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