Due to the failing economy, businesses are forced to cut back on their marketing budgets. These shrinking budgets are affecting all aspects of marketing, from direct to email. In order to ensure that your budget is being used effectively, it is important to recognize all the ways of stretching it. ConsumerBase offers several tips that can help you stretch your budget in the poor economy:

1.  Focus on Your Existing Database

The power of your in-house database should never be underestimated. Your database, most often, consists of people that have previously used or considered using your product or service. Instead of signing new clients, try reconnecting with the old ones in your database.

2. Don’t Use One-Size-Fits-All Messages

If you are sending out one marketing message to everyone in your database, don’t expect the best results. A simple email marketing technique that can help to increase business is segmentation. By segmenting your database and, ultimately, emails, by industry, company size, or personal preferences, you are able to reach a more targeted audience.

3. Try Out Social Media

If you haven’t jumped on the social media bandwagon yet, try setting up an account on a few of the popular sites like Facebook or Twitter. Let customers know there is another way of connecting with them by adding profile links into your emails. If done properly, this can be an excellent and cheap marketing tool.