Is your business eating cereal with a fork during these tough economic times? Are you cutting back your spending? Make sure you don't cut out your marketing!

As a business owner during troubled times, it's understandable that you would need to shrink your budget. And while reducing your marketing spend minimally may be necessary, understand that to make it through a recession and come out on top, you will need to continue your marketing efforts.

Think of your business as a plant, and of marketing as a seed. What you plant and cultivate now will bloom into business and sales down the road. If you stop all your marketing, you won't plant any seeds, and you'll find yourself in the red even after the current economic condition is over.

Gone are the days where marketing cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Let me introduce you to a little thing I like to call Marketing 2.0. What do I mean by Marketing 2.0?

Marketing 2.0 includes the internet and technology tools that make marketing interactive and easily adaptable.Marketing has changed. It's now interactive. With the advent of digital video recording, advertisers had to find other ways to engage us. Marketing 2.0 draws in the consumer through games, surveys and clicks. It's a surefire way to make sure your audience is engaged.

Marketing 2.0 is flexible. If it doesn't work, throw it out and try something else. With "old school" marketing, you could be locked into a contract for a year and not see any ROI. Now, with Marketing 2.0, results are instant.

It's also democratic. If something is worth watching or reading, people share it with others (and rank it on sites like Digg and Technorati). If a commercial incites people, they'll share that with others too. The best marketing rises to the top.

Marketing in today's internet landscape is viral. This goes along with the democratic feature. The better your marketing is, the more people will hear about it.

Marketing 2.0 is targeted. Technology has created the possibility to reach exactly your ideal customer. Television and radio, while they'd like you to believe they're targeted, create more of a shotgun effect

Another one of my favorite features is Marketing 2.0's affordability. It does not cost a small fortune to market effectively! There are so many amazing tools available for little or no cost that can boost your sales. It's a matter of knowing what they are.

And finally, Marketing 2.0 is fun. Consumers don't mind being marketed to when it's entertaining and amusing.