Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a story about small businesses are trying to survive this economic environment by renegotiating every vendor contract they have. Interesting technique, although I personally see this quote as the real downside of this whole scenario:

“Most of us grew up knowing that once you agree to something, you don’t back out of it”, says small business consultant Bill Bartmann of Bill Bartmann Enterprises in Tulsa, OK. “That rule doesn’t apply anymore.”

Hard to read, yes, but a reality of the new world order. I have a suggestion for all businesses as it relates to their internet marketing efforts. If you are going out to renegotiate these other deals you should two things that will help you grow (yup, grow).

• Take some of that savings and apply it to the most measurable and therefore effective marketing arena which is the internet

• Stop spending completely on marketing that is not working.

As a result of the second suggestion you now have even more money THAT YOU HAD ALREADY BUDGETED to apply to internet marketing techniques that can be measured and controlled. Now you are taking valuable marketing dollars and apply it to the development of SEO campaigns, pay per click (PPC) campaigns and the development of social media opportunities to promote and support your business. Now you can take business from the competition and position yourself better for when things get better, which they will eventually.

That’s it. What else should be said? Don’t waste money on bad marketing options. If you have always done it a certain then it’s probably time to change. If you spend ridiculous amounts of money with some Yellow Page provider stop and reapply it somewhere that actually works and can be measured.

FT Takeaway: Small business is in survival mode and part of that is to stop wasting money on bad advertising. If you are not in the internet marketing game it’s time. Reassign bad marketing spend to good marketing opportunities.

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About the Author: Frank Reed's blog Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing provides practical advice and insight for Internet marketers from local SMB's to Fortune 500's. Frank provides Internet marketing services through FT Internet Marketing, Inc. In addition, Frank is a regular contributor to Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and Mike Moran's Biznology blogs.