Small Businesses Moving Aggressively to Online Marketing

Small and midsize companies (SMBs) continue to move marketing dollars to digital channels, according to BIA/Kelsey, which now forecasts digital spending among US SMBs to reach $16.6 billion annually by 2015—roughly 70% of total SMB marketing budgets.

By 2015 SMBs are expected to allocate only 30% of their marketing budgets to traditional advertising (down from 52% in 2010).

The remaining 70% will be allocated to digital (mobile, social, online directories, display, and digital outdoor), performance-based commerce (pay-per-click, deals, and couponing), and customer retention solutions (email, reputation and presence management, websites, social marketing, and calendaring/appointment-setting):

 

SMB spending on traditional advertising will be essentially flat during the forecast period (down to a 0.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from $11.8 billion in 2010, to $12.1 billion in 2015.

 

 

Overall, US SMB spending on media, marketing and business solutions will grow from $22.4 billion in 2010, to $40.2 billion in 2015, at 12% CAGR.

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• Spending on performance-based commerce and transaction platforms, from $1.7 billion in 2010, to $4.6 billion in 2015 (21.5% CAGR).
• Spending on customer retention business solutions will grow from $3.5 billion in 2010, to $6.9 billion in 2015 (14.6% CAGR).

About the data: BIA/Kelsey’s US SMB Spending Forecast is derived from the firm’s US Local Media Annual Forecast and its proprietary Local Commerce Monitor study, which tracks the advertising and marketing spending habits of SMBs.

Branded Facebook Pages ‘Liked’ by Few Web Users

Though more than two-thirds (68%) of surveyed Internet users say they use Facebook, only 21% have “liked” a branded page on Facebook, whereas more than one-third have given a thumbs up to other Facebook content* such as wall posts (36%), pictures (37%), and comments (37%), according to a survey from Crowd Science.

More than one-quarter of surveyed Internet users say they have “liked” video content on Facebook, while nearly one in five (19%) say they have not clicked the “like” button.**

 

Nearly one-third of Internet users surveyed (32%) say they don’t use Facebook.

Below, additional findings from a survey conducted by Crowd Science.

Those who “like” branded pages skew younger: 27% of Internet users age 18-34 say they “like” branded pages, compared with 18% of those age 45-64 and 9% of those age 65+.

People with higher education levels use Facebook and the “Like” button less:  

• 40% of those more with an advanced (graduate) degree say they don’t use Facebook, compared with 27% of those with a high school education or less and 29% of those with some post-secondary education. 
• 25% of those with graduate degrees say they use Facebook but don’t use the Like button, compared with 16% of those with some post-secondary education and 20% of those with a high school education or less.

Asked about their reasons for “liking” Facebook content (from individuals and brands), most cite showing support (28%) or expressing enjoyment (28%) for the content. 

Some 14% of those who “like” brands say they have like items on Facebook because they simply like a brand and 10% want to stay informed. Keeping other friends informed (7%), discounts (6%), and taking advantage of a sweepstakes offer (5%) are less important to online users.

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