• by Ray Schultz , March 25, 2021

Beleaguered small businesses changed the ways they do things during the pandemic, and many have reduced their marketing, according to “One Year Later: How 254 U.S. Small Businesses Fared During Covid-19, a study released Thursday by PostcardMania.  

Of the SMBs polled, 59.75% pivoted, and 9.32% have simply closed. The remaining 30.93% report no change.  

In addition, over half have maintained the changes, 33.12% completely. But 24.03% have mostly reverted back to their pre-pandemic ways, while 18.83% have done so partially and only 3.24% have done so fully.

Asked if COVID-19 had affected their marketing, they say:

• No effect—we continued marketing at our usual/planned outflow — 28.18%
• Yes, we cut back on our spending significantly — 31.82% 
• Yes, we cut back on our spending a little bit — 14.55% 
• Yes, we increased our spending significantly — 7.27% 
• Yes, we increased our spending a little bit — 7.73%
• N/A, we don’t actively market the business, so nothing has changed — 10% 

Those marketing budgets presumably include email.

But SMBs are returning to normal in some ways—55.73% say all their employees have returned to the office. Another 19.85% have a mix of some staff working from the office and others from home. 

In addition, 13.74% said staffers are now permanently working at home. And 10.69% that they are still temporarily working from home.  

Have SMBs returned to their usual marketing activities? They answer:

• Yes—we are fully back to our normal marketing actions — 15.93% 
• Yes, we have actually increased our marketing — 28.57%
• No, we are marketing again but on a smaller scale — 36.81%
• No, we aren’t marketing at all — 18.68% 

PostcardMania recently surveyed 254 small businesses.