Services for internet marketing can provide businesses with a far more flexible advertising medium than direct marketing and could be extremely beneficial when the economy is poor.

That's the view of Robin Moore of Coast Digital, writing on Precision Marketing, who thinks of online marketing as a wonderful thing that can be prodded and poked to make it fit current requirements.

One instance of this would be if business is slow, brand-building can cease and good old brand inertia can take over.

"For example, if you're Barclaycard, people aren't going to forget that you're Barclaycard during a downturn," he writes.

"Instead invest money into performance media such as pay per click, affiliate, email, etc.

"And if you're worried about any erosion of your brand recognition you can track this using tools such as Google Trend."

Of course, even Barclaycard may be sweating given all the problems in the financial market, but does the rest of his advice stand up - in a poor economic climate should businesses forget about brand recognition and concentrate on other areas, especially as many don't have that powerful a brand?

Online Marketing specialists Business Feet help create value from business websites