What’s working (and not working) for small businesses

While it’s no secret that small business owners are strapped for time, what other barriers prevent effective marketing? And how can you help your network overcome them?

Is this you?

56% of SMBs globally say they only have an hour or less each day to spend on marketing.

64% of SMBs put off email marketing due to either a lack of time or lack of knowledge.

60% of SMBs say social media is their most frequently used marketing channel.

Small Business Now: The State of SMB Marketing

Download the Spring 2024 Small Business Report. Do you ever feel like you can’t find the time to really market your business, and when you do, you feel uncertain if you’re doing the right things? If so, you’re not alone. To better understand how we can help small businesses tackle their marketing challenge, we conduct regular research to dig into the latest trends among small businesses, and what we found in our most recent study is that small businesses like yours need more time, confidence, and strategic help in order to take things to the next level.

Take a look at the numbers… and what you can do to overcome these challenges if you find yourself agreeing with these stats.

The Confidence Conundrum

Businesses struggle to feel confident in their marketing efforts, particularly when facing unpredictable economic factors. Here’s what we found:

81% of small businesses are concerned about the economy – a larger concern this year than when we asked last year, with businesses in the UK feeling the pinch the most.
73% are feeling iffy about their current marketing strategy and aren’t sure it’s working – and you’re more likely to feel that way if you’re a solopreneur or a relatively new business.
To combat this, 44% state they’re going to spend more time on marketing this year, and 39% expect to spend more money.
Perhaps more importantly than time and money, 82% of businesses agree that variety matters—using multiple marketing channels leads to better results.

Investing in marketing, whether it’s time or money, is an obvious choice for small businesses, and while strategic, consistent marketing can help businesses weather economic ups and downs, it’s important to remember that just throwing time and money at your marketing might not get the results you want.

Before you really decide where your efforts will go, stop and evaluate your current strategy and where you might have gaps. Is email marketing your only channel? Consider finding your next batch of new fans by trying out social media or online ads. Are you active on social but worried about the algorithm? That’s where SMS text messaging and email marketing can help you own your audience.

See how:

Integrate social media into your Constant Contact account

Create a landing page for email sign-ups

Add SMS text messaging to your Constant Contact account

Related: 5 Methods to Improve your Blogging Using an Effective Email Marketing Strategy

Time Troubles

It’s no mystery that time is a precious commodity for small business owners. But it’s hitting marketing efforts particularly hard.

56% of SMBs say they have an hour or less each day to spend on marketing.
It’s no surprise that 34% of small businesses think efficiency is the key to achieving their marketing goals.
Does this sound like you? 52% routinely procrastinate on their marketing in favor of other things on their to-do list.
The most time-consuming marketing tasks are posting on social media, planning and strategy, and figuring out what’s working.

So how can you save time while still managing your marketing?

Here’s where it’s important to take advantage of the tools that can help automate and streamline your marketing, like:

Integrations – Integrating Constant Contact with the tools and technologies you already use can save time and give you better, more centralized data and insights.
Content generation – We know staring at a blank email or social post and trying to figure out what to write can eat up a ton of your day. This is where tools like our Content Generator can save the day– and your time.
Marketing automation – Get the message to the right people at the right time, without lifting a finger. Automation can get routine communications off your hands and into your customers’.

See how:

Integrate Constant Contact with common tools like Vimeo, Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Outlook, Event…

Generate content with confidence with Content Generator

Create an automated email series

Conclusion

You’ve got what it takes to succeed – but it’s important to make the best use of your time and resources in order to reach new customers and supporters and to continue building stellar relationships with your existing audience. By utilizing multiple outlets, like email, social media, SMS text messaging, events, and more, you can diversify your audience and stay top of mind. And time-saving tools like integrations, automations, and content generation can help you use all these channels efficiently – without spending all of your precious time.

We’re Here to Help!

Don’t forget – we’re here to make your marketing stress-free, so you can focus on what you do best – running your business. At the end of the day, whether you’re struggling with finding the time to market your business, or with figuring out what’s the right move to take next, we can help. Here are just a few of our resources to help set you up for success.

If you’re interested in reading more about how your fellow businesses feel about these and other topics, check out the full Small Business Now Report.