How Other Small Businesses Spend Their Online Marketing Dollars

How does the competition spend its online marketing dollars? As Lisa Barone reports, over 90% of small businesses surveyed recently said they use both websites and e-mail, but 63% said they're now using Facebook as well or instead.

"What do small business owners view as the most important promotion tool for their small business? Sorry, social networks. It’s not you–yet. According to a Fall survey from Constant Contact, small business owners look primarily to their website (93 percent) and e-mail marketing (92 percent) campaigns to get the word out about their businesses, with more than 90 percent of SMBs saying they use both. The news wasn’t all grim for social networks, however. Facebook took the third spot with 63 percent, while other social media like blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn came in at 33 percent, 31 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

Here’s a look at how the numbers panned out.

The numbers from Constant Contact reflect pretty much what I would have predicted. While social networks continue to grow attention and share year-over-year, traditional websites and e-mail campaigns remain the lifeblood of many SMBs’ promotional efforts – and with good reason. There are plenty of studies that support the effectiveness of e-mail marketing due to its strong personal connection with the reader. Couple that with SMBs owners’ tending to be a bit more skittish of new technology than larger companies are, and it makes sense that their budgets are where they are. However, that doesn’t mean change isn’t on the horizon."