The key to effective marketing during slow economic times is to make your marketing budget do more with less. When done properly, marketing online can be much more cost-effective than other forms of marketing. But it can also be a big sink of time if youÂ?re not careful. Make sure you are taking advantage of these 7 online marketing opportunities available for your segment:

1. Author a blog. Help customers see your website as a information resource in the problem area your software addresses. Keep it content rich (not only about your product or service), keep the selling to a minimum (link to your website for that), and make sure it is updated frequently.
   
2. Post in blogs, forums, discussion groups. Keep your posts useful to the audience, concise, and relevant to the question/discussion at hand. You can include a link to your website, but avoid any marketing or selling hyperbole.
   
3. Write an article. Author an article for one of the authority web sites in your segment or write more general articles for one of the online article directories, such as eZineArticles.com
   
4. Advertise online. For example, Google AdWords can be very doable for small software companies without a big web software marketing budget.
   
5. Present a webinar or podcast. This can be a more effective use of time and money than doing an in-person seminar. You can either host these on your own website, or participate in a webinar run by one of the online magazines or content sites in your niche.
   
6. List in online directories. There are many directories online, some of them good and some not so. Find ones that are relevant to and have credibility in your niche.
   
7. Publish an e-zine or newsletter via email. But whatever you do make sure it's opt-in: subscribers should sign up on your website or blog, you could reach out to Webinar participants, include a link in an article you write, etc.