According to the recent survey conducted by Affinity Express, SMBs in US are increasing the usage of online advertising to grow their business. About 63% of the SMB owners cited that they have used online advertising or marketing. But this is low when compared to other recent surveys. Some of the respondents expressed their lack of familiarity with online tactics and their desire for education.
Website and Landing page is the most common tactic among US SMBs. About 77% of the respondents have cited that the website and landing page is most common tactic for them. Email marketing is close to website and landing page tactic and ranked 2nd with 73%.
Social media marketing is placed 3rd with 50%. That Search Engine Optimization is used only by 31% of the respondents. Search engine optimization could make their websites, landing pages and social media pages much more effective marketing channels. It was followed by other tactics such as Online Catalogs (27%), Online Display Advertising (23%), Blogging (23%), Search Marketing/PPC ads (19%), and Mobile (15%).
Due to the less awareness of the Internet marketing, social media presence is easier for a small business owner to initiate, build and manage; whereas, any other marketing forms need efforts and more knowledge resources. Nearly 84% of the respondents reported that they plan to use online marketing by the end of 2011.