For businesses that run on a calendar year, September is the time to plan for 2011. Setting goals for the upcoming year can be one of the most important aspects of the business plan. To find out what small and midsized businesses had in store for 2011 marketing, we thought, why not just ask using our own survey tools?
Zoomerang is excited to have partnered with small to midsized business extraordinaire Rieva Lesonsky, founder and CEO of GrowBiz Media. Lesonsky, a former editorial director of Entrepreneur magazine, has experience in the entrepreneur industry that dates back more than three decades and has appeared on hundreds of radio shows and numerous national and local television programs.
The Zoomerang survey, launched during the second week of October, was sent to businesses with less than 1,000 employees across the US. They were asked questions about their 2010 marketing budgets, the tools and technology utilized this year, and 2011 projections. The overall objective was to understand how small to midsized businesses were using their marketing budget in 2010 and how they were planning for 2011.
So what did we find out?
Heading into 2011, most SMBs plan to increase their marketing spend in both online and print mediums, with online activities receiving the largest increases. Among the marketing initiatives expected to increase the most are e-mail, website and social media marketing.
Among the more than 750 businesses surveyed, 34 percent indicated that they currently use social media in their marketing efforts. Of those using social media, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter were the most common channels chosen, used by 80 percent, 37 percent and 27 percent, respectively.
The survey is currently circulating the web and making its presence known in the social media-sphere with no signs of slowing down. Recent highlights include features on prominent sites including InformationWeek, AllBusiness.com, ReadWriteBiz, amd Small Business Trends just to name a few.
In the end, Ms. Lesonksy sums it up wonderfully: “Once again, small and midsized business owners have shown their willingness to embrace new ideas and marketing methods. It’s also encouraging that these business owners are planning to increase their 2011 marketing budgets, which will hopefully lead to an overall economic boost in the country.”
For more information on the survey and its results, visit here to view the report in its entirety.
Zoomerang is here to help, we encourage you to reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, or leave a comment below and we will get right back with you. Thanks for reading and please join the conversation below.
Are you a small business that is looking to grow your social media efforts in 2011? How much of your budget are you planning to allocate? What other factors are you most concerned with?
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