As 2013 gets underway, there have been signs that many small businesses are optimistic about revenue projections for the year. In a recent study conducted by Ad-ology, it was found that almost a third, or 30.5%, of small businesses that spend more than $1,000 a year on advertising plan to spend even more this year.
These spending increases will include not only traditional advertising, but also social media network advertising, mobile marketing, and digital marketing. More than half of the small business advertisers surveyed say that they market to their customers on a one-to-one basis, so direct response and email marketing are expected to take up most of the advertising budgets for small businesses in 2013.
The Ad-ology research found that even though most small businesses are still in the beginning stages of embracing social media, they still plan to execute advertising tactics such as promoted postings, sponsored tweets, and social games or contests. A fifth, or 20.5%, of small businesses plan to increase their ad spending on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Reportedly, other forms of digital marketing will continue to grow in popularity among small businesses as well. It’s reported that almost a quarter of small businesses surveyed plan to increase their budgets for website development, and over 20 percent of small businesses will make the optimization of their websites for search engines a priority this year. Also, while most small businesses still do not take advantage of online or mobile videos, 12.2 percent indicate that they plan to spend more time and/or money on the medium in 2013.
President and CEO of Ad-ology, Lee Smith says, “for the third consecutive year, more than half of all small businesses are confident that their sales will increase. Mobile marketing will be increasingly important to small businesses in 2012- 30.5 percent of SMBs will use mobile advertising, apps, or texting as part of their advertising due in part to its ability to geo-target potential customers.”
Among their findings, daily deals, once highly utilized by small businesses, are on their way out as an optimum way to advertise. Only 18 percent of small businesses plan to use firms like Groupon or Living Social as a way to promote their wares in 2013, a drop of 67.7 percent over the last year.
Reference:
Smith, Ned “Small Business Expects to Boost Ad Spending in 2013” 1/6/13
