It's hard to stay optimistic these days with the stock market tanking, credit drying up and the financial crisis spreading around the globe. Companies are going to be looking closely at every expense just as families will be reigning their budgets. So how do we make it through these tough times? In short- metrics. Make sure everything your company is doing can be measured and tweaked to improve ROI. The web is perfect for this. You can track what keywords people are using to find you, what pages they go to, what you are paying for every conversion, etc. The web is all about metrics.

When you start with a robust web presence it multiplies all your other marketing efforts. If you dominate searches for your location and industry then all your traditional marketing will be that much effective. It's like creating this huge net to catch all the leads that your marketing creates. If someone hears about you on the radio then runs into you again on a search and then see you linked from a site they respect and then sees you commenting on a popular business site, like SmallerIndiana.com, you will become their only real choice for the service or product you are offering. This puts in the position to charge the prices you need to be profitable.

Having a website alone is not enough. Beyond having a dynamic, updated site you have to engage across many different web platforms- blogs, community sites and email. You have to be ubiquitous. It's like having a store front and not putting out a sign. The website is the storefront but your activity on the web is your sign. Put up as many signs as you can, you will be able to clearly measure the increase in traffic and the increase in revenue.

So if you are spending thousands on a Yellow Pages ad or other media that have no real metrics built in, drop or reduce them, push the money to the web and start fine tuning your way to success.