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Check out the image I compiled below to learn about some of the technology in use during the 2010 Governor’s Race in Minnesota.

It contains the following information for each candidate:

• Website Address
• Content Management System
• Analytics package
• Alexa Traffic Rank
• Indexed Pages
• Inbound Links
• Facebook Friends
• Twitter Followers

Click for a full size image.

Every transaction involves a leap of faith.

Buyers worry about a seller's reputation, customer service, warranty, product performance, resale value, etc.

Sellers worry about the buyer's ability to pay, how much post-sale support resources they'll use, how likely they are to buy again in the future, etc.

How big that leap is varies depending on the product being sold and the seller.

It is the marketer's sole purpose to make that leap of faith small enough that a deal happens.

So, what does this mean to your business?

1. Brand Awareness.
The fact that someone knows about your business before making a purchase is important. It immediately gives them an increased sense of trust.

2. Brand Experience Matters.
People are creatures of habit. If a customer is able to try a product and it lives up to expectations, their more likely to purchase that product in the future versus one they haven't tried.

What if you're entering a new market, or are a relatively new company?
See below.

Ways to Minimize the Leap of Faith without Discounting
It's easy to discount, and I'm completely opposed to it. However, for expensive purchases or lengthy contracts, I think discounts should be used only if you get something in return. 

Below are some other ways you can add credibility in inexpensive ways.

• Encourage Positive Word of Mouth about the product from friends of relatives.
• Request testimonials, images, and/or video from your current customers.
  • Buyers don't want to be the guinea pig. They want to know there are other people, like them, that chose this product before.
• Free trials, samples, or test drives.
• Advertising. Like I said, brand awareness still helps.
• Face-to-Face Meetings. Old school. It can instill confidence that you're not running a Boiler Room-type operation.

With the recession in full swing, and the Dow dropping below 7K, I thought it'd be wise to provide some cheap marketing tactics.

Hopefully these help you start a surge of other marketing ideas for you.

1. Highly focused pay-per-click advertising.
Don't bid on generic industry terms like 'car insurance' or 'car rental'. Instead, bid only on long-tail terms like 'car insurance quote wisconsin' or 'car rental prices denver, co'. Using geographic phrases, and keywords with obvious buying signals is way to keep search marketing costs low and ridden with higher quality conversions.

Tip: Create focused landing pages with plenty of conversion methods (sales quotes, whitepapers, brochure downloads, e-mail list sign ups, etc.)

2.  Create a valuable whitepaper and send out an e-mail to your permission list noting that it's available for download.
Make sure your whitepaper cites its statistics.

Tip: Buying the rights to whitepaper or e-book by an industry expert may yield higher returns on investment and requires less staff. 

Tip: Make sure you have a way to track whose downloaded the whitepaper so you can follow up with a sales call. A simple PHP form will suffice.

3. Create an online user group on Ning or LinkedIn.
Ning allows you to create your own social network. Think Facebook but with only your customers or friends.

Offer a discount to people that refer their colleagues or other customers. Create unique content that your best customers would care about (tutorials, slideshows, videos, etc.)

Ning's basic social networks are free, but ad supported. To not have ads shown, it costs $25. Let your customers know that Ning needs to support itself somehow.

This will give your biggest fans a breeding ground, and help connect them to drive brand loyalty and referral business.

4. Create a Twitter alias and connect with your customers on a one-to-one basis.
This one is a little iffy and requires your company to have the right culture for this to make sense.

I hear it can be addicting as well, so you may need to hire a well-intentioned intern to manage it.

5. Create a blog.
You don't have to have a cat to have a blog. 37Signals is an example of corporate blogging done very well.

You can have a labs blog where you talk abou upcoming products, or a service pack blog where you talk about enhancements to your products that have been made. You can administer your e-newsletter as a blog.  

6. Develop strategic partnerships for referral business.

At Applied Engineering, the company I work for, I've been reaching out to local workforce centers to help drive training revenue from dislocated workers.

7. Promote your local business online for free on all the major spots.

I wish I didn't have to say that, but it is overlooked by too many small businesses.

I hope this helps.  Best of luck. Stay positive.

Andrew Griffiths gets it.

His advice, "Don't lose a good customer over a few cents".

Simple, but a good reminder nonetheless.

Don't let BS rules take the place of common sense, educated judgement and logic — no matter how much you'd like to cut costs.

Right now is a time to make investment decisions and divestment decisions. IMHO, there's no better investment, for my money, than a keeping a customer happy.