You don't need another reminder that we're working through a period of slow economic growth and a jittery business climate. But amongst all the doom and gloom, this stormy cloud comes with a silver lining for people who are prepared to make further investment and refine their Online Business marketing:

Don't believe me? Does anybody remember the autos that Japanese automaker Mazda built in the 1990s Japan recession? Nobody remembers 'cause they were frankly terrible cars, boring to look at, unremarkable to drive all the while being pushed to the consumer with uninspiring advertising. What did Mazda do? They got creative, spent up big and innovated their way out of the doldrums and by 2004 had a hip range of cars with those cool 'zoom-zoom' ads bringing them back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Let's apply the Mazda story to your own small business - you all sell a huge array of different products so you'd know best how you're going to innovate them but here's 5 tough questions you should be asking yourself about innovation in your Online Marketing:

1. What's In Your Marketing Inventory - Is it working for you?

One simple activity I like to do is pull out a spreadsheet and line up all my advertising spending and how many leads each one is generating for me. 'Leads' can range from anything to phone calls, inquiry forms, direct emails, site registration for forum participation, leaving comments - whoops, there's one problem - I don't actually know how many customers I'm getting from all my offline advertising...

Most importantly, it's hard to measure how much business they generate for you. This is not to say they're valueless - but contrast this with an fully fledged online business. With concrete and clear metrics, you know the exact ROI of your online marketing campaigns. Best of all, you can optimize and redeploy online campaigns in a few hours - dollar for dollar, online is where the smart money is.

2. People are staying home, and staying online more - what are you doing about it?

Tight belts and high gas prices mean people are spending a lot more time at home in front of the TV and the computer. Where are they hanging out online? Have a think about this - you need to be advertising in their space, participating in their blogs and becoming an authority in their forums.

For example, let's imagine you sell model train kits. You could be sponsoring some train modelling blogs and forums in return for some inexpensive and targeted advertising. These banners can link back to pages on your website which could be designed to educate, sell and encourage online community participation. All of which is 100% measurable, so if it's not effective - just cut the spending.

3. What's your Freemium Strategy?

People love free stuff and they love it even more when they haven't got much to spend. I'm not asking you to give away your products for free but what about online 'cash' coupons or discounts that they have to register on your website to receive? And once they've registered you'll be able to market to these customers in a monthly e-newsletter. We all have to move stock and attract new customers - so think about some clever online marketing strategies to do it...

4. Have you Cleaned your House yet?

Back to basics once more - now's the time to be pushing business branding and website makeovers. Is your website from 2003 looking a bit tired? Does it match up with your bricks and mortar branding? Does your customer service live up to your promises? Is your content up to date? Are your landing pages and catalogs well laid out and easy to use? Lets spring clean your whole online business 'house' and entice those customers back.

5. Are you an Online Business Hero?

There's 2 qualities about heroes that we all love: they stand-up and take the lead when times are tough and, they selflessly help others in crisis. Did you know you can be your very own Online Business hero - take the lead and show everyone else you're not scared of making changes to the way you do business - don't crawl into a cave hoping to weather out the crisis. Selflessly help others by giving your customers the content they crave for on your site - publish tips, how-tos and advice for free on your site. Do you sell lawnmowers? Show the world you know your lawnmowers by publishing a free downloadable DIY maintenance guide your site. Are you a florist? I've longed for someone to tell me how to pick flowers for different occasions, someone to remind me when special days are coming up and somebody to read my girlfriends mind so I know when I can get maximum ROI on my flowers... :)

Anybody can make a dime when times are good. But true to the old saying, when times get tough...the tough get going.