Small Business ROI eMarketing

Digital Small Business Internet Budgets - Most small businesses in the United States will not cut spending on most forms of online advertising in 2009, judging by a survey conducted in December 2008 by Adology Research. A higher percentage of respondents said they planned to spend “about the same” in 2009 than planned to change their spending.

More small businesses will increase spending on social networking than on any other format. Many respondents were more likely to increase spending in 2009 on email marketing and company Website marketing.

The percentage of small businesses who said they did not use various online marketing tactics was high. Well over 1/3 of respondents said they did not market using social networks, their own Website or even emailing. Less than 1/4 used more tech-reliant tactics such as online video and mobile marketing.

Many small business marketing efforts will focus this year on lead generation, according to a study conducted in December 2008 by Issues and Answers for the Yellow Pages Association. More than 1/2 of responding small-business owners named lead generation as their greatest challenge. Nearly 20% said lack of ad dollars was the toughest marketing problem they faced.

Many respondents said that ROI was the main way they measured success for their marketing tactics. The YPA took this as an opportunity to note its online search results and print ad ROI.