It looks like we are in for some uncertain economic times. At least that is what Wall Street and the major news outlets are telling us. So what do we do as business to business marketers as budget pressure builds and we are expected to remain stewards of our brand?

I recently had the opportunity to be part of a panel on this subject at a meeting of the American Marketing Association’s, Houston Chapter’s B2B Special Interest Group.

Here’s a brief recap of what was discussed:

The overall message of the meeting was that successful B2B marketers view these as times of opportunity. A period that requires an "uncertain times" strategy with the brand and protecting the brand is the driver. It is a critically opportune time to make sure your brand message is integrated into all communications associated with your brand.

Michelle Reed, Vice President Strategic Marketing, Stanandlou, Houston shared the research that had been conducted in past recessionary times. These studies tell us that B2B marketers that maintained or increased their advertising budgets during uncertain times came out in better shape than they went in. Those of you familiar with these studies will remember that they were centered on “advertising budgets”, more specifically “paid media advertising”. However, I believe that the take-away from these previous studies is that maintaining or increasing your communications with the market, your prospects and customers during the uncertain times is the core message.

Bob Lamons, Chief Marketing Officer, Unleaded Communications, Houston shared the significance of internal branding and how critical it is to have your employees aligned with your brand strategy and delivering on your brand promise day in and day out.  Many branding efforts overlook this crucial group of brand ambassadors.

My role was to discuss external communications. No, I did not advocate increasing the paid media advertising budget. The reality is that most marketers will be fortunate if they are able to maintain their budget. Recognizing this, and because I am a believer that all messages are brand messages, I think marketers have a great opportunity to rethink what they’ve been doing.

We have available to us so many more ways to communicate with our marketplace. Many of these new brand ambassadors don’t require you to hand over significant sums of money to a publishing company. This is the time to rethink what you’ve done before and reallocate your communications budget and resources in acknowledgement of the changing marketing communications landscape to begin to use media (message delivering) vehicles that you can control. 

Your web site, the internet and all features associated with it, allow you to enhance and enrich the experience that your marketplace has with you. This is the opportunity you have in these uncertain times. And, by the way, you will also have metrics you never had before to demonstrate an ROI and have an answer the next you are asked “What am I getting for all this money we spend on marketing communications?”