You can’t go anywhere or strike up a conversation with anyone without the topic turning to the economy. Invariably the question I ask or is asked of me is, “How’s business?”

We’ve been through this before and weathered the storm. So have our clients. Typically, the knee-jerk reaction is to cut budgets, reallocate funds and tighten the marketing and advertising belt. We have a white paper titled, “Why Branding Becomes More Important In Uncertain Times” written by Ken Jones. You can download this white paper here.

Marketers who decide to continue to invest in their marketing programs during tough economic times, albeit possibly at a smaller allocation, need to be more prudent how and where they spend their money. That’s obvious.

So how is business? You’ve still got a communications budget, probably smaller than originally planned. You are exploring new ways to maximize your budget. You may be considering SEO, SEM and improved analytics. But what are you going to say and how are you going to say and show it? What about the creative?

Here are ten tips for effective creative in difficult times:

1. Make your message relevant. Your audience hasn’t lost its sense of humor. But they, like you, are working hard to keep existing business and find new opportunities so they don’t have the time to read between the lines.
2. Speak as an authority. Right now, customers and prospects are less likely to take risks. They want a partner they can trust.
3. Conduct research. Even informal surveys and questionnaires will help you pinpoint where your customers and prospects see their greatest challenges. This will help you refine your offer, clarify your message and determine your tone.
4. Speak directly to them. Speak in their voice. Use their terms and vernacular. Be specific.
5. Sell benefits, not features. Get them up front. Your customers and prospects are looking for answers to questions, solutions to problems. Now is not the time to bury your benefits in the body copy.
6. Integrate. No matter what tactics you use, build synergy by repeating the same message across all media.
7. Demonstrate. Your visuals, graphics and images can still be clever and creative but they must quickly and clearly demonstrate your unique advantages.
8. Perform a competitive analysis. This is something you should be doing annually, at least. If you haven’t, now it’s as important as ever. You can make big strides during times of economic upheaval. What is your competition saying? You must differentiate.
9. Be genuine. Avoid hyperbole and chest beating.
10. Think different. Now is not the time to be safe. Your competition will be scrambling. The environment will get chaotic so your message and the way it is presented must stand out to get noticed.

These tips are pretty basic and should be considered even in good times. In difficult times, they become more relevant.