We may not see another opportunity like this for a generation. When times are good, everyone’s marketing. Competition is brutal. The playing field is crowded with cash-rich competitors spending money vying for attention.

Not today. Firms are doing much less image-building than they do when flush with cash. Studies from previous recessions show that the firms that continued to market aggressively did significantly better than their competitors during the downturn and for years afterwards. Don’t survive the recession, use it to leapfrog the competition.

Getting your advertisement noticed in a 100-page business publication is tough. Today, many of these formerly weighty pubs look like pamphlets. The readership hasn’t changed, but periodicals are only as thick as there are ads to support them.

When advertisers thin, so do the magazines. Standing out becomes easy.

Your competitors are still hiding. They’ve become invisible. Now is the time to seek to dominate your market. It’s cheaper, easier, and more effective than ever.

A McGraw-Hill Research study of over 600 businesses (see Northwestern University’s Innovating through a Recession by Professor Andrew J. Razeghi at the Kellogg School of Management), showed that:

Business that maintained or increased their ad spend during 1981-82 averaged higher sales growth during the recession and in the following three years.

For businesses that maintained or increased their ad spend during that recession, sales had risen 256% over those that had cut back on advertising by 1985.

In a 2001 study, found that aggressive recession advertisers increased market share 2.5 times the average for all businesses in the post-recession.

Of course, there are tremendous visibility-enhancing opportunities online as well. A mix of print and online media is the best solution.

But whatever you do. Do it now.