May 3, 2016: A new study from LeadPages and Infusionsoft surveyed 1,000 small U.S. businesses to assess their most oft-used marketing tactics. Here are some highlights from the report:
57.8 percent of SMBs use social media posts to promote their firms. Because only a very small percentage of SMBs use agency services, it makes sense that social media platforms – which are easy to manage – have proven so popular. Facebook has been wooing SMBs with new tools – such as Your Business Story – which make it easy to create professional looking content. What’s less clear is whether SMBs are aware that their ability to reach customers on these platforms will be limited by their willingness to boost the posts they create.
42.6 percent of SMBs send e-mails. Email marketing hasn’t been in vogue for many years, but it remains an efficient tactic if done correctly. Unfortunately, the TK report suggests that the email tools used by SMBs are archaic. Of those SMBs sending email, 42.4 used either Outlook or Gmail; a minority used email providers or CRM tools to manage their emails, which offer better functionality. As the report notes, “such services can limit a small business owner’s ability to conduct robust email marketing campaigns—which suggests why 45 percent of respondents don’t have an email list that prospective customers can opt into.”
Lacking a capable email system also limits the SMB’s ability to use Custom Audience targeting, arguably one of the most powerful digital marketing methodologies to emerge in the past two years.
36.4 percent of SMBs publish blog posts. Blog posts remain a popular content marketing tactic among SMBs. Used in concert with email and social media campaigns promoting the blog posts, blog posting can be effective in terms of driving interest, visibility, and branding.
19.9 percent of SMBs send direct mail. The relatively low usage of direct mail as an SMB marketing tactic is somewhat surprising, especially given the USPS’ promotion of new services aimed at them. For example, the USPS’ “Every Door Direct Mail” program provides an affordable way to “saturation bomb” distinct localities. EDDM campaigns, when combined with NFC, QR, and PURLs, provide an ideal way to identify locally engaged prospects and customers, drive them online, and track them across channels.
16.0 percent of SMBs offer downloadable content. Only 1 in 8 SMBs provide whitepapers, PDFs, or other downloadable content, which isn’t a big surprise, given that creating this kind of high-value content is labor intensive. At the same time, however, the low adoption of this tactic suggests that SMBs who are able to generate it can leap ahead of their competition.
You can download and read the complete study here:
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