Small businesses have made a radical shift in their marketing plans with half their marketing budget online according to latest US data. Roughly one-third of small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) report spending less than one-third of their marketing budgets on internet or mobile marketing, while about 1 in 8 allocate more than 90% to […]
Small businesses have made a radical shift in their marketing plans with half their marketing budget online according to latest US data.
Roughly one-third of small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) report spending less than one-third of their marketing budgets on internet or mobile marketing, while about 1 in 8 allocate more than 90% to digital, according to results of a survey from BrightLocal and ChamberOfCommerce.com.
Overall, the average SMB dedicates 46% of its marketing budget to digital, the study found. However, just 21% expect to increase their spending on digital marketing in the next year.
Almost half might increase their budgets, while the remaining 32% say they won’t hike their digital budgets.
A slight majority – 54% – of respondents thought that online is more effective than offline marketing at bringing them new leads and customers.
While word-of-mouth was considered by the largest proportion (26%) of respondents to be the most effective at generating new leads and customers, online channels such as SEO (19%), online local directories (15%) and email marketing were valued by more than offline tactics such as flyers and posters, local paper directories and local traditional media.
Overall, two-thirds of respondents said that internet marketing is either “quite” or “very” effective at attracting customers, while three-quarters either already use mobile and mobile marketing or believe that mobile will be an important channel for the future of their business.
Methodology
In October 2013, BrightLocal contacted 20,000 US based businesses and asked them to participate in the survey, receiving 668 responses from businesses spread across over 50 industry sectors.
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