Easy to use and inexpensive to get started, the popularity of Facebook as a marketing channel for small business continues to rise in the web-friendly countries such as the USA. This year, 70 percent of small businesses surveyed are now saying they are jumping onto the Facebook band-wagon, up from 50 percent one year ago, according to research by MerchantCircle, an online network of USA business owners.
Facebook and Google (66 percent) are fighting it out for the top spot as the most widely used channel for small business marketing, while Google search is still perceived as slightly more effective (40 percent) than Facebook (37 percent).
Also popular with time-poor, risk-adverse business owners are tried-and-true marketing channels such as email and search marketing. These are being preferred by small businesses in the States over mobile marketing and “daily deal” collective buying promotions, which are still seen as something of an unknown.
Not surprisingly, as people flocked to Facebook to promote their businesses, during 2010 reliance on more traditional marketing such as print advertising and Yellow Pages dropped by between 13 and 18 percent, while the popularity of direct mail slid from 39 percent to 28 percent – trends to watch out for as the Australian market matures.
That said, budgets remain tight. Business owners say they are spending less than $2,500 a year on marketing, and 60 percent are not planning to increase their spending any time soon. Small businesses are also finding it hard to keep up with marketing programs they already have in place, and say they don’t have time to give new, unproven services a go.
Facebook marketing guru by night and business manager by day? Looks like that’s the way forward in 2011.
