The big R word is making its rounds in the U.S. And while it’s no joke that some people are losing their jobs and maybe their homes, there has been a noticeable decline in marketing budgets. Soft spend type marketing is already down, as reported in a recent survey conducted by CMO Council, which was sponsored by Deloitte Consulting. Recessions sharpen a company’s focus on marketing, as it tends to be one of the first things cut in a slow down.

“Those companies that can’t measure marketing will likely cut budgets just as they did in 2001, and ultimately will pay the price for it in lost revenue.” “Those organizations that measure the value of their marketing will be the winners now because they can justify the expenditures,” says Rich Eldh, VP and Co-Founder of SiriusDecisions, a leading research consultancy specializing in sales and marketing alignment.

The fear is that a downturn could slow the sales cycle for companies, especially those with higher price tags. As analysts like Sirius keep an eye on how the economy impacts marketing budgets, they also point out that a downturn in the economy would likely result in a bigger advantage for the early adopters of sales and
marketing automation. There is more on this at DemandGenReport.com.

In fact, there appears to be acceleration on marketing spending for dashboards, and other ROI measurement tools to improve accountability and efficiency. Fat gets trimmed, and tools like ActiveConversion can tell marketers what works and what doesn’t.

Recessions upset the status quo, which is good for vendors that have early stage technology that make processes more efficient. It helps manufacturers, and it helps technology companies. Look for these investments to increase, especially if the price is right. There is no recession for products and services that make companies more efficient, and help them weather recessions.

And in case you were wondering what CMO Council said about where they were going invest in 2008? The top six areas of system and solution investment for respondents to the CMO Council study were:
• Email Campaign Management
• CRM
• Marketing Performance Measurement Dashboards
• Customer Intelligence
• Search Engine Marketing
• Sales and Marketing Integration Tools.