MarketingSherpa is sharing research from AWeber based on a survey of 3,159 small-business owners worldwide, which finds that 67 percent of small businesses plan on increasing their marketing spending in 2013. The company also found that small businesses will make more use of social media this year, with 70 percent planning to boost their presence on Facebook, 58 percent on Twitter, 50 percent on Google+ and 49 percent on LinkedIn. Meanwhile, 72 percent say they’ll make more use of blogs.
“LinkedIn is the most important social network because any businesses’ highest conversions come from personal recommendations,” says Gail Gardner, small-business advisor at GrowMap.com. “If you want more customers or clients that come already ready to hire you, LinkedIn is the place to make that happen. It can be used for lead generation and to create local small business groups.”
However, email remains the “backbone of the SMB marketing plan,” as 85 percent of SMBs plan to increase their use of email this year. This finding dovetails with a recent report from ExactTarget, which finds that marketers and consumers agree that marketers should invest more time and resources into improving customer loyalty via email.
AWeber also notes that 70 percent of small businesses spend less than three hours a week on email marketing, but 77 percent report that their email marketing increases revenue. Direct Marketing Association found that $1 spent on email marketing creates $40 in revenue.
Below is AWeber’s infographic detailing the results of its survey. Click on it to see MarketingSherpa’s article about the research.
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