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12 Important Small Business Digital Marketing Stats

Daniel Reeves - June 1, 2020
12 Important Small Business Digital Marketing Stats 2

Whether you’re thinking of just starting out or want to keep up with the latest trends and insights these small business stats should help you.

We wanted to take a dive into how small businesses are currently marketing themselves, and what they find is working for them. When you first start out it’s important to have an idea of the ins and outs of marketing a product or service. Especially when you have 0 brand recognition.

To make the most of these stats you may want to check out our SEO packages, and also our PPC packages. They’re both aimed at helping small businesses grow through cost-effective digital marketing.

We fell down a small business statistics rabbit hole but came out with our top 13 intriguing marketing statistics. 

So here there are…

  1. 29% of small businesses plan to begin using websites for the first time in 2020. (Visual Objects)
  2. 92% of business owners believe that having a website is the most effective digital marketing strategy. (Iron Paper)
  3. 25% of small businesses plan to use digital marketing in 2020 (Visual Objects)
  4. 96% of small businesses say they use social media in their marketing strategy. (Social Media Examiner)
  5. 75% of local-intent mobile searches result in offline store visits within 24 hours. (Acquiso)
  6. 75% of small business owners think that internet marketing is very effective or effective for attracting new customers. (Bright Local)
  7. 83% of small business owners with a website feel a competitive advantage to those without one (GoDaddy, 2015). 
  8. 89% of small business owners believe using search engine optimization is the most effective digital marketing strategy (Iron Paper)
  9. 61% of small businesses invest in social media marketing (Clutch, 2018). 
  10. 66% of small businesses will outsource services to other small businesses (FreshBooks, 2017). 
  11. 41% of brick-and-mortar buyers read reviews before making a purchase.  (BazzarVoice)
  12. 78% of small businesses said they would increase spending in digital marketing in 2020. (CampaignMonitor)

But what do all these mean for small businesses? How can you use them?

1.  29% of small businesses plan to begin using websites for the first time in 2020. 

You’re never too small to have a website. If you don’t have one, you’re missing a massive opportunity. This was probably highlighted to a lot of businesses this year with the impact of coronavirus.

So, it’s not surprising quite a few are looking to start using websites in 2020 for the time. Better late than never!

2. 92% of business owners believe that having a website is the most effective digital marketing strategy.  

And just to hammer that point home a bit more the majority clearly see websites working for them.

Having a website will open you up to a whole load of potential customers, and other advertising options. It doesn’t need to be anything special either, you just need a way for customers to find out more about you.

3. 25% of small businesses plan to use digital marketing in 2020.

Unfortunately, it isn’t a case of build it and they will come though. You need to actively market your website and increase the amount of traffic you’re getting. Digital marketing can consist of a lot of different things. But there are some digital marketing channels that small businesses need to be using

You should probably look into an SEO package, PPC, and social advertising to start with.

Or if you wish you can learn some of these skills for yourself. There are plenty of great SEO blogs out there that provide all the information you will need.

4. 96% of small businesses say they use social media in their marketing strategy.  

And this is why we mentioned social advertising. You can create free profiles on the likes of Facebook, Insta and Twitter. Invite your friends and family to like the pages and spread the world.

This also opens the opportunity of paid social advertising. You can spend as little or as much as you like. It’s an extremely easy and targeted way to get in front of your target market. You could try this yourself or get an agency or freelancer to help you.

5.  75% of local-intent mobile searches result in offline store visits within 24 hours. 

Again, another reason why you should really have a website. You can capitalise on this stat by utilising SEO or radius targeted PPC advertising.

This also means you should set up a Google My Business profile if you have a store. This will allow you to take up more “real estate” on search result pages and provide users with directions and contact details for your business.

6.  75% of small business owners think that internet marketing is very effective or effective for attracting new customers. 

You can probably see a pattern forming now. Yep, you need a website, and you need to be driving traffic to it. 

As we mentioned above digital marketing comes in many forms. It’s best to test out certain channels and see where you get the best value for money from.

7.  83% of small business owners with a website feel a competitive advantage to those without one.

This is 100% true. Let’s say we have two plumbers in a local area, one with a website. One without. Which one would you rather be?

If you’re a small business without a website but your competitors do, they will be getting more customers than you. They will be building some brand recognition and allowing potential customers to research them. They won’t be able to do that with you. 

8.  89% of small business owners believe using search engine optimization is the most effective digital marketing strategy.  

We’ve touched on channels a bit throughout, one of the best is SEO. SEO is the process of optimising your website, so it appears higher on Google search result pages. 

This can be a particularly good channel. But if you’re just starting out it will take time. It’s not instant. So, you need to be prepared to wait a few months to see this get any traction. But once it does, you should see new customers every day.

There are plenty of options here, you can do it yourself or higher an SEO agency, just make sure whatever SEO package you’re on is worth it.

9. 61% of small businesses invest in social media marketing.

We’ve also touched on social media as a good digital marketing option for you. And this stat proves that even further. Get a website, get your social channels set up. It’s the easiest way to start getting new customers and generating brand awareness.

10. 66% of small businesses will outsource services to other small businesses.

This one is entirely up to you and the time you have. If you wish to save costs and give marketing a go in the first instance go for it.

But, if you find you can’t do this properly, or as effectively as you would like it may be best to find a reliable partner.

There are thousands of marketing agencies out there that can help you market and grow your business.

11.  41% of brick-and-mortar buyers read reviews before making a purchase. 

See, even if you’re a small hardware shop, or bakery people will want to find out more about you. They will want to know they can trust in you and your product or service.

If you don’t have a website, or actively manage reviews on other platforms you could be losing out on valuable customers.

12.  78% of small businesses said they would increase spending in digital marketing in 2020.  

So digital marketing clearly works with 78% planning to increase spend. If you’re not now might be the time to invest. 

It’s always a slight risk to spend money marketing. But the beauty of digital marketing is you can see everything you need to. From impressions to clicks, to how much each click is costing, what keywords are driving sales. You can home in on what works and drive the cost-effectiveness of your marketing activity.

If you want to have a chat about what channels would work for you and how we can help just drop us a message. We’ll be happy to help!

Sources

1. https://visualobjects.com/digital-marketing/small-business-statistics-2020

2. https://www.ironpaper.com/webintel/articles/small-business-marketing-trends-for-2018-10-stats-and-insights/

3.  https://visualobjects.com/digital-marketing/small-business-statistics-2020 

4. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-trends-for-small-business/ 

5. https://www.acquisio.com/blog/local/75-local-searches-store-visits/ 

6. http://www.brightlocal.com/2015/01/07/37-smbs-plan-spend-internet-marketing-2015/

7. https://www.godaddy.com/garage/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/GoDaddy-Global-Small-Business-Report-2015.pdf

8. https://www.ironpaper.com/webintel/articles/small-business-marketing-trends-for-2018-10-stats-and-insights/

9. https://clutch.co/agencies/digital/resources/small-business-digital-marketing-survey-2018

10. https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/5-small-business-statistics

11.  https://www.bazaarvoice.com/resources/the-robo-economy-infographic/ 

12.  https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/the-state-of-small-business-marketing/