Some industries are notoriously known for being seasonal. If you are a marketing or sales professional in one of these industries, you know this all too well. Add a tough economy and the old model of relying on the busy seasons to carry you through is no longer on the bargaining table.

According to the Eighth Commandment of Marketing, “Thou shalt not cut marketing spending during slow times,” discussed in a 2004 Marketingprofs.com article, “The Ten Commandments of Marketing,” the right time to market your business is all the time.

I’m sure that any self-proclaimed Moses of marketing would not debate this commandment’s value. However, things sure have changed since 2004. With the advent of mobile marketing and social media – just as the recession seemed to be getting well underway – marketers have adjusted to new, more cost-effective and efficient ways to spread the word about their products and services like SMS marketing.

Gone are the days of a majority of advertisers who spent hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on TV, radio and print. The Internet did pave the way to more affordable alternatives to these traditional methods. But, unfortunately, information overload and the impracticability of catching people when they are sitting at their computers has rendered online advertising and email advertising less effective than it used to be.

According to statistics provided by the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU), at the beginning of 2011 there were over five billion mobile users and two billion subscribers to the Internet worldwide. That figure is expected to grow dramatically as experts predict that, within the next two to three years, mobile will overtake the PC as the preferred method of accessing the Web.

By using text message marketing and text message advertising, companies can get more immediate and greater response rates because more and more consumers are accessing their emails, SMS texts, IMs and social media sites on their smart phones or other cellular phones.

A recently released report by BIA/Kelsey found that U.S. mobile local ad revenues are expected to grow from $404 Million in 2010 to $2.8 Billion in 2015 and locally targeted mobile ads will represent 70 percent of overall U.S. mobile ad spending in 2015.

By incorporating SMS marketing into your sales and marketing plan, you’ll find that it is quicker, easier and affordable to send text message marketing, text message advertising and mobile coupon offers to instantly increase sales on any occasion including weekends, holidays and the traditionally slower seasons.

Here are a few tactics that will help you plan for your sales and marketing attack during the slow times:

• During the busy times, build your database by running a well-placed advertisement in a targeted publication or handing out flyers. Then, instruct and invite people who read the ad or flyer to text your mobile keyword to your short code or scan the QR Code that you’ve included within the marketing piece.
• Plan to send an email marketing campaign and a SMS text or MMS messaging campaign a few weeks in advance of your traditionally slower season. Invite people to sign-up to take advantage of an exclusive discount or offer by texting in a specific mobile keyword to your short code or bringing in their phone with your mobile coupon.
• Append a URL or a QR code with your offer to Facebook or Twitter, using an All-In-One Multi-Channel Marketing platform like Trumpia.
• Watch out for competitors’ advertisements to find out just when they might be running a special in-store promotion. Then send out a special mobile coupon offer that beats their price. With extreme coupon wars becoming all the rage – especially in a tough economy like this one, you’re bound to get some traction from people who’d be oh so happy to find the best price.

SMS marketing lets you have your cake and eat it too. Compared to traditional or even online advertising campaigns, ads, it gives you an instant and more engaging way to reach prospects and watch your sales grow – during both the peak and slower seasons. Plus, with per campaign pricing that is as low as .01 per text when you use a platform like Trumpia that has no commitments or contracts, you can continue advertising even during a recession and never risk breaking at least one commandment.