Some of the best businesses rise out of the ashes of a fallen market and it’s no coincidence that most success stories view a down economy through similar lenses. Perspective matters when it comes to doing business in this economic climate. Otherwise, there are valuable opportunities to be missed.

Consider some of the following when wading through the muddy waters of this economy:

Less competition in the marketplace: In a down economy, there’s less competition. Period. Take advantage of the fact that there are fewer businesses competing in the same space.

This could be a huge opportunity to leverage your business and capitalize on the scarcity of competition. A proactive business can achieve greater market share and even become the market leader.

Advertising is less expensive: Historically, when markets are down, the first thing to go is advertising budgets. So, media companies often cut deals to boost their revenues and keep their advertisers. They practically give it away.

This is great news for you. Take advantage of low rates and increase your exposure to boost your brand presence.

Relevant messaging in the marketplace: Is your message relevant in today’s marketplace? Not the marketplace six months ago, but the present market with all its faults and inefficiencies.

Successful businesses take the time to evaluate the relevancy of their message in these uncertain times. Does it resonate with your consumer? Are you providing them with a solution that presently works for them? These are important considerations that show your potential customer that you have their best interest in mind and will, ultimately, make your business stand out.

Don’t just survive, thrive!
Surviving a down economy means operating with more fortitude than fear, thinking strategically, maintaining a “glass half-full” mentality and action, lots of it.

No matter what your business, if you take proactive measures to navigate this economy you’ll not only increase your chances of survival, you’ll most likely be one of the businesses still standing tall.

Even as digital advertising increases by 7%, “the growth in Internet display advertising has lost momentum over the past several years as supply has run ahead of demand. In 2010, display spending is projected to have a smaller share of total digital spending, with a 34 percent share, down from 35 percent in 2009 and 39 percent in 2006.

Worldwide display advertising is expected to grow just 5 percent next year to about $20 billion. By contrast, global search advertising will soar 12 percent to approximately $25 billion.”

I don’t see this data as a death knoll for display advertising. Internet years are like dog years in that, display advertising or banner ads, as they were once called, are ancient compared to the “new” world of search. The first banner ad is estimated to have appeared in 1994 while search ads came on the scene in 2000, a whopping six years later just as the online banner market crashed.

Text ads took a little time to really catch on.

From a consumer’s perspective, text ads didn’t garner much trust nor were they very visually appealing in the early days. Users were wary of them, preferring the organic listings that weren’t “sponsored.”

For businesses, text ads were seen as a mediocre alternative to display advertising, used mainly by businesses that couldn’t afford the high costs of creating display ads or the high CPM driven costs for the media.

However, now that the Internet and search have evolved and become a part of everyday life, text ads are no longer something to avoid and are trusted by consumers. That doesn’t mean that display ads are dead. On the contrary, there is still a place and time where they are highly effective but in this consumer-driven economy, pull is working better than push. As the study by GroupM mentioned, search marketing is really “intention marketing.” And that’s a pretty powerful tool for marketers.

So perhaps, search is still reaching a mature phase of growth while display had already hit its prime.
 
Companies are now starting to see the value in search marketing but shouldn’t discount the value of display advertising. In fact, a recent Atlas Institute study demonstrated that users exposed to both search and display ads convert at a higher rate: an average of 22 percent better than search alone and 400 percent better than display only.

Any good company will work to achieve a balance within their marketing mix, incorporating both.