Yesterday I received the first “recession excuse” not to move forward on a project.

Wouldn’t a recession be the best time to invest in your marketing? It’s the same strategy of a successful investor in the stock market takes: buy when everybody else is getting out.

Here are 5 reasons why investing in your digital or traditional marketing during a recession makes sense:

1. Grab market share. Your competitors are most likely with the masses and are holding off. You aren’t. You’re aggressively marketing and therefore gobbling up market share.

2. Build Internal Confidence. When you move boldly forward in a recession, your employees will have confidence in you and the company.

3. Be the only voice. As your competitors slash their marketing budget, you rise to the top as the only voice in the market and you build not only market share, but mind share. “Awareness” is no longer a problem.

4. Get it while it’s cheap. Supply and demand, baby. Pay-per-click and other demand-priced advertising will get cheaper and cheaper as the demand recedes. Jump in and get more bang for your buck!

5. Claim your stake in the search engines. Your competition will become weaker in the search engines due to them cutting back on creating new content for their web site and the like. You of course will continue to plow ahead, and you’ll move up the ranks in the search engines.

If there’s a recession going on, don’t hold back and take advantage of it! If there’s not a recession going on, you’ll be very happy you didn’t place your marketing on pause.