10 Surprising Marketing Statistics About Small Businesses

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Every now and then, some interesting marketing statistics come to light, providing valuable insights for small business owners.

When you look at the facts below, you may wonder why so many people do things the way they do. Whatever their reasons may be, it provides an eye opening perspective on the world of small business marketing.

10 small business marketing statistics.

1. Just less than half of small businesses spend less than $10,000 per year on their marketing. This is not just advertising, but also the time used by employees in-house, or outsourcing costs.

In short, most small businesses are not marketed as well as they deserve to be.

2. More than 70% of small businesses choose to do their marketing themselves. Interestingly, close to 60% of these only assign one to two people to do all marketing.

Not to mention that we don’t know what percentage of that is full-time allocation, and how much is just a small amount of time per day.

Judging by the social media activity of many small businesses, we would venture a guess that most of these one- or two person allocations are part-time.

3. Those who do outsource their marketing are – in general – happier than the ones who do it in-house.

It sounds logical, doesn’t it? After all, you can outsource to a professional or a marketing agency.

However, do keep in mind that owners who do their marketing in-house have lower expectations, because they spend less on outsourcing fees.

In other words, despite spending less money, they are generally not happy with the results (net profit).

4. Content marketing is still the most effective form of online marketing – yet more than 80% of small businesses don’t make use of it.

It’s a safe bet to say that this ties in with number 2 on the list – the 71% that refuse to outsource their marketing. And some of those who do outsource, spend at little as possible, with content marketing not being included.

On the one hand, it is relatively safe to say that most of the in-house small business marketers lack the necessary knowledge to do content marketing.

Does that mean that many in-house “marketers” are just placing ads on social media and classified ads websites?

That explains why so many of the owners choosing in-house marketing are less happy with their results.

5. Close to 30% of small business owners believe that word of mouth is the most effective way to land new customers.

They are right, of course. In a small town, it can happen offline. But in cities and larger towns, it would be short sighted to discount the value of online marketing to spread the word.

6. 48% of small businesses are focused on building their brands.

Sadly, when you look at the fact that most in-house marketing fails to deliver on the owners’ expectations, we strongly suspect a lack of knowledge may be holding many of them back.

7. Around 70% of small business marketers don’t track everything, so they don’t always know where there results come from.

Interestingly, that’s around the same number of owners that choose in-house marketing…

Coincidence?

Side note: Marketing without tracking is like driving in a city with no traffic lights or traffic signs. You have no idea if you are doing the right thing.

8. More than 63% of buyers usually check Google reviews before doing business with you.

Let that sink in…

That’s almost two thirds. Fair enough, that number may vary based on region and town size, as well as demographics. But in most cases, that is the number you are facing.

On top of that, more than half of people who leave reviews actually expect feedback on their review within a week. However, more than 60% never had any feedback on their negative reviews…

In short, if you do respond to negative reviews, that means you are ahead of 63% of the competition.

9. In terms of reputation management, responding to negative reviews can help to recover about half of the customers you would have lost.

10. Proximity marketing works (mobile notifications). More than half of shoppers who receive a notification of a discount or coupon when they are near a store, actually visit the store.

But here’s the kicker: More than 85% of shoppers found it helpful when receiving notifications about deals and coupons while being IN the store.