But there’s the problem of falling revenues when an economic downturn hits. So the first thing that businesses are tempted to cut is sales and marketing. These are seen as the least necessary parts of the business. The problem with this thinking is, it’s just not true. Without sales and marketing, how are you going to get people into your door to buy the things you produce? If you can’t get those people to you, how will you pay your overhead and your other employees’ salaries? It just doesn’t make any sense. Yet, the hard reality is that during an economic downturn you’re losing business as more people try to save more money. How can you maintain your marketing and lead generation activities under these conditions?

The answer now is by turning to the Internet. Web marketing is so powerful and gives you such a great return on investment (ROI) that you should be using a lot of it already if you’re not. Using the Internet for lead generation is the one of the smartest things that any business can do today. The advantages of Web marketing for lead generation are many:

*Web marketing is inexpensive compared to other forms of marketing. *Web marketing is the most efficient method of marketing. It allows you to more precisely target niche markets than any other form of marketing. *Web marketing causes far, far less wasted marketing dollars. *Web marketing methods only bring interested people to your business. *Selling on the Internet can be done 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays. *You have vaster and faster outreach on the Internet than you do through any other medium. *Selling on the Internet does not involve cold-calling or hard sales. This means you waste less time and anger fewer people. *Sales and marketing on the Internet can be a lot of fun.

Internet marketing should involve the use of social networking. Business is all about creating new relationships and making new friends. Once you have created new relationships, the people involved in them with you want to do business with you. They become interested in who you are as a person and this makes them interested in what you have to offer them.

Successful salesmen have always used networking to increase and sustain their business, but with social networking on the Internet that capability is greatly enhanced. What gets published to the Web stays there forever, and anyone can come by and read it and respond to it at their convenience. The salesman doesn’t have to be physically present. And he can have his content read, watched, or listened to by thousands and thousands of people all at once, and they can pause, rewind, or fast forward as they need to.

What are some of the leading methods of Internet social networking for lead generation?

*Using forums. By posting at forums that relate to your business and taking on the role and reputation of a helpful friend, you will build relationships and peak people’s interest. They are at the forum to talk about things of interest to them, and if your business offers them something that relates to that interest, and if you don’t hard sell but instead act as a helpful friend and leave your contact information for them to choose to use, you will find some very hot leads at these pleases.

*Use Yahoo Answers. This is an online community that was created by Yahoo to allow people to ask questions and get other regular people to answer them. This is similar to a forum but it has a looser structure. You sign up for a free Yahoo Answers account, create a profile, then look up topics that relate to your business. Once you are in these topics, you look for Open Questions, and you start answering them. Approximately 10% of the time, when you answer you also include a link to your company’s website. (You can’t do it every time or else you’ll be nailed as a community spammer and get banned.)

Also, the more questions you answer here, and the more “Best Answers” you give, the more points you are awarded. Once you earn enough points you earn the badge Top Contributor for all to see. Again, as a helpful member of the community, you will attract business.

*Using Digg, Stumble Upon, and Yahoo Buzz. The strategy here is to write free articles and publish them online, then socially bookmark them at these sites. You can create groups of friends and have influence over driving traffic to read your articles and want to contact you.

Social networking is just one of the great Internet lead generation marketing techniques that you can use. There are also things like article writing, video production, blogging, and using PPC ads. Use the Internet to keep your marketing hot during economic downturns.

With the economic crisis, what will happen in the web marketing sector? What repercussions will it have on the web services market in America and Europe?

According to Enrico Madrigrano, one of the biggest experts in web marketing and Search Engine Positioning in Europe, “To understand it you need to get to the root of the problem”. In other words try to understand how the famous law of supply and demand will play out in this market.

”From the demand point of view,” states Enrico Madrigrano “the companies that want to survive the crisis will inevitably have to cut their promotional costs to survive. This means that the first advertising spending to be cut will be that with a negative return which is perceived, in one way or another, as “risky”. In this category are obviously included investments in TV, radio and press advertising, which have always given results that are unpredictable and hard to quantify. The advertising budget will therefore mainly be directed towards direct marketing and to those advertising methods, where the results are predictable and measurable and where the benefits of targeting will be best appreciated. In short “web marketing”. But this transition will only happen under one condition: that companies and entrepreneurs become “aware” of all this, or rather that they become totally involved in the front line of their company web marketing strategies and that they perceive and appreciate their potential, right from the word go.”

”On the other side of the equation, therefore, web agencies and SEO and Web Marketing consultents, who represent the “supply”, will have to take responsibility for educating their clients, focussing directly on what their company is looking for, that is reducing their costs and getting a return on their investments.”

