• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 20, 2004

Small Business Defines Critical Media Tools For Success

Interland, a provider of online services for small and medium-sized businesses, recently released the results of its Spring 2004 Business Barometer of Online Activities, a survey of online usage by small businesses with Web sites.

The group of small business owners surveyed was asked to select marketing tools critical in driving business. Respondents prioritized their responses as follows:

• 69 percent, Web sites
• 36 percent, search engine keywords
• 35 percent, community relations
• 24 percent, Email marketing
• 22 percent, direct mail
• 12 percent, Yellow Pages
• 5 percent, newspaper advertising
• 4 percent, outdoor advertising
• 2 percent, print coupons

When asked how important various online capabilities would be to their business in the coming year,

99.5 percent rated an online presence as very or somewhat important,

67 percent said enabling online interactivity (i.e. web-based business forms, blogs, interactive maps and e-newsletters) is very or somewhat important,

62 percent rated executing online promotions (i.e. search engine optimization, keyword advertising and email marketing) as very or somewhat important, and

55 percent said conducting online transactions (i.e. e-commerce, online catalogs and coupons, and selling via third-party sites like Amazon or eBay) is very or somewhat important.

The group was also polled on media consumption habits in 2003:

• 45 percent said they spent more time in 2003 gathering information through e-mails/e-newsletters
• 36 percent through industry/business Web sites
• Industry trade publications only saw an 8 percent up tick in usage
• Daily local newspapers and magazines were both down 18 percent
• 40 percent do not use daily national newspapers as sources for industry/business news
• 39 percent do not turn to Radio
• 38 percent do not turn to TV

Kim T. Gordon, president of National Marketing Federation Inc., says "From using complex e-commerce Web sites to ongoing e-mail communications with customers and partners, use of the Internet is vital to small business success."

Charts can be found at here in this pdf file.