Is this where your marketing needs to go?

As small businesses continue to scramble and evolve during these volatile and uncertain times, one focus remains the same and that is marketing and advertising. Without a solid marketing strategy, many small companies will likely struggle in the coming year. So, it becomes critical to know where your business is and where it just may need to go to stay profitable. In some recently released research, The Manifest has discovered where things are and where they are likely headed to go. The following is taken from that published report:

  • Advertisements influence 90% of people to make a purchase, but is advertising a strategy that mainly benefits large businesses? The Manifest surveyed 529 small business owners and managers at companies in the U.S. about their advertising habits, including which mediums they use.
  • Nearly all small businesses advertise (87%).
  • Small businesses advertise on a variety of mediums, but social media (64%) and online (49%) are the most popular.

What mediums do small businesses use?

  • Small businesses still advertise on traditional mediums: print (36%), TV (22%), and radio (22%).
  • Millennial-owned or -managed small businesses (95%) are more likely to advertise than those owned or managed by Generation Xers (92%) or baby boomers (70%).
  • More than one-third of small businesses (34%) use event advertising.
  • Facebook (86%) is the most popular social media channel that small businesses use to advertise, followed by YouTube (51%), Instagram (47%), and Twitter (41%).
  • More than half of small businesses (53%) invest in Google search advertising.

Top 5 social media platforms small businesses use

  • Small businesses advertise on social media (64%) and online (49%) over traditional platforms such as print (36%) and TV (22%).
  • Eighty-six percent (86%) of small businesses that advertise on social media use Facebook – at least one-third more than those that advertise on YouTube (51%), Instagram (47%), or Twitter (41%).
  • More than half of small businesses that advertise online advertise on Google search (53%).

-Written by Kevin Sawyer