SMBs are investing more time and resources in marketing

In the face of economic headwinds, some small-to-medium businesses are devoting increased resources to their marketing efforts. A report from Constant Contact, “Small Business Now,” finds 39% of SMBs increasing their marketing budget while 44% are increasing time spent on marketing.

In addition, 41% are increasing the number of channels used for marketing; 42% estimate they are increasing the number of marketing tactics used. This is based on a survey of more than 1,300 SMB owners and operators in North America, the U.K. and Australia.

Why we care. Two things to note up front: First, Constant Contact has skin in the game here because it offers digital marketing services to SMBs. Second, those statistics obviously represent less than half the the survey sample. Still, numbers around 40% represent a good portion of the sample.

Dig deeper: 70% of SMB marketers willing to pay more for tools with AI or automation

Other takeaways. More than half the survey sample admit to spending less than one hour a day on marketing, most time being devoted to running operations, interacting with customers, fulfilling orders and conducting financial and other administrative tasks.

Marketing tasks tend to be postponed because of the time they occupy. The most time-consuming, according to the report, are posting to social media, managing email campaigns and data entry.

While 49% use more than one marketing channel regularly, only 16% are confident that they are using the right channels. Channel choice is based mainly on guesswork or familiarity.

SMBs “…recognize the need to amplify their voice and attract new customers, but many are uncertain about which channels to leverage, what content resonates, and how to create a strategy
that achieves their goals.”

The full report is available here.