Investment in digital and online marketing among small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) is set to explode, according to a new report called The State of Digital Marketing for SMBs.
The new study, jointly released by Vocus, a cloud marketing solutions provider, and Inc. magazine, states that affordability, accessibility and awareness of the power of online marketing will drive investment in digital and integrated marketing among SMBs.
When asked by the study to assess the importance of several goals for digital marketing, SMBs ranked driving sales as most important, assigning it a score of 4.48 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being most important to them.
Other goals also cited as having high importance included driving customer engagement, increasing brand awareness and reaching new customer segments.
SMBs are using digital channels in a variety of ways. Websites are by far the most frequently cited method, with about 87 percent of survey respondents using a website to drive sales. Other digital marketing channels currently used by SMBs include email, which a little over 70 percent report using to generate new sales, and search engine optimization, which 57.9 percent report using.
Although SMBs are turning to online marketing, they aren’t using all possible channels. SMBs were least likely to be using mobile marketing, mobile apps, e-commerce solutions and paid banner ads on search engines. Each of these was cited by fewer than 30% of responding companies as part of their digital marketing mix.
With few SMBs using the tools listed above, there’s room for growth. Marketers can help SMBs understand the power of mobile marketing, for example, to increase sales. Cisco Systems reports that 2012’s mobile traffic was nearly 12 times the size of mobile traffic in 2000, another hint of the enormous growth of mobile use and, potentially, mobile marketing.
If so, many people are now turning to mobile devices to access the Internet, it makes sense for small and medium sized businesses to turn their attention — and marketing dollars — to mobile as a digital marketing channel.
Business owners may not be aware of new cost-effective methods of online marketing. Andrew Frank, a senior analyst for Gartner, writing in DM News, states that the arrival of “cloud-based” marketing solutions, or marketing tools accessed over the Internet, as fueling the potential for digital channel growth. The advent of cloud computing has made robust online marketing technology more affordable for SMBs, and delivery via the Internet has made it accessible. Frank predicts that improving e-commerce sites will be a top priority for most businesses.
SMBs are certainly interested in using new digital methods of marketing. Another study conducted by AT&T of small and medium sized businesses reports that 66 percent plan to spend as much or more on digital marketing in 2013 as they did in 2012. The study reported that 71 percent of small businesses surveyed were somewhat or very likely to increase their mobile marketing budgets.
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