In today's competitive small business market, is having an active business social media account as essential as it seems?
Reckon surveyed 296 small business owners across 20 industries to find out how they approach marketing their business and what’s most effective - social media marketing isn’t as effective as you may think…
View the full study below.
Having an active social media business page is often perceived as enough to market a small business. However, the survey revealed that over a quarter of small business owners don’t use social media to advertise and surprisingly over a third found that no social media platform has been effective for marketing their business.
Of course, it definitely depends on your business, the industry and where your target audience is active. However, over seven in ten small business owners say that word of mouth and referrals are still the most effective marketing approach in 2024.
Australian small businesses Remmie By Riley and FAYT are perfect examples of how social media can be utilised extremely effectively. These brands both target their audience by staying on top of social media trends and have created a close-knit community of followers and customers. Rather than being seen as a distant brand selling a product, these brands are perceived as fun communities participating in the latest TikTok trends and showing the faces behind the brand.
Although many business owners said they don’t find social media marketing effective, social media is still the second most common strategy among small businesses. This is likely due to budget constraints, time limitations and a lack of marketing experience and expertise. Social media is a free and relatively easy strategy to implement with these considerations.
The other most popular marketing strategies are email marketing (20.9%), direct marketing (20.6%) and content marketing (20.3%). These strategies are great for customer retention and remaining top-of-mind among past, present and future customers.
The least popular methods for SME’s are outdoor ads (7.8%), display ads on third-party websites (6.4%), event marketing (3.7%), radio advertising (2.7%), and TV advertising (2.4%). This is due to the higher costs associated with each of these strategies which exceeds small business budgets.
Brad Stevens, GM of Marketing at Reckon comments
“Small businesses will continue to face challenges and difficulties when it comes to marketing to their target audience and staying competitive in the market. However, our study reveals that despite technological advances and increased use of social media, word of mouth remains the top marketing method that brings in new business and increases revenue.
“It also confirms that minimal effort, budget-friendly marketing methods that small business owners can perform themselves are preferable. Despite this, our advice for new small business owners is to consult a marketing professional where possible, as this will bring in more results and allow for more effective and purposeful marketing.”