• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 25, 2024

Consumers and small businesses are at odds over how marketing should be done, judging by The state of small business marketing in 2024, a two-part study by SimpleTexting. 

Of the consumers polled, 38% prefer receiving marketing communications from SMBs via email, while 34% cite social media as their preferred channel. 

Of course, the devotion to email varies with age. Boomers are most likely to prefer email, with Gen X close behind them. But Gen Z favors social media by a wide margin, followed by millennials.

Gen Z also likes text messages, while Boomers do not. But Boomers are open to direct mail by a wide margin over other groups, although direct mail and direct response are used by only 4% of small businesses.  

In contrast to customer preferences, SMBs list these channels as the most influential for their business growth:

• Website — 43%
• Facebook — 38% 
• Review sites — 36%
• TikTok — 31%
• Instagram — 30%
• Social media (paid) — 24%
• Email — 22% 
• SEM — 21%
• YouTube — 19% 
• Texting — 13%73 
• X (Twitter) — 11%

Whatever the channel,  consumers can expect to see more marketing over the next year, for 63% of small businesses expect to increase their marketing budget, the most likely sectors being technology (80%), human resources (80%), and finance (76%). 

Yet budget is by far the biggest marketing hurdle faced by small businesses:

Limited budget — 52%

Time constraints — 34%

Finding the right marketing channels — 28% 

Keeping up with tech and trends — 27% 

Measuring what works — 26% 

Lack of marketing expertise/ideas — 23% 

Finding and retaining a strong team — 20% 

Creating marketing — 19%

Measuring marketing ROI — 11%

Other — 0.8%

AI is another question: 59% of small firms are now incorporating AI into their marketing strategies. But 73% of consumers say use of AI by a business does NOT make them more likely to shop there.

However, they say they would be inclined to do so if the business was using AI technology to: 

Streamline checkout process and bolster security — 39% 

To personalize my shopping experience — 33%

Schedule appointments/reservations through AI — 38%

Enhance product recommendations — 27%

Optimize inventory management and delivery — 27%

Improved customer service via chatbots — 21%

Analyzing customer feedback through AI — 11%

Here are the potential downsides of AI — to consumers:

• Privacy concerns and how my data is used by AI — 47%
• If prices of the products/services increase with AI — 45%
• AI replaces human jobs within the small business — 44%
• Less personal interaction with the business — 42% 
• AI-generated responses feel generic and not tailored to my needs — 42% 
• Negative past experiences with AI in customer service — 25% 

SimpleTexting surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers and 400 U.S. small business owners and marketing managers from March 12-14, 2024.

A blog reporting on the full study can be found here.