It is a known fact that there are quite a number of small businesses around the globe that shy away with the very thought of digital marketing. While some of them plan to market their brand or business on their own, others just move away with an impression that hiring a digital marketing consultant can be pricey.
Well, looks like there is a very positive shift in the trend this New Year. A survey that was conducted in 2017 October in the United States revealed that small business owners are now open to implementing digital marketing and have plans to use social media to acquire and retain customers.
As per the report provided 70% of the small business owners plan to use social media in the New Year and 75% of these have plans to use Facebook as their main platform for social media marketing. Only a quarter of them does not wish to increase the budget for digital marketing.
What do these stats mean? Let us check them out in detail.
Digital Marketing Success Is Still Elusive To Many
Digital marketing is still mysterious for about half of the small business owners globally. There are not sure if their online marketing strategies are working or not. About 13% of the small business owners are sure that the marketing strategies they are implementing aren’t working and the rest 37% are happy about their effective digital marketing strategies.
The primary trend we can witness among small business owners in 2018 is gaining an immediate competitive advantage.
Small businesses can easily gain an edge over their competitors by using the right tools to track the customers or the leads obtained or by hiring a Digital Strategy consulting agency.
2018- The Year of Social Media Marketing
Facebook is undoubtedly the most preferred social media platform for a number of small business owners. About 71% have plans to use the right content on social media to acquire new leads and 75% have included Facebook as their prime social media strategy.
As quoted by Guy Kawasaki, an American Businessman, “A large social-media presence is important because it’s one of the last ways to conduct cost-effective marketing. Everything else involves buying eyeballs and ears. Social media enables a small business to earn eyeballs and ears.”
Small business can take a massive advantage of how Facebook plans to change how the world is communicating in the coming few months-it’s all mobile, mobile and mobile.
Improvement in the Spending Percentages
A number of small business owners are now open to the very thought of digital marketing. As per a recent study, they are willing to increase their spending percentages over the top 3 tools used for digital marketing.
About 38% of them are willing to invest in Social media marketing, 30% in SEO and Digital Ads and about 32% are willing to set some budget aside for website analytics.
It is important for small businesses to invest in the tools that help to monitor the traffic obtained and to check on conversions.
Though there are many who are considering to increase their digital marketing budget, there might still be a couple of them who will certainly try to get by the year without spending much on SEO and digital marketing. About 28% of small business owners globally might look forward to reducing their online marketing budget and might make use of low cost or the free tools that are available.
Finding the Right Resource and Time
One of the biggest challenges a number of small business might face in 2018 is finding the right resource and the time to market their product or service properly. A number of them are choosing digital marketing agencies as this help convert leads into sales/ customers and they understand that digital marketing is a process solution and not a technology solution.
So, are you as a small business owner ready to bring in the change by implementing digital marketing in the year 2018? Contact our experts for any queries or to know more about the services we offer.
“A year from now, you’ll wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb