Given that I deal with lots of small and mid-size businesses, and given that nary a day goes by where someone mentions the economy, I thought it relevant to point out in what ways the economy has changed some habits for the better.

Sure, there’s the usual “Holy shit” when it comes to the economy. It just induces that kind of reaction. Houses are worth half of what they were. 401ks are worth 10% of what they were. Businesses are folding. Ryan Seacrest remains famous for….we don’t really know what.

One thing it has accomplished (after scaring the ever-loving crap out of people) is that it’s forced small business to really, really take a good look at where their advertising money and marketing money is going. Sure, they looked at it before as they’d get their one month report from a vendor that was probably doing next to nothing, and they’d sign the checks to said vendor. There was plenty of money, and since business was coming in, there was a general assumption that what you were paying a vendor to do was working. You were earning, checks were signed, life was good.

Things change when there’s less money. In most cases, they started changing before the impact. Kinda like when you’re sitting at a stoplight, and you see someone FLYING up behind you in your rearview mirror, but you can’t go anywhere, because you’re surrounded by other cars on both sides.

You just hold your breath, wince, and brace for the smash.

That part is definitely over. The impact has pretty much happened. I tend to think we’re in that phase where we’re going, “Whew. OK. I’m alive. I’m breathing.” We’re peering out of our smashed up cars to see who’s still standing, some might still be wandering around in shock, but on the whole, we’re piecing things together.

So, what does that mean post-fiery-economic-car-wreck? Are we better drivers for it?

Trend #1: Businesses are pickier about their service.

I hear a lot of people bitch as a vendor or service provider because work is scarcer. Yeah, it’s tougher. Contracts take longer. Funds get frozen. People back out. Businesses go under or don’t get funding. That’s all a given. But I hear bitching about how businesses seem more involved with the output of their vendors.

Excuse me, but WHY are you bitching? I’m not talking about micromanagers – those people are hugely challenging (and sometimes impossible) to work with. I’m talking about people that are frustrated because businesses expect more in the way of understanding what they’re paying for. As I try and address on this blog a few times a week, internet marketing isn’t the easiest thing to understand, and businesses feel immense pressure to be doing something with it. They have to justify to themselves why they’re paying you.

If you want to make that hard, go right ahead. There are thousands of others out there who will glady go above and beyond.

Personally, it’s good for me if a vendor is frustrated by that. If I couldn’t back up the service and value I give, I’d be frustrated too, trying to address that with a client. All of my dealings are crystal clear, every report is made as simple as possible, with the offer to walk through it. There’s never a doubt as to what money is going into someone’s campaign and what they’re getting out of it. If you offer any less than that, then yes, vendors are going to get nervous. They cannot afford to pay you a cent right now without feeling entirely secure in the fact they’re getting business out of it down the line.

Trend #2: Businesses are more aware of the value of their own customers.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been talking with a client, or a potential one, about a PPC campaign for them, and the subject of  the value of a conversion for their business comes up. It’s obviously more straightforward with something like an e-commerce site since all sales can be tracked, and they’re broken out by referring channel, etc.

But what about a service provider? A financial broker? An insurance agent? Those are more complex services, so normally their internet marketing focuses on lead generation – getting them folks that need their service.

But…how on EARTH do you put a value on that? One might sign up for a $2000 a year car insurance policy. Another might take out eight bajillion dollars in life insurance (can you tell I don’t work in insurance?). There’s no set value on that.

And frankly, clients never really tried to come up with one. I’d encourage them to estimate an average profit to them for each lead that comes in, using very quick and dirty math. Most of them wouldn’t. They knew they were making more in the long run than they were spending in PPC, and that was fine by them.

No more, my friends. It’s a rare client now that doesn’t say “I need my cost per lead to be in the x-x range.” They are very, very conscious of every single dollar their customers bring in, and how much they can spend to get them.

Know the added kick in the gut for them? They’re also dealing with Trend #1. They’re likely having to provide more service than they ever did for the same, or less, income.

Trend #3: While people are bitching about businesses getting pickier, no one is looking at the upshot: more of them are turning to online advertising.

In some ways there’s less work, but in other ways, it’s the opposite case. Yes, many businesses have failed, but there are businesses out there who are keeping their head above water but are very aware they need to be more aggressive. They are swallowing their bad habits of the same print ads they’ve run for years, picking up the phone and saying, “Can you please tell me what SEO is, and why everyone says I need it?”

Why? Because everyone tells them to? Maybe, but that’s likely a small reason. They’re doing it because of the offshoot of Trend #2: they need to know what every dollar is getting them. They can’t rely on fuzzy math. Spending a little less than they’re earning isn’t enough, because they’ve had the crap scared out of them, and they want their returns to have some padding to keep them afloat. Before, it was usually “we’re still in the green, who cares?” Now it’s “we’re in the green, but we want more of it.” Online advertising is the most trackable form of advertising you can engage in, not to mention arguably the one with the lowest barrier to entry. They can’t afford fancy designers, expensive flyers, paying salespeople out the nose…they need cold, hard numbers. I mentioned before that Ryan Seacrest is still famous. Who knows why, but businesses won’t take chances like that on their brands right now. They have to know what is actually working and WHY, so they can duplicate it.

And anyone who reads this blog knows that when you get down to it, online advertising is all about the numbers, testing, and using what you learn. Kind of like what we learned with the economy:

1. You can’t spend ruthlessly forever

2. Pay attention to what you do try. You’ll need it later.

3. Ask for reassurance that you’re getting what you think you are when you sign a check. (*cough*Madoff*cough*)

Above all, keep nursing the wounds and plowing ahead. Being scared should never prevent you from promoting your services, even if your budget might limit the ways in which you can.