Think you know small business marketing? Think again; it changes fast. Here are five fun facts to list off the next time you want to sound smart at a meeting—or the next time you want to adjust your marketing strategy.
1. Half of all small businesses still don’t have a website
Given how much business is done online—but more importantly, how often consumers search for local business services online—it’s surprising so many businesses don’t have websites, especially given how important websites are to customers.
Image source: Digital Impact Report, Vistaprint Digital Services
However, SCORE found that 51% of small businesses have websites, and our own 2017 research found that only 56% of small business owners say they have a website.
Some of the resistance might be because small business owners worry creating a website will be an expensive technical headache. But we’ve come a long way from the ’90s, when setting up a site was a big undertaking. Now, with services like Wix and other simplified website builders, it’s quite possible to build a site in a day—with no coding skills and a modest budget.
If you’re among the small businesses that still don’t have a website, this article from the National Federation of Small Businesses might be helpful. It walks through the price points for four different types of small business websites and outlines what you can expect from each option.
RELATED: Still Don’t Have a Business Website? Here’s What You’re Missing Out On
2. Only three out of ten small businesses invest enough in marketing
We learned this when we surveyed 1,100 small business owners for our own 2017 State of Small Business Report. As a general group, 42% of the small businesses we surveyed invest 3% or less of their revenue in marketing. Compare that to the recommendation of the Small Business Administration, which says, “As a general rule, small businesses with revenues less than $5 million should allocate 7 to 8% of their revenues to marketing.”
That’s actually a low figure, according to many marketing experts, who recommend anywhere from 1% to 10% or 12% of revenue be dedicated to marketing, especially if you’re in a competitive industry.
But what really gave us the chills was to see how little microbusinesses invest. Among companies with five to 10 employees, 52% invest only up to 3% of their revenues to marketing; only 21% of these very small businesses invest 7% or more to marketing, the recommended level according to the SBA.
3. Small businesses don’t outsource their marketing
Here’s another interesting thing about how small businesses handle marketing: They’re starving it both budget wise and time wise. We found that only 14% of small businesses outsource their marketing, public relations, and advertising.
But it’s not like small business owners don’t know how to outsource—54% of them outsource graphic design and website design. These tasks are so complementary to marketing that it’s surprising more small business owners don’t outsource work that they probably aren’t very enthusiastic about doing in the first place.