Hello all.  This is my first blog post so I hope it piques your interest.

Recently, being a college student and all, I wrote a tech paper on the social impact of technology.  Specifically, the topic I researched was The Development of the Google Search Algorithm and its Effect on Consumer Marketing.  Currently, as I'm still awaiting feedback from my professor, I have to wait to publish it, but I wanted to discuss a major concern that I developed over the course of addressing current issues I have come across.

One of the major topics I covered in the essay is bridging the gap between the "old money" thinking of the past and the "new money" entrepreneurship we have seen with dot com startups and other ingenuitive companies.  A key issue I found while researching the topic has been the dramatic difference in mentality between "old money" business owners and "new money" business owners.  

I'm sure many of you who frequent the site are familiar with individuals (cough clients cough) who don't perfectly understand the importance of the many things that you probably do in carrying out your job as an SEO.  Learning to adapt to new consumer marketing standards has become huge in relation to the continued success of businesses in this harsh economic climate. 

Wasteful spending simply will not work when everyone is worried about whether they'll have a job tomorrow.  The direct opposite of not having any marketing plan at all is probably worse.  Instead, most knowledgeable "new money" clients have turned to internet marketing as both a modular and scalar marketing plan.  Whether SEM or SEO or another, results can be proven and supported through analytics.

So in this tough economic climate will we see an end to the "old money" marketing agendas that some companies still have?  I don't think so.  Some companies will squeeze through, most won't without adapting.  

But how would you break your client's bad habit of locking the marketing budget down?

Since we are all in the middle of tough economic times, let's say you are apart of a smaller SEO firm or design studio, like me.  How do you approach these "old money" companies  and small businesses who start to lock down their marketing budgets at the first signs of risk?  How do you approach and convince your clients of the value of Internet Marketing without bogging down in the details?  Do numbers work well for you?  Do you pique their interest to become more educated about SEO first before you start shoving all the knowledge you have down their throats?

How do you unlock their tightly held marketing budgets before it's too late?