted as design firm, providing graphic design services and printing management, for the Seattle International Bicycle Expo, a Cascade Bicycle Club event. It is a great source of pride to be able to help the nation’s largest bicycle advocacy organization inspire more people to ride their bikes.

This year we designed the event poster, all print and online advertising, T-shirts and direct mail.

The Bicycle Expo runs from March 14-15, 2009, at Warren G. Magnuson Park, Hanger 30. More info is available at http://cascade.org/expo