Competing SMBs in 2015 Should Increase Internet Marketing Efforts

Great news – if you are a small business you can invest more in online marketing and come out ahead of the competition.

While most businesses know that they should invest in paid search and local search marketing, many are still spending peanuts on these efforts. As such, if you increase your investment even slightly it will give you more opportunities to come up in a local search and leave the competition in the dust.

BrightLocal conducts an SMB Internet Marketing Survey every year. They poll businesses that have one to fifty employees to learn more about their thoughts and behaviors regarding online marketing and paid search. There are several key takeaways from this year’s study that you should know.

The majority of businesses, 83 percent, are spending less than $1,000 on marketing per month. Additionally, out of those surveyed, only 29 percent allocated the majority of their budget towards online channels. This is important because if you are willing to increase your marketing spend, it is clear that you can have dramatic results when it comes to local search.

After all, if you are competing with a business down the street that does the exact same thing as you, whoever focuses more on online marketing will likely show up faster in a local search and therefore, have the opportunity to capture that business.

As a local business, it is important to pay attention to trends and anticipate what your competition is going to do.

According to this study, 37 percent of businesses are going to increase how much they spend on internet marketing within the next year. This means that you need to focus on increasing your paid search and organic marketing efforts before they do. Things like beefing up your content marketing and SEO efforts can help because as you rank higher in organic marketing it will increase your click-through rate on paid search ads as well.

Studies have repeatedly shown that having both an organic and paid search result will drive more business to your website and can help with your local search results.

When BrightLocal conducted their survey, they also analyzed how effective internet marketing was at attracting new customers. This is an important point because if paid search isn’t providing leads or customers, then it isn’t worth an increase in investment. However, the majority of small businesses, 75 percent, agreed that their internet marketing efforts have been effective or very effective in driving sales.

As an expert in local search, we understand how important it is to incorporate features into your ads and website that make it possible for customers to “click to call” or “click for directions” because these simple features can further increase the number of customers that contact you, making your marketing more effective.

As this study demonstrates, an investment in online marketing can directly lead to an increase in business. The key is to analyze what your competition is doing and plan accordingly so that you have the opportunity to capture more business from a local search.