Fortune 500 companies depend on marketing dollars to raise awareness, capture market share, and meet shareholder expectations. In fact, Forrester Research reports that by 2016, companies will spend more than $77B annually on interactive marketing alone.

It may be obvious that small and midsize businesses must tread particularly carefully during trying financial times, and yet even the largest and most powerful organizations are not immune from the effects of an economic downturn. The greatest issue facing well established businesses in the current recession is that traditional cost-containment approaches that have helped in the past have proven to be insufficient this time around.

As such, multinational corporations and even Fortune 500 companies have been forced to reevaluate their needs. By magnifying the focus on internal auditing, these large companies are seeking to streamline spending, attempting to develop solutions that are more thoughtful and proactive than reactionary measures such as layoffs.

As corporations meticulously examine their budgets, they are finding existing partnerships and processes that are costly and inefficient, which under normal circumstances would go unnoticed. The recession has uncovered these flawed relationships, compelling companies to seek more sustainable, cost-effective alternatives. Here is how:

• Design newer, leaner processes to achieve effective result as a much wiser expenditure for the long-term.
• Assess expenditures and compare against industry average.
• Identify new partners who have billable rates equitable to the quality of the work.
• Engage a partner focused on driving impact with effective solutions rather than taking a carte blanche approach.
• Measure. Measure. Measure.

Operating under the constraints of a difficult financial environment can make a business more effective. A 2009 study by the Kauffman Foundation showed that more than half of the companies on the Fortune 500 list had been founded under gloomy financial circumstances. Such success stories illustrate that diligence in adapting, rather than slashing marketing spend has proven powerful for businesses both large and small.