Online and Mobile Solutions For Small Businesses in a Yet Beat Up Economy

The marketing industry didn’t see a break this past year. Budget cuts have been drastic as demand for items and services decreased considerably. The outlook for 2010 still looks complicated. Analysts consider that the worst is over but it will be a year of challenges. Much of that is due to the bad performance reached in 2009. A quick review of some of the key indicators of the U.S. Economy in the last quarter of 2009 tells the story: By November 2009 unemployment reached 10%, federal spending continues to grow (about $11.9 trillion), consumer spending experienced a 27% drop from last year although it “appears” to be reaching stability.

But, is the worst really over? If it is, what does that really mean? How will it impact the marketing industry? To our experience the very worst is probably over but very few dare to say that, and we completely understand why. But, to our knowledge the “worst is over” really means to business owners across Texas that the chances of their businesses going bankrupt have decreased although the chances for significant growth during 2010 are slim. Businesses will most likely remain “stable” with a flat income and probably a few new employees or no new employees at all.
 

What this means to marketing companies is that as more and more Internet and mobile applications emerge, businesses will require that their marketing companies integrate these new applications to their existing options of marketing vehicles. It will be a strange integration to digest for many traditional marketing companies but one that has to take place to remain competitive. A good and very basic example of this is Google Calendar. Opposed to OpenOffice, Google Calendar is not an open source but it is free and offers free features such as integrating file sharing (Google Docs) to the calendar feature. Google Calendar also offers a mobile feature that allows users of a shared calendar to be updated about specific company events. Think of this as a tool for internal and external marketing. Google Calendar can easily be integrated to a company's Web site and it is one that also offers an opportunity for online marketing.

The new year will definitely bring more Internet and mobile business applications. Small businesses will integrate them to their operations to achieve cost efficiency. The emergence of these applications will continue to provide opportunities to marketing companies that understand how to integrate them to the their array of offerings but more importantly, understand how these tools can provide marketing value to their client's businesses.