However in this scenatio a phenomenen will develop, which web agencies and consultents will have to beware of. “A split will form, dividing the supply of professional web marketing services (which guarantee good results and profits) and the demand for low cost services, from more and more companies on the hunt for discounts and rock bottom prices.”

”In this scenario,” continues Enrico Madrigrano “web agencies that want to survive, shouldn’t fall into the trap. The secret will be to go against the flow. In other words web agencies, instead of going after the biggest slice of the market, which will be looking for web marketing services at lower and lower prices, should do the opposite, that is “hand-pick” existing clients, focusing on those who value quality and results over price. Instead of leaping into the fray and struggling to corner new clients in savage price wars, web agencies should do the opposite, that is defend their own territory, cultivating and nurturing their own clients, focusing on numbers and concrete results.

In this way web agencies will be able to create a shield in the midst of a scenario of ever more ruthless deflation. Successful web agencies will know how to consolidate their experience, strengthening their hold on the niche in which they already operate, instead of looking for new markets, or worse still setting themselves up as a “jack of all trades” to bring home new clients.”

According to Enrico Madrigrano this abnormal scenario will develop very rapidly in conjuction with other big social and cultural changes which will involve not just businesses but also (and above all) consumers. All this “acceleration” in the awareness and process of the supply and demand market forces will lead to what he defines as the new Web Marketing 3.0.

These and other subjects linked to change and the future of web marketing will be discussed in person by Enrico Madrigrano during the next international “SEO Web Marketing Experience” course in Rome, Milan and London (for more information: http://www.madri.com/swm-experience/indexen.php )

With the economic crisis, what will happen in the web marketing sector? What repercussions will it have on the web services market in America and Europe?

According to Enrico Madrigrano, one of the biggest experts in web marketing and Search Engine Positioning in Europe, “To understand it you need to get to the root of the problem“. In other words try to understand how the famous law of supply and demand will play out in this market.

“From the demand point of view,” states Enrico Madrigrano “the companies that want to survive the crisis will inevitably have to cut their promotional costs to survive. This means that the first advertising spending to be cut will be that with a negative return which is perceived, in one way or another, as “risky”. In this category are obviously included investments in TV, radio and press advertising, which have always given results that are unpredictable and hard to quantify. The advertising budget will therefore mainly be directed towards direct marketing and to those advertising methods, where the results are predictable and measurable and where the benefits of targeting will be best appreciated. In short “web marketing”. But this transition will only happen under one condition: that companies and entrepreneurs become “aware” of all this, or rather that they become totally involved in the front line of their company web marketing strategies and that they perceive and appreciate their potential, right from the word go.”

“On the other side of the equation, therefore, web agencies and SEO and Web Marketing consultents, who represent the “supply”, will have to take responsibility for educating their clients, focussing directly on what their company is looking for, that is reducing their costs and getting a return on their investments.”

However in this scenatio a phenomenen will develop, which web agencies and consultents will have to beware of. “A split will form, dividing the supply of professional web marketing services (which guarantee good results and profits) and the demand for low cost services, from more and more companies on the hunt for discounts and rock bottom prices.”

“In this scenario,” continues Enrico Madrigrano “web agencies that want to survive, shouldn’t fall into the trap. The secret will be to go against the flow. In other words web agencies, instead of going after the biggest slice of the market, which will be looking for web marketing services at lower and lower prices, should do the opposite, that is “hand-pick” existing clients, focusing on those who value quality and results over price. Instead of leaping into the fray and struggling to corner new clients in savage price wars, web agencies should do the opposite, that is defend their own territory, cultivating and nurturing their own clients, focusing on numbers and concrete results.

In this way web agencies will be able to create a shield in the midst of a scenario of ever more ruthless deflation. Successful web agencies will know how to consolidate their experience, strengthening their hold on the niche in which they already operate, instead of looking for new markets, or worse still setting themselves up as a “jack of all trades” to bring home new clients.”

According to Enrico Madrigrano this abnormal scenario will develop very rapidly in conjuction with other big social and cultural changes which will involve not just businesses but also (and above all) consumers. All this “acceleration” in the awareness and process of the supply and demand market forces will lead to what he defines as the new Web Marketing 3.0.

These and other subjects linked to change and the future of web marketing will be discussed in person by Enrico Madrigrano during the next international “SEO Web Marketing Experience” course in Rome, Milan and London (for more information: http://www.madri.com/swm-experience/indexen.php )