Small Business Plans For Social Media in 2010 (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube; % of Respondents) | |
Plan | % of Respondents (rounded) |
Increase a lot | 33% |
Increase a little | 35 |
Stay the same | 11 |
Cut down | 2 |
Cut all | 1 |
Not planning to do | 18 |
Source: VerticalResponse Inc, November 2009 |
Conversely, the channels that respondents plan to use least in 2010 are television and radio advertising. The majority, 79.6% are not planning to use TV, and 72.7% of small businesses will not use radio advertising.
The results also highlight that small businesses are wary of channels such as online banner advertising and search engine marketing. 54.2% of all respondents stated they won't do online banner advertising in 2010, and just 23.8% of respondents won't do SEM such as Google, Yahoo and Bing next year.
Small Business Online Banner Advertising Plans for 2010 (% of Respondents) | |
Plan | % of Respondents (rounded) |
Increase a lot | 8% |
Increase a little | 15 |
Stay the same | 18 |
Cut down | 3 |
Cut all | 2 |
Not planning to do | 53 |
Source: VerticalResponse Inc, November 2009 |
Janine Popick, VerticalResponse CEO and founder, says "... small businesses continue to allocate portions of their budget to... email and social media, despite the downturn in the economic climate... (but) marketers (still) need to help small businesses to see the value of integrating search engine marketing... into their campaigns."
Among key findings, the report notes that:
Social media and email marketing spend continues to rise in 2010 as small businesses see the value of these low-cost options:
Plans to spend on search engine marketing (SEM) and online banner advertising for the next year showed a marked difference between the two mediums:
According to the study, the most important tool for small businesses to succeed in 2010 is search engine marketing, while email marketing, public relations and social media cited as crucial for success.
Services Most Needed By Small Business to Succeed (% of Respondents) | |
Service | % of Respondents (rounded) |
Search engine marketing | 24% |
Advertising | 22 |
Web/Graphic design | 21 |
High speed Internet | 11 |
Accounting | 8 |
Other | 7 |
None | 6 |
Source: VerticalResponse Inc, November 2009 |
The survey responses represent the heart of the small business community, with over three-quarters of respondents indicating that their company has between 1 and 10 employees. This category includes a number of sole proprietor businesses indicating that entrepreneurs continue to flourish despite the economic climate. The remainder of the respondents included 19% who have between 11-100 employees and just 4.4% of respondents with 101-500 employees.
Please visit VerticalResponse here for more information.