Small Businesses Tepid on Social Media, Prefer WOM and Advertising

Only one-third (35%) of small business owners cite social media as a beneficial tactic for their business, though views about the usefulness of social marketing vary by industry, according to a survey from Hiscox.

Among surveyed small business owners, tactics such as word-of-mouth referrals (79%) and advertising (44%) rank ahead of social media in overall business benefit:

 

In addition, fully 40% of small business owners say their website is beneficial for marketing, 32% cite opportunities with business partners, and 21% cite SEO, the study found.

Below, additional findings from Hiscox.

 Views about the benefits of social media vary by industry: Small business in the IT (information technology) and media services industry (42%) are more likely than those in business services (31%) or auto repair (18%), for example, to find social media beneficial to their business.

 

Even so, among all small businesses surveyed, nearly one in four (23%) would like to use social media for business, say they don't have the time (7%) or need to learn more about it (16%).

More than one-half (55%) of small business owners say they are optimistic about 2013. Business owners in the Southwest are the most optimistic, with Texans leading the way:

Other key findings:

·         50% of small businesses reported profit growth in 2012.

·         44% say they are now both stronger and more determined to succeed than ever.

·         38% say the weak economy has spurred them to work more efficiently.

·         27% say they asked for outside help to solve a business problem in 2012.

About the data: Findings are from a survey of 500 US small business owners and managers, conducted by Hiscox in third quarter of 2012.

Source: MarketingProfs

Why Email Marketing Still Matters

Over the years, many have augured the death of email, most recently foretelling that social media would make email obsolete.

Nevertheless, for marketers, email marketing remains invaluable, even indispensable.

For example, nearly 9 in 10 marketers say email is their primary channel for lead generation, according to Forrester Research.

Moreover, more than half of email marketers say they use email for (in decreasing order of popularity) lead generation and nurturing, enhancing and building brand, driving sales, and strengthening thought leadership. (That's according to B2B Marketing's Email Benchmarking Report from February.)

Among B2B marketers, only 4% say email is "not very important, the same study found.

For additional details on those stats and others, including email's role in marketing automation, see the following infographic from Eloqua's Modern Marketer initiative.

  

Source: MarketingProfs

Four Commandments of SEO

"Search engine optimization is extremely simple," says Luke Matthews in a guest post at The Responsible Marketing Blog, "but the waters are constantly muddied by misinformation spread by wannabe experts and noobs who want to garner authority and respect."

 To help you navigate the SEO waters—and avoid the frequent riptides—Matthews created his own 10 Commandments of SEO.

 Here are a few:

• Thou Shalt Reciprocate Link Love. Inbound links are good; they tell search engines that your content is valuable. But it's not polite to take without giving. When you receive links from high-quality sites, return the favor.

• Thou Shalt Not Beg for Links. You've just gotten an email from someone you don't know asking for a link. Do you acquiesce? Probably not. But what if someone who leaves insightful comments at your blog, and links to your site, makes a similar request? In that scenario, you'll probably oblige. And vice-versa.

• Thou Shalt Find the Best Keywords. Keywords that generate the most traffic aren't your "best" keywords if that traffic doesn't convert. Look instead for less competitive terms used by your target audience. It is "relatively easy to rank for these terms and 30 keywords each getting 50 searches per month adds to up to a lot of traffic," notes Matthews.

• Thou Shalt Not Write for Search Engines. Google and Bing want content written for humans; you'll impress search engines with a focus on readability and value.

 

Thus, if you want to avoid the wrath of a vengeful search engine, take serious heed of SEO best practices.

Source: MarketingProfs

Blogging Drives Leads, Website Traffic

Companies that increase the number of blog posts they publish via their website each month can boost their inbound traffic levels and lead counts, according to a new report by HubSpot.

On average, companies that publish 15 or more blog articles per month generate five times more Web traffic than companies that don't blog at all, and those that blog 9-15 times per month generate three times more traffic than companies that don't blog:

Below, additional findings from the report titled "Marketing Benchmarks from 7,000 Businesses," by HubSpot, based on data collected from its customer base of some 7,000 brands.

Blogging drives traffic because published content gets indexed in search engines and shared via various channels, including social media. By committing to regularly publishing blog content, companies can build up a powerful arsenal of content, with each article published creating another inroad to a website, HubSpot found.

