How will you allocate your 2012 marketing budget?
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Search Engine Journal recently posted an article titled 5 Key Factors to account for when planning 2012 marketing budgets.
The results were generated from last month’s BIA/Kelsey DMS’11 Conference in Denver which focused on exploring the opportunities for small businesses in digital and online media.
Needless to say we aren’t surprised by the results:
- Small businesses are increasing their online advertising spend – BIA/Kelsey estimates that 70% of small business’ marketing budget will go to online advertising. A lot of our customers are transferring more of their marketing budget to their website and are cutting back on their traditional marketing costs (such as the Yellow Pages).
- Small businesses are struggling to manage their social media channels – its as if there is information overload and too many options available. We hear this from our customers all the time. While most admit that they need to get involved in Social Media it can be overwhelming to know where to begin. Many wonder if the effort will even pay off in a tangible way in the long run. We have already seen new platforms entering the market that are specifically designed to help small businesses juggle and manage all their social accounts.
- Small businesses will also need to focus on developing mobile-friendly sites – only 1.25% of websites are mobile friendly right now, with mobile Internet users expected to surpass desktop users by 2014. We have already started consulting with companies about optimizing their mobile websites. We feel that businesses will gain the early adopter advantage by focusing on their mobile website now before their competitors do.
- Small businesses are embracing daily deal sites – the newest way to attract customers despite a relatively high cost. In the future small businesses need to recognize customer retention and fatigue issues – two issues that we see with sites such as Groupon.
- Small businesses are being bombarded with advertising opportunities – we agree that businesses now have the freedom to pick and choose which advertising rep or partner’s offerings will be the most beneficial.
Will the changes in your advertising and marketing budget follow the predicted changes in the next few years?
Read the entire article, full of statistics and details, over at Search Engine Land.
