News of layoffs and downsizing dominates the headlines. Your sales team tells you that clients are freezing budgets. Your advertising is no’t generating a positive return. There’s no doubt about it, we’re in tough economic times.

But you’re still on the line to generate leads and sales for your company. Smart marketers are shifting their budgets to programs to direct response campaigns that can generate business news. Your buyers are still out there, and here are the smartest ways to reach them.

1. Make the most of your website. Your buyers are looking online for products and services. Reach them where they are looking. Consider your website with a critical eye. Are you giving your visitors the information they need to become educated about your products? Are you helping them make buying decisions? Is your messaging tailored? Most importantly, do you make it easy for them to contact you or make a purchase? Your "Contact Us" link should be prominent throughout the site and your contact form should include just the basics-name, number and email are plenty. Save the qualifying questions until you can get them on the phone.

If your site is a commerce site, are there rich product descriptions? Does your checkout process involve the fewest clicks possible? Are shipping options and return policies clearly explained? Consider using "splash pages" on your website. These pages are designed exclusively to drive conversions. You can send visitors to these pages through paid search campaigns or direct mail (see more below).

Your website is more important than ever. A recent U.S. Department of Commerce study found that retail spending is increasing by 1.5% this year, but online spending is increasing 12%.

2. Use pay-per-click to capture qualified visitors. Every day, potential buyers are looking for your products on Google, Yahoo., MSN and other search engines. Using sponsored ads you can place your ads in front of a qualified audience at the time they are motivated to buy or research your products. If you'’ve tried pay-per-click (also called SEM, Search Engine Marketing and Paid Search) in the past and did not see the results you wanted, consider hiring a firm that specializes in paid search. A profitable PPC program requires testing multiple ads, varying bidding strategies, using multiple search engines and targeting by day, time and geography. PPC is an analytical game and requires constant testing, monitoring, measurement and optimization.

Paid search is proving so successful for advertisers that an October 2008 Jupiter survey revealed that 83% of search advertisers plan on maintaining or increasing their paid search budgets in the next 12 months.

3. Target your direct mail. The "spray and pray days" of direct mail are over. Forget renting a list and sticking labels on an envelope stuffed with form letters. In order to generate a high response, consider using custom printing and mailing to highly qualified prospects. Your return is certain to be much higher than traditional direct mail. Today’s technology allow you to print packaging, letters and post cards with your prospects’ or clients’ names, business, URLs, products lines, even image imprinted. Every element of the mail can be fully customized. Also, consider sending premiums like a book to your clients and prospects.

4. Make the most of email marketing. Your website visitors come to you for a reason. If they are interested in researching and purchasing your products, they are already a qualified prospect. Give them the chance to opt-in for email from you. As always, make sure to follow all CAN-SAPM regulations and avoid rental email lists. Reach out to your past buyers, current clients and site visitors who have asked you to stay in touch. Email marketing software programs allow you to quickly customize your email content by segmenting your customers. You can also test subject lines, times and days to send email and discounts and offers. By monitoring your open rate, click through rate and unsubscribe rate, you can continually refine your program.

5. Work deeper with your existing clients. Remember back in business school when you learned that expanding business with an existing client is up to 10 times more profitable than acquiring a new customer? Now is the time to put that knowledge into practice. Do your existing clients know about all your services? Are they looking to other vendors for a solution you provide? Keep the lines of communication open with direct mail, email, phone calls and in person visits. Don’t take your existing clients for granted. The more visible you are with them, the more likely you are to expand your business with them.

6. Tie it all together. Imagine, your prospects conduct a Google search and click on your ad. Then they click through to your website and fill out a form. After filling out the form they immediately receive a personalized email, thanking them for their visit and containing cross promotional links back to your site. Then, a piece of personalized direct mail is generated and sent. Your sales person follows up with a personal call. This type of truly integrated campaign is a sure fire way to target your marketing efforts to the most qualified prospects.

7. Measure, measure, measure. Online strategies allow you to track user activity to a pinpoint level. By installing Google’s free Analytics program you can see where your site visitors come from, how long they stay and what pages they are visiting. PPC advertising can tell you exactly what keywords were clicked on, which ones drove conversions and how much you spent for each lead or sale. Use these numbers to help you make better decisions. Remember, smart marketers make decisions off of hard data.

Leads and sales. Ultimately, these are the things that drive revenue through the door. In tough economic times, it makes sense to shift your marketing focus to the tactics that can generate near term business from your most qualified prospects.