• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 7, 2025

As new small business owners work to improve advertising and marketing efforts this year, 43% said their focus remains on customer acquisition, while 40% say they are focusing on increasing sales and revenue and 29% will work on gaining efficiency.

Many will look toward AI and emerging automated services the technology support, according to a recent report.

Constant Contact’s report -- based on a survey of 1,645 small business owners operating businesses in their first five years -- explores the motivations, strategies, and outlook of recently founded SMBs.

Conducted in partnership with Ascend2 Research, the survey spanned North America, the UK, and the ANZ regions, providing a comprehensive look at how these entrepreneurs navigate the critical early stages of growth.

Technology will play a key role. Some 72% of entrepreneurs said they will use AI for marketing purposes this year, with 37% planning to use AI to create content; 37% for brainstorming; 32% for customer data analysis; and 31% for personalization, targeting, and segmentation to improve the customer experience.

Small businesses feel challenged to growth their customer base. In fact, 48% participating in a survey cited top challenges include advertising and marketing their business.

Some 28% cited customer retention, and 27% said learning new marketing technology.

When asked how these businesses plan to overcome these challenges, 40% cited building stronger customer relationships; 38%, learning new marketing strategies or tools; 33%, improving the brand website, SEO, logo, colors, and more; 28%, use technology like AI and automation; 25%, increase marketing budgets; and 24%, seek mentorship or professional advice

Marketing can help entrepreneurs overcome early challenges. Some 55% said the biggest marketing challenge is acquiring new customers, followed by 32% citing lack of resources like time and budgets, and 29% said differentiating products from competitors.

Paid and unpaid social media as well as email were reported as the biggest revenue drivers for these new businesses.

While social media builds awareness, email marketing drives stronger conversions and revenue growth. Text and SMS marketing also presents untapped potential, with its high engagement rates providing a powerful way to nurture customer relationships.