Whether the Congressional economic recovery package that actually succeeds in bailing out the financial markets and freeing up the credit markets or not, small businesses will be dramatically impacted over the next couple years. The initial response will be met with a sigh of relief, followed by fits and spurts of issues as the reality of the package trickles down to the masses. Foundational cracks exist in the nation's confidence in the economy.

Suzie Orman appeared on Oprah and recommended everyone cutback. If everyone cuts back, the pool of available customers will shrink dramatically for every size business. Talk of the economy "in the tank" is all over the news, focusing the nation on scarcity. The belief in scarcity is a self-actualizing idea. If enough people believe the economy is about to crash and enough people stop buying, it could happen. The psychological impact of events determine how heavily the economy is impacted regardless of intervention by Congress, the President or the Federal Reserve.

Small businesses need to act now. This will be a test of survival of the fittest. Small business fitness is determined by how effectively and efficiently a company attracts and converts contacts into customers who buy, return and refer. Even Google who does a lot right is making an expensive mistake when it comes to leveraging online marketing tools available. In fact, they are making an email marketing mistake that could cost them $36 billion over the next six years if they don't make a change.

The lowly little email is sucking massive profits out of the Google Goliath. Google will be fine -- their business model can survive because they use other marketing strategies ingeniously. Make no mistake, they are still leaving massive money on the table.

Small businesses who don't learn from the mistake may not survive the current economic challenge. If you depend on your business to support your family, ignore the Google mistake at the peril of your own economic future. Getting email marketing right is so critical it can make or break businesses, fortunes and even determine the destiny of a nation.

For the micro-investment of $19 a month, your business can board the economic freedom train with a professional . Email marketing done right puts your business on the right track. There is no more effective medium to communicate with contacts, develop relationships and convert them into customers one-on-one on a mass scale. Email is so powerful it can mean the difference between small businesses that survive and those who succumb to competition and economic storms.

Here are 3 keys to effective email marketing:

1) Build a targeted list of contacts. Use valuable information your target consumer "must" have. Only provide premium quality information.

2) Use a professional autoresponder email system. Do not use free or low cost scripts. Do not email from your own server. These are certain paths to land in your contact's Spam folder or even worse turned away at the ISP (Internet Service Provider) gate without ever making it to the contact at all.

3) Follow-up with your contacts. Lack of follow-up with contacts and customers is the number two (2) reason businesses fail. Number one (1) is failure to market or advertise your business, product or service.