What are local SMB's doing with their ad budgets?

The wifi at the show has finally been fixed so here’s a summary of my notes from Steve Marshall’s presentation on SMB advertising behavior from their survey of SMB advertisers from the end of 2009.

1. Print Yellow Pages Took a Big Hit: In 2008, 32% of SMBs advertised in the print book v. only 25% in 2009
2. SMBs that use direct mail are relying on it much more as it’s easy to turn these campaigns on and off
3. 77% of these SMBs are using digital media v. 69% using traditional media. This is the first time digital has beaten traditional
4. Consumers are using 7.9 media types to make a local shopping decision. This forces advertisers to chase these media.
5. SMBs get 40-50% of their business from new customers
6. 43% of SMBs use SEO up from 40% in 2008. It’s likely that poor experiences with PPC and other SEM programs contributed to that growth
7. 32% of SMBs plan to use a social site in the next 12 months as part of their marketing plan, but this skews heavily toward businesses that are less than 3 years old

More Kelsey DMS blogging coming your way soon

via localseoguide.com

#3 is surprising to me. I'd be interested in what they combine in "digital media" category.

Posted via email from Randy's Stuff