Small Business? Cutting your marketing budget? Try this first.

While the economy is currently hitting people in their pockets, are becoming more frugal, and making smarter buying decisions, you as a small business owner, have probably been forced to think about where you can cut back in your own business without sacrificing your service, support for your customers, etc.

As you consider cutting your marketing and advertising spending, (yes, I know you have) you should consider updating your Website.  You need to consider updating your content with updated, keyword rich descriptive information about your products, services, and support services for your prospects and customers.  Consider adding an FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page with the most commonly asked questions by your prospects and customers to “pre-answer” those questions your browsing prospects may have and make them feel more comfortable with your business.

• You should consider adding simple commerce options such as PayPal, Google Checkout, and/or 2CO.com commerce services if you have products or services you can sell and ship locally or nationally online.  Now these services do not add shipping modules, etc.   For that you may want to build a full commerce site.  However, to get your feet wet, it doesn’t have to be a full shopping experience like Amazon.com, but it should look symmetrical, and organized in its nature.  Disorganized sites have lower conversions of sales than more organized ones.   If you are not comfortable with taking payments online via one of the services I mentioned, then at least consider adding catalog of your products and services if they are not there.  Do not simply list them, but add detailed concise descriptions and images so that your customers can make a more informed decision about doing business with you.

• Now, if you do not have a Website yet, or you are looking to update your existing Website to help you plow through the down economy, think about adding the following features:

• Add a new Web-form to collect more specific data about what the potential customer is looking for.  This will help you save time when contacting them in terms of understanding their needs.  You will be able to speak intelligently about their concerns much more quickly.

• If you are in front of your PC on a daily basis, add an Instant Messaging client so prospects can get in touch with you with their questions immediately, and you can ask to contact them via face to face or voice immediately.

• Add a click to call feature to your Website, so a customer cal click the button, put in their phone number, and then the system will call them back and connect you to them.  It’s a cool feature and will help to connect you to more business.  Keep in mind there will be fees for this, however.

• If you use LinkedIn, or Facebook, add those badges to your website.  Learn more about Google Friend Connect, or create your own vertical market social network with Ning.com for free. I created one for the summer camp I used to go to as a kid to find old friends:  www.campskycrest.org…  Register a new domain name and apply it to your social network and link it to your existing website.  Market your new social networking features as a resource for your customers to collaborate on products and services.  Engage them in the process, and you may become a valued resource.

• Update your business cards and other off – line marketing products with the new Website information and any specific URLs you would like your prospects and customers to know about.