Hard economic times will force more small businesses to become smarter marketers. They may even get Web sites.

The percentage of small and midsize home- and trade-services businesses with Web sites will increase to 60% by 2010, up from just 33% today estimates Home_RepairmanKelsey Group, a Princeton, N.J., local search and directory research firm. As long as calls flooded in the red-hot housing market didn't offer incentive to worry about Web marketing for home- services businesses, such as painters, home-repair shops and landscapers. But now these shops need to be more strategic and seek out cost-effective marketing tools to compete as they're struggling.

Kelsey Senior Vice President Matt Booth in a news release said “Web sites will be viewed as a cost-effective alternative; a channel that didn’t make sense in a booming market will fast become a necessity,”. Home services businesses also should pay more attention to reviews on consumer referral and home-services community sites like Angie’s List and ServiceMagic, since consumers will likely be spending a lot more time on these sites comparing notes on businesses before placing a call, Kelsey says.

In these bad economy days it makes sense to think about new ways to market a business– and the biggest growth of marketing is expected to be online. Among the Web marketing tools businesses should consider include “local search” engines like those connected with Google Maps, CitySearch or YellowPages.com that produce results when someone searches for a particular business in their geographic area and pay-for-performance advertising like affiliate ads or pay-per-click ads. One big benefit to these marketing channels is that the results are far more measurable thanks to Web analytics software than, say, placing an ad in a local magazine or even sending out coupons.

Have you already thought of changing your marketing tactics to adjust to the new economy?