Small businesses seem to continue to be struggling with marketing, as it is not seen as a luxury item, but more as an essential to their business. They wonder what works and what doesn’t. Here are do’s and don’t according to Infusion Soft’s 2015 report:
- Word of mouth remains to be king of marketing and the most effective strategy
- E-marketing follows the lead of word of mouth with a 34% success rate
- Social media (23%), and networking (25%)
- Search engine marketing (14%), and last but not least content marketing (13%).
- Television and radio advertising are the least effective with only 2% of small businesses ranking them in the top 3.
Being Right Is Not Enough
If you run a business knowing what is right is not enough – you need to know where the challenges lie ahead. According to the report here are some the most challenging techniques and where you probably need to focus on:
- Generating quality leads – the 37% of small companies struggle with that and hire marketing agencies and consultancies to help them with
- 31% struggle in converting leads into customers
- Marketing expenses: marketing is essential but does not come cheap. The 30% of small companies struggle in accessing the funds required running marketing campaigns.
King of Struggle
55% stated that, aside from not knowing exactly what do in marketing, they also don’t have the time to get everything done; which explain the popularity of outsourced marketing department and packages.
The report was based on data of a survey from 408 small businesses from Infusion Soft customers. 50% were B2C focused, and 28% were B2B. The remaining 22% were of a mixed structure.
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BBSA Associates Marketing is a full-service agency that provides marketing support to SMEs that are keen to move forward and develop their marketing activities but lack the resources, time or know-how to do it themselves. We support a whole range of B2B and B2C companies; from enabling you to manage your own Outsourced Marketing Department to helping out with a single solution for projects. Find out more