Small businesses (1-10 employees) tend to generate a bigger lift than larger companies when they accumulate published blog content:

When companies boost their blogging efforts, Web traffic volume increases in varying degrees:

• On average, companies generate a 45% lift in traffic when they increase the number of published blog posts from 11-20 articles to 21-50 articles.
• B2C companies generate a 59% increase in traffic after growing total published blog articles from 100 to 200.

Blogging efforts also appear to impact lead generation.

Companies that have published more than 200 blog articles generate 5 times more leads than those with 10 or fewer posts:

B2B companies that blog only 1-2 times per month generate 70% more leads than those that don't blog, HubSpot found.

However, surprisingly, B2C companies generate a bigger lift in leads as they grow their arsenal of blog posts:

Boosting blogging efforts pays off: Companies that increase the number of blog posts from 3-5 per month to 6-8 per month nearly double their monthly lead count.

Using social media also boosts traffic:

• Companies gain a 185% lift in Web traffic after achieving 1,000 Facebook likes.
• Companies with 51 to 100 Twitter followers generate 106% more traffic than those with 25 or fewer followers.

About the data: Findings are based on the analysis of data collected among 7,000 companies that use HubSpot's Inbound Marketing platform. The data was collected in July and August 2012.


Source: MarketingProfs

Key Online Tactics of High-Growth Professional Services Firms

High-growth professional services firms tend to place more emphasis on blogging, SEO, and social networking—and they generate a higher proportion of their business leads via online sources—than do their peers, according to a study by Hinge Marketing.

High-growth businesses are defined in the study as those growing at least 20% per year over two successive years.

Among the 500 professional services businesses participating in the survey, high-growth firms were found in all professional services sectors; however, some sectors had a higher proportion of high-growth firms than others.

An index was calculated to show how likely a high-growth firm would be associated with a particular industry. A value of 1.0 implies that a firm would have an average chance of finding itself in the high-growth category. Similarly, a value of 0.5 indicates that a firm in that industry would be half as likely to be a high-growth company.

High-growth firms were most likely to be in the technology (1.70), management consulting (1.41), and marketing/communications (1.19) industries:

Below, additional findings from Hinge Marketing's new report titled "Online Marketing for Professional Services Firms, Marketing Communications Edition," based on a survey of 500 professional services companies.

Key Online Tactics Among High-Growth Companies

Participating firms ranked various online marketing tactics according to how much focus their firm places on each one. (The ratings are on a scale of 0 to 10 with a rating of 0 indicating the firm does not use the tactic and a 10 indicating a heavy reliance on the tactic.)

Compared with all marketing/communications services firms, high-growth firms (from all surveyed sectors) reported somewhat heavier use of most digital marketing tactics such as blogging, SEO, and social channels, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. A notable exception was is in the areas of email marketing and company e-newsletters.

Higher-growth firms also place more emphasis on publishing whitepapers and e-books, as well as usability testing and PPC advertising.

High-growth firms are also more likely to conduct other marketing activities, including the following:

Website updates: 75% of high-growth services firms update their websites as often as once a week, compared with roughly one-half of all marketing/communications companies.

Website redesign: More than 80% of high-growth services firms undertook website redesigns within the last year, compared with 68% of marketing/communications firms.

Use of online contact forms: Nearly 80% of high-growth firms use online contact forms as their primary form of contact, compared with 36% of marketing/communications firms.

Online Lead Generation

Among the businesses surveyed, 77% generate at least some new-business leads online; most (62.4%) generate 39% or less of total leads online, and 14.8% generate 40-100% of their leads via online sources.

Marketing/communications firms rank highest in online lead activity, generating 31.4% of leads online. Tech services firms rank second with 20.2%, followed by management consulting (15.9%), accounting services (11.4%), and A/E/C services (architecture, engineering, and construction) (8.3%):

Across all sectors studied, professional services firms that generated at least 40% of business leads via online sources tended to be higher-growth companies, reporting two-year median growth rates of 53% on average:

*Given the potential of very large and very small firms to skew the results, median values were selected as the most stable measure of central tendency.

About the data: Findings are from a survey of 500 professional services businesses consisting of five primary industry groups: architecture/engineering/construction; marketing/communications; management consulting; and accounting/finance. Overall, respondents hold senior-level positions, working in companies with an average of 319 employees and earning $54 million in annual revenues. In addition, the third quarter of 2012 Hinge interviewed an expert panel of 20 online marketing leaders about their views on online marketing techniques.

Source: MarketingProfs